“Captain Fontana.”

“Captain Walton.”  Geronimo slid into the chair opposite her and gave her ready room a look.  “Not bad.”

She rolled her eyes, “It’s not your office, but it’ll do in a pinch.”  She added, “Sir.”

“You invited me here, Walton.  I suppose you had a reason?”  He said it flatly, making it clear he wasn’t annoyed.  Just curious.

Wren smiled, “I met you in your house last time.  I figured it was your turn to come to mine.  You don’t call unless you have something for us.”  She gave him an expectant look.

Fontana shook his head, “Not an ounce of subtlety in you, Captain.  Yes, I do.”  He handed over a PADD, “The local Task Group operating within the Janoor system is being retasked with another mission.  There’s been some…turnover in their command structure with everything that happened on Frontier Day.  They’ve asked us for assistance with the system.  You’re familiar with the system.”

The Mackenzie CO read the file as she spoke, “We’re much more than familiar, Captain Fontana.  You’ve read the mission reports.  We lost good people.”

He replied, “I know the losses you and your crew endured.  Those that are left on Janoor III know you and your record.  To send in a new crew that’s never set foot on the planet…we’d be starting from behind the starting line…or probably off in the rough somewhere.”  He sat forward, “The point is…we need you and yours, Captain.”

Walton had skimmed the rest of the file and glanced up, “I don’t see mention of the Olympic here.”

Fontana nodded, “The Olympic is being tasked elsewhere in the Deneb system.  There’s plenty of medical needs across the system…and they will be in high demand.”  He put up his hands, “I know you enjoy working with Captain Crawford, but Deneb has needs, and they need the Olympic.”

Wren narrowed her eyes at his mention of ‘enjoy’ and thought she caught a corner of his mouth arch into a mild smile for half a second.  She was tempted to ask him what he knew but also suspected he’d asked it that way to get a confirmation out of her.  Fontana wasn’t stupid, and he wasn’t a fool.  She sighed and accepted the loss, “Who am I to argue with the Task Force Commander, sir.”

It was his turn to narrow his eyes at her, “You would be – several times in your previous Task Forces, Groups, and Units…I’m rather surprised at the lack of it.”  He stood, “But, who am I to argue with the Captain of the Mackenzie.”  He was smiling broadly now, and she rolled her eyes again.

“We’ll just agree not to argue today, sir.”  He gave her a nod and left her ready room.  When the door closed, she muttered, “That man knows how to annoy the hell out of me.”  She sent a message to Park.  

They were going back to Janoor.