Maxwell slowly walked the corridors of his ship, as he watched several crew-members leave their quarters with bag straps over their shoulders. Alongside him was Commander Ford, and behind him was Jadek. The Sovereign had left Chin’toka with Decker and Echelon, but not even five light years away and Beck had to drop them out of warp and bring the warp core offline. So while he waited for Beck’s answer on the problem, Ford offered to take his crew so that they could enjoy their shore-leave without delay.

“I can’t thank you enough, Commander Ford.” Maxwell said. “Are you sure you can do without your Assistant Chief Engineer?”

Ford chuckled, “Oh please, the man insisted on coming over, Captain. Besides, Fleet Captain Hunt was rather persistent. Rowe and Beck are needed back at the Starbase to assist in the repairs. So once the man tells you what is wrong with your warp core, then he’ll be leaving with me, along with…what…over six hundred of your crew?”

Maxwell had granted his entire crew as much shore-leave for as long as it would take to repair the ship. To remove that piece of crystal shard-chunk from the hull and replace all that was lost, certainly will takes a month or two. But with the engine troubles they have, he did not want them to have to wait and thus, why Ford made the offer. “Yes, I did say a hundred correct?” Maxwell pause before he continued after he saw the nod from Ford. “That should suffice as a skeleton crew to maintain key systems until we either reach Avalon Fleet Yards or are forced to go to Starbase Seventy-Two. Depending on how bad the issue is.”

Ford shook his head with a smirk. “I still cannot believe you came in, with a broken blade in your chest, and still gave the Vaadwaur a bloody nose.”

Maxwell chuckled before he stepped into the lift, Jadek slipped in behind them and Ford right next to him. “Bridge.” He said before he stared up at the ceiling, but he did not look at the ceiling but at the ship as a whole. “When you have lived on board a ship for as long as I have, you learn a thing or two on what she’s capable of. I just pray that I never see her get too old to fly anymore. But if that day does come, she’ll likely end up being in a museum and I pray I am still alive to see her then.” Maxwell put his hand on the turbolift wall and there was a moment of silence in the lift until it reached the bridge.

Maxwell stepped out with Ford and Jadek in tow. “So the Decker is en route to Starbase Seventy-Two?” He asked.

“Yes, sir. She took on more damage than the Echelon did. Plus, it be pointless for her to try carrying some of your crew when my ship can handle it, and then some.” Ford smirked. “We are also taking the Romulan Republic survivors as well. If I am not mistaken, you’re coming too, right Sub Commander Jadek?”

As Maxwell led them to his ready room, Jadek answered. “It appears that my form to join the Officer Exchange Program has been accepted by both our governments. Thus, while my crew are returning to our fleet to be assigned to a new bird, I have been assigned to assume First Officer for Starbase Four-Fifteen.”

Ford and Maxwell looked at each other in surprise before Maxwell was the first to congratulate Jadek. “It’s not going to be an easy assignment. You’re replacing a fine officer, and you’ll likely be in charge for a while.”

The look of realization hit Ford’s face when he remembered. “That’s right. Fleet Captain Hunt said he was going home to spend some time with his wife and son. You’re going to have quite the work load, Sub Commander.”

“Then I will endeavor to prove my worth to Starfleet,” said Jadek.

Maxwell chuckled. “You don’t have anything to prove, Jadek. But we do wish you the best of luck.”

Jadek bowed his head lightly. “Thank you, Captain. As to you. No ship should be anchored for long; so I hope yours returns to sail the stars as quickly as it can.”

Maxwell smiled and gave Jadek a brief single nod. “Thank you. Now, I won’t keep you two for much longer.”

Grak stepped through the large doorway and at long last, found himself standing in main engineering of the Sovereign. The Tellarite began to stroke his beard, his fingers gazing over the beads and rings he replicated and used to give his beard a clean, stylish look. This was his first time ever to be in the main engineering of a Sovereign class ship, let alone it being thee Sovereign. He had to give his entire case of Tamarian mead to Commander Robertson, the Chief Engineer of Echelon, who was going to be the acting Chief of the Sovereign, just to convince Commander Ford for Grak to take the role instead.

A man stepped away from the ‘pool table’ and approached him. “You must be Lieutenant Grak,” said the man as he held out his hand. Grak immediately grabbed and gave the man a tight squeeze with a firm shake.

“And you are Lieutenant Beck! Good to meet you!” Said Grak.

Beck smiled, “Lieutenant Commander actually. That’s a strong handshake there, Lieutenant.”

Grak looked at the man’s collar and tilted his head slightly as he only saw two solid pips. Beck noticed and raised a hand. “I just found out this morning, but never got the chance to update my uniform. Especially when I have been busy tending to the old girl here.” Beck gestured at the core.

“Ah, my apologies. Congratulations, Commander.” Grak then looked at the core and realized it had been shut down. “Do we know what is wrong with it?”

Beck gestured Grak to follow back to the ‘pool table’ and he brought up various holographic displays. “You tell me,” said Beck.

Grak frowned but then he realized he was being tested. Grak licked his lips and began to study the data, subconsciously his right hand went back to stroking his beard. He surfed through the data for a solid five minutes before he dropped his hand and turned his whole body towards Beck. “The magnetic interlocks are failing. If the core had not been shut down, they would have completely failed and you would of lost the containment field.”

A smile grew on Beck’s face. “Glad you were able to catch on it, Grak. I know you’re the Assistant Chief of the Echelon, and I know that not a lot of these systems are any different. But the Sovereign is still a different breed from the Echelon-class ships. She’s older, has way more lightyears on her, and has gone through a couple or so upgrades to keep her up with the times.” Beck’s smiled faded as a sigh escaped him. “Not that I didn’t think you would figure it out, but I wanted to be sure that I was leaving her in capable hands.”

Grak understood completely. He’s read the entire history on the Sovereign, and he knew that she has been through a lot. Not to mention different personnel every now and then. And now, she is on life support, while her heart is on the verge of exploding. To leave this ship in the hands of a novice, would certainly lead to disaster. “I promise, Commander. I will take good care of her.”

Beck’s smile returned and he gave Grak a soft pat on the shoulder. “Thank you, Lieutenant. Now, I got something else for you.” He then led Beck towards a device that a couple engineers were working on, including a Caitian. “This is Lieutenant K’Roll. Normally he is assigned to ship’s security, but he has taken the basic engineering classes at the academy and is currently learning with the rest of us on how to build this.” Beck gestured.

Grak looked at the device and frowned, sadly this was something he had not seen in his studies. “What is it?”

“Quantum Slipstream Drive. It’s not something Starfleet like’s to brag about, since it requires benamite crystals, which are hard to come by because of how rare and unstable they are.” Beck explained. “We managed to snag some from the Gamma Quadrant before we discovered an underspace aperture that we could enter. So, instead of risking the use of this drive, we chose the aperture to get to Chin’toka.”

“What are the risks?” Grak asked.

Beck threw up his hands with a shrug of his shoulders. “It varies. We have the instructions to build this correctly, and the instructions to write a program for the ship to automatically make corrections in case there is a phase variance. But, if we miss a component or dot a T and cross an I, we could potentially blow ourselves up.”

Grak’s eyes widened as he looked from Beck to the device then back at Beck. “Is it worth it?”

Beck smiled, grabbed the padd that sat on the railing, the one that goes around the core, and handed it off to Grak. “You tell me.”

Grak took the padd and began to read the paragraphs that were there. First he scrolled back to the top when he realized he was not reading the first paragraph, and then his eyes widened more when he realized he was reading all known information and tests of the quantum slipstream drive and its potential. He finally looked up from the padd at Beck before he started let out a heavy laugh from the pit of his gut. “That is crazy fast!” He nearly shouted.

“That’s the spirit!” Beck slapped the man’s arm before he began to head for the main doorway.

“But what if we get it wrong?” Grak asked, as he referred to building the drive or inputting the program. Or both.

Beck turned at the heel and as he walked backwards through the doorway, he said. “Then don’t get it wrong!” He turned once again at the heel to walk forward and was gone.

Grak took a deep breath and noticed the engineers, including K’Roll, was staring at him. “Let’s make sure we don’t get it wrong.”