Shortly arriving in the Haydorian system, Captain Bennet was hoping to hear from some of the other captains from his task force. Sitting with a mug of tea in one hand, he ordered the computer to lower the lights slightly in his ready room and to open the secure channel to the captains he was calling. This would be the first time he would be speaking to the most senior members of the task force since Rear Admiral Seagraves had issued him his new orders.

All of the captains appeared in his ready room thanks to the advanced holographic communication system installed on the Discovery. Her state-of-the-art computer technology allowed for such meetings to take place. It almost felt like they were all in the room. The computer had adjusted their feeds so they appeared to be sitting on the sofas and armchairs around the room.

To his left were Captains Corbin, Thrian, Duncan and Canção while to his right was Captains Langston and Sudari-Kravchik. The latter being his task force executive officer, this was the first time since his appointment that Bennet would meet with Kravchik. Unfortunately Captain McCallister was still recovering in the Odyssey’s sickbay and with a majority of his command staff busy making repairs to the ship, Bennet had opted to exclude them for now. He would catch up with its acting captain later.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for meeting with me at such short notice.” Bennet began. “I want to keep this short as we still have so much more to do. I also realise this is the first time we have all met one another, but suffice to say I have the utmost confidence in you all and your crews to achieve what Starfleet wants from us all. To give you all an update on our situation, the Haydorian system has been secure since Discovery and Shackleton’s arrival. The Odyssey was attacked and rammed by a ship belonging to the Hunters of D’Ghor. Captain McCallister was injured, along with several others from his senior staff, but we are quickly making repairs and helping them out.”

Captain Nicola Duncan, quickly spoke up. “Sorry sir, but who is in command of Odyssey?”

Smirking slightly at that question, Bennet was pleased the older woman spoke up. “Your son, Commander Max Duncan.”

A beam of pride spread across her face. “It wouldn’t be the Odyssey without a Duncan in command.” She remarked before showing concern for her fellow captain. “Is Captain McCallister expected to make a recovery?”

“He is,” Bennet answered. “I’m happy to keep Commander Duncan in command as Commander Cambil and Commander Reyas are also in Odyssey’s sickbay.” He realised that for Nicola she must be finding it weird to hear that her son, the ship’s counsellor and third officer, had taken up the lead mantra like his father had once done on the previous ship named Odyssey. “In the meantime, Discovery and Shackleton will take lead on deploying the Archanis array now that Odyssey is now unable to function in that capacity.”

“I take it we are preparing for more Hunters to return?” Corbin questioned. “If so, will Governor Thelis let the two Andorian Imperial Guard ships join our efforts?”

“Unfortunately the governor is still remaining strong with his convictions. I’m planning to meet with him but I have also placed a request for involvement from the highest office in the land.”

The Andorian captain in the room perked up by his antennas raising upwards. “You’ve called in the Federation President?”

Nodding to confirm, Bennet explained his strategy. “We’ve not got time to play the governor’s game. The involvement of the chief executive should be enough, I hope, to resolve this matter.”

“Good luck.” Captain Canção cheekily said.

“In the meantime, I’d like to know the status of the rest of you in your missions.” Bennet remarked to everyone else. He looked over to the skipper of the Fearless. “Captain Langston, what’s the Fearless’ ETA in the sector?”

“We’ll be arriving within the hour,” Ed replied as he scanned the room.  “I believe we are all caught up on recent activities in the area and we are eager to assist wherever we can.”

“Excellent, I want the Fearless to support the deployment of our detection net as soon as possible.” Bennet stated. “My chief engineer and Captain Tharis have developed several ideas on how we can ensure the sensor grid along the border can be maintained even if the Hunters attack. We need to get these up asap.”

Tharis cleared his throat. “The Noble has already deployed a successful grid in the Ajilon system. We’re about to move on to Ganalda Four to do the same.”

Pleased to hear their efforts were having an impact, Bennet issued orders to both Captains Duncan and Canção to proceed to two other systems near to where they were at Aijlon. “By the way what happened with the Ferengi convoy?”

Canção spoke up as she pushed her frizzy red hair back. “A horrible daimon, named Noq, was not impressed that we didn’t arrive sooner to help him. Besides a few scorch marks on their hulls and a few damaged relays, they were fine thanks to the orbital weapon platforms that Ajilon has. The Hunters did steal though from the convoy two cargo holds of food, deuterium and medical supplies.”

“And we had to repay Noq for the loss of his cargo.” Duncan added. “He is heading to the Orion Borderlands, we suggested he avoided the area but insisted he didn’t want to hear from us.”

“Very well,” Bennet said as he looked over to his task force executive officer, “Captain Sudari-Kravchik anything from your end?”

“Currently no Captain,” Alexandra spoke up. “I have been informed that USS Explorer is on its way to Starbase 27 currently. I will be boarding her when she arrives with a team of engineers to oversee installation of array elements further along the border. Commander Nagahi and I have been in contact and she is aware that I am not assuming command of her ship, merely utilising it as transport. I have informed her however that if something were to happen to you sir I would need to make further use of her vessel.”

“Well let’s hope that it doesn’t come down to that.” Bennet remarked as he looked around the room. “Any other matters?”

“One sir,” Alexandra spoke up after consulting a PADD in hand briefly. “If we have two Imperial Guard ships on hand in Haydorian, could we perhaps utilise them to lay an array of modified beacons around the Haydorian system? One of my engineers came up with a design he is calling a ‘pocket tachyon grid’ It does not have interstellar ranges, but could be useful for spotting cloaked ships entering into a star system, or within a certain radius of a planet, depending on how many probes you have at hand. They are pretty high maintenance though and drain their power supplies pretty quickly.”

“Send us the schematics over and we’ll see if we can do that along with the new array.” Bennet ordered. “Okay everyone, I need to meet with Captain Rourke and we need to light up the Hunters who think we can’t see them. Let’s get to work people. I’ll be in touch with you all soon.” He tapped his console and ended the call.