Ruby let out a heavy sigh as he opened his eyes and rolled onto his back. He stared up at the ceiling as he laid there in his bed, with his mind heavy in thought. It had been about a month since they entered this universe, one of fates that are unknown to them. All he could do was think about the situation they were in currently and how they ended up to be where they are now.

With another sigh of frustration, in one motion, he swung his legs over his bed and sat up on the edge. On the other side of the room was his roommate, K’Roll. From the sound of his snores, the man was able to sleep just fine. But it was probably not at all difficult to fall asleep for him, for every single day, he had spent well over twelve hours with Grak, in attempts to fix the Quantum Slipstream Drive and some how manipulate the crystal shard in the saucer to try and get them back home, rather than send them into another universe.

K’Roll had tried to explain it to Ruby the other day and all Ruby could remember was something about a Quantum Signature that is identical to everyone on board the ship, except for those they have in the brig. And if they can some how tune the QSD to their quantum signature, then they can get home. On top of what Ruby remembered, he also remembered how they got into this current situation.

Ruby turned his head to look out the only view-port they had in their room, to see the McAllister Nebula as massive as it is. But that was a matter of perspective. The Sovereign was only so far from it to avoid the particle flux from eating the hull but just enough to hide from sensors. On top of that, the Sovereign was set to ‘silent running’. It was an old tactic but it greatly reduced their energy signature, thus if by chance they were not close enough to the nebula to hide them from sensors, then they would simply just dim the light of the light house as much as possible, if not turn it off completely.

Ruby thought back to their encounter with the Ronin. Him, Mizu and the counselor went to the battle bridge that he had no idea that existed until Mizu brought it up and led them to it. He had thought that it must of been good to have the Captain as a mentor to learn about some things about a ship that no one else knew about. Nevertheless, when they were there, some how they gained control of the ship, all command functions were transferred, and before they could execute their plan, they witnessed the Ronin open fire on the other ship. Ruby remembered both Mizu and the counselor telling him to navigate and plot a course out while Mizu had fired a full salvo of quantum torpedoes into both nacelles of the other ship. Being that the Ronin had their shields up and the other ship didn’t, made no sense to fire anything at the Ronin. So that Mizu had told him.

Ruby needed to take a walk. He quickly got dressed and left his quarters to head straight for the lounge. Although his destination was meant to be the junior officer lounge, for whatever the reason, he walked into the senior officer lounge. He only realized this when he saw a man that stood before the center large viewport, who seemed lost in thought more than observing the stars and Ruby saw the four solid pips on his collar.

“Captain?” Ruby said softly as he slowly approached the man. “What are you doing in the junior officer lounge?”

Ruby watched the man turn slightly on his heels and Maxwell looked at him with a confused look on his face. “What? … Oh. Actually, lieutenant, you’re in the senior officer lounge.”

Ruby started to look around and began to realize the subtle differences between the lounges. Then he looked back at Maxwell. “I apologize, sir. I must of took a wrong turn.” But before Ruby could leave, he heard Maxwell.

“What are you doing up so late, Ruby?” He asked.

Ruby stopped and returned to the captain’s side. Here he simply joined him in staring out at the stars. Stars that weren’t even their own. “I was having trouble sleeping. Things just don’t feel right.”

Ruby heard Maxwell sigh before he spoke. “Yeah. I have a hard time sleeping when the ship is not at full power. Sitting here like this, with a broken shard still in our belly and no warp core, is frustrating and nerve racking for me.”

“That’s right. I wish we had a different option to get away from that chaotic situation with those two ships. But when we were running for the battle bridge, we ran into K’Roll on the way. Mizu told him to drop the inertia dampers down to twenty percent and bring the warp drive back online.” Ruby knew that Maxwell already knew all this but he didn’t hear the man stop him. “Mizu said it was the only option we had. Couldn’t risk using the QSD, no matter how much of the crystals were left. And then the warp core began to overload.”

“Yeah,” Maxwell began. “It was a good strategy. Took me this long to think of it but I’m putting you and Mizu in for a commendation. K’Roll too. It was the quick thinking on your part was what saved us. And now we have these… I don’t even know what to call them… but we need to get rid of them humanely.”

After that was said, it was quiet for a solid five minutes until Ruby finally worked up the courage to ask. “Sir. What the hell are we doing out here?”

“I’m sorry?” Maxwell asked.

“We’re on a capital class vessel. We should be running diplomatic ops or I don’t know… anything but this. I mean. We had the option to be towed to Starbase Seventy-Two for repairs. Why are we here?” Ruby had turned to look at the man directly into his eyes.

Ruby could see the look on Maxwell’s face. Look of disappointment and understanding. “Listen, son. If I were any other captain, I’d have you busted down for speaking like that to me. But I’m not. And I like to think that’s why my staff trusts me.” Maxwell then took a deep breath, then exhaled before he continued. “We’re Starfleet. We’re not meant to fight wars and bloody people’s noses. We’re meant to explore. To reach out with open arms and teach others what it means to be at peace. But we won’t sit back and be bullied by anyone. As for being here? I don’t like having my ship out of action for too long, when we could be doing exactly what you said. Diplomatically talking to our neighbors or bringing supplies to those in need, or rescuing an entire civilization off a planet before their sun goes nova.”

When he said that, Ruby felt a sting in his heart as he remembered that Maxwell was there when the Sovereign was with others in attempt to save the Romulan people from Romulus. And when the rescue efforts was put to an end after the attack on Mars. And it looked like Maxwell could tell from the look on Ruby’s face.

“We do what we must in order to keep doing our jobs.  We all knew there be risks when we joined Starfleet. We volunteered while knowing the risks. But believe me, Ruby. If I had known that the shard in our belly would of reacted the way it did when we entered slipstream, I would of called for that tow.” Maxwell let out a heavy sigh. “I don’t intentionally put my ship in danger.”

Ruby swallowed the lump in his throat. “I didn’t intend to imply that you did, sir.”

“No. Of course not. You’re just as frustrated as I am and right now, I’m trying to not think about our dueterium issues on top of everything else. Hopefully Grak has a solution by-” Maxwell went quiet stared hard past him.

Ruby turned to look back out of the viewport to see why. The Ronin had found them. And then Ruby heard the chirp of a comm badge and Maxwell’s stern voice.

“Bridge, this is Captain Maxwell. Wake up the senior staff and go to Red Alert.” Second his voice stopped, the klaxon alarm rang throughout the ship and all Ruby can remember now, is following the Captain to the Bridge.