Saffiya let out a long, pent up sigh. She was glad to have been able to leave the bridge, and that Starfleet Command had postponed sending them on an assignment until she got this mess sorted. The request had been a necessary step, but didn’t reflect well on her as a first-time captain. 

She had been thrilled when receiving the promotion and transfer orders, but it seemed that the former Captain’s personal problems had allowed chaos to spread – and now she was the person to clean it up. Fix it. 

Which was ironic, because fixing things was what she was good at. Just that those things were usually broken systems, not a broken crew. The problem was that the crew wasn’t realising just how broken things actually were, and she expected very little help from them in that matter. Instead, she decided to call up an old friend of hers. “Morning.”, said Saffiya with a tired smile, raising her cup of coffee in greeting towards the display of her console. 

Hina yawned, plopping down in front of her terminal. She was still aboard the Kongo, assisting with the ships deactivation even though she was technically waiting for reassignment. But the Kongo was her ship, and she wanted to see it taken care of. She wondered who could possibly be calling her. She pulled her robe around her before tapping the button to answer the call. The face that greeted her surprised her. She perked up a bit, glancing at the time display on the screen. 0335. “Saffy! Morning.” she replied. It was technically correct.

“How are things on the Kongo? You’re still there, right?”, Saffiya asked. She and Hina had served on the USS Kongo’s Engineering department for several years until Saffy decided to pursue the command track instead. Eventually, she had become the USS Saint Raphael’s First Officer, and their ways had parted.

Hina looked around her quarters, she had been mostly packed, but as Starfleet hadn’t yet reassigned her, her quarters weren’t completely barren. Yet. “Mmhmm, I’m still here. Things are ok, getting the ship ready to go into the reserves.” she explained, shrugging. She was attached to her ship, even if she tried to downplay it. “What about you? How’s life on the Saint Raphael? Anything exciting out there?” she asked.

Resevers? Saffy had heard about that, but somehow pushed it far away from her mind. It was a shame to see her long-time home being declared obsolete, to some extent. “Well, let’s say they are looking for a new First Officer.”, she grinned.

“Oh, you’re not XO anymore? They finally make you the Captain?” she asked, fiddling with a PADD stylus between her fingers. Saffy had always been slightly more ambitious than she had and knew it was only a matter of time before the other woman had made Captain.

“Yep.”, she beamed. It was certainly something to be proud of. 

Hina grinned. “Congratulations! I always knew you would make it.” she said. “Still on the Saint Raphael then?”

“No, I was transferred to the USS Cupertino. It’s… been a few days, so far.”

Hina raised an eye brow. That didn’t sound like it had been the joyous time Saffy had been hoping for it to be. “What’s going on Saf?” 

Saffiya sighed and reclined in her chair. She didn’t want to complain, but then she did. “It’s a mess. My XO is somewhere, there is a random FNS reporter on my ship, and I think the computer has become self-aware.”

Oh, so Starfleet sent brand new Captains to ships like that? Perhaps it was for the best that they hadn’t reassigned her yet. Even if her ship was becoming a ghost town, it wasn’t as disorganized as the Cupertino sounded. She leaned back slightly. “Sounds like you have your work cut out for you.” she commented.

“More than that, I fear.”

“But you said your computer seems to be self-aware? How does any one actually manage that? There’s supposed to be safeguards against that…” she said, frowning. It was quite a feat to cause a Starfleet computer to become self-aware. Hina was almost impressed, and would have actually been had it not been her friends ship.

“Well, I don’t think it has become self-aware per se, but it’s… doing things. I wanted to talk to my Chief Engineer for an update on the situation and… surprise! I don’t have one.”

“Is this your way of offering me a position, Saffy?” she asked, skeptical.

Saffiya bit her lip. It hadn’t meant to be an offer for a position just yet, especially since – until a few moments ago – she had been sure the other woman was still happy on the USS Kongo. Then again, she could really use the help. “I could use a consult, at the very least.”, she admitted. “And then we can see. It’s not that I don’t want you here, I just want to make sure I don’t request anyone else to join this …. crapshow… until things are resolved. It’s why I haven’t put in a request for new senior staff as of yet either. Not fair to condemn someone to being here when they could be… literally everywhere else.”

That was certainly considerate of her friend, but at the same time she couldn’t stay on the Kongo forever. Well she could have, but she’d have been the only one aboard after a certain point and that would just be lonely.

“So how about you come by and help me fix this? You would have my eternal gratitude.”

“Yea ok… I can come give you a hand at least. I’ll requisition a shuttle and head out there in the morning.” she said. “See you soon, Saffy.” she added, suppressing another yawn.

FIN