—- Deep Unexplored Space, USS Seattle —-

“Captain’s Log. We have disposed of the Borg transponders and as such the Borg Cube has left. We are no longer being pursued and after days upon days of running we are taking a break and just taking some R&R on an uninhabited planet that we have discovered. I have sent Commander Cruz down to the surface aboard the Pearl Jam, to explore the land mass and ensure we’re not all going to be turned into snakes or something.’ 

”I could use a few days of not worrying about trickster gods stealing my Holosuite, and crew. Or the Borg. Or anything really. We were meant to start off slow on the USS Seattle, but thus far we’ve been go, go, go. I understand the realities of captaining in Starfleet but a change of pace is most welcome. For now though I’m just grateful that the ship is in one piece, and everyone is safe.’

”Captain Hawthorne out.”

—- Ready Room —-

“We did not find any of the plants to be toxic, with no bird or animal life on the land mass there would be no reason for it,” Commander Adriana Cruz said.

”There are fish, nothing that would pose a threat to humans,” Lieutenant Commander Gabriella Miller reported.

Captain Nathanial Hawthorne nodded, “Okay, Lieutenant Young wants to rest the engines and do some maintenance after we’ve pushed them so hard. So I’ve sent out reports to Starfleet, but it’ll take at least four days to get there, and the same to return. Hence, we’re going to take some vacation time here.“

”Lieutenant Commander Tashai is already setting up things to create a compound for us to remain around during shore leave,” Cruz said.

”Excellent work, both of you,” Hawthorne said, “Cruz match up our shifts so every shift gets some sunlight on the planet. And then let the crew know they can go down to that one spot, but not when they have duty. Thank you both.”

Both women left the Ready Room leaving the Captain alone with his thoughts.

—- Captain’s Quarters —-

Nathanial Hawthorne changed into a swimsuit and a loose fitting pullover that could be removed easily. He was not sure. It had been a long time since he had really taken leave, and he was sure that most of his crew was the same way. He had been too career focused and only after awhile had he realized that the only thing that Starfleet Command saw in a Captain who took so little time off for personal matters, was a Captain who could not manage both a personal life and a professional one. He had thought that this sort of dedication would put him up with Archer, or Picard, but then he realized after years of doing this that they both had made time for hobbies and personal stuff. Whether it was looking for archeology things, or holodecks (well not Archer) or anything else.

”You replicating a swimsuit?” he asked his First Officer, who whatever gods be praised was also his girlfriend. Commander Cruz walked out of his bathroom wearing both a face and a one piece bathing suit that made him again thankful for however he’s pulled off pulling her.

”I don’t do bathing suits,“ she groused.

”One piece not two?” he teased, “That may help.”

”I’m not wearing a bikini,” Cruz said, “I’m not your Pirate Queen.”

She was referring to a Holodeck program that he’d made and created a character for Cruz whom he’d perhaps given a little too little clothing. She had objected and walked out. It was still a source of contention in their relationship, along with her calling all of Hawthorne’s pre-warp heroes “colonizers” and pointing out that his naval fantasies were really for white men only.

Hawthorne smiled, “I like it. It makes you look like a Vulcan, so much cloth.”

Cruz rolled her eyes, knowing he was joking. She doubted that she could improve on the design so she put on shorts that she had replicated and a large loose fitting blouse. They remained a couple, though over the course of their time together on the ship their relationship had developed into a sparring one more than anything. Mostly Cruz was quick to tease her CO about his fussy manual coffee or his choice of entertainment.

”Okay, let’s go have fun,” Hawthorne said.

—- Nuevo Mundo —-

There was about twenty people already there when they arrived and the Captain said hello to them and then the pair went off on their own. Eventually Hawthorne picked out a spot with a sandy beachfront and a shallow entry into a salt water ocean. They both sat on the beach, made out for a while and then lay looking up at the sky as it darkened.

”Maybe I’ll retire here,” Hawthorne said wistfully.

”What tomorrow? We’ll never see this world again after this week. It’s a fluke we got here in the first place,” Cruz said. The world was perfect for colonization, with no intelligent life, and perfect conditions for humanity, and a number of other Federation races. But it was so far out of Federation space that it would not happen for centuries, certainly not in either of their lifetimes.

”Do I get to bring my girlfriend if I stay,” Hawthorne asked.

”She likes running water too much,” Cruz said, “and sonic showers. Besides your XO needs to captain the ship if you abandon it.”

”You’d take running water over me?” 

Cruz laughed, “Any day.”

“I’d take you over running water,” Hawthorne said.

”Don’t go getting romantic on my old man,” Cruz teased again, then after a silence added, “I thought you were dead, and I’d left you for the Borg.”

”Turns out they didn’t even notice us. And I’m glad you did, the ship and her crew are more important than any shuttle craft worth of people,” Hawthorne said.

“Well it was a shuttle craft full of my favorite people,” Cruz said.

”You like Winfield that much?” Hawthorne teased.

“He grows on you,” Cruz nudged him in the ribs. 

—- Nine Forward, Lounge —-

”We’ll go to the beach tomorrow,” Lieutenant Junior Grade William Hume said. 

He’d just gotten back from doing a sweep of the beam down zone, looking for dangers and had found nothing. While the area was lovely there was something to be said for just enjoying a drink, some quiet music and relaxing on the ship. For the first time in days nobody was trying to kill them, which made his job a lot easier. 

Lieutenant Yuhiro Kolem sipped her own drink, and amaretto sour, “I could use some real sun. I know the UV lights on the Holodeck and in the spa are meant to be as good, but a real environment sounds lovely.”

Kolem knew that her boyfriend was not that interested in the difference between ‘real air’ and ‘recycled air’. The truth was that you were not meant to be able to tell the difference, but the half-Betazoid felt that she could even if realistically she knew that was impossible. It had been since they were at the wedding on Jupiter since she’d been outside of an artificial environment, and a real beach sounded lovely.

”I’ll wear a bathing suit,” she promised, feeling Hume’s interest rising as he thought about the possibility. Unlike her late father, she could not read minds, but she could feel people’s emotional state. Hume had been nervous about something for the past few days. Nervous about something more than the Borg that was. She did not pry, but she wondered what it was. Her abilities did not give her the insight she would have liked. So that left her with no choice but to wait for him to open up about it.

The Assistant Chief Security Officer leaned back wrapping his arm around Kolem. 

”Tomorrow you’ll see me in a bathing suit too,” Hume grinned, “It’ll be a remarkable day for you.”

”Can’t wait,” Kolem laughed and relaxed against Hume. 

—- USS Seattle, Above Nuevo Mundo —-

The newly discovered world, or at least the section that the crew was limited to visiting, had proven to be quite a hit. It was a perfect world for colonization, except that it was so far away from Federation space or anything that the crew knew. Even Tashai the El-Aurian on the crew had not been this far past what the Federation knew and had explored. It was lonely, about 100 people removed from anything they’d known before. Granted the Voyager had been further out, but Federation exploration had been more methodical than this in exploring and expanding their borders. 

Lieutenant Akane Sone was in her Stellar Cartography lab. Aside from Nuevo Mundo she was able to give names to almost all of the worlds that she found. Or at least those that the Captain and first officer had not chosen to name. With the USS Seattle’s sensors no longer tracking the Borg, she could use them to broaden her sight and explore in a way that did not necessarily require her to put ‘boots on the ground’. For example she found a gaseous world not too far away orbiting one of the twin suns that they had found. The ship would not go there, particularly after the disastrous results of being in the suns’ radiation field before, but she could chart it from afar and add it to her records. 

In walked Lieutenant Claudia Jara, half of the Strategic Operations department and Sone’s lab’s neighbor. 

“You going down to the world?” Lieutenant Jara asked.

”I don’t need to set foot on a planet to explore it,” Sone said.

”It’s not about exploring. It’s about getting some air, some sun. Getting out of uniform,” Jara said, “Relaxing.”

Sone had the ship’s computer run another sensor sweep, and marked down a few interesting stellar bits and bobs. She had the sense that Jara was flirting with her a bit, but she was not quite good at figuring these sorts of things out. Sone knew that she could be a bit oblivious to those kind of things. She ignored that implication for now and focused on her work, her fingers tapping glass as she set up another query in the computer. 

Jara grabbed her hand, “Hey, relax okay. These planets will still be there tomorrow.”

Sone pulled her hand away, “Stick to your own business. I don’t come into your lab or whatever it is and tell you to stop, strategically operating.”

”People don’t get when they’re powerless,” Jara said, “the Borg scared me to, but I’ve been through a lot growing up on Turkana IV and it taught me that sometimes you just have to have fun when you can because the bad times had a way of coming no matter what you do.”

”It’s not about being powerless, it’s about doing something people remember you for,” Sone argued.

”You’re not Kirk, or Picard and neither am I. Nobody will remember us, the sooner you understand that the better,” Jara said.

Sone shrugged, the Cartographer knew that she was unlikely be remembered widely, but maybe there was the option to discover a planet that one day held millions of people. To map something that mattered. Still her fellow Lieutenant was not wrong in her assessment, she could use the break.

Nodding she said, “Alright give me an hour to clean up here and get a bathing suit on.”

”I’d better see you down on the surface,” Jara said.

—- Nuevo Mundo —-

The world was lush, and the part that the USS Seattle’s crew was allowed had no predators that could pose a threat to the crew. The island continent that they had found had been rather isolated from the other continents and had created an almost too perfect landing area. The Operations crew had set up an area for beaming down, and they had also set up a portable replicator to provide food and drinks.

As Lieutenant Akane Sone materialized on the world she adjusted her one piece bathing suit which was similar to what most of the female crew wore. They had all picked the standard design in the replicators, and had been happy with that. The difference beating Sone’s metallic prosthetic legs which began just above her knees. Jara was already there, looking around surveying the planet visually.

”You made it,” Jara observed.

”I did,” Sone said

”I didn’t realize your legs, anyway you don’t notice, or I didn’t,” Jara said, “Let me know if we should avoid sand or water.”

”No, it’s okay, they’re able to stand up to that,” Sone said.

The pair walked down to a beach area nearby, able to get far enough away from the crowded beam down spot that the original away team had setup. They both lay down towels and then laid down on the soft sand below.

”See isn’t this better than being in a lab?” Jara said. Unlike much of the rest of the crew she had not going for the default first choice bathing suit, but rather than selected a more revealing two piece design that Sone recognized as a bikini. Jara was nothing, if not confident in herself, though Sone supposed to go through a rather lawless home-world to Starfleet you had to have confidence.

“I like my lab,” Sone said.

“Nerd usually do,” Jara teased.

Sone smiled, “Yes, I’m a nerd. Guilty as charged.”

—- USS Seattle, Ready Room —-

Captain Nathanial Hawthorne sat at his desk reading the response from Starfleet. Apparently they had done a good job, managing not to die, and to lead the Borg away from Federation space. Now they had to get home, but as pushing themselves to race back was unlikely they had been tasked with finding out what was out there. It would be about a month or two before they returned to Federation space, so this was an extended mission, largely left to their own discretion.

“Seventy-eight percent of the crew have had shore leave on world,” Commander Adriana Cruz said, “A good number.”

”We’ll leave tomorrow or the next day. Starfleet wants us home, though we can make a few stops along the way,” Hawthorne said, “though probably no more words just to visit the beach.”

Cruz laughed, “It was nice down there.“

”Even his you didn’t wear a bikini,” Hawthorne teased, setting down the PADD and standing. He kissed Cruz on the cheek and went over to his bar which was mostly for manual coffee brewing. He looked at Cruz, “Want coffee?”

”Fine, we’re not going anywhere I’ll take one of your overly fussy coffees,” Cruz said.

The Captain set about grinding the beans and then pouring the water over the grounds after placing them in a metal looking thing that Cruz could not identify. Making coffee via a replicator was easier and made more sense to Cruz but for once she was going to indulge Hawthorne.

Just once.

”We get to explore, you must be happy with that,” Cruz said watching as Hawthorne continued to pour.

”I am, it’s all new. Not many of us get to do that,” he said.

”Where no one has gone before,” Cruz said accepting the cup of coffee from Hawthrone when it was done. Though she would not tell him, it was actually pretty good.

The Captain nodded, “To strange new worlds, and new civilizations.”

—- Briefing Room ——

A selection of senior staff, along with a few key science officers, sat around the conference table as a mostly blank map of the sector was displayed on the screen at the front of the room. On the left was the planet they were orbiting and on the right was more filled in with Federation space. Everything else was unknown. Blank and undiscovered.

The Captain nodded and began, “So strategic operations and stellar cartography have cooked up this route home with what we saw on the way out here. This is an exploration mission, since we’re already here and it’s a nice change from fighting pirates or being chased by Borg. We’re not steaming back full speed ahead, which will give stellar cartography a chance to map around us, and let us meet anyone of interest. We’re also looking to make sure the Borg didn’t immediately assimilate populated planets that we might have lead it to by accident.”

Gesturing to a junior science officer he said, “Lieutenant Sone if you may.”

”We have little information about the space around us. Starfleet tends to be more methodical than we were in getting here, so we’re well past where we should be. We’ll be traveling back at warp 5, rather than the high warp that got us here. That will save the engines, and also let us see more,” Akane Sone said, nervous as she’d not been to one of these meetings before this. She realized that screwing up here could side track her career. 

“We have already identified several class M planets which we plan to learn more about,” she explained.

”Are first contact missions a priotrity,” asked Security Chief Lieutenant Commander Kan Th’kaotross, the Andorian. He was the USS Seattle’s Second Officer and as was appropriate for his role of Chief of Security nobody wanted to see him mad.

”We will make each decision based on several factors,” Captain Hawthorne said, “We’re alone out here, so we’re not looking to make enemies.“

He nodded at his First Officer, Commander Cruz, who spoke next.

”The plan is pretty straight forward people. But we do have some good news, Starfleet okayed the promotion of Mister Young, or Chief Engineer. For getting us here, one step ahead of the Borg, you’re starting today a Lieutenant Commander,” Cruz said.

Hawthorne handed him a black pip, “Congratulations just don’t break my ship again.”

Young was surprised. He had thought that the near death experience of losing power while in a race with the Borg might have earned him a transfer to a tug boat somewhere near Earth, but to suddenly be promoted was unexpected. He took the pip from the Captain and affixed it on his collar. He sat back down, and sighed as a sign of nerves. At least they were not trying to race back.

“This is not a pleasure cruise but it’s not a work camp either,” Hawthorne said, “Make sure everyone is taking time off, and take time off yourselves. For better or worse, we’re out here without any supervision, so let’s not break everything. But let’s also show them what we can do.”

Cruz nodded, “Pr’Nor, when we get to the bridge set us a course for Starbase 72, warp five.”

With that the crew disbanded, each going to their usual sections. Either a lab, engineering or the bridge. 

—- Holodeck 1 —-

“No,” Lieutenant Yuhiro Kolem said.

”No?” asked a rather surprised Assistant Chief Security Officer William Hume as he got up off one knee.

”We’re not… I’m not ready to get married,” Kolem said.

A dove flew by chirping. Hume had set up an entire romantic program for this and had worked with Lieutenant Commander Gaberilla Miller to source real flowers. He felt that he had put in the work, and sure they were young, but then life was short and the Borg had just proven that.

”But why?” Hume asked, he had gotten a ring made as well that he was now holding onto awkwardly.

”We’ve been dating less than a year, and I love you and I know you love me, but we don’t even know if we’re compatible long term,” Kolem said. She felt a flash of anger from Hume, that was not unexpected, he was feeling rejection and she knew that the most important person in his life was right now telling him that she did not want him. 

“You want to break up?” was what Hume heard, which Kolem had not meant.

”No I just want us to take things slow. You haven’t slept in my quarters without us, you know,” she shot him a meaningful look that meant ‘boinking’, “What about when I’m sick? I’m not saying I don’t want you or don’t care for you, I just want to take things slow. I don’t want my life mapped out yet, I want there to be twists and turns yet.”

”But I love you,” Hume said, “And you say you love me.”

Kolem sighed, the half Betazed put her hand on his cheek, “It’s not enough for forever though, not yet.”

She could tell that Hume was still made as he snapped and ended the simulation. He was hurt, and she knew that he would need time to himself. Everyone thought that in 2401 mankind had evolved past all the negative emotions like anger and hurt, but the truth was they still felt them. It still hurt to be told ’no’ and Hume still needed time to himself.

—- Nine Forward, Lounge —-

The lounge on deck nine was generally the busiest on the Seattle. It had been rather quiet as the crew was having shore leave, getting to go down to a beach rather than stay aboard the ship. Now though with the ship back underway it filled up with off duty officers. By now word had filtered through the crew about the USS Seattle’s mission, and planned return to Starbase 72. Everyone was happy to get home, but also excited for a chance to do some exploration. They had been tasked with hunting pirates and terrorists back home, but now they got to do science. 

It was exciting.

Lieutenant Junior Grade Thomas Winfield had been in the shuttle Sound Garden when the Borg had landed to retrieve the transponders. Even though the Borg had not so much as cast a mechanical eye towards them as they had tried to out wait the Cube, it had been a period of tension. So he needed a drink, even a sythalholic one. 

Winfield had just sent his letter to his fathers, and had tried to put on a brave face, but the truth was he was having a bit of a meltdown, things had been scary and unlike the science nerds that had been on his shuttle, he was a pilot and did not handle being helpless very well.

He leaned back so he could see out of the window on the starfields moving past the ship. There was something soothing about them, after a childhood aboard space stations, movement was his way of calming himself.

Movement and women.

He smiled at the blue uniformed Lieutenant Maria Cortez. They had gotten friendly, with his tolerance for her nonsense, and her nonsense. She had openly spoke about the benefits of assimilation by the Borg while they were in a race against the Cube. The stance had not won her many friends aboard the Seattle, and only he seemed to be able to stomach her… Eccentricities.

She slid into a chair at the table across from him and said something he was only half paying attention to. He nodded and returned to his drink. She was cute, but maybe not enough to deal with the crazy. If Starfleet officers could be crazy, she was certainly one.

Just then his friend Lieutenant Junior Grade Hume walked in and joined them, “I asked Kolem to marry me.”

Raising his glass Winfield said, “Congratulations.”

“She said no,” Hume reported.

Winfield could see Cortez trying to suppress a smile. It was an open secret that she had a crush on Hume, and found his relationship with Lieutenant Kolem frustrating.

”Well I’m sure things will work out,” Winfield said.

”Easy for you to say, you didn’t just have the woman you loved most in the world reject you,” Hume said.

”Did she reject you or the idea of marrying you right now?” Winfield said, feeling rather wise for having thought of it. Having two fathers had given him a slightly different view of marriage than the traditional one the Hume seemed attached to.

”What’s the difference?“ Cortez asked rubbing Hume’s hand comfortingly.

”Well in one scenario you broke up and you’re done in the other you just have to be patient,” Winfield said, “And not ask her right after we escape the Borg.”

Hume nodded, clearly not getting it. Winfield sighed, he’d tried his best. He liked Kolem, but she was a senior officer, the Chief Counselor. She could, he figured, take care of herself. Hume was being a dumb dumb, but that was not new for him. As brave and dedicated as he was he clearly had been born into one thing and had grown up believing there was only one way to live. You marry a woman, become Captain and then… have kids to continue on the great Hume dynasty.

”I have to go to bed, so can you walk me back to my room?” Lieutenant Cortez asked Hume.

”No, he just got here, he’s drinking away his sorrows,” Winfield said.

”It would help clear your head,” Cortez said.

”Yeah it would help clear my head,” Hume agreed.

Winfield rolled his eyes, “Buddy I don’t think you broke up with Kolem. You don’t want to do anything stupid. She’s a Betazoid, she’ll know.”

”I‘m not going to do anything stupid, just walking a friend to her quarters,” Hume said.

Winfield sighed as the pair left. He was not about to worry about Hume who’d basically been born enrolled in Starfleet Academy if the guy wouldn’t even take his friend’s advice. Another science officer joined him, Akane Sone.

”Penny for your thoughts,” Sone said, the Stellar Cartographer did not really know Winfield, just that he had been on the away mission that they had thought had all died.

”My friend’s about to do something stupid,” Winfield said.

”What’s that, order the vegan option at a wedding?” Sone joked.

Winfield found himself smiling, “You should like one of my dad’s.”

”It is a dad joke,” Sone agreed.

”Nah, he’s doing to sleep with someone while dating a Betazoid, or half,” Winfield said.

”Ah, that’s who you’re talking about,” Sone said, and shrugged, “You’re friend is an adult, you don’t need to baby him.”

Winfield realized on a ship of less than 95 people rumours and word travelled fast. There was only one Betazoid, or half Betazoid, and Sone clearly knew who she was given that most of the crew were seen by one of two counsellors. 

“I figured you’d be mapping your heart out,” Winfield said.

”Even I need a break, and there’s others in my department,” Sone said.

“To pilots and the women who tell them were to fly,” Winfield mock toasted.

”We’re not all women,” Sone said.

”Neither are we. Pr’Nor,” Winfield pointed out mentioning his stern (but fair) Vulcan head of section.

”Well to pilots and those that guide them,” Sone said doing her own toast.

Winfield nodded, “I’d invite you back to my room, seems to be the move today.”

”We all had a near death experience. Let people act out a bit, we’re a young and hot ship,” Sone said.

”You think I’m hot?” Winfield laughed.

”I think if you invited me back to your room I’d say yes,” Sone said.

Winfield finished his drink. Booze (or fake booze) and women. It was how you got beyond your traumas. 

-— Counselor’s Office —-

Lieutenant Yuhiro Kolem studied the Commander, ”So we’re friends?”

“Stop saying it like it’s surprising, yes you and I are friends,” Adriana Cruz said.

”I just don’t have many, any, Commander friends,” Kolem said.

”Well you have one now, so stop making it weird, that’s an order. Just kidding, but honestly stop putting me on a pedestal, I put my uniform on the same way you do,” Cruz said.

Kolem sat down on her couch reserved for patients, and Cruz took the chair.

”Hume proposed,” she said, “yesterday on the holodeck.”

”And?” Cruz said.

”I said ’no’,” Kolem said.

”God I don’t know what I’d do if Nathanial proposed. Abandon ship maybe,” Cruz said.

“What’s it with men wanting to get married?” Kolem asked. She noted how comfortable the couch was, she might have to get one for her quarter which were still quite spartan as she had not yet decorated them. 

Adriana Cruz shrugged, “We are both with traditional like men. I think Hume would take Nathanial for a father any day, they both believe in Starfleet, and being father’s and a traditional family that they used to call the ‘nuclear’ family, from the nuclear age on Earth.”

”He just couldn’t get that my life’s goal wasn’t to marry him,” Kolem said.

”That’s because for him your story begins and ends with him. You meet Hume, marry Hume and then have his kids, all according to a script,” Cruz said, “I’m slowly getting Nathanial out of that mindset, but it’s hard work and no offense you’re not as… let’s call it bossy as me.”

”You also kissed Jara, that must have put him on notice,” Kolem said smiling. Lieutenant Jara the Strategic Operations Officer was not afraid to complicate things. Or at least she was willing to.

”We were drunk or whatever that radiation did to us, plus I think he liked that news,” Cruz said.

”Men love when ladies kiss,” Kolem nodded.

”That they do,” Cruz said then held up her hand, “I’m not kissing you.”

”I’ve got enough to worry about without cheating on Hume. I’ll need to assuage his ego for a few days,” Kolem said.

Cruz snorted to show what she thought of that. She assumed that Hume’s visiting them on the Holodeck the other day had been him talking to the Captain about his plans for marriage. It was pretty clear that whether the Captain had given good advice or not, William Hume had rushed into things blindly anyway and now was shocked that he was hurt.

”Do you want me to talk to him?” Cruz said.

”Nah, he’s not a danger to the ship or anything. Just acting out. He’d feel like I went to tattle to you instead of just having girl talk,” Kolem said.

“We should have a hobby, get Tashai and others involved,” the Commander said, “Maybe poker?”

“Poker is more of a gender neutral thing, plus everyone thinks I cheat,” Kolem said. Even though her abilities only allowed her to sense the emotional state of someone, the fact that technically that might help her realize if and when someone was bluffing had made her few attempts to play poker fraught.

“Some kind of exercise, leisure activity,” Commander Cruz mused as the pair continued their talk, trying to find something social for the senior officers to do that was not poker.

—- Engineering —-

The warp engines were running quite well despite having been pushed beyond the breaking point. Newly promoted Lieutenant Commander James Young watched them nervously knowing that he had already broken them once and plunged the entire ship into darkness with only backup emergency power to maintain them. With the Borg on the way, it had been harrowing trying to get things back working.

Now though everything was fine.

”You worry too much,” T’Rala said, the Assistant Chief Medical Officer spent almost as much time with him in engineering as she did in the medical bay. Even though they were now apparently, because he could not quite believe it, dating Young found it odd.

”Everything runs through this department,” Young said, “The air we breathe, the gravity holding us down. So I worry an appropriate amount.”

The Romulan doctor inclined her head, she seemed unconvinced by this argument but was not going to advance a theory that oxygen was overrated. She liked oxygen, but she also assumed that like a patient on her medical bed simply staring at the warp core was not making it work better. She knew that he hoped to spot something, find a small flaw that he could fix but between his work, Ensign Constable his Assistant Chief Engineering Officer and the rest of his team there was no hidden flaw.

“Five minutes then shift change, you need a break,” she said, “Doctor’s orders. I’ve watched you watch that drive for far too long.”

”Fine, but all my career I’ve been on California class ships, and now I’m in charge of a beautiful ship and I want to keep it going,” Young said.

”And you do, you got promoted because of what you’ve done, not out of pity,” T’Rala said, “so enjoy and take me out to show off your newest pip. Next stop is Commander.”

—- Strategic Operations Office —-

Lieutenant Eleanor Dorian looked up from her monitor, “Why are we keeping it so bloody dark in here.”

”I thought you liked it that was,” said her partner in Starfleet and the only other Strategic Operations Officer aboard the ship Lieutenant Claudia Jara.

“Computer raise lights twenty percent,” Dorian said.

“Two Class M planets, both pre-warp civilizations,” Jara said, pulling up what scans had detected so far. Most of exploration was looking at what the computer had collected, and little of it was going down to a pre-warp planet and blundering around the way that Starfleet used to do. The days of Ambassador Spock simply hiding his ears under a hat were long over.

Dorian nodded, “Third world. How about this one?”

”Last five rulers have been women, progressive,” Jara noted.

”Intercepted comms traffic and media broadcasts show that there’s only women,” Claudia said.

”My kind of place,” Jara joked, “Warp capable?”

”Invented warp before humans did, but don’t seem to make use of it,” Claudia said, “No traffic in the area, scans show older warp capable ships, but nothing on the level of the Seattle. Mostly comparable to runabouts.“

Jara nodded, “Want to swing by?”

”Might as well, let’s see what the Captain says,” Lieutenant Dorian said.

—- Ready Room —-

“Would you throw me over like that?” Hawthorne asked.

”I would hardly call Kolem saying ‘no’ throwing Hume over. But yes, I don’t want to marry you, or have kids,” Commander Cruz said.

“Ouch,” Hawthorne said.

Cruz shrugged, “Men, you can’t imagine that we want something other than a ring and a fancy dinner party. Look, I want a ship, and you want a ship. What kind of life is it if we’re both Captains?”

Hawthorne shrugged, “Lots of Captain’s do it. It’s how you get to build a life beyond Starfleet and still be in Starfleet. When you get your California class, you could do worse than me.”

”Not much,” joked Cruz. She came around the desk and sat on the Captain’s lap, as if he were Santa Claus, which she knew some human (mainly) children still believed in. As much stick as she gave him she liked him, he was smart and actually slowly learning how to be a better person who saw how privileged he was as yet another legacy officer in Starfleet.

”And I’m getting a Manticore Class,” Cruz said, “something with teeth.”

The door chimed letting them know that someone wanted in. Cruz stood up and went to sit on the normal ‘guest’ spot on the other side of the desk as Captain Nathanial Hawthorne signaled that whomever it was could come in. The two Strategic Operations officers along with the Stellar Cartographer came in.

“What do you have?” Hawthorne asked.

”Well if you’ll let us, our first stop,” Lieutenant Dorian said.

”It’s the third planet in the solar system, one of two class M worlds. We’re running scans of the second world now and should know more about it when we arrive,” Lieutenant Sone said.

“It is, and we’ll still studying it, either a matriarchy or entirely populated with women,” Lieutenant Jara said.

Cruz tilted her head, “Interesting, aside from the Orion syndicates, what other world’s do we know of that are matriarchal?”

“There are a few, but this is certainly unusual for how overwhelming female this planet it,” Dorian said, “we will know more by the time we arrive at the solar system.”

”Dangers?” Hawthorne asked.

”Unknown, but seems limited, they have a defense network on their planet that would be like spitting at the Seattle and hoping it exploded,” Lieutenant Jara said.

”Okay, Cruz have Pr‘Nor alter course for the world, let’s try to arrive by the day after tomorrow,” Hawthorne said, “Good job, let’s go see this matriarchy.”

The three Lieutenants nodded and left the room.

”You did good not to make any jokes there,” Cruz said getting up herself.Hawthorne smiled, “I just realize I live in a matriarchy. I’m outnumbered I can’t make jokes.”

“Don’t you forget it,“ Cruz said then left the Ready Room to give the Captain’s Orders to their Chief Flight Control Officer.

—- Counselors Quarters —-

“You do realize we didn’t beak up,” Kolem was mad, and Hume looked and felt ashamed. She could feel the guilt radiating off of him.

”I didn’t realize that,” Hume said.

”I was pretty clear I just didn’t want to get married, and then you sleep with Cortez?” Kolem said. It was pretty clear that William Hume had known that they had not broken up and had just used that to his advantage. Maybe he had not thought things through, but stung by her rejection of his marriage proposal he’d found comfort in the bed of a woman who would not reject him.

“I’m sorry,” Hume said, meaning it.

”That’s okay, I don’t care who you sleep with from now on,” Kolem said.

”You don’t?” Hume seemed to brighten.

”No because I’m actually breaking up with you, get out of my room,” Kolem said. As the ship’s Chief Counselor she felt the need to be the most centred and healthy one on the ship. But at the moment she felt devastated, as she had truly loved Hume and she knew that he had felt the same way about her, but had just screwed all that up.

“Look Yuhiro,” Hume started.

”Out, and it’s Lieutenant Kolem to you,” she said pulling rank on him.

Hume seemed to accept that he was done and nodded, exiting with a hiss of the door into the hallway. Kolem watched the door shut and then called her friend Commander Cruz. They needed to drink, or something.

—- Bridge —-

Captain Nathanial Hawthorne smiled again, trying to move on from the insult. It seemed that as ‘progressive’ as the crew of the USS Seattle had decided the inhabitants of this planet were they were not used to dealing with me. 

“I am the Captain, not because I’m male, but because of my experience. I was assigned to the post and there’s plenty of female Captains in Starfleet,” Hawthorne said, and then he gestured to Commander Adriana Cruz on his right, “As you can see my First Officer and next in command is female. We do not make judgements on gender.”

Cruz smiled, but said nothing.

”Someone else will contact you,” the screen switched off.

”Well this first contact is going swimmingly,” Hawthorne signed sitting down.

”Hopefully cooler heads will prevail,” Cruz said, “It’s the morning shift at a little used space agency, that according to records haven’t flown a ship in over three years.”

”You’d think a ship of aliens would be interesting to them,” Hawthorne said.

About an hour later, give or take, they were hailed from the government capital. A nicer dressed woman appeared on the screen and smiled, if they had met someone who was not wanting to be nice to them on the first try, it was time now to meet someone who was going to sweet talk them.

”Captain I am Prime Minister Tchaka of Maya,” the woman said, “Welcome to our solar system, we have not had contact with outsiders before. How do you speak our language?”

”It’s a universal translator, your languages sounds to me like Earth English, and my English sounds to you like your language,” Hawthorne explained.

”That is quite clever. We all now speak the same language,” Prime Minister Tchaka said, “But I do admire that. I am sorry for the brusque and frankly rude welcome you had before. But my people have not seem a male for a long time.”

”May I ask why?” Hawthorne asked.

”They killed themselves, five generations ago,” Tchaka said.

”Ah we have not… met an all female planet before,” Hawthorne said.

”No? It would seem common, men are aggressive and violent. That is why we assumed you had enslaved your female crew, and wanted to do the same here,” the Prime Minister said.

Hawthorne glanced at Cruz, “My crew is obviously meant to follow my orders but they are not slaves. Commander Cruz are you my slave?”

”No sir,” Cruz smiled, “Not even a little. Ma’am, he’s telling the truth, we’re not slaves or being coerced into being here.”

”We’ve scanned your ship, and realize that you could lay waste to our army from space, so there is little reason for you to lie,” Tchaka said, “So your female officers may come down. You and any males, are not allowed.”

Hawthorne sighed, “We don’t see gender as a reason to assign various assignments. My security Chief and his Assistant are both males, and would go on most missions of this nature. I have the most diplomatic training and…”

”Captain Hawthorne, you are not listening to me. I welcome you here, but only your female officers may transport down not your males. We would see it as an aggressive act,” the Prime Minister insisted.

”Thank you Prime Minister, we will send a team down on a shuttle,” Hawthorne said.

—- Maya, Central Government Courtyard —-

“We can free all of your sisters,” the Prime Minister was saying.

”We are not prisoners,” Commander Cruz insisted. 

”We understand your concern for us, but we do not require saving,” smiled Chief Counselor Kolem.

The Prime Minister looked at them, “You’re telling the truth, odd. Men on Maya, were obsessed with war against each other finally they created a chemical weapon that wiped them all out. We have lived without men ever since.”

”How do you reproduce?” Doctor T’Rala asked.

”We are clones,” the Prime Minister said.

”We have seen human colonies fail when relying on cloning,” T’Rala said.

”Perhaps their sample size was quite small. We began with four billion women,” Tchaka said, “If you are wondering about replicative failing.”

T’Rala smiled, “I was, but yes three billion gives you quite awhile before that would be an issue.”

The Prime Minister looked at her, “Why are your ears different than theirs.”

”I’m a Romulan, and we have big ears,” the Doctor said.

Lieutenant Jara laughed, “Sorry, I just haven’t heard that said before.”

”Would you like to come aboard the USS Seattle Prime Minister,” Cruz suggested, “If men can not come down here?”

The Prime Minister thought about it, “Yes, that would be fine. If I can bring my council.”

”Of course,” Cruz said.

”First though there is much for you to see,” the Prime Minister Tchaka said.

The group was each paried with a woman from Maya and allowed to go where they wished. Commander Cruz remained with the Prime Minister to discuss how society operated and the needs of the planet but the others all split up, with Jara visiting military locations, and everyone else tackling their specialties.

It was hours later that the crew of officer from the Seattle met up at the shuttle the Pearl Jam. 

“The Prime Minister and her cabinet will be beaming up tonight,” Cruz said, “I explained transporter technology to them and they’re excited to see it.”

Jara waited until the shuttle’s door closed, “Their military is, well let’s say they have the weapons to kill everyone on this planet but not the personnel, clearly being in the military is not a popular career choice.”

“Would you expect it to be after half their population killed themselves,” Kolem asked, “And since we’re their first interplanetary visitor, there seems to be no need for one. They have world peace.“

Kolem said, “They are doing well, it seems. There is romance, between women. Violence is rare, and less even than current Earth rates. They have families, two to five mothers in each one.“

Cruz took the reports from everyone then flew the shuttle upwards towards the Seattle.

—- Captain’s Quarters —-

“Lesbians?” Hawthorne said.

”No, not all of them but just like men in all male environments who find comfort in other men, they find what love there is,” Cruz said.

The Captain nodded and looked at the planet below him, a purple green orb. Cruz came up behind him kissing his neck. He knew that she was slumming it with him, and that in a year or so she’d get a command and leave him. Still she was warm and he cared for her, even if she kept making him be a better man which was a lot of hard work.

”All the men killed themselves?” he asked.

”Five generations ago,” Cruz said.

”I’d like to say that’s dumb, but we did the same thing. World War III, eugenics, we came close,” Hawthorne said.

”Men came close,“ Cruz said, “but for the grace of God, there’s a reality were I’m the Captain and no men are onboard.”

“Maybe,” Hawthorne said, “You ever been to the mirror universe?”

”Isn’t that just Enterprise nonsense,” Cruz said.

”You’d be sexy, in an all leather uniform,” the Captain mused.

Cruz pushed him back on the bed, “What’s not sexy about this uniform?”

She climbed on the bed on top of him. They did not live in an alternate reality, evil or not. Men had thankfully survived, and tomorrow they were going to have to show the Prime Minister and her cabinet the advantages of that.

Well maybe not all the advantages, Cruz thought as she leaned down to kiss Hawthorne.

—- Shuttle Bay —-

“When we get back to Starbase 72 I’m requisitioning a runnabout,” Captain Hawthorne noted as the shuttle Pearl Jam returned to the ship carrying the Prime Minister and her cabinet from Maya the world below. They had gone back and forth about this mode of transport, but after much negotiation It had trumped the transporter as the delegation had proven to find having their molecules broken up to be slightly unsettling. 

An hour before hand the Captain had been going over his away team’s reports about the all-female world below. Lieutenant Kolem had expressed the they were hiding something, but was not sure what that was. It likely did not matter, but his senior staff had assembled in their dress uniforms anyway. It was not often they had the occasion to wear them and not often had he been able to handle a first contact mission. 

Commander Adriana Cruz nodded, “Now remember this is the first time in generations anyone here has met a male, so try not to be…” 

Hawthorne smiled, “I can be charming as Hell Commander.”

Kan Th’kaotross the Andorian Chief Security Officer adjusted his uniform, feeling confined by the fabric. He disliked first contact missions, and had no patience for being anything aside from his authentic self. He grumbled as Lieutenant Eleanor Dorian the Chief Strategic Operations Officer helped him fasten a snap on the unfamiliar dress uniform. 

The Pearl Jam touched down and slowly the rear opened to reveal the Prime Minister Tchaka and her cabinet. The pilot, Lieutenant Claudia Jara was the last out of the shuttle, talking with one of the Prime Minister’s aides. 

“Prime Minister, glad to meet you. I hope the flight up here was alright,” Hawthorne said, smiling as he tried not to look as large and threatening as he normally felt he did. Not that he was a large man, just compared to the slight women who had boarded his ship, he knew that he was.

The Prime Minister nodded, “The invitation was appreciated. Your arrival has been keenly debated on my planet, and we hope to show your crew much about our world.”

”Well, let’s begin with a brief tour of the ship,” Hawthorne said.

”Of course Captain, may my flight attaché remain, she wishes to see more of your shuttle,” the Prime Minister said.

Lieutenant Jara pipped up, “I can give her a tour sir.”

Hawthorne smiled, “Okay, of course Lieutenant.”

The Prime Minister’s party followed the Captain and his officers, save for the one who had been speaking with Jara previously. Jara took her back into the shuttle, and showed her the controls, and storage areas. 

“This is where we keep hand phasers, for planets where we meet danger,” Jara said.

”May I see?” Corporal Lenova, the Prime Minister’s flight attaché asked.

”Well we really don’t hand weapons out to visitors,” Jara said, but her resistance faltered as Lenova slid a hand onto her upper thigh and kissed her on the lips.

”Okay,” Jara said, “But it’s in stun.”

Lenova smiled, “Good, I wouldn’t want to hurt you.”

As she took the phaser she fired directly at Jara who collapsed in her seat back against the shuttle’s hull. Working fast Corporal Lenova began to undress Jara, getting into her uniform and then tying up the Lieutenant.

Across the ship Captain Hawthorne was leading the Prime Minister and the remaining members of her party into the forward observation lounge where a dinner had been set up. The original away team who had travelled to the planet below plus most of the Senior Staff were there. It seemed to be going well.

”Captain,” Lieutenant Kolem the half-Betazoid half-human Chief Counselor said pulling him aside and speaking quietly, “I sense something.”

”I get it they’re hiding something, but we have no right to know everything about them, and we keep our own secrets too,” Hawthorne said.

”No, this is something new, something pressing on their thoughts,” Kolem said.

”So it can’t wait for desert?” Hawthorne said.

”No sir, something is imminent, so so they think,” Kolem said.

Hawthorne turned to the Prime Minister, “Umm, ma’am, I was wondering for the sake of our new friendship, is there anything you’d like to tell us?”

”What do you mean?” the Prime Minister asked, seemingly innocent.

Hawthorne’s commbadge chimed, it was Lieutenant Junior Grade Hume who was the duty officer abroad the bridge, “Captain we have multiple small vessels, and a large one dropping out of warp. Looks like pirates of some kind.”

”Shields up, red alert,” Hawthorne said.

His badge chimed once more, “Captain it’s Young in engineering an intruder stunned some of my staff and is in the environmental controls. I am trying to lock her out but she’s released a chemical of some kind into the air supply.”

Hawthorne was about to reply when he found his throat closing up, it was hard to breathe. He stumbled then fell to the ground, as did others around the room. He was his Chief Science Officer Debub fall, the man gabbing his own throat as he fell. There was something similar about all the affected, and it took him a second to work out, they were all men.

—- Bridge —-

Commander Cruz entered the bridge furious. Someone had just poisoned half of the ship’s crew, and now pirates. That did not seem to be a coincidence. Lieutenant Junior Grade Hume who had previously been in charge of the bridge had been taken off my medical staff. Female officers were filling in the slots where their male counterparts had slumped over. 

“Sick bay, how are you handling this?” she asked using the ship’s comm system.

Doctor Va’Tok answered, to her surprise, “This agent seems to only affect men. I am synthazizing a cure, but there seems to be extensive damage to the respitory system. I would not expect anyone who is currently affected to return to duty for days, rather than minutes or hours.”

”Dorian, take the tactical conn, also find someone to show the Prime Minister and her party to a cell,” Cruz ordered.

”Engineering, what’s the status?” again Cruz used the ship’s internal communication system.

Chief Engineer James Young responded, “Half my staff is down. I managed to grab a gas mask and I seem okay. I’m flushing the air systems now, but it’s going to take about an hour to work this gas out of the Seattle. Our intruder has been stunned, no damage to systems beyond the release of the toxin.”

”We’re about to get the snot pounded out of us, so get everyone you can on duty,” Cruz said.

”Fantastic, can’t wait,” Young said, “I’ll take care of it.”

”Open hailing frequencies with the big ship there,” Commander Cruz said.

A scruffy unshaven man smiled, he looked dirty and if you could smell someone through a view screen it would be him. His smile was unsettling.

”My prize, contacted me to surrender?” he said looking at the bridge and it’s officers.

”I was going to ask you the same thing,” Cruz said.

He chuckled, “I like you, I’ll keep you. New deal, we keep the ship and the female crew.”

”What was your old deal?” Cruz asked.

”Just the ship, but you’re all fine specimens, if we’re not coming back for ten years, well it’s gonna have to be worth our while,” he sneered.

“Coming back?” Cruz asked.

He laughed, “Oh you weren’t told anything were you. Every year we take three hundred women from this planet as protection payment, they didn’t tell you that?”

“No, the Prime Minister must have forgotten about it while she was trying to kill half of my crew,” Cruz said.

”Well this has been nice, but lower your shields and prepare to be bordered,” the man said.

”Cut transmission,” Cruz said and then the screen went dark, the pirate replaced by the ships in space. She looked at Dorian and asked, “Tactical assessment.”

”We can probably survive, but we may lost warp if we take extensive damage and our way home,” Dorian said.

”Well it’s either that or get traded like daboo chits,” Cruz said, “Pr’Nor, prepare attack pattern six on my mark, keep moving no matter what.”

The Vulcan Chief Flight Control Officer nodded, “Captain.”

”What did you call me?” Cruz asked.

”You are the Captain until Hawthorne returns to duty Captain,” Pr’Nor said. Dorian nodded her agreement.

”Hailing frequencies open,” Cruz said again.

”Ah my Pirate Queen,” the man said.

”Why do people keep calling me that?“ Cruz asked annoyed, “Anyway I’m having a rough day and was going to give you a whole speech but I’m just going to beat you up now. Pr’Nor, now. Dorian fire at will.”

The pirate captain killed the transmission but he did not look happy. If he destroyed the USS Seattle his prize would be lost, any damage he did to it he lost something. The Prime Minister was meant to kill off the men, and surrender the ship but she was nowhere to be seen and this woman was now opening fire on his fleet. The Seattle was small but significantly more advanced than anything he had, and better armed, faster and more agile. Whoever was flying it was a god damn demon, and he was getting reports that one of this ships had been destroyed.

Two now. 

“Open fire bring that woman to me in chains,” he roared. He was going to make the Prime Minister regret not upholding her part of the deal.

—- Engineering —-

Things were falling apart. Two disasters had stuck the Seattle at once, and Lieutenant Commander James Young was not sure if they could handle it, but he was trying. He had on a gas mask, attached to a plastic tube that snaked down to an oxygen canister on his belt. Simply having all the male crew disabled save for himself and apparently Doctor Va’Tok was enough of a blow, but now they were in a fire fight, so he had the task of venting the ship of poison and keeping them all in one piece at once.

He gestured to Engsign Constable his Assistant Chief Engineering Officer, “Reroute the EPS conduits, we have more protection on our stern.”

Vanessa Constable nodded, working frantically at her station, realigning the warp core. While women were filtering in to take over from male officers who had been downed by the toxic air, it was still chaotic. They had no dedicated shuttle engineers at this point, not that that was an issue for this moment, but it was a sign that this transition to a nearly all female crew was not being done in an orderly fashion.

The ship rocked, he found a conn and boosted power to the shields. Hopefully people would stop shooting at them soon.

—- Bridge —-

“Shields holding at forty percent,” Dorian reported, the Lieutenant handling tactical since all the senior staff in security had been male. She had worked security on past postings, so it was not that new for her, and not that far from being a Strategic Operations Officer.

Commander Cruz who had taken control of the bridge did a quick check. Five ships left, they had destroyed two of them, though the central ship piloted by their main antagonist was going to be hard to break down. For its part the USS Seattle was fast, and was making itself hard to hit. The pirates likely had manual firing, which meant that if they stayed in motion they could avoid a great number of the shots.

The pirate ships were slow, and used to being the most dangerous thing in the sector. The Starfleet vessel was more technologically advanced in every way, it was just out numbered. An explosion happened on the screen.

Pr’Nor said, “Another vessel destroyed.”

Four ships left. 

Or one that mattered. Cruz looked at the screen, “How come I never win big in dabo?”

”As a game of chance dabo is notoriously weighted towards the house, and many owners of dabo tables have weighted the game even more in their favor,” Pr’Nor said.

”Exactly, we’re playing a game setup against us. It’s time to change things up,” Cruz said, “Pr’Nor break off the engagement, head to the second class M Planet in the ship and prepare to land.”

”Unlike the Intrepid Class we can not land,” the Vulcan pointed out.

”No, but they don’t know that. Get as low as we can, then when they start to follow up hit full impulse and pull up,” Cruz said.

”Interesting, well it will be a fascinating way for us to die,” the Vulcan said.

”I can’t tell if you are joking,” Cruz said.

”I do not joke,” Pr’Nor replied.

”Well then today is a good day to die,” Cruz said as the USS Seattle banked hard towards Maya 6 the uninhabited class M planet. The pursuing ships temporarily lost them and then began their much slower, more laborious turns. In a out and out race this would be no contest, the Seattle was better maintained, newer and nearly three generations of ship design more modern.

”This is quite the time to let out your inner Klingon,” Lieutenant Dorian said from tactical, firing off phaser shots to try to break through their opponents’ shields. 

Petty Officer Nurse Jennifer Westbrook and two other non-commissioned officers entered the bridge, each pulling one of their male crew out via the turbolift. Kan Th’kaotross the Andorian Chief of Secuirty was taken out and unconscious like the rest.

”He’ll be okay, you hear me Dorian, he’ll be back here before you know it,” Cruz said knowing that the two officers had a quiet relationship that was not quite as splashy or obvious to the rest of the crew as hers and the Captain or Pr’Nor and Lieutenant Commander Tashai.

The Seattle hit the atmosphere and flew low, passing over trees. So low some tree tops scraped the bottom of the ship’s hull. No longer in the void of space the crew could hear them below breaking as the ship passed overhead. Watching the monitor Commander Cruz waited for the four pirate ships to get as far into the atmosphere as they had, then once they did she gave the order.

”Pull up hard, loop around and get behind them,” she said to her pilot Pr’Nor.

The Seattle pulled up, the ship shuddering against the pull of gravity. It caused the pirate ships to follow suit, but they were not as well made. The three smaller ships broke up, losing drives and other important parts and then each in turn exploding. The larger ship did not break up, but did not complete the turn quite as elegantly as the Seattle as the Federation ship continued to turn until it was directly behind the large pirate ship, that was as big as a Galaxy class but no where near as well built.

”Fire everything we have,” Cruz said. A series of small explosions rocked the pirates’ ship as the Seattle’s photon torpedoes stuck home. Phasers raked the hull as the pirates’ shields dropped and they sat dead in space.

”We’re being hailed,” Dorian said.

”On screen,” Cruz said from the Captain’s chair.

The scene now was one of chaos, fires had broken out behind the Pirate Captain and everything seemed to be in disarray. 

“We surrender,” he said, the reputation of the Federation and Starfleet had not made it this far, so he did not know that killing was against their ethos. 

“We have no ability to keep prisoners on that scale,” Dorian said and then doing a scan added, “That’s over six hundred.”

”We don’t,” Cruz agreed, “but I know who does. Captain we’ll get back to you. Dorian one move from that ship put a hole right in the middle.”

—- Security Office —-

A few non-commissioned officers were under the command of an Ensign in security, the department most keenly hurt by the attack on all men aboard the Seattle. Still they had managed to arrest the Prime Minister and her staff, along with the saboteur who had to be stunned and dragged out of Engineering. 

Cruz entered, “I want to see the prisoners.”

So she was soon standing in front of the Maya Prime Minister who despite being jailed, did her best to look dignified. Cruz wanted to hurt this woman, the kid from the streets of Mexico City would have. As it was she just glowered.

”I’ve met your charming friend, he seems nice,” she said.

”He isn’t,” the Prime Minister either missing the sarcasm of ignoring it.

”I don’t know if my Captain, my well… the person I care for, is alive or dead. I want the truth or I shoot you out the torpedo bays at the pirate ship,” Cruz said.

”The pirates showed up about two hundred years ago. At the time, our great grandmothers paid them off. Energy, women who they used for… purposes,” the Prime Minister explained, “Then every year they came back and took three hundred of our citizens with them. We had not developed weapons since the men had died.”

”The men didn’t kill themselves did they,“ Cruz said.

”No, a scientist working in a lab figured it out,“ the Prime Minister said, “And she released the poison. We were in a cycle of endless war, with the men gone, well we have world peace.“

”Except you get plundered every year,” Cruz said, “Well we dealt with that, and now I could kill your friend, but I don’t want to. Killing in a fight is one thing, killing an unarmed opponent who has sued for peace is another.”

”Kill him, he’ll just be back,” the Prime Minister said.

”What was your deal with him, the crew and the ship for that?” Cruz asked.

”We kill the men. If any survive they could take them. The women come with us back to the planet and live life with us. Your ship was for ten years of not raiding us,” she said.

”He won’t be leaving. See we let you go, and you take these men and put them on trial. A fair trial, and don’t kill them,” Cruz said, “Then the raids stop. You charge them for human trafficking, you get to be the Prime Minister who stopped the raids.”

”Do I have a choice?” the Prime Minister said.

”Honestly no, we’ll let you use comms. Have your people prepare for about five hundred prisoners,” Commander Cruz said, “And you may be a peaceful utopia but fix your weapons. Trust me this ship just whooped all your pirates and we’re not the scariest thing around.”

—- Conference Room —-

Commander Cruz sat at the head of the table with a mostly assortment of her senior officers. The sudden attack on the Seattle’s male staff had left them in quite a jam, and that was before they had to fight off pirates. Now Lieutenant Commander James Young, one of only two men who seemed to have escaped the attack was listing off the things on the USS Seattle that needed fixing, including a new paint job. Thankfully so far out, and alone, the list did not include the warp engines which had survived.

Cruz raised her hand, “Alright Doctor Va’Tok what is out status?”

”We have five casualties, including Chief Science Officer Debub,” the Doctor Reported, “The chemical attacked only male member of the crew, and aside from Young none of them escaped.”

”How about you?” Cruz asked.

”I am not biologically male,” Doctor Va’Tok said, this news came as a surprise to Cruz but she moved on, only nodding.

”The rest then?”

”Most will remain recuperating for several weeks. Some need more extensive treatment than I can offer here, and will require attention on Starbase 72,” Va’Tok said, “Including the Captain who will need a lung transplant. The disease attacks the respiratory system, and he is only surviving on oxygen. He is the worst off, some others may return to duty before we get home.”

”How are we handling the numbers?” Cruz asked, fifty crew members was a lot to handle in sickbay.

”We have worked with Engineering to activate the ship wide holographic system allowing us to engage the Emergency Holographic Doctor. We will have one of them visiting all patients, as I oversee their treatment,” Va’Tok explained. He seemed pleased by that, a computer doctor was as logical as you could get.

“I sent our reports off to Starfleet, I should be getting an answer back today. Dorian can you continue to handle security for the next while. Tashai, you’re now First Officer,” Cruz said, “Gabriella Miller, you are now the Chief Science Officer with Lieutenant Sone, as your Assistant Chief.”

The blonde nodded. She was a higher ranking officer, and while command duties associated with running the department might get in the way of her studied, it was what needed to be done.

”Young what do you need to get the ship working?” Cruz asked.

”We’re at warp six now, to sustain anything more I’d want to run checks on everything and have at least a day stopped,” Young said, then added, “I think that math takes into account our staffing situation.”

”Lieutenant Kolem, you’re now third officer. I also want you and the other counselor visiting everyone, including the healthy. This ship just took a big hit, we need to keep it from falling apart more,” Cruz said, “Okay, dismissed. Thank you all.”

—- Ready Room —-

Commodore Jalian appeared on the screen, the delay meaning this would be a one way conversation. She smiled a sad smile, and seemed empathetic on the other side of the glass. 

”I am sorry to hear about the events on Seattle. However good job saving both the ship and your crew Commander Cruz,” she said. Cruz sat back in the Captain’s chair watching the video, recorded a day and a half before hand.

”At this point your return is of priority, and we will ensure the proper medical treatment is here upon your arrival,” the Commodore assured her, “Any stops you were planning on making are called off, unless they are required to speed your way to Starbase 72. Save for one, and it’s on the way. We lost contact with a Starfleet observation post beyond our borders. Stop at the planet and find out what happened to them, save the members if possible. Do not risk the ship, or your crew. We are sending a full mission brief in a day, you are still several days out.”

”And to make this formal, I am relieving Captain Hawthorne of command of the Seattle and putting you in charge. I am also giving you a field promotion to Captain. So please add a pip to your collar. Congratulations, though I understand that you did not want it this way,” she said and then ended the broadcast with a few more words of condolence.

—- Captain’s Quarters —-

The additional pip was the first thing Hawthorne commented on, “You come to kick me out of my room?”

“Yup I’m taking it all,” Cruz said sitting down on the bed next to him. 

Hawthorne had oxygen pumped into his lung, from tubing running to his nose. He looked frail and weak. Still he managed a smile, “My lungs are busted up.”

”Well nobody said first contact missions were easy,” Cruz said.

”Congratulations, seriously, you’ll do great,” Hawthorne weezed.

“I’m still just your first officer, this is your ship, I’m just borrowing it,” Cruz said.

”Sure Captain,” Hawthorne said, “Hey, I know we don’t say romantic stuff or anything mushy, but…”

”I know,“ Cruz said, “I lo…”

An Emergency Medical Hologram appeared, a small balding man. He went about checking Captain Hawthorne’s vital signs, “Ignore me, I am just ensuring he’s still alive.”

”Is he still alive?” Cruz asked.

”He appears to be,” the hologram that had just appeared said.

”Well that ruined the moment, you were just going to admit you liked me, that you loved me,” Hawthorne said.

”I was going to say nothing of the sort,” Cruz said and kissed his forehead, “I’ll see you later sir.”

”Hey you know, don’t spend your time worrying about me. Enjoy your first command. Maybe kiss Jara again if you want, Kirk is up and live a little,” Hawthorne said.

”Kirk never lost half his crew,” Cruz said.

”You didn’t I did. You saved them all, all of us are alive now because of you Captain,” Hawthorne said.

—- Sickbay —-

”So is there anything we need to talk about,” Captain Cruz asked.

”About?” Doctor Va’Tok asked.

”You,” Cruz said.

”Not unless you find the subject of Me interesting. I do not. I simple identify as a male, and yet have a female anatomy, you are familiar with such things are you not?” Va’Tok said.

”Who knows?”

”Captain Hawthorne, T’Rala as my doctor on board. Now your new senior staff know, I do not know who they told,” Va’Tok said.

”Well if you need anything,” Cruz said.

”I can see you are trying in a human way to be kind. I only need you to continue to treat me as a member of your staff and as Va’Tok. I do not require anything else,” Va’Tok said, “Though I thank you for caring in your human illogical way.”

He nodded, and T’Rala passed by.

”Just treat him like the old cold dead fish he’s always been, and he’s happy,” the Romulan said smiling.

”I presume she is kidding though her pronoun usage was sufficient to demonstrate that she does actually care for me,” Va’Tok said.

“How hard was your department hit?” Captain Cruz asked.

”Barely at all. Most of our nursing staff are female and our few males are orderlies and doctors,” Va’Tok said, “We are down there, but the Emergency Medical Holographic Program is helping.“

”He looks like the guy from Voyager,” Cruz observed.

”We have a slightly updated version of the software but the program remains largely the same,” Va’Tok said.

“How is Lieutenant Jara, she got hit with a phaser,” Cruz asked.

”I’m fine Commander, errr. Captain,” Jara said stepping out of an examination room, “A few days of rest and I’ve got a might bruise. But I’ll be fine.”

”She can return to active duty in two days,” Va’Tok said, “And her quarters now.”

Buttoning up her uniform, she nodded, “Thank you.”

”I’ll walk you back,” Cruz said and she walked beside the Lieutenant as they left sickbay for her quarters.

”The Captain said I should kiss you again,” Cruz said.

”Yeah but you’re a Captain to now, you give the orders,” Jara said.

”I care about him,” Cruz said.

”I know, that’s why I knew our session was just a drunk fling thing,” Jara said, “Too much radiation in the brain. You won’t admit it to yourself, but you love him.”

”We’re not saying that,” Cruz said.

”Because you know it’ll end and you think saying it will make it harder. It’s going to be hard no matter what you say,” Jara observed.

Cruz nodded, they took a turbo lift, and stopped outside Jara‘s door.

”You’re the Captain now, you don’t get to be happy any more,” Jara said, “That’s the thing Starfleet doesn’t teach you in Command School.”

Lieutenant Claudia Jara smiled sadly, then gave a cheeky salute and went into her quarters, not inviting the Captain to join her. The door slid shut and Captain Cruz headed to the bridge.

—- Ready Room —-

“Come,” Captain Adriana Cruz said as the chime chimed. 

The door slid open and Lieutenant Yuhiro Kolem the Chief Counsellor and now the ship’s Second Officer entered the room. The gave a small smile then sat down across from the new captain and looked around.

”Still feels like an old man’s museum to the past, sure you don’t need any more oak in here,” she teased.

Cruz smiled, “Captain will be back soon enough, I’m not changing it on him.”

Kolem nodded, “Just in case nobody has said it, it’s not your fault. People might say it is, people might make you a captain and say you did a great job, but what happened was beyond your control. They saw an opportunity, and took it. You can’t really blame them, and well, they were going to do what they did either way.”

Cruz nodded, “I know, it just feels wrong.”

”We followed the playbook the whole way. One of them shot your Assistant Strategic Operations Officer, and poisoned the crew. Not your fault, not Captain Hawthorne’s fault. You only made one mistake,” Kolem said.

”What’s that,” Cruz already knew what the half-Betazoid was going to say despite not being an empath herself.

”Made me Second Officer,” Kolem said.

”Not a mistake,” Cruz said, studying the woman. She knew that Kolem was the first to doubt herself, and while she was a good Counsellor had not quite fit into her role as a Starfleet officer as easily. She knew how to make people feel better, and better at their jobs, but was not quite as comfortable in Starfleet.

”I’m not the most senior officer,” Kolem protested.

”No, but look some of my decisions are to get us home, and some are to set up the future,” Cruz explained, “Tashai isn’t going to be a Captain. She has no desire to, and just wants to observe and experience being in Starfleet until she does something else. Yet she’s the natural pick for First Officer. You want to be in Starfleet you’re just learning. You’re green and need experience, but you’re also ready to learn. Plus one day I’ll get my own ship and you’re my First Officer then.”

”I’m not First Officer material,” Kolem protested.

”Okay, let’s talk about who is then? Young might be but he’s busy in the Engineering department and I can’t lose anymore engineers. Same with Va’Tok and T’Rala. I’ve already moved Dorian into security, so I can’t promote her or Jara. Plus neither of them are ready,” Cruz said, “Any of the male heads are out of service, so that leaves you or Lieutenant Commander Miller who I made Chief Science Officer and is coming to grips with losing her section head.”

”Half my section is down,” Kolem argued, it was just her now in her section after the attack.

”Half of everyone’s section is down,” Cruz said, “We adapt, you adapt. You’re smart, you’ll pick it up. Besides Second Officers barely ever have to do anything. It’ll look good on your service record, and set you up for the future.”

Kolem gave up the fight, “Fine, I’ll be your Chuckleberry.”

”What is that?” Cruz asked.

”Old Earth saying,” Kolem said.

”I’m from Earth and I’ve never heard that one,” Cruz said, ”You been to see Hume?”

”Not yet,” Kolem said.

”You should, even if you’re not together,” Cruz said to the Counsellor, even Counsellors needed advice.

”You been to see Hawthorne?” Kolem asked.

”I have. He… ummm, it was hard,” Captain Cruz said, “I’m so used to him being this vibrant but slightly ridiculous thing, but a good man too. I don’t know if I can handle it is he doesn’t recover.”

“Our first mission he kept calling me his Troi, it made me so mad. But he’s a good guy,” Kolem said.

Cruz nodded, “I was training him to be better.”

—- Nine Forward, Lounge —-

Lieutenant Commander Tashai used her free arm to get her drink, “I will admit I have never been in a largely all female environment like this.”

Lieutenant Commander James Young raised a hand in protest, “Hey I’m here.”

T’Rala kissed his cheek, “You’re one of the girls.”

Young was not sure if the Romulan was joking or not, but conceded the argument. It had been odd, that was for sure, suddenly finding himself one of only two male identifying officers still in active duty aboard the USS Seattle. Though he treated everyone the same, there were some things he was only now coming to realize that the women he served with had to deal with. One of those things was representation, and while female Captains had been in Starfleet for longer than any of them (save Tashai) had been alive, for every Janeway it was true that there was still a Picard, Pike, Kirk, Fitzwelder, and others. Thus having Cruz as Captain seemed to delight most of the current crew some of whom had never served under a female commanding officer.

“Adriana’s Angels,” Tashai suggested, “It’s an old television program I used to like on Earth. Back in the day, well before my time even but it’s about all female spies.”

Pr’Nor who was beneath Tashai’s other arm, not the free one for drinking, said, “Why must it be an Earth name. Nobody knows what that is anyway, it is an old human show from before holonovels.”

Young suggested, “How about Valkyries? It’s still an Earth thing, but more classic than some old entertainment program.”

”I like that, see you do have good ideas for a man,” T’Rala teased, the Romulan doctor squeezing him arm, “The wait staff was all male, I’ll have to go up and get the next round.”

“You are a fascinating couple,” Pr’Nor observed.

”Like a deer and headlights,” Tashai said.

”What’s that?”

”Another old Earth saying, anyway, it’s cute,” Tashai said.

”Yes, cute,” Pr’Nor said.

Young eyed the two women who were sat back wrapped up in each other. He was not sure that cute was the word they really word used. He understood that the Romulan had basically bullied him into dating her. Still he was not a lost puppy, he had gone into this with eyes wide open. Still it was not worth fighting about, nobody’s opinion had ever been changed by someone insisting that they were actually quite in command of a situation. 

Lieutenant Akane Sone, the Stellar Cartographer joined the table, “Who’s cute?”

”Young and his boss,” Tashai joked.

The blue uniformed Sone nodded, not quite getting the joke, but realizing that delving into it further was probably not worth the time.

“If we hadn’t lost half the crew on our first first contact mission I’d say it was too bad we’re going straight home,” Sone said.

”It is irrelevant and pointless to wish things were different,” Pr’Nor said, “Our male colleagues are unable to carry out their duties, and many require medical treatment that we can only get at a Starbase. Wishing that things had gone differently will not change the past, unless you have some abilities we do not know about.”

Sone pouted, “Vulcans are no fun.”

”They are lots of fun,” Tashai said.

Pr’Nor nodded, “She is an expert and the First Officer now. You must listen to her.”

”I don’t think that’s how it works,” Young said, still smarting over T’Rala being called his boss rather than his girlfriend, they were not even in the same department.

”It is,” Tashai said, “I’m old listen to me.”

“To the Captain,” T’Rala said distributing new drinks as she returned to the table.

”Both Captains,” Young said.

”Just the cute one,“ Tashai said.

”Which one is that?” T’Rala asked.

”Whichever one you think,” Tashai said again and toasted. 

—- Captain’s Quarters —-

The chair was uncomfortable after a certain amount of time. A few hours was fine, but it was not meant for sleeping in, and for all their advancements in technology they had not yet figured out how to cure a leg that had fallen asleep. Captain Adriana Cruz slept in the chair next to the bed of Captain Nathan Hawthorne who was on oxygen at least until they arrived at Starbase 72 for a lung transplant. Captain Cruz had been promoted to see the ship home, given command, but this was still Hawthorne‘s ship at heart, at least in her mind.

She stirred and stood up trying to shake her sleeping leg awake, and restore the blood flow to it.

”You here all night?” Hawthorne asked from the bed. She had not realized that he was awake, but her movements must have awoken him. As if sensing that he was awake the Emergency Medical Hologram activated to take his vitals and interrupt them. A small balding man appeared and began to take the Captain’s blood pressure.

“Trying not to wake you,” Cruz said watching as the Medical Hologram did its work.

Hawthorne tried to sit up but failed, and the Medical Hologram had to restart taking his blood pressure. He looked up at his First Officer, now a Captain in his place who had taken his command out from under him and felt a mixture of pride and sadness. He always knew she’d surpass him some day, but he had assumed it would be years from now, and with another ship. That it was now, and with the USS Seattle was something of an attack on his pride, though he knew it was not her fault. She’d have done anything she could to avoid this, him lying in bed needing new lungs while they raced back to Federation space.

”You can’t Captain during the day and watch over me all night, you need a life Adriana,” Hawthorne said. She was a dedicated officer, and one of the few people he knew would have his back, but the fact was that anyone needed downtime. Even Captains.

”I can do whatever I damn well please I’m the Captain,” Cruz said.

Hawthorne coughed, and took a deep breath of oxygen, “I used to be young and stupid too.”

”You were never young,” Cruz said.

”I take it from the EMH that we’re down staff?” Hawthorne asked.

”All male crew except Lieutenant Commander Young and Doctor Va’Tok are out of service. Most are doing better than you, but won’t be back for a while,” Cruz said sitting down on the bed, she brushed his cheek tenderly.

“I’ll be back,” Hawthorne said.

”New lungs, yeah you’ll be back,” Cruz agreed.

”I think I’ll get an athlete’s lungs,” Hawthorne joke speculated.

”Vulcan lungs,” Cruz said.

Hawthorn chuckled then closed his eyes, “Getting old, and poisoned sucks. Try not to do either.”

”That’s good advice. I left your coffee stuff in the Ready Room, you’ll be back soon,” Cruz said.

Hawthorne was not sure if he was coming back, but he would wait until they were all safely back in Federation territory to raise that. With his eyes closed it was easy to drift off to sleep which is where he went. Cruz sat on his bed for about thirty minutes longer and then left the room, heading to the bridge for lack of anything better to do. As much as she may be told to not work all the time, they were running out of people to be Captain.

—- Bridge —-

When Captain Cruz arrived at the bridge Lieutenant Commander Tashai was sitting in the Captain’s chair reading a PADD. Everyone seemed a little lazy, which was to be expected given that this was the late shift. They had had to abandon the idea of shifts with over half the crew out of action, and so now everyone worked when they could.

“Captain on the bridge,” Tashai announced moving to a secondary seat.

”At ease,“ Cruz said taking the center seat that had recently been vacated by her newly appointed First Officer. She watched the star field on the view screen, as they travelled at warp six back towards Federation space. 

Cruz was quiet then asked her First Officer, who was also the Chief Operations Officer about staffing and got her answer. Adjustments had been made, changes had been made. The crew was being stretched with less than half the active staff they were having to make do with far fewer officers and non-commissioned officers. 

The Seattle had been wounded In a way that none of them had experienced before. They had lost people who were important to them, and now half the crew was there to carry on and get them home. Not one of the women who now crewed the Seattle had not had someone important to them affected. Perhaps, like Tashai, they were not romantically involved with someone but their coworkers, superiors or inferiors they were all connected in ways that was only becoming clear now.

After about an hour the Captain grew restless, and excused herself.

—- Gym —- 

In a t-shirt that red Seattle on the front and the ship’s serial number on the right sleeve. Adriana Cruz wore stretchy track pants. The new Captain entered the gym and found a stationary bicycle and started to peddal. It was nice to do something, to work out her frustration and anger. The activity was the answer to a restlessness that she felt, no more of less than anyone else but the Seattle had been hurt and while there had been a fight against their pirate attackers, there had been no way to get revenge against the Prime Minister of Maya who had lead the attack on the ship.

She knew that she had done the right thing. Nothing was to be gained by harming a woman who was just trying to look out for her people, even if she had done it in an evil way. Cruz had worked up a sweat, trying to find something to do apart from sitting at Hawthorne’s bedside, wondering what to do next.

Lieutenant Claudia Jara entered, “Captain.”

“Lieutenant,” Cruz said between pants.

Jara set down her water bottle and went over to the weight, “You look good sweaty.”

”I needed an outlet that doesn’t include launching photon torpedos at astroids,” Cruz said.

”I can suggest one, if you still have your hall pass from Hawthorne,” Jara said lifting two forty pound hand held weights.

Cruz stopped cycling, “I thought you said I would never be happy again.”

”Well, you might not find salvation, but you can sweat a little more,” Jara said.

Cruz got off the stationary bike, “I can’t promise anything more than…”

Jara shook her head, “Captain, Adriana. I know, I’m just offering you something to burn off some steam.”

—- First Officer’s Quarters —-

Captain Cruz lay not sleeping. Beside her the form of Lieutenant Jara slept. She looked up at the ceiling, wondering when she’d get to rest. She had been assured that none of this was her fault, and yet she still felt guilty. Nothing felt like how it was supposed to. She had been on a pathway to command and yet it had just been handed to her, a ship that was not hers, and would never feel like it was hers. 

She was just a stand-in, and the real Captain would be back soon. So she hoped, though in her deepest fears she worried that was not the case. She feared that Hawthorne who loved this life more than most she met, would be stuck behind a desk, made to end his career pushing virtual paperwork.

Cruz closed her eyes, waiting for sleep to come. It eventually found her, after much delay she finally slept.

—- Lieutenant Junior Grade William Hume’s Quarters —-

The door slid open to allow Lieutenant Yuhiro Kolem the enter. She adjusted the lights in a room that once upon a time she had spent many hours in with her then boyfriend. Now he was alone, and she was alone, which might make them the perfect couple if not for their history. She entered a bit further, and spotted William Hume laying on top of the sheets on his bed. He sat up, rolled his legs out of bed and using an old fashioned walker stood to greet his guest.

”Yuhiro,” he said, both surprised and seemingly happy. He had attempted to reconcile before the male members of the USS Seattle’s crew had been poisoned, and now it had been several days and she had remained out of arm’s reach. She had had duty, and not just her counselor duties, but new Second Officer ones, and he had been on bed rest.

”William I wanted to see you,” she said softly, she could feel his longing and his pain, and that was part of the reason she had found duty reasons to avoid this. There was no good time to tell your ex it was definitively over, and when your life was on an upward trajectory and his was on a downward one seemed like kicking him when he was down. Still there was no point in false hope. All she could do was be honest.

”All this near death stuff, the five officers we lost makes you think about life huh?” he said, and Kolem nodded though she feared they were approaching this from different places, and heading in different directions. He saw a near death experience as a reason for her to rethink breaking up with him, and she saw it as an affirmation point, a sign of sorts that her decision is a good one.

Taking his hand the guided him to a chair. Normally he would be sharing a room but as an Assistant Chief Security Officer he got his own. They sat facing each other In separate chairs and Kolem tried her best to explain.

”You hurt me, and you did so deliberately Will. You felt hurt that I didn’t accept for marriage proposal and you purposely set out to hurt me. Do you deny it?” she asked.

She could feel him try out the lie in his head, trying out denial and then decide to come clean. Hume was a fundamentally good person, he’d just done something she could not forgive. Not in sleeping with Lieutenant Maria Cortez, but in using her to hurt Kolem. He hadn’t succumb to a dumb moment of animal passion, but gone out to do something vindictive. She could forgive human weakness, but not human cruelty.

He sighed, “I just was so mad. I wasn’t thinking.”

She nodded, “I know, and I’m not mad. But your first thought was to make me pay, to hurt me. That might be a stupid immature thought, but the guy I want for the rest of my life would never hurt me on purpose, emotionally or physically. So as much as I care for you we’re going to stay broken up.”

Hume felt a pit in his stomach that opened up and widened. He nodded unhappily, not sure that even as charming as women usually found him, that he could argue out of this. Kolem was a woman who knew her own mind, and emotions. She would have thought this through and have been convinced of this course of action before his door even opened.

”I heard you’re the new 2XO,” Hume said, “Congratulations.”

Kolem smiled, “Well, not that it means much but thank you.“

—- Ready Room —-

The three members of the command staff, the Captain, First Officer, and Second Officer, were seated in Nathan Hawthorne’s Ready Room. It was still decorated as he had done, and either he’d resume command of the USS Seattle or this would be cleared out at Starbase 72. Yet they had to get to Federation space first, and that was not as easy as it seemed. Especially with their new orders from Starfleet.

“This is our latest orders from Starfleet,” Captain Adriana Cruz said holding up a PADD, she forwarded the communication to both Lieutenant Commander Tashai and Lieutenant Yuhiro Kolem so that they could review it at their own speed later.

”We’re to stop at this planet, no signs of intelligent life, and find out what happened to an all Betazoid survey team that Starfleet sent out a few weeks ago that has stopped checking in,” Cruz said reviewing the files that she had been sent, it had taken a bit to get them, as communication between the USS Seattle and Starfleet still was a several day process when the Seattle was this far out.

“All Betazed?” Kolem asked, she was half-Betazoid and to learn that her people had gone missing was worrying. The survey team should have had the right supplies.

”We’ll be there in just over two weeks,” Cruz said, moving on. She knew that Kolem felt inferior to full Betazoids, and she did not have time for her to get cold feet. “You both will lead the team down, find the survey team or what happened to them, and we’ll bring them home.”

It meant go home, unless their communication equipment had broken disaster had likely befallen the survey team and there was nobody left to collect. Betazoids were not as methodical or perfectionist as Vulcans but they were competent and like humans should have been able to setup and maintain the kind of strucure that could allow them to survive in whatever conditions they found. It was possible that a large predator or something had gotten them unaware and unprepared. 

“Now is there anything else we need to go over?” Cruz asked. 

The three women looked at each other. None of them had especially wanted the role that they were now in, but injuries had lead them to this place. Cruz had wanted to be a Captain, but had not wanted to become one because disaster had befallen Nathan Hawthorne. Kolem still felt that she was too green for the Second Officer slot, and Tashai had no interest in higher command and yet had been pressed into the job of the First Officer at least until they got home.

”Alright dismissed,” Cruz said standing.

—- Holodeck 1 —-

Captain Cruz emerged from the hot water of the natural spring and sat on a rock. She watched Lieutenant Jara swiming or trying to, and was amused by the amount of splashing the other woman was doing. Graceful on land did not seem to translate into the water. 

Jara saw the mirth on her Captain’s face and scowled, “We didn’t have swimming on Turkana IV.”

”You haven’t been on Turkana IV for decades,“ Cruz shot back. 

Jara dove beneath the water and with great difficulty swam beneath the surface before emerging in front of Cruz to kiss the woman. Cruz smiled as she leaned back, and Jara claimed from the spring onto the rocks. She lay beside Cruz.

”What kind of ship do you want, once Hawthorne’s back?” Jara asked, “Your second command.”

Cruz thought about it, “Those new Prometheus class ships are nice. Something with teeth, after handling those pirates I don’t like being out gunned. Maybe a Manticore or a Gagarin. How about you?”

Jara smiled, “I’m not the big nerd who memorized all the Star Fleet technical manuals. I’ll go where the cool people are.”

”Where Dorian goes you mean?” Cruz said.

”Dorian’s father saved my life, so yeah I follow her around. We’re basically sisters,” Jara said, a fact that was not in her file and she had not shared before. Cruz thought about that for a while, and nodded, Starfleet had wanted to send one of the women off the Seattle when they got to Starbase 72 but now Cruz wanted to keep them together.

”Want to be Chief of Security? Dorian is doing it while Th’kaotross is injured but he’s going to be out for a while. So how about it?” Cruz asked.

”Sure, what does it involve other than punching people?” Jara asked.

”That’s mostly it,” Cruz smiled, “That and firing the few remaining photon torpedoes we have.”

”Deal,” Jara said and then dove, or fell back into the water.

—- Captain’s Quarters —-

It was her lot in life that everyone crouched their rejection of Adriana Cruz in terms of protecting her interests. So it was that Captain Nathan Hawthorne broke up with her, arguing that the distance and his physical aliments were too much for their relationship to endure. Cruz felt that if it was her own best interests that were being framed as the cause of this decision, then she should have some say in it, but she was not sure he was wrong. He was going to a Starfleet outpost by Vulcan to teach for a few months as he healed, or at least he would after his lunch transplant at Starbase 72. She had already, physically, moved onto Lieutenant Jara as a substitute, but that relationship was not as whole or fulfilling as hers with the former Captain of the USS Seattle.

He weezed as she watched him sitting up in bed, he looked so frail a change from the man who had stood on the simulated bow of a sailing ship and had tried to declare her a pirate Queen much to her annoyance. 

“I never said it but I love you,” she said.

He nodded, “I know, and I love you. But you’re young, and you don’t want to be tied to me on the other side of the universe for who knows how long.”

”People keep telling me what I want, or need,” Cruz observed.

Hawthorne smiled, “People care about you. I’m not saying I won’t be back one day. We’ll make it work, we’re just taking a pause.”

”So you can sleep around?” Cruz teased.

”No, so you can. You have Jara and who knows who else,” Hawthorne said, ”Beyond ogling my nurses or the EMH I won’t be up to much.”

”Isn’t it a bald middle aged man,” Cruz said.

”An attractive bald middle aged man,” Hawthorne said with a wink.

Cruz smiled, “This conversation isn’t over sir.”

”Yes it is ma’am,” Hawthorne teased, from one Captain to another.

—- Nine Forward, Lounge —-

“So are you two a couple?” asked Tashai. 

There was an inordinate amount of interest, Cruz thought, in the Captain’s dating life. Whether it had been her and Hawthorne or now her and Jara. Tashai was also just naturally curious about everything but as one half of a lesbian couple she seemed to have particular interest in what other same-sex couples formed aboard the ship.

”We’re having fun,” Cruz said trying to be vague, “Enjoying being together.”

She lifted the small soft shell taco and put it in her mouth. Tashai watched her either interested in tacos or more likely her love life. Cruz wanted to tell the Operations Chief and not her First Officer to shut it, but that seemed rude.

”You know I hate being your First Officer,” Tashai said.

”I know,” Cruz said. Tashai’s whole deal was experiencing new things, but she wanted someone else to direct that, not to be in charge of choosing it herself. She had lived so long, and presumably command had either been in her long ago past or something she was waiting until later in life to experience. “Starfleet has someone for us when we get to Starbase 72, just hold on until then.”

The El-Aurian seemed unconvinced but nodded in agreement. Ancient, and as far as Cruz knew born in the 1970s, the woman could have been a tactical advantage to Starfleet. Instead the seemed content to avoid being important, and just wanted to be an Operations Officer and experience new things. Cruz supposed it was what one did when one was older than even a joined Trill. The woman’s race had been decimated by the Borg and now she was not allowing herself to be tied down. Though she was in a relationship with the Chief Flight Control Officer Pr’Nor. How that would work, when Tashai would out live Pr’Nor by thousands of years, even given a Vulcan’s long life, was beyond Cruz.

“Do you love Pr’Nor?” Cruz asked.

Tashai thought about it, ”Do you love your dog?”

”I don’t have a dog, I never have,” Adriana Cruz said.

”I suppose it’s similar, I love her but I know life will likely continue on after she’s gone. She’s important to me, but temporary. Does that make sense,” Tashai asked looking at the newly minted Captain interested. 

Cruz thought it was crazy, though she had not know many people who stayed together their whole lives, she thought that should be the intent. A perfect relationship was two people dying in their sleep on the same night well into their one hundreds, at least in her mind. Sure her mother, or grandmother or anyone who she knew had not been that lucky, but it was at least an ideal to shoot for.

Cruz picked up her glass of wine, or synthaholic wine, and took a sip, “I guess I don’t know much about love or relationships anyway.”

The First Officer, temporary as she was, nodded. She took a sip of her wine and studied the captain. The thing humans rarely realized, was that they were all temporary. Even Starfleet wasn’t forever. She had been around for its rise and she would be around for its fall. 

“May you find what you are looking for,” Tashai toasted.

”I still haven’t found it,” Cruz said, feeling that maybe one day she would get close. Maybe soon a sense of contentment would find her, or she would find it. It was a long way off, that much she felt, even as she had achieved one of her goals. She’d finally become a Starfleet Captain with her own ship.

She raised her glass to return Tashai’s toast, though nothing ever quite worked out the way anyone planned for now it looked as though she was on the right track. The question would be was this anything more than an illusion. Was it real, or was this all a dream that she still had to awaken from and realize that it was all slipping through her fingers once again?

Cruz did not know, but for now she was going to try to feel the pride that had welled up inside of her.

For once she was going to feel good about where she was, and even if she was not quite satisfied with how she had gotten there. 

Outside the stars streaked past, as the USS Seattle headed back towards Federation space and toward their home base of Starbase 72. They still had one stop left, one stop and then they could all get on with their lives and figure out what the next stage was going to look like.

What the next chapter of the USS Seattle was going to be.

—- Briefing Room —-

The senior staff sat around the table with Captain Adriana Cruz at the head as they reviewed their next mission. While they larger goal was getting back to Starbase 72, they were making a pit stop along the way, stopping to see if they could find a trace of the survey team that had vanished sometime after setting up their camp on a supposedly uninhabited world.

Lieutenant Yuhiro Kolem the ship’s Chief Counselor and now the Second Officer opened the meeting with a brief biography on the missing Scientists who had made up the survey team since they were all from Betazed, her half-homeworld though she had only been there a few times.

”Lastly we have Doctor Devana who is an Anthropologist and is most well know for writing biographies of famous Earth facists such as Khan Noonien Singh and Benito Mussolini,” she said finishing up.

“Fascinating,“ Doctor Va’Tok said, the ship’s Chief Medical Officer, “I believe I have read he book on Khan, and it was quite the page turner taught me a great deal about humans.”

”Before we go off on an argument about the validity of using Khan Noonien Singh as an exemplar of humanity, let’s refocus on the point of this meeting, Tashai, what do you have?” Captain Cruz said, cutting off the inevitable rebuttals about how both Khan and Mussolini were outliers for humanity.

The USS Seattle’s Chief Operations Officer, and also First Officer stood up, and gestured to a topical map of the planet that they were only days away from now. Their map had been put together both using information Starfleet had gotten back from the survey team initially and from their own long range scans.

”They landed here in the norther hemisphere,” Tashai said, “Starfleet received a weeks worth of data from them, then they went dark. Stopped contacting their home insistution of the Betazed Science Institute, or anyone involved. Their last few transmissions complained of headaches, and sleeplessness.”

Cruz nodded, “We still have to get our crew mates home, so we aren’t staying long. Twelve hours at the most, is what the away team will be done for. Tashai, Kolem, Doctor T’Rala and Lieutenant Jara, you will go down on the shuttle Pearl Jam. You have twelve hours to find them and bring them home, or not. Got it?”

Lieutenant Commander James Young asked, “What am I doing while they’re down there?”

”I want full speed when they return so whatever you need to do. We’re on the last leg of our race home, so we’ll want to give it everything we have,” Cruz said.

”Also worth reporting some of our lesser injuried male crew members will be returning to their duties soon. This includes Lieutenant Yi Zhang, and Lieutenants Junior Grade Winfield and Hume,” Doctor Va’Tok pointed out. “Unlike several other officers they did not require care at Starbase 72.”

”That’s great to hear. Tashai, Pr’Nor, Jara, talk with your officers about their coming back and ensure this goes smoothly for them. Ease them into it,” Cruz said. Looking around the table she nodded, “Aright dismissed.”

—- Nine Forward, Lounge —-

Yi Zhang sat down. He was not an overly strong man at the best of times, but suddenly not being able to depend on his body was novel. He’d never had it fail before, were even walking to a table winded him. He paused, leaned on a chair and sat next to someone he recognized but did not know Akane Sone the Stellar Cartographer. She nodded at him and continued to look at her PADD. Yi Zhang was quite for a bit then decided to introduce himself.

”I’m Lieutenant Yi Zhang,” he said offering a hand.

The science officer looked at it, looked at him then nodded, “I know. The Seattle is a small ship.“

There were only eighty-nine people aboard the ship now that they had lost five during the attack that had rendered almost all of the biologically male staff unavailable at least for a while.

”Congratulations on your recovery, I hear you’re back at work soon,” Sone said.

Lieutenant Yi Zhang nodded, “Yeah, feels good to being back to useful. It’s hard on a ship full of people doing their duty to make it all work and watching that wondering why you’re not able to help.”

”Well there’s a reason for it all,” Sone suggested.

”Is there, it all seems random to me. If it had been another ship that found those Borg tranponders it wouldn’t have been us that found Maya 3 which we only stopped at because we wanted to do a first contact mission. If we’d just gone straight home, none of this would have happened,” Yi Zhang said.

“And maybe we’d have exploded or run into the Borg again or got trapped in a special anomaly that sent us to old times Vulcan,” Sone said, “We can’t would have, should have, could have everything away.“

Yi Zhang felt it was easy to say that when you could breath without pain, but he also knew that Sone was right. This was a life, that he’d wanted to take on, that held a certain amount of risk and part of that risk apparently was a bunch of women poisoning you as an attempt to get rid of all men.

“I guess this is what we’re left with,” he said, “the dark of space and death.”

Lieutenant Sone rolled her eyes, “You could have stayed where you were, you signed up for the dark of space. It’s not dark, it’s infinite. Infinite opportunities and infinite worlds. I’ve charted over a hundred since we left Maya 3, and there were dozens of viable class M worlds out there. Yeah, we have to be careful, but it’s not all dangers and those that want to kill us.”

”What do your parents say about you being in Starfleet?” Yi Zhang asked.

”Want to know if they’re lecturing me about how I should have been a doctor, like stereotypical AsIan Earth parents?” Sone asked. 

“Basically yes,” he answered.

”Well they’re not from Earth and no, they’re happy I’m in Sciences,“ Sone said, “but I’m sure if there was still money they would want me to be a doctor.”

”Mine keep calling Operations moving boxes,” Yi Zhang said.

”Isn’t it?” Sone teased.

”There’s a bit more to it than that,” he said acting indigent.

“If you need a box moved call your local Operations Officer today,” Akane Sone joked.

”Hey that’s Assistant Chief Operations Officer,” Yi Zhang said.

”I stand corrected sir,” Sone saluted.

—- Unexplored World, Tentatively Called Voinora 5 —-

The shuttle the Pearl Jam set down near the structure that had served as the Survey Team’s home, lab and ‘duck blind’ for the week that they had reported back to the Betazoid Science Institute before going offline. Out came First Officer and Chief Operations officer Tashai, Chief Counselor Yuhiro Kolem, Assistant Chief Medical Officer T’Rala and Chief Security Officer Claudia Jara. They each flipped open tricorders as they approached the structure. 

Lieutenant Kolem winced, “I got a pounding headache as soon as we landed.”

”There seems to be some increased activity in the telepathic ranges here,” Tashai agreed. As an El-Aurian she was not as sensitive as Kolem, but also had empathic abilities, and the general level of mental activity that was going on was odd from a supposedly uninhabited planet. The other two officers who did not have empathic abilities just exchanged a look and continued on. Kolem might as well have stepped off the shuttle and declared that she had a bad feeling about this.

Lieutenant Jara tried the door but a numerical keypad had locked it shut. She drew her phaser, aimed and fired.

”Overriding the lock,” she said kicking the door open and heading inside. 

Nothing seemed to have disturbed the stucure. There was still power from a small generator, and the computers were still on, hoping files on the planet plus an unfinished biography that Doctor Devana one of the researchers must have been working on. Other files were open elsewhere and the four crew members filtered into the lab and living space. Everything seemed to have been left in a state of disarray as if the inhabitants had planned to come back, but had departed suddenly. There was nothing however to point them to the survey team’s location.

”Blood,” Jara said pointing at a table and a small stain.

Doctor T’Rala scanned it, “Betazoid, not enough to tell us anything. No disease that I can see. Not enough to have been a reason for anyone to have died. If I had to guess, someone fell hit their head on the table, and it was bleeding.”

”Broke their neck?” Jara asked.

”Again I can’t tell from that little blood, but possibly. Been there about two weeks,“ T’Rala said. She shrugged to let the others know that really she had no Idea. All she knew was the blood was from a Betazoid how it got there was beyond her tools. 

Lieutenant Commander Tashai tried the comms system, but nobody answered. She used the equipment to contact the USS Seattle in orbit, but other than confirming the equipment still worked that accomplished little to nothing. If the survey team was still alive they were not picking up or returning their hails.

“Well apart from walking around and scanning outside there’s not a lot we can do,” Lieutenant Kolem said, “The ship’s scanners did not detect any life signs, so we’re likely looking for bodies at this point.”

”But how did all four of them die at once?” Tashai wondered.

—- In Obit, USS Seattle, Bridge —-

The USS Seattle drifted easily around the planet. The scanners were going, but finding nothing as the only signs of life at this point seemed to be the away team that had taken the Pearl Jam and headed to the surface. Captain Adriana Cruz had retired to her Ready Room to take a break and eat some spaghetti carbonara that she had called for from the Replicator when suddenly the ship was thrown into red alert status, and she had to come rushing out onto the bridge leaving her meal on her desk.

”What do we have?” she asked. The USS Seattle had been sitting with its sensors on high, so it was surprising that anyone could have surprised them. On screen however within shooting distance, was a massive ship that clearly posed a threat.

At the tactical station the Chief Strategic Operations Officer Eleanor Dorian answered in her Irish accept, “It’s a ship, it came out of nowhere. One second no ship, and then boom that’s there. We’re also being hailed.”

Cruz nodded, “Onscreen.”

The figure that appeared on screen was yelling in what Adriana Cruz identified as Italian. It was however not translated by their computers and the Universal Translator. It was also being spoken by a thick, balding man in an old style military uniform.

”Is that who I think it is?” Cruz asked.

”It does appear to be Benito Mussolini,“ Dorian said.

”Is our translator working?” the Captain asked.

”I believe so,” Dorian said.

Chief Flight Control Officer Pr’Nor turned around, “I would surmise that this is an illusion, and thus there is nothing to be fed into the computer.”

”Okay, so what do we do about it? Shields are up right?” Cruz asked.

”Yes ma’am,” Dorian said.

”Let me know if El Duce tries to shoot at us,” Cruz said signaled to cut the screen off. Whatever was going on down on the surface it was getting weird up there.

—- Unexplored World, Tentatively Called Voinora 5 —-

The away team continued their search. When they had exhausted the opportunities for study inside the shelter they ventured back outside. Kolem noticed her headache growing more accute, but there seemed to be nothing they could do for it. When Doctor T’Rala attempted medicine it failed, and even a strong dose of painkillers left a throbbing pain.

They continued their task of trying to find the Survey Team but to no avail. Nothing was found on the tricorders until Doctor T’Rala pointed, “What’s that?”

It was a city of sorts, old fashioned with unfamiliar architecture it seemed to be lit with lights powered by oil.

”That wasn’t there a minute ago,” Jara said, it also had not been on any of their scans from the shuttle or from the Seattle. The Lieutenant was the first to approach it, but the others followed. Slowly they made their way down a slope, and into the city, where Yuhiro Kolem recognized it.

”This is, the word in English is close to Rose. It’s a city in Betazed, but this is pre-warp the way it is here,” she said.

“Why is there a pre-warp version of a Betazed city here?” T’Rala asked.

They wandered down the street, the main transportation seemed to be a variation on the horse whose back riders used to move from place to place. The away team spotted a few riders but none seemed that interested in them. Finding something akin to a hotel and salon they headed in, hoping that someone there had some idea of what was going on.

The four officers approached the bar, and a woman in a dress approached. The opened her mouth and neither Lieutenants Jara or T’Rala heard a thing, but Kolem and Tashai held their ears.

”Quieter,” Tashai said to the woman, though Jara and the Romulan doctor had no idea what was going on.

”That’s better,” Kolem said, but can you speak so our friends can hear?

The bartender turned her head in a way that was impossible for either humans or Betazoids to do. She studied the four and nodded. Her first few attempts at speech were awkward, more like gurgles. Finally it managed to speak clearly, and seemingly in English.

“You four our the second,” it said.

”Second? Oh with the away team,” Tashai said, “Yes where is the away team?”

The bartender frowned, “They did not hear so well, we did not know speech. Us too loud, broke heads.”

Kolem frowned, “Broke heads, are they dead?”

”In past, broke heads,” the ‘woman’ behind the bar said.

The four Starfleet officers exchanged a glance, that at least answered their question about what happened to the Survey Team.

”We try to ask to not hurt us, we are friendly,” the woman said.

”How did they hurt you?” Kolem asked, “Who are you?”

”We are us, lots of one, all across planet. Use words from your mind we is trees, and birds, and bees,” the woman said.

”You’re the planet life? All of it?” Tashai asked.

”Yes, alive,” confirmed the woman, “We say hello to people in space box above us too.”

Kolem tapped her badge, “Captain you okay up there?”

”We have a visitor in the form of Benito Mussolini in a very powerful ship,” Cruz’s voice came back through the badge.

”We speak to space,” the bartender said.

”You got the man in space from the minds of the people here?” Kolem asked.

”Yes,” the bartender nodded excitedly.

”Yes, he’s not a nice man. It may be seen as aggressive,” Kolem explained.

“We ask you leave. You land your box on us, on grass. We do not wish to be angry, but it is difficult you are quite fragile,” the bartender said.

Tashai nodded, “We will leave, and let others know you are here so we will stay away. No more broken heads.”

As the four walked out of the saloon, they spoke between themselves. The conclusion was the headaches that Kolem was feeling was the background noise of the planet communicating with itself. More significantly the reason its attempts initially did not kill Kolem and Tashai was because Kolem was only half-Betazoid and thus less sensitive to telepathy. Tashai was not Betazoid, and thus was not as sensitive despite having some light empathic abilities.

”Two first contact situations, and two planets we’re not going back to anytime soon,” Jara said as they entered the Pearl Jam.

“Maybe we’ll find someone who likes us next,” Kolem said as the doors shut and the shuttle headed into orbit. 

—- In Obit, USS Seattle, Bridge —-

“Captain,” Dorian asked, “our dictator is gone. The shuttle is enroute, they did not find the Survey Team.”

“Set course for Starbase 72, as soon as the Pearl Jam is back on board I want maximum warp,” Cruz said, “It’s time to go home.”