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Description
All three women stood on the bridge of the USS Juneau—each immersed in their own personal thoughts of what they had seen first-hand.

It took the new Chief Engineer a few seconds to break both the silence and find her voice.

“Blessed Lady Luck. What a mess.” She exhaled sharply in solid dismay. “Captain Scott would have kittens right now if he saw the shape this girl is in right now. Come to think of it...? He once showed me pictures of the old Enterprise-Alpha in dry dock—shortly after the Whale Song Crisis. He said the ship was a real mess then too—but her engines were at least in Class A condition.”

Terri had reason to laugh then. “This is way worse than the Enterprise—that's for sure. Look at the forward console stations. Two of them are hollowed out and not even started yet.”

Just then, a remarkable looking young man—wearing Engineering colors on his updated uniform—popped in from the still open doors of the Captain's Ready Room; carrying a tool box and wearing a most frustrated look on his face to beat the band.

“Look...!” he growled over an open comm line. “I told Amy to secure that power transfer conduit on Deck Eight before we were to do anymore work in that section! Do you want our new skipper to read all of us the riot act because someone down below decks screwed up on the math???”

“We're working on it, sir. Don't worry. We'll get it figured out. We still have a full week or so to get this ship back in action—so...?”

“Doesn't matter if, the new captain isn't someone you can mess around with on a lark. Or her new Chief Engineer!”

Terri watched the exchange with some amusement as the man came up to them—apologized briefly—and then pushed Commander Underwood to the side so he could have access to one of the power egress trunks located under the Science Six station.

“...ship would have been crewed with 535 souls, but we're stuck with one-hundred and thirty-seven specialists, techs, maintenance peeps, and a few other odds and ends. Not a single Starfleet Officer to be found anywhere...” The woman heard him complaining while he started to work on reconnecting some of the disabled circuitry and relays inside the trunk space itself.

Ashley was about to open her mouth when he finished with: “...and I'm in no mood to command a boat load of inexperienced greenies on the account of a Fleet logistical issue which should have been resolved months ago...!”

Terri smiled broadly—sensing that she was going to like working with him on the account of a simple misunderstanding and a workload issue.

Nodding towards her First Officer, she said: “Go ahead. Tell him.”

Ashley broke out into a grin of her own and bent down from where she was standing next to the inactive science station and tapped the man on the knee.

“Whatever it is...it'll have to wait. These plasma transfer circuits won't fix themselves.” He said with some clear irritation from down below.

“Is that any way to speak to your new superior officer...?” The woman said—trying to act all serious, but she was enjoying herself more so than usual in this instance.

A solid whack was heard as the other officer in question smacked his head into something coming out and he scrambled to his feet quickly and saluted.

“Holy god...I'm so sorry! I thought you three were just visiting the ship and not ship personnel of any sort.” The young man wiped his dirty hand on the side of his pants and thrust it out towards the new First Officer.

“Um...Lieutenant Seth Richmond.” He quickly introduced. “I'm supposed to be waiting for the ship's new Chief Engineer, but I don't see them anywhere to be found—since coming on board last week. Admiral Freeman's orders.”

Ashley giggled and took the man's hand and shook it. “Welcome aboard, Lieutenant. I'm Commander Ashley Underwood. Ship's First Officer.” Glancing back at her Captain and new Chief Engineer, she added: “May I introduce you to Captain Terri Ferguson and Lieutenant Janice Scott...?”

Seth's face registered surprise when he heard Lieutenant Scott's name.

“Are you related—by any chance—to the Captain Montgomery Scott of the fabled USS Enterprise?”

The other woman nodded. “Distant relative of his. On my mother's side.” She confirmed. “So that makes you my new assistant chief engineer?”

Seth nodded. “Guilty as charged. So glad you came in though. This ship is a glorified wreck. I don't know what Starfleet was thinking trying to recommission this old girl—even if she is practically brand-new on the outside and straight off the assembly line.”

“Don't ever question the bean counters at R&D. These guys must have a reason—even if the given orders don't make much sense.” Terri said—still smiling. “So how many more transfer crew will be arriving then—in the next few days or so?”

Seth scratched the top of his head and shrugged. “I'm not sure, Captain. The ship doesn't even have a command crew yet, dedicated Engineering staff, or even the atypical ship's doctors. Never mind Ship's Councilor.”

“Well...that doesn't look good.” Janice quipped off to the side—staring at one of the lit monitor screens. “We can't leave Starbase Epsilon without the absolute minimum here. And none of these deck jockeys are qualified anyways—from what I can see from the ship's current manifest.”

Terri reluctantly agreed. “That's true. But we weren't expecting to leave in such an emergency anyways. The Juneau needs months of work—to say the least.”

Seth raised his hand slightly. “Well, everything is basically intact—but not in operational capacity. If we could do double shifts for the next four days...? We could get the ship back up to specs. The only problem is...”

“Yes?” Ashley questioned.

“The, uh, MVAM system may not be available for quite some time.”

“Why not?”

“Parts are still on order. New system upgrades...a few replacements...that sort of thing?”

“Sweet mercy.” The Chief Engineer groaned. “With the Delta Quadrant only partially explored as is—?”

Terri nodded. “I'm sure we'll be fine.” She decided then and there. “We still have to get this ship moving and that's going to take some educated guesses as is.”

Seth looked at Janice for a moment. “I don't mean to be out of line here, but is the new Chief Engineer even qualified to be a slipstream specialist?”

Janice hesitated for a second. “I've taken the required courses back at the Academy and did some on hands work with the older Seeker-class vessels, but...um...?”

The other man nodded sympathetically. “—just not enough to be fully qualified.”

“No. Not really.” The woman admitted out in the open.

Seth shook his head. “This is going to be a fun trip—no matter how you slice it.” Sighing, he added: “Any chance we can ask Captain Asimov of the Hermes if she could spare anybody from her ship?”

Terri was about to open her mouth to respond when the main turbolift doors opened and admitted some fresh arrivals—one of them whacking their heads on a support strut that had got stuck out too far for its own good.

Seth jumped in to say: “Sorry. We hadn't had the time to remove that yet from the ceiling mount.”

The younger woman—whom passed about nineteen or twenty—and wearing ensign pips on her collar; rubbed the top of her head smartly.

“I would say something, but I'm afraid the Universal Translator would take it the wrong way,” she said off key—before dumping her Starfleet issue duffy bags on the floor next to the turbolift doors themselves.

“Welcome aboard, Ensign.” Commander Underwood said. “If you're here for the grand tour, you've missed things by a few years running.”

“Oh, I know the condition the Juneau is in...believe me.” The young woman said with bright enthusiasm on her part. “Archie...? You're up next.”

The other man looked surprised by her sudden announcement. “What? Why me? I'm basically a non-com Type IV hologram. I don't know what good I would be on board this ship.”

“You are a rated Sixteen-Alpha-Three Interface Program. So interface.” The woman threatened at that point. “There should be a Type IX port plug in one of these station consoles somewhere.”

Ashley pointed to the station behind her. “I saw one such plug-in here at Science Station Six.” She offered graciously.

The same woman beamed. “There you go. Hop to it, man.”

The holographic representative nodded dourly—leaving the presence of his creator and master and walked over to the appropriate console and sat down.

“This would be easier if I had a connective memory drive.” He groused—before bringing things up to play and to full power. “But my master has my main core processor tucked away in one of those bags of hers.”

Ashley stared at the man in question. “So how do you operate?”

“Holographic emitter.” He said—pointing to a concave device attached to the sleeve of his right arm. “A gift from Voyager's Doctor after they returned from the Delta Quadrant those many years ago. Not the original mind you, but an updated version based on 30th century technology. Simple stuff really.” Then he returned his focus to the task at hand.

“Hmm...” he said through pursed lips. “Seems as though Admiral Tanning was right about the Juneau all along. But for all the wrong reasons.”

“You mean...besides the fact that this ship is broken and in serious disrepair?”

The man nodded. “Could be looking at a few months worth of work on the outside—if we had the time—which we don't.” He said with some basic humor in play. “Honestly, he was hoping the Roderick would be more available for this mission to look for the missing starship in question—but she's in the Beta Quadrant on a critically important survey mission for the Federation Science Council.”

“The Roderick is also a Resolution-class slipstream cruiser—right?”

Archie nodded again. “One of six built so far. Yes.” He revealed to the gathered group of woman at large. “But construction of newer class vessels has slowed to a crawl because of what happened to this ship and one other. The USS Dover.”

“What happened to the Dover?”

“Oh, runaway chain-reaction in its slipstream drive. Made a real mess of things.” Archie responded in a completely nonchalant manner. “I won't go into further detail of the incident. It's still classified at the highest levels by Starfleet Command.”

Terri wore a slightly concerned look of her own.

“What's the chances of it ever happening here?” She asked straightforwardly.

Archie did some checking—having plugged himself into the system.

His findings bore him out. “Well, the good news is...? The Juneau's slipstream drive is of a newer make and model. More stability too. Unlike the Dover. So the chances of the same thing happening again are astronomically small—to say the least.”

“So why can't we get it the damned thing to work?” Seth said in blind annoyance. “I've tried everything I could think of—but it just won't turn on!”

The holographic representative smiled. “That's because after she was docked for a couple of months, someone went down below to Engineering and unplugged it from its interphasic memory core systems.”

“Inter...what?”

“Newer, fancier, computer systems.” Archie substituted with a grin. “Don't worry. Your new Chief Engineer here will fill you in on the details.”

Janice Scott raised her hand. “That would be me.”

Ashley groaned softly—cradling her forehead for a second. “Tell me you know what he's saying...?”

The other woman smiled wolfishly. “I wouldn't be here—if I didn't. But I never seen a real holographic representative before. Heard about them from Jupiter Station's R&D labs, but that was about seven years ago.”

The new ensign smiled. “Archie here is a Type IV model. Fresh off the assembly line—if you want to coin the phrase.”

“Fourth generation? Already?” Seth echoed in surprise.

The woman nodded. “Yes. Things are happening at a lightning pace in the emergency medical holographic development programs.”

Terri wore a look of surprise of her own. “Wait...he's one of the new doctors for the Juneau?”

“Medical aide—actually. Fully certified technician too. Class V rating.”

“Same as our Chief Engineer. Cool. You two should team up.” Seth joked.

Janice punched the other man in the shoulder for that snide remark—but said nothing in her defense.

“Sorry. No can do, Lieutenant.”

“Why not?” Ashley argued blithely.

“I am a med-tech program. I can only effect repairs. I have very limited knowledge of Ship Operations. Per Starfleet protocol.”

The ensign raised her hand then. “I'm afraid that's my doing everyone. Before I joined Starfleet's Emergency Services Branch, I was an assistant for Doctor Gloria Fisher at Jupiter Station.”

“Doing what?” Seth pressed.

The woman giggled. “What do you think? I was partly responsible for Archie's development program and residency protocols. Him and all those like him will revolutionize Starfleet ops throughout the Fleet within the coming decade. That I can personally guarantee.”

Seth eyed her appreciatively. “Is that why you're an ensign?”

“Is that why you're still a Lieutenant...Lieutenant?” The woman threw back teasingly. “Command had to give me some kind of an approachable security access for the USS Juneau. Being a doctor's assistant wasn't going to cut it. So I enlisted of my own free will.” Then she pulled out a small data PADD from her person and turned it over to Captain Ferguson.

“Transfer orders as of or near this stardate, ma'am. Ensign Cathy Bates at your service. Holographic Engineering and Support Services.”

“New directive?” Ashley chimed in with interest.

Terri studied the information on hand. “Apparently so. Our new crewman is a specialist in optronic cybernetics and holographic research and development.” She said.

“Straight from the General Staff in fact.”

Cathy blushed a little. “Sorry. I left that part out deliberately. Didn't want to step on anyone's toes here.”

“So...the Admiralty commissioned your research and development at Jupiter Station as an assistant to Doctor Fisher?”

“I had done all the paperwork and theoretical constructs by the time I shipped out for Starfleet Academy.” The young woman said with a bit of pride. “Entered on a Junior Residency scholarship and got accepted at 17. Graduated ahead of my class at 18. Commissioned into the service at 19.”

“I never heard of anyone so young working for Doctor Fisher at such a young age...” Janice Scott mulled thoughtfully.

“I was a student of her work at an early age. It's what caught her attention and had me spend a few extra summer vacations working with her on some critical experiments and other projects—at the time.”

Archie cleared his throat experimentally—grabbing the group's immediate attention.

“Um...yes...anyways...I found an updated crew manifest for the Juneau which was just transmitted to this station a minute ago.

Apparently, Admiral Freeman managed to pull some people from various support ships and staff within the starbase itself. It'll give us a thinner than usual baseline for a command crew, but we still won't have a fully trained compliment to head out with.”

The captain stepped forward then and looked at the numbers.

“Jesus...” she said. “This won't cover half of what we need for a functional starship of this class.”

“How many?” Ashley wanted to know.

The other woman glanced back.

“Twenty-six.” She revealed sourly.

***

Artwork by Jetfreak-7.

Description
All three women stood on the bridge of the USS Juneau—each immersed in their own personal thoughts of what they had seen first-hand.

It took the new Chief Engineer a few seconds to break both the silence and find her voice.

“Blessed Lady Luck. What a mess.” She exhaled sharply in solid dismay. “Captain Scott would have kittens right now if he saw the shape this girl is in right now. Come to think of it...? He once showed me pictures of the old Enterprise-Alpha in dry dock—shortly after the Whale Song Crisis. He said the ship was a real mess then too—but her engines were at least in Class A condition.”

Terri had reason to laugh then. “This is way worse than the Enterprise—that's for sure. Look at the forward console stations. Two of them are hollowed out and not even started yet.”

Just then, a remarkable looking young man—wearing Engineering colors on his updated uniform—popped in from the still open doors of the Captain's Ready Room; carrying a tool box and wearing a most frustrated look on his face to beat the band.

“Look...!” he growled over an open comm line. “I told Amy to secure that power transfer conduit on Deck Eight before we were to do anymore work in that section! Do you want our new skipper to read all of us the riot act because someone down below decks screwed up on the math???”

“We're working on it, sir. Don't worry. We'll get it figured out. We still have a full week or so to get this ship back in action—so...?”

“Doesn't matter if, the new captain isn't someone you can mess around with on a lark. Or her new Chief Engineer!”

Terri watched the exchange with some amusement as the man came up to them—apologized briefly—and then pushed Commander Underwood to the side so he could have access to one of the power egress trunks located under the Science Six station.

“...ship would have been crewed with 535 souls, but we're stuck with one-hundred and thirty-seven specialists, techs, maintenance peeps, and a few other odds and ends. Not a single Starfleet Officer to be found anywhere...” The woman heard him complaining while he started to work on reconnecting some of the disabled circuitry and relays inside the trunk space itself.

Ashley was about to open her mouth when he finished with: “...and I'm in no mood to command a boat load of inexperienced greenies on the account of a Fleet logistical issue which should have been resolved months ago...!”

Terri smiled broadly—sensing that she was going to like working with him on the account of a simple misunderstanding and a workload issue.

Nodding towards her First Officer, she said: “Go ahead. Tell him.”

Ashley broke out into a grin of her own and bent down from where she was standing next to the inactive science station and tapped the man on the knee.

“Whatever it is...it'll have to wait. These plasma transfer circuits won't fix themselves.” He said with some clear irritation from down below.

“Is that any way to speak to your new superior officer...?” The woman said—trying to act all serious, but she was enjoying herself more so than usual in this instance.

A solid whack was heard as the other officer in question smacked his head into something coming out and he scrambled to his feet quickly and saluted.

“Holy god...I'm so sorry! I thought you three were just visiting the ship and not ship personnel of any sort.” The young man wiped his dirty hand on the side of his pants and thrust it out towards the new First Officer.

“Um...Lieutenant Seth Richmond.” He quickly introduced. “I'm supposed to be waiting for the ship's new Chief Engineer, but I don't see them anywhere to be found—since coming on board last week. Admiral Freeman's orders.”

Ashley giggled and took the man's hand and shook it. “Welcome aboard, Lieutenant. I'm Commander Ashley Underwood. Ship's First Officer.” Glancing back at her Captain and new Chief Engineer, she added: “May I introduce you to Captain Terri Ferguson and Lieutenant Janice Scott...?”

Seth's face registered surprise when he heard Lieutenant Scott's name.

“Are you related—by any chance—to the Captain Montgomery Scott of the fabled USS Enterprise?”

The other woman nodded. “Distant relative of his. On my mother's side.” She confirmed. “So that makes you my new assistant chief engineer?”

Seth nodded. “Guilty as charged. So glad you came in though. This ship is a glorified wreck. I don't know what Starfleet was thinking trying to recommission this old girl—even if she is practically brand-new on the outside and straight off the assembly line.”

“Don't ever question the bean counters at R&D. These guys must have a reason—even if the given orders don't make much sense.” Terri said—still smiling. “So how many more transfer crew will be arriving then—in the next few days or so?”

Seth scratched the top of his head and shrugged. “I'm not sure, Captain. The ship doesn't even have a command crew yet, dedicated Engineering staff, or even the atypical ship's doctors. Never mind Ship's Councilor.”

“Well...that doesn't look good.” Janice quipped off to the side—staring at one of the lit monitor screens. “We can't leave Starbase Epsilon without the absolute minimum here. And none of these deck jockeys are qualified anyways—from what I can see from the ship's current manifest.”

Terri reluctantly agreed. “That's true. But we weren't expecting to leave in such an emergency anyways. The Juneau needs months of work—to say the least.”

Seth raised his hand slightly. “Well, everything is basically intact—but not in operational capacity. If we could do double shifts for the next four days...? We could get the ship back up to specs. The only problem is...”

“Yes?” Ashley questioned.

“The, uh, MVAM system may not be available for quite some time.”

“Why not?”

“Parts are still on order. New system upgrades...a few replacements...that sort of thing?”

“Sweet mercy.” The Chief Engineer groaned. “With the Delta Quadrant only partially explored as is—?”

Terri nodded. “I'm sure we'll be fine.” She decided then and there. “We still have to get this ship moving and that's going to take some educated guesses as is.”

Seth looked at Janice for a moment. “I don't mean to be out of line here, but is the new Chief Engineer even qualified to be a slipstream specialist?”

Janice hesitated for a second. “I've taken the required courses back at the Academy and did some on hands work with the older Seeker-class vessels, but...um...?”

The other man nodded sympathetically. “—just not enough to be fully qualified.”

“No. Not really.” The woman admitted out in the open.

Seth shook his head. “This is going to be a fun trip—no matter how you slice it.” Sighing, he added: “Any chance we can ask Captain Asimov of the Hermes if she could spare anybody from her ship?”

Terri was about to open her mouth to respond when the main turbolift doors opened and admitted some fresh arrivals—one of them whacking their heads on a support strut that had got stuck out too far for its own good.

Seth jumped in to say: “Sorry. We hadn't had the time to remove that yet from the ceiling mount.”

The younger woman—whom passed about nineteen or twenty—and wearing ensign pips on her collar; rubbed the top of her head smartly.

“I would say something, but I'm afraid the Universal Translator would take it the wrong way,” she said off key—before dumping her Starfleet issue duffy bags on the floor next to the turbolift doors themselves.

“Welcome aboard, Ensign.” Commander Underwood said. “If you're here for the grand tour, you've missed things by a few years running.”

“Oh, I know the condition the Juneau is in...believe me.” The young woman said with bright enthusiasm on her part. “Archie...? You're up next.”

The other man looked surprised by her sudden announcement. “What? Why me? I'm basically a non-com Type IV hologram. I don't know what good I would be on board this ship.”

“You are a rated Sixteen-Alpha-Three Interface Program. So interface.” The woman threatened at that point. “There should be a Type IX port plug in one of these station consoles somewhere.”

Ashley pointed to the station behind her. “I saw one such plug-in here at Science Station Six.” She offered graciously.

The same woman beamed. “There you go. Hop to it, man.”

The holographic representative nodded dourly—leaving the presence of his creator and master and walked over to the appropriate console and sat down.

“This would be easier if I had a connective memory drive.” He groused—before bringing things up to play and to full power. “But my master has my main core processor tucked away in one of those bags of hers.”

Ashley stared at the man in question. “So how do you operate?”

“Holographic emitter.” He said—pointing to a concave device attached to the sleeve of his right arm. “A gift from Voyager's Doctor after they returned from the Delta Quadrant those many years ago. Not the original mind you, but an updated version based on 30th century technology. Simple stuff really.” Then he returned his focus to the task at hand.

“Hmm...” he said through pursed lips. “Seems as though Admiral Tanning was right about the Juneau all along. But for all the wrong reasons.”

“You mean...besides the fact that this ship is broken and in serious disrepair?”

The man nodded. “Could be looking at a few months worth of work on the outside—if we had the time—which we don't.” He said with some basic humor in play. “Honestly, he was hoping the Roderick would be more available for this mission to look for the missing starship in question—but she's in the Beta Quadrant on a critically important survey mission for the Federation Science Council.”

“The Roderick is also a Resolution-class slipstream cruiser—right?”

Archie nodded again. “One of six built so far. Yes.” He revealed to the gathered group of woman at large. “But construction of newer class vessels has slowed to a crawl because of what happened to this ship and one other. The USS Dover.”

“What happened to the Dover?”

“Oh, runaway chain-reaction in its slipstream drive. Made a real mess of things.” Archie responded in a completely nonchalant manner. “I won't go into further detail of the incident. It's still classified at the highest levels by Starfleet Command.”

Terri wore a slightly concerned look of her own.

“What's the chances of it ever happening here?” She asked straightforwardly.

Archie did some checking—having plugged himself into the system.

His findings bore him out. “Well, the good news is...? The Juneau's slipstream drive is of a newer make and model. More stability too. Unlike the Dover. So the chances of the same thing happening again are astronomically small—to say the least.”

“So why can't we get it the damned thing to work?” Seth said in blind annoyance. “I've tried everything I could think of—but it just won't turn on!”

The holographic representative smiled. “That's because after she was docked for a couple of months, someone went down below to Engineering and unplugged it from its interphasic memory core systems.”

“Inter...what?”

“Newer, fancier, computer systems.” Archie substituted with a grin. “Don't worry. Your new Chief Engineer here will fill you in on the details.”

Janice Scott raised her hand. “That would be me.”

Ashley groaned softly—cradling her forehead for a second. “Tell me you know what he's saying...?”

The other woman smiled wolfishly. “I wouldn't be here—if I didn't. But I never seen a real holographic representative before. Heard about them from Jupiter Station's R&D labs, but that was about seven years ago.”

The new ensign smiled. “Archie here is a Type IV model. Fresh off the assembly line—if you want to coin the phrase.”

“Fourth generation? Already?” Seth echoed in surprise.

The woman nodded. “Yes. Things are happening at a lightning pace in the emergency medical holographic development programs.”

Terri wore a look of surprise of her own. “Wait...he's one of the new doctors for the Juneau?”

“Medical aide—actually. Fully certified technician too. Class V rating.”

“Same as our Chief Engineer. Cool. You two should team up.” Seth joked.

Janice punched the other man in the shoulder for that snide remark—but said nothing in her defense.

“Sorry. No can do, Lieutenant.”

“Why not?” Ashley argued blithely.

“I am a med-tech program. I can only effect repairs. I have very limited knowledge of Ship Operations. Per Starfleet protocol.”

The ensign raised her hand then. “I'm afraid that's my doing everyone. Before I joined Starfleet's Emergency Services Branch, I was an assistant for Doctor Gloria Fisher at Jupiter Station.”

“Doing what?” Seth pressed.

The woman giggled. “What do you think? I was partly responsible for Archie's development program and residency protocols. Him and all those like him will revolutionize Starfleet ops throughout the Fleet within the coming decade. That I can personally guarantee.”

Seth eyed her appreciatively. “Is that why you're an ensign?”

“Is that why you're still a Lieutenant...Lieutenant?” The woman threw back teasingly. “Command had to give me some kind of an approachable security access for the USS Juneau. Being a doctor's assistant wasn't going to cut it. So I enlisted of my own free will.” Then she pulled out a small data PADD from her person and turned it over to Captain Ferguson.

“Transfer orders as of or near this stardate, ma'am. Ensign Cathy Bates at your service. Holographic Engineering and Support Services.”

“New directive?” Ashley chimed in with interest.

Terri studied the information on hand. “Apparently so. Our new crewman is a specialist in optronic cybernetics and holographic research and development.” She said.

“Straight from the General Staff in fact.”

Cathy blushed a little. “Sorry. I left that part out deliberately. Didn't want to step on anyone's toes here.”

“So...the Admiralty commissioned your research and development at Jupiter Station as an assistant to Doctor Fisher?”

“I had done all the paperwork and theoretical constructs by the time I shipped out for Starfleet Academy.” The young woman said with a bit of pride. “Entered on a Junior Residency scholarship and got accepted at 17. Graduated ahead of my class at 18. Commissioned into the service at 19.”

“I never heard of anyone so young working for Doctor Fisher at such a young age...” Janice Scott mulled thoughtfully.

“I was a student of her work at an early age. It's what caught her attention and had me spend a few extra summer vacations working with her on some critical experiments and other projects—at the time.”

Archie cleared his throat experimentally—grabbing the group's immediate attention.

“Um...yes...anyways...I found an updated crew manifest for the Juneau which was just transmitted to this station a minute ago.

Apparently, Admiral Freeman managed to pull some people from various support ships and staff within the starbase itself. It'll give us a thinner than usual baseline for a command crew, but we still won't have a fully trained compliment to head out with.”

The captain stepped forward then and looked at the numbers.

“Jesus...” she said. “This won't cover half of what we need for a functional starship of this class.”

“How many?” Ashley wanted to know.

The other woman glanced back.

“Twenty-six.” She revealed sourly.

***

Artwork by Jetfreak-7.