“Coming up on the Resolute’s last position, captain,” Cav informed her, throwing a little grin over his shoulder. “Dropping out of warp in two minutes. Ship definitely not broken… sir.”

She nodded. “Duly noted, Lieutenant. Thank you.”

Cade leaned in, pitching his voice low. “Captain, should I be concerned about the possibility of the Lieutenant damaging the ship at some point in the future? As XO of course.”

She chuckled softly. “No, not at all. Cav is an excellent pilot. I’m the one who blew half a ship up, which he delights in reminding me about.”

“Ah, in that case, very good sir.” But Cade didn’t look the slightest bit relieved as he sat back. In fact, he looked concerned, which in an officer less contained would probably have had him running screaming for the exits.

Biting back her grin, she pasted a pleasant, neutral smile on her face. Gods help him when the shit hit the fan and he found out what she was really like.

While her XO was contemplating his life choices and probably putting in for a transfer, she looked around the bridge, assessing her bridge crew. A captain didn’t command in isolation. Without her crew, she was just a woman with more hardware on her collar than most. 

Wherever she looked though, everyone seemed rock solid. Cav, as always, she knew she didn’t have a problem with. McGowan as well. While she’d never served with Madison before, she knew the human woman had nerves of steel. Anyone who could cope with a herd of Mason kids at family dinners could probably make the apocalypse itself stand down.

Cade, potential current existential crisis aside, was absolute bedrock. She’d gotten his measure the moment she’d met him. He wasn’t the type to fall apart in a crisis. She didn’t know how he’d react under heavy fire, but she suspected he’d find levels he didn’t know he had if that happened. 

Everyone else gave her that same feeling of competence. The whole assessment took less than two seconds. It would take less in future as she got used to reading her crew. She would learn to pick up their moods from the way they stood, or a turn of the head. And they would her. Such was the dance between captain and crew.

“Okay, let’s stay on the ball here,” she ordered. “We have no idea what’s happened with the Resolute—“

It could be something as simple as a ship-wide malfunction, but she didn’t think so. There was a tension in the air on the bridge, a sort of tense expectation that said no one else believed it was something simple either, but that could have been recent events. With the fleet stretched so thin and after the events of Frontier Day, everyone was still a little jumpy. Added to that, her left knee—the one that had been rebuilt after she’d gotten caught in a particularly gnarly explosion years ago and still had to wear a brace on occasionally—had begun to ache something fierce. A sure side things were about to go sideways.

“—so, I want us ready for anything. Cav, Beck,” She flicked a glance toward the tall figure of Lieutenant Commander Beck at tactical. He was taller than she was, which was going some. Seemed a solid, competent officer. “Keep your eyes open for anything. Engineering…” She waited for the tiny difference in sound to indicate she was connected to the ship’s chief engineer. “Things could get somewhat noisy up here. I’m going to need whatever you’ve got on standby. You too, McGowan, put a hold on non-essentials and be ready to give me everything you’ve got.”

A chorus of ‘aye, captains’ reached her ears as the Interceptor dropped out of warp, the last known location of the USS Resolute dead center in the middle of the view screen, to find…

Absolutely nothing.