“Captain’s Log, March 14th, 2402.”  Wren Walton sat in her quarters; her shift had ended a few hours ago.  The glass tumbler in her hand was chilled, the clinking of ice the only sound.  She’d downed one cup of hard cider.  “The Dragonfly was able to find a way to create a limited warp field up to factor one and left yesterday.  We lost contact with them within a few hours.”  Walton stared out the expansive windows, eyes searching the blinking stars. “Our nacelles suffered some damage when we crashed into this sector, and our wrap core requires additional work.  Chief Carlson is working on both issues with his crew.  Lieutenant Phillips has stepped up and assigned several teams of operations officers to assist.  Currently, projections are for another week or so.”

She wandered back over to the bottle and refilled the glass.  Her conversations with Captain Pantuso had continued as they had worked through the problem.  The facade of the veteran captain had faded away when she was alone with Walton.  “As for Captain Pantuso, I think her mind was made up long before we sat down to talk.  She had command of Dragonfly for six months.”  Walton grimaced, “I think not being given the chance to command the Mackenzie was hard for her…and she’d never admit it, but I felt like she was…jealous of my time with her ship.”  Pantuso’s history with the Mackenzie is deep.”  Wren downed the drink, cringing at the burn of the Synthehol.  “We’ve got work to do with the two colonies…at least we’ll have something to do while we try to get our engines up and running.”

She stared out the window again, her heart full of feelings. She had come to like the Perseverance and appreciate the small crew. The growth of connections between the teams had been slow, but it had progressed.  Walton reflected on the Mackenzie.  She had taken command when the ship’s CO had died, murdered at the hands of a Devore officer in the Alpha.  Her command career had begun on the Excelsior II class starship after years of working with offices to either get them back on the road or point them to an exit.  She knew one thing.  She didn’t want to go back to that job.  Ever.

“We’re scheduled to start working with the colonies in the morning.  If whatever this is doesn’t go away… we’ll be here for a while.  Might as well try and make the best of it.  Computer, end and save log.”  While she was confident they could copy the adaptions that the Dragonfly had worked, she was cautious.  Whatever this was…wherever it had come from…it didn’t feel like it was finished with them just yet.

And that made her nervous.