“This is Captain Nassar speaking. We have encountered a subspace aperture that has pulled us into an unknown region of space. Our helm is working on getting a fix on our location, and our science department is supporting them with this. We have prioritised getting systems back online, and the recreational area is being used as a triage centre for those of you who got injured.”

There was a long pause, and then the Captain continued. “I know all of you come from varying backgrounds, and I regret not having had the time thus far to get to know you better. I still believe that any information, and any suggestion can be valuable, and I want you to know that I am grateful for anyone coming forward with ideas and theories. Nassar out.”

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Fransix Leski wasn’t quite sure what he should think of that Captain’s announcement, it was certainly nothing he had encountered before. But then, it wasn’t like he had a lot of experience to draw from. He had graduated from Starfleet Academy only a few months ago, so almost everything was new and somewhat daunting to him.

He sighed, and spun in his chair, catching a glimpse of the engineers trying to repair the damaged consoles, and he was pretty sure that one of them had sprayed some kind of floral air freshener to ward off the stench of burnt circuitry. A very low-tech solution to a very high-tech problem, he thought, and smiled.

He returned his attention to his own console, trying to make sense of the readout, which very quickly turned out to be a futile endeavour since there was, as before, nothing of use to get a fix on their location. Truth be told, he would probably be more useful anywhere else on the ship right now.

If only he could think of something to help them… that would surely impress the Captain, and Fransix desperately wanted to do just that. He had never really gotten to connect to Captain Jurev, and was pretty sure that neither he not Nassar knew his name. With a sigh, he got up, and headed over to the repair team. If he couldn’t leave the bridge, at least he could help out here.

__________________

As Leski approached, Catherine Vargas – Acting Chief Engineer and currently leading the group of Engineers fixing the bridge – offered him a smile and let one of her colleagues tell him where he could be most useful right now. While taking care of a starship was, in the old Terran phrase, rocket science, but with instructions, she could basically make use of anyone who could hold a tool.

And the Captain’s announcement had made her thoughful. No, she hadn’t encountered anything like this before, but she had served on different Starfleet vessels for quite some time now. And this was the first time a Captain had decided to be this honest with the crew. Cat found that she appreciated it. Rank generally didn’t matter terribly much to her, and she always felt that every person on the ship was valuable and could have valuable insights in new and daunting situations. 
Still, trust in leadership was just as important, and she wasn’t sure if she should think of the Captain’s statement as improving or hurting that trust.

“I’ll head back to Engineering to see how far they are.”, she announced to the others, and made her way to the turbolift. She knew that the new person – their acting XO – had been sent there, and she was a little annoyed that the Captain didn’t trust the capabilities of those who had been on the Cupertino for a while now. Then again, she didn’t know the woman. So perhaps she was actually brilliant and Catherine could learn something from her.

__________________

Nichelle, who was taking a much needed break after having Keller transferred to the stasis unit, groaned as the Captain’s voice boomed through sickbay, and decided to ignore whatever that awful woman had to say. She vaguely heard something about an aperture, and decided that it mattered very little to her what had happened. Yes, it was useful information, but unless someone bothered to let her know the probability of something similar happening again, her job in sickbay and beyond was making sure people survived long enough to experience whatever the galaxy had in store for them.

She sighed and got up from the chair she had taken her two minutes of rest in, and checked the progress on the surgical suite and the other medical appliances that had been offline for the past hour, and the report on the rest of their equipment and the status of the crew.

No rest for the wicked, huh?

__________________

The Cupertino’s Chief Science Officer, Lieutenant Bruno Pereira, was confused. On sooo many levels. A few minutes ago, Ensign Velix had let him know that the Captain had trusted her with putting together a team to work on solving the mystery of the aperture they had apparently tumbled through, and then the announcement had come.

“Are you sure she didn’t hit her head on something?”, he asked Neeya – who preferred the use of her first name rather than the name of the slug-like creature that lived inside her – and he was only half joking. The young woman shrugged. “Didn’t look like it.”

Bruno sighed and decided that he didn’t mind enough to find the Captain and complain. Neeya was very capable, and she had asked him to be on her team, so he could keep an eye on things regardless of any hierarchy.

“Hmpf.”, said Bruno and mirrored his Ensigns shrug. “Well, thank you for wanting me on your team, I guess. Always happy to be appreciated.”

Okay, he was a little bitter about the whole thing, and decided to approach the Captain about it once they were out of this mess.

“Of course I appreciate you.”, smiled Neeya brightly. “And besides, I think there are only two reasons the Captain chose me.”

“Oh?”

“I was there, and she remembers my name.”

Bruno rolled his eyes. Yeah, he could imagine that being the reason. He rolled the idea around in his mind, and found that he liked how it felt. At least that way it wasn’t a slight against him personally or professionally.

“Then let’s get to work. What do you want me to do?”

__________________

Lieutenant Seta Jinean had already been on her way to approach the Captain after their very hasty first introduction a few days ago, and then had decided to give the woman some time to acclimate herself with the crew first. Now she decided that talking to Nassar definitely had priority over anything else.

She headed towards the bridge, giving encouraging comments and nods to whoever crossed her path. Admitting vulnerability like the Captain had done in her announcement was a bold move, and one that could easily backfire. Hopefully it did not.

On her way, she passed Ashli Sydin, the one person on board who was perhaps more controversial than their new Captain.

“Hey.”, she greeted casually, and the redhead narrowed her eyes in response.

“Did you hear that?”, she asked, and Jinean immediately knew what Sydin meant, and could pretty clearly see that she disapproved.

“I did.”

“Honestly, in all my years I have never seen a Captain this incompetent. No red alert, no clue about what’s going on and I wasn’t even on the bridge.”, Sydin complained.

Jinean gave a nod. “Does it bother you that you weren’t present?”

Sydin grimaced. “Yes. I have the experience.”

Sydin, Jinean knew, was the one person absolutely in disagreement with Morishita’s assignment as acting First Officer – because she would have liked to get the opportunity.

“You still do have that experience. You can still help, the Captain explicitly asked for people to come forward.”

Sydin didn’t seem happy with that response, but could hardly admit also not knowing what to do, or knowing what to do and not disclosing it because she was upset at a missed-out-on promotion.

“Give it some thought, okay?”

“Will do.”

They parted ways, and Jinean found that she had a bad feeling about the woman – more of a bad feeling than she had upon first meeting her. Hopefully she wouldn’t do anything than worsened their already difficult situation.

__________________

“Woah.”, thought Vivienne Claybrook as the Captain’s voice let her know of what had happened and the offer she made. Only when people turned around to her with somewhat amused expressions did she realise that she had said it out loud. She blushed and lowered her gaze, concentrating on sorting the hyposprays she had been assigned to sort.

Did the invitation to come forward extend to her as much as everyone else on the ship? Because Viv knew things. After all, she had studied for the entry exam to Starfleet Academy several years, and while she did fail them, she retained a lot of what she had learned. That, and end fact that she had grown up on stories of famous vessels such as the USS Voyager, and soaked up every single detail.

Then again, the Captain didn’t seem to like her much. Or, at all.

If she annoyed her further, it would probably only get her kicked out faster.

Probably better to keep her mouth shut.

Right?