En route to Starbase 17

Captain’s Ready Room

USS Rubidoux

Captain’s Log – 

Begin Log. The past 24 hours have been a whirlwind. By the sheer grace of fate, myself and the crew avoided the absolute worst outcome any crew can experience. Losing your ship. With minimal casualties, thanks to crisp response times from the crew and everyone being on top of their game. Since then we’ve come home and patched up our hurt. Command even saw fit to assign us a new ship. Given the loss of our last ship, they’ve tasked us with tracking down those responsible and bringing in the tech that assisted in the destruction of the Rubidoux. 

It’s a different mission compared to our last mandate, which was just going places everyone else already has and doing things everyone else already did.

Now? We’re not just patrolling a vital area of federation space, but we’re given the opportunity to do some honest exploring, surveying and research. The new Rubidoux isn’t as robust as, say, an Intrepid, but she’s got heart, and that more than anything will see us through any challenge we might face. This is the second ship I’ve been in command of, and I’m looking forward to the opportunity to redeem myself. 

I know I’m not personally responsible for losing the original Rubidoux? But I still feel some guilt and accountability where most others have told me I shouldn’t. The burden of the responsibility of command, I guess. 

I look forward to our next mission so the ship and her crew might acquit themselves of our previous performance. Even as we move to the beginning point of our patrol, I can’t help but feel like we’re poking around in the shadow’s wake, hunting for something that refuses to be found. End Log.

He leaned back and saved the file. He grabbed his black mug and took a sip of his coffee, sighing as it had cooled off. That was fine for now. He took a sip of the cool coffee and reviewed the mission given to him. It read simply enough.

They were to conduct a patrol of the region beginning from SB17 and running a rough perimeter scan on the outskirts of federation held territory along the edges of the Romulan free states border an back to SB17.

Tib didn’t think it was a coincidence that they’d been able to recover data from the weapons used to create the entity they knew as Alpha, the Warp Field Interdictor (as the crew had taken to calling it), and the recent flood of other black label weapons and tech to hit the markets and somehow all of it had roots to operations by rogue operators in the region.

He wasn’t a gambling man, but he was confident enough to hazard a guess. This was Command giving him a lead to act on to set things right after how the previous Rubi was gunned down. He’d had his team going over the forensic data recovered. Thankfully, much of the ship’s computer was recoverable and data teams could put together a lot of what they’d compiled before the ship was destroyed. Thanks to that data recovery, they now had a handful of leads.

The first of which being an arms merchant operating out of this region. He was a former Tal Shiar and liked to run incognito, so most of his operations went through third parties and proxies. His moniker was Shadow, unoriginally. Tiberius studied the slapdash dossier they’d compiled on the man. No picture to work with. Mostly just third party mentions through various merchants across the Beta and Alpha quadrants. The expansive emptiness of this region favored his operations, given how little there was, how much space there was, and how few eyes were present in the region. With most federation operations here looking towards the vast unknown before them, it stood to reason that the Shadow’s agents could feasibly work right under the noses of the Federation. And so it fell to him and the Rubidoux to sniff them out.

Shortly after getting underway from Starbase Bravo, Tiberius had a roundtable meeting with the Senior staff to discuss the aftermath of the loss of the original Rubidoux, and ways they could try to mitigate or prevent the loss of their new ship. Tib was actually rather impressed with a lot of the ideas proposed and the staff went with 4 that they could implement quickly, with a minimal amount of work and fabrication. It involved mainly Lt. Jel’kan, Vossk, and Dex. His tactical, science, and engineering chiefs, respectively.

The first was a project that would require Lt. Vossk working alone on a suite of Electronic Warfare subroutines that would enable them more defensive countermeasures and even a few offensive choices. The second was a project designed to build a series of point defense turrets across the ship’s hull. With Lt. Dex from engineering, and Lt. Jel’kan working to integrate the system into tactical, they could effectively enable it and destroy incoming projectiles without requiring manual labor to do so. Freeing his tactical officer up to focus more on returning fire. The third project was a joint effort between Vossk and Jel’kan to integrate the sensors into the targeting systems and facilitate more rapid response times in gaining fire solutions. The last project was something Dex was spearheading, involving improvements made to the ship’s hull integrity.

They were prime solutions, and he felt confident about the security and safety of the Rubidoux.

“It’s important from now on that we approach our new mission with the intent of protecting innocent civilians of the federation and allies’ worlds. We can’t let what happened to us happen to anyone else,” Tib had said at the end of the meeting.

The comm chimed, drawing his attention. “Kael to Captain Rain. We’re passed the first waypoint of the patrol. All clear so far.”

Tib tapped the comm panel on his desk. It chimed as he joined the channel. “Understood. Notify me if anything else comes up.”

“Yes, sir.”

His attention went back to the myriad reports and shift schedules the senior staff had compiled. After approving everything on his plate, he pulled up fleet intel reports. He wanted to cross reference them against the data they’d recovered from the Rubidoux. Their attackers had been dishonored klingon vessels, but their current patrol had them running a circuit route along the northernmost border of the Federation that set against the Romulan free state territory. He didn’t expect they’d encounter the same ship that had claimed the original Rubidoux, but he wasn’t ruling the possibility out completely.

He called up cataloged sensor scans filed from Lt. Vossk’s station and perused the preliminary data. Nothing out of the ordinary or unusual. Such was the way of it. Although they didn’t have the intensive science labs to delve into the data, they could send it to a dedicated vessel for more elaborate sensor passes.

“Computer, overlay most common warp routes through this sector.”

He waited a moment as the desktop terminal chimed and displayed his request. He studied the common routes of travel. Marking down potential ambush points and stretched of long open space where one could hide in deep space or use nearby planets with strange stellar properties to throw off long range sensor scans. He placed pins on those locations as items of special interest for more intensive scanning when the ship made its route through those regions and passed the updated orders to the XO on the bridge.

Tiberius sighed, leaning back and glancing around. He’d wrapped up all his work entirely too early. He could hear Lorena’s voice in the back of his head about pushing himself too hard. A quick check of the chrono showed he was already 30 minutes past on his shift. He’d kept his alarm on silent, only now noticing its plaintive visual queues to grab his attention.

“Alright, alright. I give. I’m stopping for the day.”

Though; he didn’t really feel like leaving the bridge or his office. He knew eventually he’d spend more time than he’d care to in here, but for now, at least while the novelty was still there, he wanted to enjoy the feeling for as long as it lasted. For Tib? There was nothing better.

“Not bad for a first day,” he said with a long glance around the office.

He strode out into the bridge’s out circuit on his way to the lift. “The bridge is yours XO.”

“Get some rest, sir.”

He chuckled and inclined his head. The implied meaning taken. She meant don’t go back to your room and do more work there. And she was right. The ship needed everyone at their best. It wouldn’t do to be running on fumes in an emergency scenario.

As he rode the lift down to deck six, though, he realized he wasn’t even approaching tired. He needed a nightcap. Something to get his mind ready for bed.

“Computer, make it deck seven.”

The system chimed acknowledgement and went one more deck down. As the doors parted open, he strode forward. Traffic was light this time of shift. Most of the crew were asleep with the night rotation operating at the moment. As the doors to Seven Forward parted and revealed the spacious lounge, he inhaled deeply and let it out slowly. Sliding up to the countertop, he noticed a civilian bartender slide stride over to his corner of the long bar.

She was tall, easily six feet, though some of that might have been shoes or boots. Give her… 5’10”? Long straight blond hair. Dark brown eyes, and a smile that came easy. She had a fit body, like she did some climbing, swimming or other strenuous activity that kept her lean and active.

“You must be Captain Rain,” she said, finishing cleaning a glass and setting it down beneath the counter.

“I gotta ask. Is that like something they teach you? Cleaning the glass like that, so you always busy?”

“I look busy, because I am. Just like you.”

She leaned on her elbows, eyes narrowed at him. Tib canted his head curiously under the look. It was a focused expression, like she was trying to figure him out.

“You’ve got an easy vibe about you. But you don’t strike me as the type to slide in on shift or before. So you’re done working for the day and, given the time, I don’t think you’re down here to burn a lot more time. So it’s a nightcap. But that’s the hitch, though. You don’t just need any nightcap. No…”

The bartender trailed off in thought. Arms folded, and her brows knit in concentration, studying him more. She snapped her fingers softly.

“A tea. Mint? No… Lavander. With… a hint of berry. And…”

Her pose shifted, but she remained focus on reading him. As though he were a book that only she had access to and she was speed reading.

“Bourbon. Honey bourbon. With just a hint of smokey after taste.”

Tib could only offer a short laugh and a shrug. “Why not? I’m out here to explore worlds, and part of that means trying new culinary items as well.”

The bartender smirked, compiling his drink for him and sliding it across the softly lit dark counter to him atop a napkin.

“An explorer, huh?”

Tiberius nodded. “Among other things. It’s not the only hat I wear, but it is one I enjoy wearing most often.”

“Well, explorer, bottoms up.” She said, gesturing to the glass.

Tib lifted it, giving it an experimental sniff. It smelled sweet, but not obnoxiously so. Giving it a test sip, he could pick up on the tea, along with the berries, and the honey bourbon finished the taste last. He knew that, had this been real alcohol, he’d probably start experiencing the early effects of alcohol poisoning in the way of loss of coordination and other signs of being drunk.

Oddly, he was thankful for the snythohol combo because it meant he could taste it and appreciate it while not losing his mental faculties. The tea actually was quite relaxing. He gave the concoction a longer draft, appreciating the full spectra of its flavor pallette, and finally set the mug down with a contented sigh.

“So how’d I do?”

“Spot on.”

She beamed, folding her arms and leaning back. “So. Do I pass the test?”

“The test?”

“Oh yeah. The test. Every drink slinger in the fleet knows about the test. You Captains, not so much.”

“Okay, so what’s the test?”

“The Chief Barkeep test. Basically, if the Captain prefers your mixes over anyone else, that makes you the de facto bottle whipper of the primary lounge.”

Tib stifled an amused laugh. “Ah. I see now. Well, truth told you’re the only one I’ve had a drink from. So the jury’s still out on that. But I’ll say this much? You’re ahead of the competition.”

She leaned close and whispered conspiratorially. “Between you and me? I’m the only barkeep aboard. Those guys over there? They’re holo’s.”

“Really?”

She nodded. “Resource allocation and all that. Most of the able bodies are being pressed into service after what happened during fleet day.”

“But not you?”

She shook her head. “Single mother.”

He nodded, understanding immediately. The fleet rarely okayed a single parent for active service. So this bit of volunteer works was the closest she could get.

“Well then. I promote you to Chief Barkeep.”

“Victory by default!” She said with a fist pump.

“What’s your name?”

“Jessa.”

Tib extended a hand to her. “Welcome to the Rubidoux Chief Jessa.”

She shook his hand firmly. “Pleasure to be here.”