“Elaborate on ‘problem’ if you would, Mr. Beck?” Mason asked, her focus sharp on the action beginning to unfold on the bridge. They were alone, behind ‘enemy lines’ so to speak, and with little to no intell. Her knee sent a shard of pain up her thigh, as if to remind her that this wasn’t their first rodeo.

Her focus on the tactical officer didn’t mean she was unaware of that her acting XO talking quietly, updates from engineering and sickbay by the sound of it, or what was going on on the rest of the bridge.

Turning her head slightly, she caught a familiar gaze. Her turbolift companion from her first day on the Interceptor, Lieutenant Stark. As she smiled, something dripped onto her shoulder and she frowned, brushing at it and looking up for damage above. There was nothing, the ceiling looked intact.

It happened again. She brushed her shoulder again and her hand came away wet. She frowned and looked at her fingers. 

Red. 

Blood.

Ignoring the pain in his arm, Stark assisted another member of the crew to their feet. As he released them, he glanced around and his gaze landed on his new Captain. She gave him a smile and then looked up. Then he watched as she rubbed her shoulder. The look on her face told him that they had come to the same conclusion. The Captain was bleeding. He slapped at his comm badge as he stepped toward her. 

“Medical emergency on the Bridge! The Captain needs assistance!”

She lifted a hand to the side of her head as the lieutenant reached her side, finding the source of the blood just back from her temple, in her hairline. “There’s a medkit located in the back of my chair. Can you grab it please?” she asked, her attention half on Beck at the same time.

“Three ships,” the tactical officer called back. “Closing fast, and they’re weapons hot.”

“Red Alert,” she ordered. “Evasive manoevuers.”

Ashton stepped over to the command chair and retrieved the medkit. He quickly went about assisting in bandaging her wound.

“That’s not too tight is it?” he asked the Captain. “It should hold until Medical can patch you up correctly. Ma’am.” he added at the end.

She smiled at him. He had a deft but gentle touch.

“No, that’s good, thank you,” she said, reaching up to pull her hair back and snap the band from around her wrist around it to keep it out of her way. The ship lurched to the side as Beck and Cav whirled them away from the incoming ships.

As the ship turned hard, Ashton couldn’t stop himself from tipping over and bumping into the Captain. He quickly uprighted himself and helped her to her feet as well.

“Thank you,” she smiled at Stark, one hand on his arm as she regained her balance.

“Okay… get me some scans on whoever that is,” she barked out the order to Beck and the tactical team. “Weaponry, defenses, propulsion. Hell, even what they had for damn breakfast if you can.”

“Yes, Ma’am.” he said as he blushed bright red from his embarrassment. He made his way to an open station and began helping out where he could.

Dammit. She hadn’t meant the order for Stark. But rather than make a scene and perhaps embarrass him more, Mason let him go to focus on what was happening. She’d make sure to track him down later and apologise. 

“They’re turning and coming in for another run,” Beck called out over his shoulder just as Cav threw the ship into another hard arc. 

“They’re hitting us hard, Captain,” Someone else called out. “Shields down to seventy percent.” 

Mason nodded, watching the readouts on the main view screen. “Ket… I’m going to need more power from you,” she warned the chief engineer over the comm. “Cav, take us into pattern India-Seven-Nine… now. Beck, fire at will.“

Ashton had found a vacant station but all he could really do was watch the monitors as everyone around him did their jobs. They functioned like a crew that had been together forever. He found himself in awe and somewhat jealous but immediately stomped that feeling down and replaced it with….what?…Honored to be part of the team? Pleased? Thrilled? He just decided that he was glad to be in such company and couldn’t wait to learn from and share his knowledge with all the others.