Pezara Barim plunged his spoon into the bowl of porridge, a human dish he’d been introduced to at the Academy, and scooped a spoonful of it out. Opposite him, Alexander Mitchell shovelled his breakfast of scrambled eggs with sausages and bacon into his mouth like the food would disappear from his plate at any moment. Barim often wondered how the XO didn’t spend his days walking around with indigestion.

Bringing the spoonful of porridge to his mouth, his hand paused when a shadow crossed the table. He looked up and found Lieutenant Shepard standing beside the table with a PADD in his hand. “What can I do for you, Lieutenant?” Barim asked, placing his spoon gently back in the bowl.

“I…uh…have that data…data…analysis you asked for,” Shepard nervously held the PADD out to Barim, which he accepted.

Barim wasn’t sure why Shepard was bringing him the report this early, but that was no matter. A cursory glance at its contents showed the kind of thorough and thoughtful analysis that he’d come to expect of Shepard. “This looks like good work, Lieutenant. Thank you.” Shepard smiled and nodded before retreating. Barim set the PADD to one side and picked up his spoon, his eyes falling on Mitchell who was smirking over the top of his coffee mug. “What?”

“He’s got a crush on you,” Amusement danced in Mitchell’s eyes.

Annoyance bubbled up from deep within the Bajoran. He dropped his spoon, the metal instrument hitting the sides of the bowl with a clatter. “He does not.”

“Yes he does,” Mitchell shot back before sipping his drink.

Barim opened his mouth to respond to Mitchell’s ridiculous assertion but was interrupted by the arrival of Captain Matheson, who slid into the seat next to him.

“Who does what?” Matheson asked, setting a steaming mug of freshly replicated coffee on the table.

Most officers, once they reached the loft heights of starship command, preferred to maintain a distance from their crew, and as such they chose to eat alone. Captain Matheson was of a different view. She was a regular feature in the Mess and would often be seen sharing meals with her junior officers. 

“Shepard has a crush on Barim,” Mitchell reiterated, undeterred by Barim’s stern expression.

Any hopes Barim held that Matheson would shut down Mitchell’s ridiculous teasing was short-lived. “Oh yeah,” Matheson readily agreed, “he’s got it bad.”

“You can’t not have noticed it,” Mitchell narrowed his eyes, studying the Bajoran’s features.

Shepard had always been nervous around Barim, but he’d assumed that was due to Shepard being intimidated by his intellect. Barim lifted his spoon and resumed eating his now lukewarm porridge. “The only thing I’ve noticed is the Lieutenant’s professionalism and his dedication to his work.”

“The guy can’t string a sentence together when you’re around,” Matheson pointed out. “He keeps getting tongue twisted.”

His frustration was beginning to boil over. With the porridge only half finished, Barim placed the spoon back in it and pushed it away. “How can you both be so cheery at a time like this?” He asked seriously. “Dominion forces have launched an attack on the Deneb Sector, Izar and Sevury have already fallen and we could be called upon at any time to wade into that fray.” He looked from Mitchell to Matheson and back. “Doesn’t that scare you?”

“It terrifies me,” Mitchell replied soberly. “I was in San Francisco when the Breen attacked Earth, weeks from starting my second year at the Academy. The entire cadet corps was mobilised to assist with the response.” He wasn’t looking at either of them. His eyes were fixed on the half-eaten bowl of porridge, lost in his memories. “It was the first time I’d seen a dead body, and they were everywhere.”

He looked up and met Barim’s gaze, “But we can’t give into our fear.” Mitchell glanced at the Captain. “If we’d done that the first time, the Dominion would’ve walked all over us and we wouldn’t be here to have this conversation.”

“The crew is looking to the three of us,” Matheson added softly, “not just for leadership but for reassurance. So we have to act as normally as we can, which means teasing you about Shepard’s crush on you.” She smiled, though it didn’t quite reach her eyes.

The tension that had briefly enveloped the table lifted as quickly as it descended and Barim found himself more willing to tolerate their gentle ribbing of him. 

“He’s a good-lookin’ guy,” Mitchell pointed out, that smirk from earlier making a return.

Barim would be lying if he said he hadn’t noticed the handsome Lieutenant’s good looks. 

“Bridge to Captain,” the voice of the Gamma Shift comms officer broke through the teasing.

Matheson tapped her commbadge, “Matheson here.”

“We’re receiving a transmission from Fleet Captain Forrester,” there was a pregnant pause during which the three command officers shared a knowing look, “Priority one.”

This was what they’d been waiting for; the orders that would, in all likelihood, involve them in the Deneb conflict with the Dominion. “Patch it through to my Ready Room. Matheson out.”

Matheson shared a look across the table with Mitchell. The pair had developed a strong working relationship in the few short months they’d been working together and could already say as much with a look as they could with words. Barim had a similar relationship, though finely honed from years of serving together. Mitchell nodded as the Captain removed herself from the table, her still-hot mug of coffee abandoned. 

Barim didn’t need to look around to know that every pair of eyes in the room watched the Captain leave. They’d all heard the news of Forrester’s incoming transmission. In less than an hour that news would have reached every corner of the Nova-class starship.

Mitchell stood and picked up his plate. With his free hand, he reached out for the Captain’s mug. He was trying to act casual, but Barim could see the tension in his neck, the stiffness of his muscles.

That tension had returned, and this time it would descend upon all of them.

The lights activated automatically when Ana reached her Ready Room, her private sanctuary on deck one. She moved behind her desk and punched her command code into the terminal. Within seconds, it looked as if Fleet Captain Forrester was standing in front of her as his holographic avatar materialised.

“Captain,” his grim features and the dark circles under his eyes spoke volumes.

Ana gave him a curt nod, “Sir.”

“The Higgs is to proceed to Farpoint Station with all possible haste,” Forrester told her, “there you’ll take on components and personnel that you’ll deliver to Galadkail Minor. It’s been identified as a prime target for Dominion attack.”

Learning that they would be travelling to the Galadkail system terrified Ana, not that she would admit that to anyone. If her face betrayed that fear, Forrester didn’t say anything. “That’s not far from Izar.”

“It is,” Forrester nodded solemnly. “Their orbital defence platforms are capable of repelling Breen raiding parties with ease, but the Dominion are something else entirely. Work has been done to upgrade them but they still need some final components and engineers to help install them in time. The space between Farpoint and Galadkail is contested, so watch yourselves.”

Ana nodded. “Understood, sir.”

“Once you’ve delivered your cargo, you’ll join a mixed group of seven Federation and Cardassian ships to repel any Dominion attack,” Forrester added.

The Higgs was a science vessel, and while her spaceframe had originally been developed to be an escort, the end product was more suited to self-defence than offence. That, however, mattered little in the circumstances. They had their orders.

“You said the Cardassians would be involved?” Ana asked.

Forrester’s features were guarded as he nodded. “The Third Order has been dispatched to provide whatever assistance they can.”

“Huh,” Ana’s eyebrows shot up in surprise, “I wasn’t expecting that.”

A mirthless chuckle escaped from Forrester, “They probably don’t give a shit about helping us and are only getting involved so they can give their former Breen and Dominion allies a bloody nose.”

“That’s an awfully cynical way to look at it,” Matheson replied.

He gave her a tight smile. “You’re probably right, but I’ve had enough dealings with the Cardassians that my cynicism is warranted.”

“Anything else, sir?” Matheson hoped she never reached Forrester’s level of cynicism.

Forrester shook his head. “Not right now.” He turned halfway but stopped and turned back. “Ana,” the use of her first name and the softness of his voice and his features were a stark contrast to how he’d conducted the rest of this briefing, “be careful out there. Good luck to you all.”

“Thank you, sir,” she replied, touched by his concern for not just her but her crew.

Ana watched as Forrester’s holographic avatar dissolved until she was left standing alone once more. She immediately reached up and tapped her communicator. “Matheson to bridge.”

“Mitchell here.” She allowed herself a smile. 

The last look she gave him had been intended to signal her desire for him to get to the bridge. She was glad to see he had gotten as good at reading her signals as she had his. “Lay in a course for Farpoint Station. Take us to maximum warp.”

“We’re getting underway now,” the vibration of the deck beneath her feet shifted within seconds, an indication that the ship was accelerating. “Estimated time of arrival is eight hours.”

That was slower than she would’ve liked but the Nova-class wasn’t as fast as her more modern Rhode Island-class cousins. Through the window in her office, she could see the moment the Higgs jumped to warp. “Assemble the senior officers in the briefing room in thirty minutes.”

“Aye, ma’am,” Mitchell replied dutifully. Matheson tapped her communicator again, cutting the link. 

She stood silently at the window and watched the stars streak past as they hurtled through the inky black nothingness of space. Ana knew nothing of war, she’d been a child when the Dominion last threatened their way of life, nor did most of her crew many of whom weren’t even born. There was one exception.

To look at him, one would conclude that Lieutenant Commander Mitchell was also much too young to have any experience of the Dominion War, but that would be the wrong conclusion to draw. Thanks to an encounter with a temporal anomaly, he’d skipped ten years in the blink of an eye. He was the only one of them who had any real idea of what lay ahead of them.

But Ana was confident in her own abilities, confident in the ability of her crew to rise to any challenge and confident in the Higgs herself. They would persevere. If it came to it, they would fight tooth and nail, fight until they’d breathed their last, to protect the Federation from this new Dominion threat.