—- USS Falcon, Bridge —-

Lieutenant Leylani Aka was not a tactical officer, though like all Starfleet bridge crew she had been through the courses at the academy. The Hawaiian officer had been sent to the tactical conn when the on-duty tactical officer had needed a biological break, otherwise known as needing to pee.

Traveling at warp speeds there was nothing that they anticipated that would require her to intervene, or so the thought went. On long-range scans the USS Andromeda appeared, marking their destination for the supplies, cargo, and personnel that Aka had overseen the transfer from Starbase 86 to the USS Falcon’s hold.  As they approached the other ship, tactical scans suddenly revealed something else.

“Commander, I’m detecting a small unknown craft attacking the USS Andromeda,” Aka reported looking up from the screen on the conn.

Commander Ashley Attwell glanced at Aka and frowned, “Is the Andromeda fighting back?”

Aka shook her head, “There does not seem to be any return fire. Could be their weapons are offline?”

“Hail the Andromeda, on screen,” the commander said standing from the central chair where she had been reading through staff reports on a PADD.

Captain Olivia Carrillo appeared, a Vulcan woman in civilian robes was beside her. 

“Andromeda here,” Carrillo said.

“You’re under attack?” Attwell said, surprised that the captain did not seem more panicked.

“Sort of. Local warp-capable worlds, we’re here to negotiate a cease-fire between them, but they’ve both decided to start with trying to destroy us,” Carrillo said, “We expected this.”

“The two worlds have been at war for so long that they interpret all outsiders as somehow being on the side of their enemy. We have to demonstrate that we’re not involved in order to act as a neutral ground for peace talks,” the Vulcan woman, clearly part of the Andromeda’s diplomatic team said. 

“Are you, or we, at any danger?” Attwell asked.

“No they’re using explosion-based physical projectile weapons, similar to ship canons. They won’t trouble your shields. This has been doing on for two hours and we’re at…” Carrillo glanced behind her and an ensign said that the shields were at ninety-seven percent.

Attwell nodded, “Well just to let you know we have two captains currently onboard and both of whom will want to deal with the situation, if you catch my meaning.”

Carrillo nodded, “I’m familiar with both of them and we’ll try to have this wrapped up before you arrive.”

“What does ‘deal with the situation’ mean?” the Vulcan woman was asking as the transmission ended.

—- USS Andromeda, Bridge —-

With the call between the two ships terminated Carrillo glanced at T’Venik. The Vulcan diplomat seemed concerned about what ‘deal with the situation’ had actually meant.

“As rash at blowing these attacking ships out of space might be the arrival of the Falcon had put a timer on this. Both captains outrank me and we’re not going to be able to talk them out of aggressive action,” Carrillo said.

“Very well, as I have stressed the avoidance of loss of life is paramount here,” T’Venik said, “If you can ‘deal with it’ without killing either race that will be preferable to an Excelsior-II class ship suddenly arriving and using torpedoes on the locals.”

“Open a channel, all attacking ships,” Carrillo said, “This is Captain Olivia Carrillo of the Federation starship Andromeda. We are visitors here and not involved in your ongoing war. We have been patient up until this point, but a further attack on our vessel will be met with force.”

At the tactical station, Lieutenant Claudia Jara nodded, “They are continuing their attacks.”

“End communication. Jara use phasers only, low setting disable their weapons,” Carrillo said, “Let’s keep them all alive.”

The thirty-odd ships that were buzzing around the Andromeda’s shields like flies, firing at both themselves and the large Starfleet vessel suddenly found phaser blasts lancing out of the arrays on the Andromeda and striking their craft. Short bursts lashed out, penetrating primitive shields and ending the assault on the much larger explorer.

“T’Venik, I’ll leave the inviting everyone for tea to you, good job everyone. Tashai, when the Falcon arrives please work with their operations team to settle in our new crew and new equipment,” Carrillo said.

—- USS Falcon, Medical Bay —-

Doctor T’Rala Matthews looked around the spacious bay. While the Andromeda-class medical bays were arguably more advanced as a ship designed for mass casualty events the Falcon had a more expansive setup. Still she did her best not to look too impressed, as she had the distinct impression that Doctor Askr Njord was flirting with her, and might take that as an excuse to invite her for a drink of something.

The two ships were in a fixed location equidistant between two worlds that were warring and disrupting travel in that region of the Triangle. While it was no man’s land, as such, it was pretty clear that either the Federation would have to step in and handle this or the Klingons would much more forcibly.

“I heard Romulans were animals in bed,” Doctor Njord said, trying his best to phrase it as a kind of medical observation.

“I heard humans were disappointing,” T’Rala replied, it was strange coming from a ship with a female captain and a very clear female leadership team to some kind of old boys club aboard the Dominion War era Excelsior-II class ship. While she had been in relationships in the fleet, and even with members of the Andromeda’s crew, this kind of flagrant flirting, if that was what it could be called, would be frowned upon aboard her ship.

Njord did not seem put off by the rebuke, and only grinned, “Well we do try to strive to improve ourselves.”

“I don’t think I will live that long,” T’Rala said.

—- USS Andromeda, Ready Room —-

“I am the senior captain on the scene,” Captain Paul Aike of the USS Falcon said. 

“I was in contact with division commanding officer Captain Radak yesterday, there has yet to be a command to relive me of command,” Carrillo said trying not to be defensive.

“Look, Olivia, I’m not trying to be the bad guy here, but Radak is sick and dying and he’s not going to be around much longer. Starfleet wants the Andromeda in proper hands,” Captain Nathan Hawthorne said, trying to be diplomatic.

She had felt better meeting Hawthorne when he had command of Task Force 86 and something to occupy his time. Now that he wanted her ship, that was not something she was eager to allow him to do. He might well be right, that Radak’s influence would only hold for so long, but for now, she had it and there was no point in preemptive capitulation.

“Captain Carrillo on my ship please,” Carrillo said, asserting what little authority she still had.

Hawthorne was clearly annoyed at the correction but nodded, “Captain Carrillo.”

“Let’s table this and come back to it once the transfer of equipment and staff is complete,” Captain Aike said, “Perhaps there will be another development before then.”

Carrillo knew that Aike did not like being under the command of Captain Radak or the. entire Andromeda Division project. While she also had some reservations about it, Radak had gotten her both the USS Andromeda and the previous command of the USS Selene. It was clear that her career was better off with Radak in charge than without. But what she really needed was something to distract Hawthorne away from her ship.