The Irrawaddy pulled up next to the Culver City, and watched as the Santa Monica approached. Due to the frame of reference and the angle at which the California Class vessel approached, the 6 members of runabouts makeshift crew had to wait until nearly the last minute to get a view of the small sleek Shran class escorts.

It was accentuated and recognizable from the large red warp decellerators that appeared almost imbedded in the front of the hull.

Wong’s eyes lit up. He had guessed that they were being assigned to a Sabre class ship in the makeshift betting pool they had started the night before over dinner on the surface.

“Well whoever picked a Shran class ship just won a bunch of holosuite rations.” The Aprils new CO said.

“Bam! All day Risian mudbaths on our first day off my aquatic friend!” Lt. Tesa, the blonde, quirky Bajoran Chief Engineer exclaimed, as she gave her pal Mee IH a high 5 by smacking the tip of the Beluga’s flipper with her hand.

“Yeah girl….erm, I mean, sounds good Lt.” Mee IH nodded stiffly as he was suddenly struck with an odd sense of need for decorum he had rarely ever experienced before.

‘Shit maybe this red uniform is magical after all.’ The cetacean thought to himself.

After seeing Patrons eyes light up at the sound of a mudbath Tesa added “Does the Child of Tama want to join us?”

“Did Picard and Dathon rock out on El-Adrel and slay the beasty?” The Tamarian’s eccentric accent was now being mixed with colloqiual terms he had been hearing from Doc Lady for the past few months. This had caused the UT to just give up and start translating the words directly word for word.

Patron coughed “I mean, I’d love to.”

“Sir, hail coming in from the Santa Monica, they’re asking if you’re aboard, they say they have a set of orders for you.” Singh reported from his console.

Wong sighed, yet another Starfleet bureaucratic breakdown no doubt. Then again, the fact that they were flying around on the old Danube that had traded a few cases of Saurian brandy for was a local development that hadn’t been mentioned in any reports back to command. “Have ’em send it over.”

“Yes sir…they say the ship is ready for us whenever we want to beam aboard…and apparently 8 crewmembers who boarded at Framheim are already aboard.” Singh added as he was text chatting with whoever was operating the Santa Monica comms, as comms operator were prone to do.

“Hmmm…yeah, send that set of orders to my padd Lt. Lets go see our new home all.” Wong patted Singh on the shoulder.

“Do we want to see if this thing fits in our new shuttlebay?” Ingram asked almost mischievously.

Wong chuckled, “Sure, safely though please Mr. Ingram.”

“Safely sir, aye.” Ingram said as he flew a quick loop around the April before lining up for an approach towards the single small rear facing shuttlebay. He was enjoying the chance to fly again, though he had grown to like his new role as a senior bridge officer, he was a fighter pilot at heart.

Wong quickly read through the set of orders he recieved. I was only a few pages long with several sets of coordinates and a list of waypoints. Near the end he noted Starfleet Command had given him a set of temporary command codes to be used until him and his senior installed their own.

“Command code is Alpha 472, Delta, Foxtrot, 89. Use that and try to open the shuttlebay doors Lt.” Wong ordered and Singh complied. A half second later the shuttlebay door started flashing red from a few points along its surface amd started opening.

“Open sesame….It’s a good thing we don’t have a module mounted on top right now, otherwise this would be really tight.” Ingram remarked.

“Well, bays empty, looks like she’ll fit, I’m no sure what else we’ll be able fit in their with her though.” Wong said.

“If take her in nose first pull her in sidewase as the back, we’ll see what kind of room we got left.” Ingram said as he began to manuever the runabout into the small shuttle bay.

Just as Ingram was about to set the runabout down roughly 7 feet fron the rear bulkhead the interior doors leading into the ship opened and 8 jet black clad, highly customized Type IV rifle totting personnel walked through the door and lined up against the wall facing the side hatch of the runabout. 7 of the 8 formed a line and shouldered arms while the other, a mostly grey haired man wearing 3 full pips on his black tunic collar stood infront of them.

“Who the fuck are these goombas?” Mee IH squeeked as he saw the troupe come to attention.

“Those are intel uniforms.” Ingram said as he turned and looked after shutting down the ships engines.

Wong went back through the orders he had recieved.

“So, that’s probably what they mean by, In Extremis Team.” The CO said.

“Our what?” Tesa said.

“A team of intel operators that specialize in intelligence gathering, hostage rescue, and direct action operations.” Wong replied as he read directly from the padd. He continued, “Well, let’s not keep them waiting. Singh, signal the Culver City, tell ’em they can start beaming our people over in 10 minutes. Mee IH?”

“You got 10 minutes to get everyone assigned some quarters.” Wong said to his XO as moved over to the side hatch and tapped the control control padd opening the hatch

“Welcome to the April.” The commander snapped to attention himself.

“Thank you Commander. At ease.” Wong said as he walked down the few steps and went and shook the other Commanders hand.

“I’m Commander Danny Wong, the new CO.” He said as the rest of the crew of Irrawaddy emerged.

“Commander Jake Fields, Starfleet Intelligence. And this is your In Extremis Team” Fields turned and motioned to the other 7 members behind him. 3 Humans, a Vulcan, a Grazerite, a Caitan and a Bajoran. All male except for one of the humans and the Caitan.

“Nice to meet you all. So, I heard you all boarded at Framheim?”

“Yeah, we figured we’d use the week long trip out here to get some training in. We know this ship like the backs of our hands.” Fields said.

“Thats one way to keep busy I spose. Uh, this is some of my staff, LCdr Ingram who’ll be our Operations Officer, Lt Tesa, Chief Engineer, Chief Patron, Physician’s Assistant, and LCdr Mee IH, my XO. And our Head of Communications Lt. Singh.” Wong motioned at each.

“Pleasure.” Fields said as he nodded and then proceeded to introduce his team. As it turned out only he and human female Lt were actually from Starfleet Intelligence, the others had been seconded from other departments. A med tech, a SCE Chief, a pilot, and 3 attachments from Starfleet Security.

“Well, now that weve all met. The rest of the ships crew should be beaming over in a few minutes. What have you all been using for quarters the past week?” Wong asked out of curiousity.

“Our order were to setup our operations in Cargo Bay 3, so we’ve been bunking in there.”

“In the Cargo Bay?” Ingram blurted out.

“Its actually pretty roomy with the bunk beds be set up.” The Grazerite security officer across from Ingram said.

“Our orders are sending us on 2 year long extendable mission Commander, are you sure you want your people stuck a cargo bay that whole time?”

“We won’t be stuck there Captain, thats just where we sleep and do our paperwork.” Field replied as a few members of his team chuckled.

“Well alright then, look forward to working with you Commander. Number One, mark the Commander and his team down as residing in Cargo Bay 3.”

“Roger that sir….and crew quarters are…all done.” Mee IH said as he flipped his headset eyepiece up into the inactive position.

“If you and your staff would like a tour, I’d be happy to you show you around.” Fields said.

“That would be great Commander. Ingram, Mee IH why don’t you join us. Everyone else, feel free to get settled in, we’ll do a staff briefing in 2 hours.”

“I’m gonna go find my engine room.” Lt. Kyra Tesa said.

“With your permission sir, I’ll show her the way.” The SCE chief on Fields team said.

“Go for it. Detail, dismissed.” The old intel work said to his team.