“Captain, there is a lieutenant here that says he has a message to come see you.”

Kr’Antren looked up from what he was reading on his desk console. “Show him in”

As the ensign held, open the door as a saurian in a gold tunic steps into the office. “Thank you, ensign”

The saurian sees the captain behind the desk and a big smile comes across his face. “Captain Kr’Antren?”

“Hello Ruz, I thought you retired.”

“I did, but it was boring.”

Kr’Antren chuckled as he stood and offered a hand toward the saurian. “What couldn’t find a job? “

“Oh, I was offered a very lucrative one from Harris Transport.”

Kr’Antren’s eyebrows went up “Harris Transport? And you didn’t accept it?”

“Oh, I never said that. But they kept me in some office and wouldn’t let me on a ship, and said I was overqualified for a ship board position every time i asked for one.” He blinked several times, “Like i said it was boring. So I went to the local Starfleet recruiting office and sought to come back.”

Kr’Antren pointed at the pips “Looks like they accepted.”

“Yes, sir. However, they made me an officer. Said I was too experienced and educated to just be a chief again.”

Kr’Antren chuckled. “Well, you’re here so i guess it wasn’t that bad.”

“It’s not boring.” he smiled and blinked several times.

Kr’Antren nodded. “So, I see you have been assigned to the Aztec as the chief engineer.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Guess we will be seeing more of each other than”

“You, on the Aztec captain?” Ruzguzee looked confused “a bit low on the totem pole for a captain to be commanding a Rhode Island.”

“Oh, I’m not commanding the ship. I was just made the commander of the squadron it has been assigned to.”

“Squadron? Hmmmm that makes sense for a Rhode Island.”

“It does, especially for this one.”

“How so?”

“Guess I can tell you since you are part of the senior staff on the Aztec. You will be teaming up with the USS Dragon, an inquiry class, an exploratory cruiser that has built itself into this task force’s premier intelligence platform.”

“So, Dragon Squadron?” Ruzguzee picked up his PADD.

“It will be. They have not been notified yet. Not sure how Aryanna will take it. She’s a bit of a lone wolf.”

“Aryanna?”

“Oh, sorry I meant Commander Rigras, the commander of the Dragon.”

Ruzguzee blinked as he read his PADD. “Guess it won’t be boring”

“I can guarantee that.”

“So who’s the captain?”

“I’m down to a couple of candidates.”

“I’m expecting one of them to come in later today; last I heard they were a few hours out.”

Ruzguzee blinked.

“You two would have something in common, well a couple things actually. The big one is he was the person I selected to replace you when I took command of the Osiris and you retired.”

Ruzguzee nodded. “Ahhh an engineer then, a ship like the Aztec will need someone in charge that knows a thing or two around the systems. Damn things are needy bastards till you get all the kinks worked out.”

“I’ll take that under advisement”

There is a ping from the office door.

“Enter”

The ensign sticks his head in the door. “Captain, there is a Lieutenant Rockholdt here to see you. He is the gentleman that just brought in the Aztec.”

Ruzguzee looked at Kr’Antren who shook his head. “Send him in, ensign.”

For the next hour or so, the three of them go over the reports from the shakedown cruise that brought the Aztec to Star base 47.

—————————————————————————————————

Lieutenant Mathisson exited the runabout. “Thanks guys” as he waved behind him. “No problem sir and good luck.”

Seeing the deck officer behind a standing console he made his way over to them.

“Good afternoon, ensign. Can you point me toward Captain Kr’Antren’s office.” as he hands him his PADD that has his orders on it.

“Ahh, yes sir.” As he looked up the information. “You’re going to want the operations center. I will mark the location on your PADD. Anything else I can do for you?”

“No, that’s all I needed.” as he picked up a duffel bag and looked at his PADD, and nodded as he left toward the turbo lift marked on the PADD.

Several minutes later, he entered the front waiting area for the operations center and approached the desk with two-security crew behind it as he placed his duffel by his feet.

“Excuse me, is Captain Kr’Antren here still.”

One of them looked at the desks console. “Oh sorry lieutenant, you just missed him. Though he might have been heading toward his new office.”

“New office? I was told he worked here.”

“Yes sir, he does but he was assigned to another entity earlier today. Looks like he will be quite busy from what we hear.”

Mathisson nodded, “Can you point me toward his new office then?”

“Oh, yes sir.” He looked at the console again. “Just go out the doors behind you and turn toward your right, follow the hallway around till you reach office 344. It should be marked as the office of the commander, Dragon Squadron.” the security crewmember looks at the console again. “Oh that’s new, explains some of the rumors going around.”

“Excuse me, Dragon Squadron?”

“Yes, sir. That’s what it says.”

“Great, just f’n great.” he picked up the duffel “Right, then office 344D?”

“Yes, sir”

“Thanks for the help, gentlemen.” as he made his way back out the door.

Eric stood at the door marked as he was told it would be and took a deep breath before entering. As he entered, he noticed a very blank and newly appointed office. Setting his duffel down beside the door, he approached the person at the desk with their back turned toward them.

“Please take a seat; I’ll be with you in a second. If you’re making a delivery please put them into the room on the right.”

Eric cleared his throat.

The officer turned to face the human lieutenant standing at his desk. “May I help you?”

“Yes, I was told that this was Captain Kr’Antrens office.”

“It is. How can I help you? I’m the captain’s yeoman.”

Eric hands the ensign his PADD. “Yes, I was told to see the Captain upon my arrival.”

“Ahh, I see. One second please let me see if he is available.” he got up and walked over toward the office on the left. Enters the room for a minute and then comes back out holding the door open. “He will see you, Lieutenant.”

“Thank you, ensign” as he entered the office.

“Captain, good to see you again.” as he entered the office and noticed  two more lieutenants in the office, one in gold of engineering and one in the blue of science.

“Lieutenant Mathisson, glad you could make it. How was the trip?”

“Long, captain. Not much room in a runabout to do besides sit around and enjoy the view.” he looked at Kr’Antren for a sec and chuckled. “I’m guessing congratulations are in order. We had not heard of your promotion sir. “

Kr’Antren nodded “It just happened yesterday, Eric”

The other two officers realize the first name basis that the captain and this new Lieutenant are on. The one in the gold tunic nodded while the one in blue just looked between the three of them.

Kr’Antren and Eric shook hands as Kr’Antren gestured toward one of the chairs.

“Lieutenant Mathisson may i introduce Lieutenant Ruzguzee and Lieutenant Rockholdt both of the Aztec.”

“Gentlemen”

“The Lieutenant here was the executive officer of the Osiris and before that he was the chief

Engineer on the same ship.”

The gold tunic’d lieutenant leaned forward and picked up a half-full glass and took a sip.

Kr’Antren typed something on his console as the two officers looked down at their respective PADDS and read what was brought up. Both nodded as they read.

The Saurian in the gold tunic looked up, “ahhh, a fellow mustang officer.”

Eric nodded and then realized what the two officers were reading. “Excuse me, captain. Is there something going on here that I need to know about?”

“Well Eric, the decision has already been made as far as I am concerned. I was down to two choices and after a meeting last night with my first choice turned up some bad information in their records I’m down to one, that one being you.”

Eric looked at him and then at the other two officers. “Sir. I don’t get a say?”

“Sure you do as long as it’s that you accept. Look I need a leader who doesn’t necessarily go by the book, one with experience in engineering or science, one who understands hardship, and hard work and is not afraid to push his crew to their limits and beyond if need be.”

“Sir, you know I don’t want to be a leader, Talibah gave me no choice as you had taken her first two choices when you went to the Dragon. I just want to be an engineer and do my job.”

Kr’Antren nodded. “And that is why you are the one I want.”

Eric runs a hand through his hair. “Sir?”

Kr’Antren runs through the premise of the Dragon Squadron explaining the roles of the two ships that have been assigned to the squadron over the next hour.

“So Eric, as you can see I need a leader that fits that premise.”

Eric looked around the room and then runs a hand through his hair again “Shit”

Kr’Antren picks up a PADD from his desk. “So do you accept?”

“After you put things like that captain I guess I don’t really have a choice, do I?”

Kr’Antren looked at the PADD and offered it to him. “Everything you need to know is on that PADD. You will need to conduct some interviews for most of your bridge slots. Lieutenant Ruzguzee is your chief Engineer. He was the chief that oversaw the last phase of the Aztecs retrofit, so there is not much he does not know about her. Lieutenant Rockholdt will be your executive officer. Sorry you did not get to choose one of your own but I could not deny the lieutenants record besides he also holds a degree in planetology and in Cultural studies which you may find useful. I have put some files on there that I feel would best fit for some of your slots.” he nodded toward the PADD.

“Sir, Talibah is going to kill me but I want Darame. If our mission is to scout and survey then I want a flight control officer that I can trust to get us in and out of places safely.”

Kr’Antren nodded and typed something onto his console. “Done, the orders will be sent in the morning. It will take him a couple days to get here so that is about how long you have to get the rest of your crew set up. Most of the crew will be assigned over the next 48 hours. ”

“Yes, sir”