“Hey, Dad.”

“Hey, Car.” Captain Peter Crawford sat next to the sickbay bed that held his daughter in its careful grasp, his hands gently embracing her own—the last attack run on the Vaadwaur station had given the Zephyr its share of wounded. Ensign Carolyn Crawford had been in engineering and, as chief, had worked to keep her ship together.

“Everyone got out. Every single one.” She coughed, wincing at the remaining pain from the interior and exterior burns. He watched her usually soft face tighten, anger bubbling up from within. “We lost some good people in operations and science.”

He leaned over and put his head next to hers, “I’m sorry, Car…I wish I could find a way to make it better.”

Her face relaxed as her father comforted her. “This is helping, Dad.” She sighed, “It was so scary.” She closed her eyes, “It was just like the simulations and nothing like it at the same time. You knew what to do in the simulations. You knew how to move. You knew you were going to survive. Maybe not your pride, but you’d live to see another day.”

He asked gently, “What was different?”

“I didn’t know if we were going to make it. We nearly lost containment on the core; they hit us hard. We gave as good as we got – Kondo worked a fuc…fricking miracle.” Her face bloomed in embarrassment.

Her father smiled, “Sometimes the rougher words get us through those moments.” He searched her eyes as she stared into the distance, “You did well saving them, Car. I read the incident report.”

Her lips formed a humble smile. “I did what you would have done, Dad. I mean….you’ve done it before.  Seemed like I needed to keep the family reputation alive or something.” She winced as she smiled. The pain was a reminder of what had happened in the chaos of Zephyr’s main engineering. “I thought about it for a second…and just started running. I’ve never run that fast in my life. I could hear their heartbeats as I kept running…and there they were in the middle of the fire and the smoke and everything.” Small tears formed at the edges of her eyes, and Peter gently wiped them away. “I was so scared I wouldn’t be able to make it in time or that I wasn’t going to get them out.” Her humble smile grew warm, “But I got them out. We got them out. My team…they followed me in. They helped…and dragged me out when everything exploded on me.” She sighed as the pain medicine dispenser sent relief through her IV. “I’m going to take a nap, Dad.” Her eyes stayed on him, “Thanks for coming to see me. I love you.” Her words faded as her eyes closed, and sleep took her.

Crawford turned off the light above her bed, pulling the covers over her. She had survived. She had made it back in the land of the living. Despite the acrid and deep burns. Despite the internal injuries. She had made it back to him.

He kissed her forehead and left the room, his heart just a bit lighter than when he had walked in. He stepped out of the intensive care unit and found his way to Captain Samson Bradley near the main doors to sickbay. “Samson, ” Crawford said. Crawford looked at the man and could feel the weight pushing down on the Zephyr’s CO as he watched the tired eyes of his fellow captain turn slowly to him.

“Peter.” Crawford looked closer at the captain. The man was tired, and he probably hadn’t slept. He’d been leaning against a wall when he’d walked up to him.

He led him to the medical officer’s office. “Let’s talk somewhere private.” He let the door close behind him, maneuvered Samson to a chair, and sat him down. “Sam…you need to get some rest. You have an XO for a reason.”

“This is a new crew. A new command.” His tired eyes were bordering on bloodshot. “Vargas…I just…I don’t want him to fail. This isn’t what our first mission was supposed to be – I wanted a lot of things for his first month as an executive officer.”

Crawford sat in the chair beside him. “You need rest. I’ll take it from here and get Vargas up to speed.” He stood, hearing the protests from Bradley start, “Don’t make me get Longfellow in here. He’s irascible on a good day… and’ll be downright furious if he sees you this way.”

Bradley eked out a resigned smile. “I find it hard to argue with you, Peter.”

Crawford had stepped out and signaled the charge nurse on duty. “You’re wise to surrender. Please escort Captain Bradley to his quarters and make sure he gets to bed. If he doesn’t, call me.”

“You remind me of my mother,” Samson cracked, but walked out of sickbay, a nurse walking sentinel beside him.

Peter muttered, “Not the first time and certainly not the last time.” He tapped his badge and headed to the turbolift, “Crawford to Vargas – meet me on the bridge.” The door closed.

The real work started now.