Saren paced back and forth in his office with a padd in his hand, raised and his eyes buried into it. When he was recently promoted to commander, he had hoped to be given command of a warbird right away. Although they have quite a fleet, all of which are currently commanded by those who do not seek to retire anytime soon. Nor are there any more flag officer positions to be filled to promote one of those warbird commanders. So what did this leave Saren with? He was left with being Vice Admiral Terik’s first officer, still on board the Intrakhu. But the ship was undergoing a significant refit; it had a run-in with a couple of Imperial warbirds, to which luckily not a single crewmember perished but had left the Intrakhu out of commission for a few weeks.

What has Saren done with his time? Reading reports. Lots and lots of mission reports from current and former commanders. He wanted to keep his mind fresh and absorb as much information as possible about what had been happening with the colonies that once belonged to the Romulan Star Empire. He was about to get into an extraordinarily detailed report when the padd updated with a new report, fresh off the comms channel. The title grabbed his interest. He opened it, found it to be from a scout ship commander, and began to read it. His eyes began to widen, and the pacing back and forth in his office immediately changed to a rush out of his office. Within a split second, he had pressed the chime button on Vice Admiral Terik’s door. His office was right next to hers.

“Come in,” said the woman from inside her office.

Saren stepped in between the door before it had a chance to open fully and made it across the room in a blink. At the edge of her desk, he laid his padd down in front of Terik and pointed at the report. “I think someone just found me a ship.”

Terik looked up at him, then down at the padd to which he pointed and skimmed over it. A smirk crossed her face. “Another Valdore-class.”

Saren grunted, “I would prefer a D’deridex-class; I did serve on one for almost over 26 years.”

Terik nodded her head. “True, but you also served on board my ship for nearly half that. And if I am not mistaken, you quite enjoyed the Intrakhu. Or the kind of warbird that she is.”

Saren took the padd and skimmed over the report, practically ignoring her. Not on purpose. “Only problem is, it is likely an Imperial warbird. But from the scans that the scout ship shared, it appears to be abandoned.” Saren then returned the padd to her desk.

Terik took another look at it and hummed to herself in a curious manner. “Strange. I wonder what happened on board. But the scout ship scanned the vessel at long-range. The commander is new and a bit fearful of ambushes.”

Saren nodded his head. “I’ve experienced one myself as an Uhlan. Plus, considering the lack of diplomacy with the Klingon Empire and the fact that there are Imperial Naval vessels that have yet to concede, still flying about in the unaligned regions. So, I do not blame them.”

“Still,” Terik pointed to one of the scans. “At least long-range scanners were able to detect the emissions that we look for in a warbird that is adrift. The Singularity Core is intact, but the question remains, how damaged is it? Other scans show minimum power levels. Still, it is difficult to detect life signs with long-range scanners.”

Saren placed the palms of his hands on her desk and leaned forward a bit. “I think it’s worth investigating. Allow me to take a team to investigate.”

Terik looked up at him. “I don’t like risking my first officer, recently a commander, on a mission that could be dangerous.”

One side of his lips curled into a grin. “And what if it turns out that we can acquire this ship for our navy?”

Terik leaned back into her chair as she drummed her fingertips into her desk; the gears turned in her head as she processed the information. Once the drum of her fingertips stopped, she gave Saren her answer. “Fine. A full team. And if it turns out to be abandoned but you can restore functionality, I want you to bring that warbird back to the naval yards immediately.”

Saren looked at her. “And if it turns out we cannot restore functionality?”

Terik stared into his eyes. “Destroy it. Cannot have it fall to the wrong hands or be returned to our enemy.”

Saren pushed off her desk and stood straight; his grin turned into a smile. “Understood. I know just who I want as part of my team. Sublieutenant Isha.”

Terik brought up a holo display with a manifest, did a quick key search, and found the woman Saren spoke of. “She is assigned to a warbird, but they are just a day away. I will notify the commander immediately of her reassignment. Anyone else?”

“I will have to get back to you on that, Admiral,” Saren told her.

Rhianna Isha grumbled with annoyance as she stepped off the transporter pad. She wondered why she was reassigned, again. Her first assignment didn’t go so well as she tried to be an assistant to a diplomat, but while they were at a Starfleet Starbase, some undisciplined enlisted men got a little handsy. She got a little angry and put a couple of them on the floor, which later ended them in the infirmary. She knew she could have followed proper procedures and reported it, but she wanted to teach them a lesson. Lucky for her, those enlisted personnel had made their last mistake and being young and immature, they were sent off for some ‘corrective’ training. Which meant some Bajoran security officer got to teach them some discipline. But her actions were inappropriate for a Diplomatic Aid and reassigned her to a warbird as a survey team officer.

Then the warbird was about a day away from New Romulus when it received orders to make a U-turn and drop her off for yet, another reassignment. This time she has no idea why. Her former commander wouldn’t tell her. Or they didn’t know, which she found hard to believe.

She barely made it several feet from the transporter when she saw a familiar face and nearly ran to them. But she was able to keep her composure. Isha walked over to the man, stood before him, dropped her bags, and saluted. “Jolan-tru, subcommander!”

Saren smirked. “Jolan-tru, Rhianna. And it’s commander now.”

Isha’s smile grew bigger. “You got your promotion! I’m so happy for you, S’Tev!”

Saren reached down and grabbed her bag before he gestured her to follow. “Come. I got much to tell you.”

Isha sighed, her smile now faded. “I would love to, but I’ve been reassigned. Somewhere.”

Saren looked at her with a grin. “I know. Come.”

Isha frowned then her smile came back. “You got a warbird?!”

Saren made a look that wasn’t at all assuring. “Yes and no. I’ll explain once we get to my office.”

Isha frowned again. “Why do I get the feeling that we are going to be sent on what could possibly be a suicide mission?”

Saren chuckled. “We’re in the Romulan Republic now, sublieutenant! Some missions are worth the risk. And this mission is definitely worth it.”