After a long double shift on the bridge, Captain McCallister had retired to his ready room. Sitting at his desk, he read the latest reports coming in from the datastream sent into the nebula from Starfleet. Relief efforts continued to pour into the region to help those who needed it, with a large bulk of the work being around resettling those who had become displaced by the Century Storm. The phenomenon was creating so much havoc for everyone that he was surprised Starfleet had not assigned the Odyssey to any humanitarian efforts, yet. Being a ship that had supported a number of Romulan relocation efforts since it was launched and the fact that they had moved an entire civilisation while in the Delta Quadrant last year, he had wondered what was the deeper thinking behind their current orders. 

McCallister’s orders had been simple, enter the nebula, render aid if and when it was needed and attempt to close as many of the subspace rifts as possible. Being one of the larger ships of the fleet with its advanced deflector technology, it meant the ship could undertake multiple attempts at these rifts. Only two days into their work had the ship been able to close its first rift using the modified dekyon beam fired from its main deflector. The rift was closed and they were able to prevent the need for an entire observatory station being evacuated. Since then they had closed an additional three rifts and were now on the trail of one of the more fiercest ion storms to see if they could stop further damage from happening. 

The door chime went off and he looked up, “Come in,” McCallister responded as he closed down the reports that were floating on the holographic LCARS screens with a wave of his hands.

A soft hiss and the ready room’s entrance from the bridge parted down the centre, allowing Commander Duncan to make his way in. With a PADD in his hands, the executive officer walked across the room and towards the captain’s desk. “Our latest scans sir.” He indicated as he approached his superior by briefly holding the device in the air.

“Thanks Max.” McCallister answered as he stood up and took the PADD into his own hands. Glancing down over the key headlines, he could see that at the moment there wasn’t much to be worried about. Their path ahead appeared clear, besides a class four comet. “Well this is certainly worthy of our attention.” He sarcastically said before dropping the PADD onto his desk and looking up at Duncan. “Can I get you a drink?” He offered as he picked up his empty mug from earlier and took it over to the replicator. 

Shaking his head, Duncan declined the offer. “Thanks for the offer sir, but I’m about to head home for the evening.”

Refilling his drink, he smirked back at his right-hand man, “Anything special planned tonight?” McCallister asked. 

Shaking his head, Duncan explained it was going to be a quiet night in. “Though there is one thing that Tobie mentioned to me the other night that I was hoping to pass through you first?”

Picking up his mug of warm tea, McCallister gestured for Duncan to share it as he sipped on his drink. “Sure, what is it?”

“Now the boys are a bit more settled, we were wondering if we could organise a time to properly introduce them to Alfie, Henri and Theo?” Duncan wondered. 

Sitting back in his chair, McCallister considered the request; he had no objections to the idea, especially as his sons had not seen much of Tobias (who was their godfather) recently. “Let’s organise something, I’ll chat with my three and see what we can do.”

Appreciating the effort, Duncan thanked the captain and after asking if there was anything else he could do, McCallister said no, allowing the first officer to excuse himself and leave the room. 

Spinning his chair around he looked out of the large window behind him and soon saw the photograph of his three sons with his wife and he when they were back on Earth last year. Picking it up in its frame, he smiled affectionately at it. So much had changed since then. Karyn had stormed off the Odyssey quicker than a Borg Cube entering a transwarp conduit, Alfie was caught up over his studies to join Starfleet while Henri and Theo were now working on their own interests. He knew he needed to bring his family back together, soon rather than later or he’d lose them forever. 

However, his family wasn’t the only thing that was broken right now. The rest of his crew were still not in a good place. With the departure of Karyn leading a team to rescue her trapped mother and colleagues elsewhere, some of whom were not just members from Starbase Bravo, Karyn had somehow got others from the crew to join her without his knowledge until it was too late. Then it hadn’t helped with the change on his senior staff with Admiral Bennet installing Commander Louwanna Horin in as his chief counsellor, effectively demoting Lieutenant Samris back down to his previous position. Her time with them was meant to be only short-term but he wondered if this was truly the case. Flemen was also not with them. He had opted to remain on Mellstoxx III to undertake the first few assessments and trials for the Command Training Program. As a result, McCallister was now having to cope with having Horin on the bridge sitting to his left during every shift he was on. She was a decent officer and a skilled counsellor as well as diplomat, but the captain hadn’t appreciated how she had been forced upon him. She had shared a similar sentiment. Nevertheless her presence and the team she had brought with her were helping everyone out. Their change of orders with their R&R to assist with the response to the Century Storm had caught them all off guard, especially with how important it had been shared with them all that they had to be assessed and supported with coming to terms with their two month imprisonment under Captain Jyster. Since then the counsellor and therapists brought on board with Horin had been working around the clock. They were having the desired impact that Starfleet wanted. McCallister just wondered if their impact would last long enough for everyone to recover.

The ship then went to red alert as it was hit by a sudden surge of power out of nowhere. His thoughts and worries about his broken family and crew had to be set aside as he placed his mug down and rushed out onto his bridge.