“So I must ask, if I may, sir. But when did they put those in?” Ruby pointed at the four Type-17 Cargo shuttles that were suspended from the ceiling. As a new Junior Lieutenant, he had the option to choose anyone to be his mentor and the person he had chosen was Commander Arthur Graves, the First Officer of the Sovereign. Mizu on the other hand, from what she told him, had chosen Captain Maxwell to be her mentor. They were both gunning for command in their career, so this was an opportunity for them to learn the basics of command, and what better than to learn from those who were among the Command Staff?

“Those were put in when she underwent her recent refit at the Avalon Fleet Yards,” Graves began to explain to Ruby. “With their current location, it would be easier to just lower them down onto the deck but in case we needed them in some sort of emergency, we can site-to-site transport pilots into them, so that they can run the systems check as quickly as they can while they’re being lowered onto the deck.”

“I see. So how many small crafts does the Sovereign carry now?” Ruby asked.

“Good question. It is best to know what complement you have when you’re in command. Helps you determine the best craft for the particular mission. This shuttle bay of the saucer section is expanded to four decks. You got the four Type-17s suspended up there, four of them here on deck with the eight type-11 shuttles. Deck below us has eight more type-11 shuttles with about four type-9s and some workbees for various things. Moving cargo. Patch exterior hull. Name a few. And deck below that has four type-11s, four type-9s and surprisingly, four type-7s.”

“So the deck we’re standing on, with the eight type-11s and four type-17s, deck eight, is the main entry and exit point for the saucer shuttle bay,” Ruby showed his observation to the Commander, which let the first officer know that Ruby had paid attention. “Then, the four suspending 17s above us is deck seven, and the two garage’s below us is deck nine and ten?”

Ruby watched Graves nod his head. “Yes and no. Deck nine of the saucer shuttle bay is the garage but deck ten is more of a maintenance area, where we store a craft that is undergoing maintenance. We have spare nacelles and other major components for these crafts stored there as well. Not all of these crafts are brand new, so we do have a couple undergoing maintenance right now.”

“Well I sure hope we won’t be needing to use all of them. What about the shuttle bay on the engineering hull? If I remember correctly, that deck fourteen through sixteen?” Ruby asked.

Graves nodded his head again. “Correct. That shuttle bay has quite a few more crafts as well. The purpose of that is so that if we have an emergency evacuation, everyone on the engineering side of the ship can use that bay than run up to this bay. Further, it also gives them access to crafts if we specifically need an engineering team. But if there is a specific craft we want to use, say a Delta Flyer, which we do have a few of those, or an Arrow which is always ready to depart first thing but can be moved out of the way if it is not the kind of craft we want to use for a particular mission. Deck Fourteen is the high landing bay and fifteen is the main landing bay. And Sixteen is pretty much garage and maintenance.”

Ruby whistled. “We sure got a lot to play with.”

Graves chuckled. “Like to fly?”

Ruby smiled and nodded. “I do, sir. I just don’t get to as much.”

Graves nodded his head. “Well, you’ve been running around doing grunt work since you’ve been an ensign. Now you have a chance to really step up and do something with your career. Lieutenant Tagg is our Chief Pilot, so how about you go and apply for Assistant Chief?”

Ruby sighed and shrugged his shoulders. Not exactly the proper answer to give, so he gave the commander a proper one. “My friend Mizu will probably apply for that job as well. Maybe. I’m not so sure just yet.”

“Wouldn’t hurt to try, son. And if you don’t get it, there’s other opportunities. We could use a Strategic Operations Officer. Got any experience in that?” Graves asked.

“Being strategic? Perhaps?”

Graves chuckled some. “Come. I’ll help learn more about it.”

“And that’s how we made it back to Federation space,” Maxwell had explained the story about how they dealt with the whole blood dilithium madness to Junior Lieutenant Mizu. Although he was uncertain as to why she had asked, since he clearly remember that she was assigned to the ship when the whole business went down. Although, she was an ensign at the time, so certain information was likely not available to her. Nevertheless, he did not mind, he was happy to tell the story to someone.

“I just find it hard to believe that we were able to pull it off against the Devore. Those ships are brutal, aren’t they?” Mizu asked.

He nodded his head. “That they are but we had the upper hand. With the combination of the hazard team and ship’s security forces, we were able to surprise and detain the Devore boarding party and then we were able to disable their ships. Unfortunately, it did not leave us on good terms with the Devore, but this captain wanted to impound the Sovereign and I had a duty to protect this ship and its crew. So there was no chance in hell I was going to let them.”

Mizu shook her head. “I don’t understand them. Just their whole business with the telepaths and that captain, who was clearly on a power trip. None of it makes sense to me.”

Henry nodded his head again as he went over to the replicator to order himself some tea, to which he asked to see if Mizu wanted anything and she politely declined. “That is the thing you may encounter some day when you are in command of your own ship. You may come across species that have a huge phobia against something and it could potentially lead to war if you can’t be diplomatic with them and negotiate with their leader or one of their commanding officers to avoid such a thing.” Henry then chuckled softly. “Oh that reminds me of the history lesson back at the Academy. Captain Archer, on the Enterprise, the NX-01. I can’t remember the details exactly but he brought his dog with him and the dog urinated on the wrong tree I guess and it started this whole issue and Archer had to do something crazy to apologize to them because it was his job to make peace, by whatever means necessary. It was extremely important to make friends in those days and it still is to this day. Starfleet is not a service that goes around punching people in the nose because we want to.”

Henry then took a sip of his tea before he resumed his explanation. “Starfleet is the most gratifying and honorable service anyone could ever ask for. We encounter the unknown and new civilizations that it becomes the most rewarding experience in our careers. You, yourself, could be in command one day and have the experience to negotiate a cease fire between two neighboring worlds and create a unified nation that potentially joins the Federation. One thing in my career, that I will never forget, is the lack of sleep I got when we were so desperately trying to save as many Romulan lives as we could before their sun went nova.” Henry then placed his cup of tea down on the coffee table as he eased himself down into the couch before it.

Henry watched as Mizu sat down in a chair to the opposite side of him and the coffee table, so that they both could look at each other in the eyes. He could see her interest had peaked and so he continued. “I remember, to this very day, that when we transported this family on board, this elderly Romulan woman came up to me and wrapped her arms around my waist. She hugged me so tightly and repeatedly thanked me, over and over again. When the Sovereign left orbit to take the refugees somewhere safe, I later found out from her grandson, who had just became of age to join the Romulan Imperial Navy. He personally told me that his grandmother, the woman who had hugged and thanked me, had always hated Starfleet. She had once served in the Imperial Navy and when she retired, she had always kept herself up to date with Romulan news or propaganda, whichever you want to call it. And because of that, she had always hated us. But because we went out of our way to try and save as many lives as we could from something no one could prevent, no matter how much we tried or how much we wanted to try, her entire view of us, shifted so much that she completely forgot why she hated us. I will never forget that.”

Mizu had a smile on her face that grew the more he told his story. “I’m guessing that, she was told that Starfleet did not care about the Romulan people, not even one bit. And to suddenly have their lives rescued by the very thing she was told was…I guess, a monster? Anyway. When someone, or an organization, does the complete opposite of what your government has told you since you were born, it changes your perspective quite rapidly.”

Henry nodded his head and sighed heavily in gratification. “I can only wish we could prove to other races that our intentions are pure and peaceful. But it is just not that simple. They’re afraid of what we are and what we could do to the galaxy. It was that way with the Klingons a long time ago. They were afraid we would change them for who they were. We don’t care about their religion or who they are as a civilization. We simply just want peace and to explore the unknown.”

“Thank you, Captain. I think, now, I have a much better understanding of what kind of commanding officer I want to be,” said Mizu.

Henry smiled, “You got plenty of time, Lieutenant. I miss those days. Being a young, junior officer. So little responsibility. Learning so much of what it is to be a Starfleet officer. As soon as I became Captain and given command of my own ship, this ship, I knew that the days of carelessness was over. I have such enormous responsibility, especially being in command of this ship. It may not be an Odyssey-class but it still represents Starfleet so well and carries a lot of weight, weight that I can’t just toss around and not expect consequences.”

“Is that why you never moved to a different ship?” Mizu asked.

Henry chuckled. “That’s one of the reasons. I just fell in love with this ship. She’s practically universal in so many ways. Although, she may not be as sophisticated as some science and survey vessels are but she can do a lot still. Just the mere presence of a Sovereign-class ship is complete awe to a lot of races out there. Basically, if a ship of this class or bigger, were to appear, it usually means that Starfleet is not joking around. We mean business and we mean to get it done.” He said as he slapped his knee. “Not only that, even though she was designed to help combat against the Borg, she is very combative in every way, but not invincible.”

“I hope she’s still around when I make captain!” Mizu grinned.

Henry laughed, “Only chance you’re ever going to get this ship is if I die in the chair.” He teased and then sighed heavily, he felt content, very content. “Of course, it is not ultimately my decision. But if you are serious about this mentorship, then I will do what I can to prepare you for it, if you get the chance that I did.”

“I am very serious, sir, and I am most honored that you’d take me under your wing.”

“Good,” said Henry. “Now, the Kobayashi Maru test. Complete load of crap. It is meant to prepare you for the inevitable, but honestly, any chance you have to save your crew, take it. If you can save as many crewmembers as you can before you go down with your ship, is still a win to me.” And he continued on as he leaned forward.

Tagg reviewed his data for the tenth time today already. He wanted to be sure that they were still on course for that star system in Talarian space, the one with a pulsating star apparently. Plus there was really not a lot that he can do with the ship at warp, except make sure that their course has not altered and nothing mysterious had jumped in front of the ship. When there was nothing left to check, he would turn his seat around to look to see if there were anyone to strike a conversation with and the one person he had not picked on yet, was Lieutenant Alex Beck. “So Chief. Is there any chance we could improve the Sovereign‘s turn rate in case we have to defend ourselves?”

Alex chuckled with a brief roll of his eyes. “While the yard’s engineers may have reset a lot of work that Gomez had done to the Sovereign, I’ve tweaked everything back to her specs and tweaked them even more as best as I can. You’re going to get what I can give you, Mr. Tagg.”

He sighed. “Just Tagg, please. I don’t understand this ‘mister’ thing.”

“It’s just a phrase we use, in a more formal term really. Better than constantly saying ‘Lieutenant’ all the time,” said Beck.

“I suppose. But I thought it was more commonly used when you have two names. I only have one name, and so I don’t see the point of it,” sad Tagg, as he watched Beck shrug his shoulders.

“It’s just something we humans say. Don’t expect the captain to drop it so easily,” Beck teased. “So what are you going to do once we arrive at the system?”

“I will probably go to one of the holodecks or holosuites, which ever one is available. I was thinking of experiencing on of your Earth’s world wars,” said Tagg.

Beck shook his head. “Waste of time. It’s bloody, it’s horrifying and it’s just a plain waste of everything. You’re better off taking one of the luxury liner cruises on one of the oceans. Or sky diving.”

Tagg frowned. “Sky diving?”

Beck chuckled, as well as some others on the bridge that had experienced it themselves. “It is an old activity but still very much done to this day. In fact, last shore leave I had, I went sky diving on Vulcan! Boy that was a wild trip.”

Tagg was about to ask more when suddenly, he felt a familiar sensation beneath his feet where the deck had shifted. The kind of sensation that they had just dropped out of warp. He turned in his chair and looked at his data to determine why. Tagg could hear a door or two open and it was not long until he knew who had arrived on the bridge.

“What’s going on, mister Tagg?” Graves voice filled the bridge, a voice of command and of someone who wanted answers.

“I am checking now, sir,” said Tagg. He too was in search for the answer and he had finally obtained it. “The auto navigation disengaged warp drive when it detected an anomaly directly in our path.”

“Confirmed,” said Utsall, an ensign at the tactical station that Zane Bates had recommended. “Sensors are reading a vortex directly ahead of us.”

“On screen,” said Maxwell, who sounded like he was directly behind Tagg.

Tagg looked up when the viewer adjusted to show the distortion before them. As much as he wanted to stare at it and describe the visual details, his station blew up with alarms. Tagg looked back down and began to read off the alarms as they came. “We are being pulled in, Captain! Helm control was set to all-stop and is trying to compensate from the sudden gravitational pull!”

“Full reverse, Lieutenant!” Graves ordered.

“I’m trying!” Tagg said, even though that was yet again not a proper response but he was not wrong. “Engines are at full reverse, sir. Bow thrusters at maximum!” Tagg reported and watched the distance indicator continue to decline. “We are still being pulled in!”

“We can’t keep this up, Captain. We’re going to burn out the engines if we do,” said Beck.

“Then we don’t have a choice. Disengage reverse thrust, but try to stabilize as much as you can!” Maxwell ordered.

Tagg entered the command and the engines and thrusters were placed at stand-by. Then he watched the distance indicator drop rapidly, only to look up and watch as they were pulled right into the vortex. For a brief moment, they watched as the ship was dragged through a tunnel and as much as Tagg tried to keep the ship stabilized, they hit the walls of the tunnel a couple of times, which had caused the lights to flicker, couple of times the flicker was quick, other times they were in the dark for a little longer. This went on for quite a bit before they were spat back out into space.

“Was that it?” Graves had asked before he pulled out his back-to-business voice again. “All decks, damage report.”

Tagg watched as the lights flickered back on before he reviewed his own data at his station. “Helm controls are responding. Impulse and warp engines are online. Thrusters online. Helm is good to go, sir.”

“Tactical is good, sir,” said Utsall.

Tagg heard everyone else sound off on the bridge, now he can only assume that other stations throughout the ship had reported in on Commander Graves console.

“Shit!” Came from Beck.

Tagg turned in his seat to look at him, much like everyone else did and Tagg could see Maxwell stand from his chair and hear his concern. “What is it, Chief?” said Maxwell.

Tagg could see the look of worry in Chief Beck’s eyes, a look he normally does not see often. “Life support is offline. Internal sensors are reading a fire and for some reason the fire suppression systems are not engaging!”

First thought that came to Tagg was

‘Oh crap.’