Two simple caskets draped in the flag of the federation of planets are laid out on the floor of cargo bay two of the Rhyndacus. Before them in the barely lit landing area, processions are barely noticeable approaching the area marked for the Remembrance Monolith. 

Four individuals in dress uniforms are lined up around each casket, one on each corner. 

“Burial detail, prepare to lift” each person dropped to one knee and took a handle in their inside hand. “Lift” standing as one the lift each casket. “Shoulder, arms” the caskets are lifted to shoulder height.” “Forward March” the two caskets are marched to the remembrance monolith site. The sound of bagpipes played, a version of the ancient earth song “Amazing Grace”, in a low tone emanates from the Rhyndacus. Light of a new day just begins to change the color of the sky low on the horizon. 

“Mark time, March” as the caskets are positioned over their waiting burial areas. “Unshoulder, arms” caskets are lowered to knee level. “Burial detail, prepare to lower. Lower” the casket is placed onto the waiting platform that will lower it into the ground as the detail took a knee in unison. “Burial detail, attention” several seconds passed “Burial detail, corners” each member held a corner of the federation flag and waited. 

As the sun slowly made its way over the horizon a Romulan priest started to chant a song of remembrance as all of the caskets started to lower into the ground in unison. 

“Burial detail,  forward..face” the burial details turned and faced towards the outside of the ring. 

“Forward March”

“Mark time.. March.”

“Burial detail, halt”

“Secure the colors” the two flags are folded and placed into separate wood remembrance boxes that will be delivered to the next of kin.

As the people involved in the burial ceremony started to depart, Kr’Antren noticed a Romulan officer wearing the uniform of a Commander in the Romulan Republic Navy, standing with the council. 

“Hmmmm, that’s interesting.” He nodded towards the Commander and the council, and received nods in return. 

Kr’Antren tapped his com badge. “Command staff, meet me in the ready room, 30 minutes”

He received several beeps and affirmatives in response. 

30 minutes later in the ready room.

“Going to call this a working breakfast folks, please grab yourselves something to eat. I’ve already got carafes of coffee, orange juice, Raktajino and Earl grey on the table.” He sits down with a plate filled what looked like a Denver omelet and fills a cup with some of the Raktajino. 

“Going to go ahead and get this started, not sure if anyone else noticed but the Romulan Republic representative was at the services this morning. So number one change of plans. Going to have you stay here and make final preparations for departure. Have a feeling that we are not going to be needed for the rest of these negotiations.”

“Yes sir. Though I think it would be smart to have someone accompany you this morning. You are the captain after all.” 

Laughs “Are we going to start playing that game number one? “ she looks at him with a glance and than raises an eyebrow. He put down his fork and knife and held his hands up in front of him. “Ok, ok. Mom always said the best advice she could give as a captain was not to argue with your number one when they pull the “your the captain” card. Can you do without Chief Kaha this morning?”

She looked at the Chief and nodded  “Your mom gave you good advice, sir. Yes, Chief would be acceptable. She would probably be the best choice for this particular outing,”

“Chief, meet me in the shuttle bay at 0800. I think just a tricorder and a phaser will be fine, I don’t think we will be there long. Number one I would like to depart in two hours after we get back.”

“Will do”

“Ok, since that is out of the way. Number one anything to report on from DS9 or TF47?”

“Nothing out of the ordinary sir, a couple new reports of possible pirate activity in the badlands. DS9 reports green across the board on their side and around the cardassian border. TF47 asks for increased sensor activity once we enter the badlands and on our way to DS47. TF47 is still trying to get the area around DS47 scanned as much as possible so anything we can add would be much appreciated. They also suggested we watch out for lone cardassian or Tzenkethi ships that want to test the federation being in the area now, and may try to single us out being a smaller ship and all that.”

“Ok, let them know that we will contact them once we depart Alth’Ndor IV. Science, are those samples loaded?”

Ensign Tazzeth looks up from a bowl he was eating out of, not expecting to be called on already. He finishes what he was eating. “Yes captain, the samples have been loaded into cargo bay one, I also talked the mining fields to give us two samples versus the single one they were originally going to send. Figured that having two sets of federation scientists look at them and give reports would be better than just one. Sir, I’ve also been able to compile several years worth of scans conducted by the scientists on the planet, convoy ships and any romulan notes on the asteroid field thought they would be good to have to upload into the Star fleet database and to update the maps of the area.”

“Good idea on the field, I hadn’t thought about that to tell the truth. I’m sure somebody in the fleet would appreciate the updated information.”

“Chief Ruz, anything on your end.”

Puts down a mug “No sir, we didn’t sustain any major damage with helms run in with the asteroid, we conducted scans and microfracture testing of the area. Nothing a couple hours in the dock won’t be able to fix. I would like to ask if we can push the warp speeds up as we travel to DS47, want to run some tests on the system at higher warp speeds, and also wouldn’t mind running some simulated issues at those speeds to see how the ship and the various systems handle them. I would rather know now what she can handle versus finding out when something happens for real.”

“How much time are we looking at Chief?”

Chief Ruz looks at his PADD. “ Can you give me five hours at warp 7 and let’s push warp 8 for at least 2 hours. That should give us enough time to compile the data and test the systems. I don’t want to push her to breaking point sir. Just enough to test the systems and get some baseline data.”

Kr’Antren looked at his PADD and scrolled through a couple pages of reports and notes. “Let’s schedule that for day two number one, while we are at it, schedule some battle station drills, and a few other emergency drills. Dr. M’Gok how about a medical emergency drill also. Nothing too serious. I’ll leave that up to you and number one to plan.”

“Yes captain, that would be a good idea. Oh and captain, thank you.”

He looked over at the CMO and noticed the change in her complexion and in her overall stature. “Glad to see it did some good doc.”

“Anything else?”

Nobody answered as they were all eating and enjoying the breakfast and the company, several side conversations were going on between some of the staff as they made or finalized plans. 

Refills his mag with the Raktajino “Ok then, everyone has their assignments. Chief 0800 in the shuttle bay.”

A couple hours later.

As Kr’Antren brought  the shuttle craft in to land in front of the city hall, they couldn’t help but notice the amount of people mixed in with the work crews that were wearing the Romulan Navy uniform. He looked over at Chief Kaha and raised an eyebrow.

She returns the look, not the raised eyebrow, and takes a breath. “Sir, contentment, some happiness, some sorrow, but mainly contentment. It’s almost as if many are feeling that this is the way it should be, equal’s.”

He nodded and looks out the view screen. Let’s put a small chuckle. “Chief, I don’t think we will be here very long at all. Well let’s go on in and see if we are still needed, shall we?”

Upon entering the city hall, several of the Romulan navy crewmen and officers stop and render salutes to the captain and then return to what they were doing. Upon having reached the council chamber doors and noticing them closed and guarded Kr’Antren knocked and waited.

“Enter”

When the two of them entered it was to a polite round of applause. “Captain, sorry we did not inform you; we all decided on the way back from this mornings services that since we were all already up and together we would start the meetings. May I introduce Commander Nijeer and his senior staff.”

“Captain Kr’Antren nice to finally meet you” the commander offered a hand which Kr’Antren took with his own and gave a hearty handshake, not one to test but one of equality and of two captains meeting for the first time.

“Commander, may I introduce Senior Chief Kaha, she is my Chief of Operations.” 

“Ahhh yes, a captain must always have a plus one shouldn’t we.” 

Kr’Antren chuckled and Chief held back a chuckle of her own. “Sir, the captain was reminded of that very “rule” this morning.”

“Ahhhh, yes.. that one takes sometime to get used to if I say so myself. Captain Kr’Antren let me express on the behalf of the Romulan Republic, my crew and myself our deepest condolences on your losses and a very deep appreciative Thankyou for all you have done in helping the people of Alth’Ndor IV finalize their independence from the Empire. I have sent a report along with letters of commendation for the crew and yourself to my command to be forwarded to your command and star fleet. If you would excuse me I will return to the commander to finish our discussion.”

Commander Nijeer takes a step back and returns to the discussion he was having with commander Vexiesh. Councilwoman Sienna approaches from the side.

“Captain, We the people of Alth’Ndor IV would also like to offer our deepest condolences and appreciation to you and the crew. We have also written letters “ hands several scrolls to the captain “We would also like to add these parchments, these scrolls are for the families of the two crewmen that we honored this morning. Please pass them along to the families. Captain once again we all want to say thankyou for helping us in our time of need. Please be safe in you future travels and missions and remember if you ever need a place to come and seek help or refuge Alth’Ndor IV will always be here to help.”

The councilwoman clasps the captain’s hands with both of hers, bowed  her head for a moment and then does the same with Chief Kaha. Kr’Antren makes his way around the room receiving much the same from each council member and polite nods from each of the commander’s staff. 

After several minutes have gone by Kr’Antren and Chief Kaha make their way back to the shuttle. 

“We’ll Chief that was quicker than I thought it would be.”

“Indeed sir”

“Rhyndacus, prepare for departure. We should be back in a few minutes.”

“Yes sir, all preparations have been made, we are ready to depart when you return.”

Upon their arrival back at the Rhyndacus, Chief Kaha takes her position at her console and Kr’Antren takes the letters and scrolls to the ready room and than takes a seat in the chair.

“Everyone ready,” looks around the bridge receiving nodded heads in the affirmative as everyone prepares for departure. “Number one?” 

“Everything is ready sir, all personnel are accounted for, all cargo is secured and all systems are showing green across the board sir.”

“Very well than, helm set a course for Deep Space 47, take us to warp when we are clear of the planet.”

“Captain, course is laid in and ready sir.”

“Very well, helm, let’s roll”

The USS  Rhyndacus slowly starts to lift off from the landing area now known as Remembrance Field and climbs in altitude as it leaves Alth’Ndor IV.