Helen sat in the Captain’s chair and looked forward, the Powhatan was not the most tactically inclined starship, nor was she the most Secretive. But, she was available and she was here.

“Shipwide.” she commanded to the Lieutenant at Operations.

“We have gone through a lot of loss and changes in the past couple of days, months even years, myself being one of them. We must move forward, if not for ourselves, for the lives of the many. We will continue with our assignments and our missions going forward, and concentrate on our tasks.” she paused and looked at her bridge officers who were looking at her.

“I am proud of every one of you. Each of you bring something to the table.” she stood, resting her hand on Elizabeth’s shoulder… “Tenacity, Trust, Friendship… Talent. I willfully lay my life in your hands.”

“There is so much more. Like the ships that bore the name Powhatan before us, we will not fade into history, instead we will write history. For now, we will be enjoying a much deserved break. So please Enjoy a shore leave at SB93. ”

She made the symbol to cut the commlines. “For now we take a small break, I will ask however Imal, Lacroix, and Walton, to come with me.”

The Captain made her way to the briefing room, and look at the Romulan woman standing before the window. Smiling she motioned for Ael to take the opposing seat to her first officer’s normal chair.

Ael nodded in compliance, and sat promptly, looking as the officers filed in she could see the welcoming looks on their faces. She attempted a smile in return. The Romulans were known to be Xenophobic and emotionless, but when the time came, their passion would surmount no one else’s.

“This is Sub-Commander Ael. She is an Attaché on loan from the Romulan Republic. She will be working with us, post-leave, and will be helping us with our little mystery. She has information pertaining to the Mind-wipe method used on the officers we left back at DS47, as well as much more intelligence. I was going to make her be on the bridge, but let’s ease her into the crew.” Helen said.

“I trust you will have no incidents with the Vulcan crewmembers?” Walton said in the way she could only do.

“I assure you, I am not Tal-Shiar, but I do recommend for the time being whilst our mission will take us deep into Romulan Space, perhaps consider leaving them onboard may be wise.” Sub-Commander Ael said.

“How deep are we talking about? We are in a 40 to 50 year old vessel here that has seen her time in combat.” Sylvain interjected.

“We have accounted for that, if I may,” she asked before tapping on the console. It pulled up a stellar cartography map, “we will be proceeding along the Republic’s space, that we are currently claiming, we will have plenty of reinforcements, should we need it.”

“I will keep the engines at the ready.” Imal smiled.

“Actually, the reason you three were selected is because of your experience.” Ael raised her finger. “You see, the three of you have expertise in Gorilla Warfare, or have fought in the trenches during the Dominion war… this may become useful.”

“You see….” the captain trailed off.