It must have been a statistical improbability.  

Taes offered a curt, “Enter.”  Accordingly, Nova was admitted into the captain’s ready room when the double doors receded into the bulkhead.  Nova managed to catch the toe of her boot in the door’s impossibly narrow track, which caused her to trip.  Recovering swiftly, Nova avoided a fall and resumed her pace into the compartment with little more than an awkward shimmy.

Statistical improbabilities were the watchwords of the day.

Nova marched forward into the heart of the small compartment and came to stand at the low glass-topped table.  Through her entrance, Taes never looked away from the report she was studying.  She kept her back to the door and to Nova.  Taes continued to scroll through the infographics on a holographic pane projected over her desk.

Nova was the first to say anything: “Permission to speak freely, captain.”

Taes subtly inclined her head.

“Go ahead, lieutenant,” Taes allowed.  Still, she didn’t turn around to face Nova.

Nova heaved in a heavy breath.  “I think I’ve made a huge mistake.”

“Yes,” Taes said and she tapped at the holographic interface, causing it to wink out.  Swivelling out of her chair, Taes finally looked at Nova as she rose to her feet.  “I noticed,” she said, taking a first step towards her.

After huffing out a quick, defeated breath, Nova calibrated what she was trying to say, by adding, “I don’t mean just that.  I mean… everything.  Escaping the vortex.  Returning to Starfleet or– I mean continuing in Starfleet.  This was a mistake.”  

“I’m unsuited for a Starfleet commission,” Nova continued and she dropped her combadge on the coffee table.  The silver and grey arrowhead clanked heavily on the glass surface.  Nova affirmed, “Which is why I must officially tender my resig–“

A chortle bubbled out of Taes.  It was a wet sound, almost like someone trying to laugh through a punctured lung.  Unceremoniously, Taes dropped herself into one of the blue barrel chairs positioned around the coffee table.

“Oh!  No, Indira, that isn’t happening,” Taes said.  She shook her head at Nova incredulously and she laughed again, much softer this time.

Scoffing at Taes’ dismissive tone, Nova challenged her with, “And why not?”

Taes narrowed her eyes at Nova to insist, “Because it’s what you want, so I’m withholding it.”  She breathed out a frustrated “tt” between her teeth and she shook her bald head at Nova again.  With staccato bravado, Taes declared, “Of course you’re not resigning, lieutenant.  My ship is lacking in basic shields, communications and pieces of the hull.  You have trained hands and a critical eye.  I need you too much.  Please.”

Jerking an arm out, Taes stiffly gestured to another barrel chair, silently ordering Nova to sit.  Rather, Nova remained where she was standing and dropped her chin to her chest.  Staring down at her boots, she could see where she had scraped the pointed toe on her left boot.

“I’m sorry I called you a cow,” Nova said diffidently.  

Vocalising her objection as an, “Ah,” Taes went on to say, “No, that’s not entirely true.”  She lifted a PADD from the coffee table and raised it to the level of her eyes.  She shook the PADD as if it offended her and then she returned it to the table.  Taes then raised a different PADD to read from.  This one was green.  When Taes read what was transcribed on the display she spoke with even less inflection than Starfleet’s computer voice interface.

“What you said was,” Taes said, “Go back.  Go back.  Please.  Go back.  You have to.  Go back for them.  Rescue Yuulik, you heartless cow.”

Taes locked eyes with Nova and raised her eyebrows at her.  It looked like she was daring Nova to say something more.  Then Taes gently placed the PADD back on the table.

“I deserved every word,” Taes said in surrender.  The resignation in her voice built to determination, when she said, “I deserved worse.  But your five-hundred crewmates?  They deserved exactly what they got.  I couldn’t sacrifice all our lives in a vain attempt at heroism.  I keep meditating on the sequence of events at the Kholara Observatory… The swiftness of the attack; the transmission… I have to assume the Dominion were expecting us.”

Carefully seating herself into the barrel chair opposite Taes, Nova said, “If the Dominion had a method of monitoring our computer systems…”

“That part of might have been them or… it might have been the Romulan Free State?” Taes remarked, her gaze wandering off into the middle distance.  “And now I’ve said it.  But I don’t yet know.  In either case, I’ve changed our prefix codes.  Without that risk hanging over us, tell me the status of our communication systems.”

Nova winced.  “That’s a funny story.  Your warp cores produce exponentially more electro-plasma these days, I’ve noticed.  When I overheated the EPS flow regulators, I shattered the monocrystal waveguides in every subspace transceiver.”

Taes nodded, receiving the report without judgment.

“Within six hours,” Nova continued, “we can repair three of the redundant RF transceiver assemblies on the saucer section.  That much will restore basic ship-to-ship communication within a single star system.”

Now Taes winced.  “This far beyond Federation space, we can’t transmit our findings back to the Fourth Fleet nor can we receive new orders.”

Nodding sombrely, Nova said, “Lieutenant Pagaloa advises we’ll need the repair services of a starbase to fully restore our long-range subspace communications.  I wasn’t as thorough about trashing the comm-systems on every auxiliary craft, at least.  Pagaloa believes he can cannibalize enough components to rebuild one subspace transceiver on the hull, but his estimate in approaching double-digit days.”

“Because the engineering team is prioritising shields and hull repairs,” Taes acknowledged.  “I’ve also ordered him to complete an immediate level five diagnostic on our computer security systems, followed by an intensive level one diagnostic, which will take days in itself.  There’s no other way.  We can’t move forward until I know if the Dominion –or another third party–  infiltrated our computer systems before we reached Kholara.”

Taes rose to her feet.  “As a fully commissioned member of the operations team, I’d say Pagaloa could use your expertise, lieutenant.  Report to the computer core immediately, you heartless cow.”