Aryanna and Meadow exited the briefing room several minutes after the meeting had finished and the Aztec’s crew had departed.

Viameli stood from the center chair as the other two approached, handing the dragon ring to the captain. “Seems as if the Aztec was not the only gift from Captain Kr’Antren, ma’am. They also brought over the system updates and equipment needed to install a refractive shield onto the Dragon.”

“Yes and I have a crew working on it already. I Wish we had it on board in the Deneb sector, that fleet would have never known what hit them.”

Aryanna raised an eyebrow at hearing this as she retook her seat.

Sustram turned in his seat. “Ma’am. Commander Thornton wanted you to know that they will be ready to launch in about two hours.”

Aryanna nodded, “Good, that’s faster than I thought it would be.”

—————————————————————————————————–

The team in matching yellow and grey jerseys and black cargo pants stand in front of the large matchup board looking over the assigned matches for the day.

“Ok team, looks like we will be facing the Cargo masters today.” as a middle-aged human turned to face the twelve people around him. He looks toward a large muscular Klingon “Tagrahk, you’ll have the anchor in his one.”

“It’ll be my honor.” Tagrahk answered with a nod.

“Sarah will take the lead.” a young human female nods.

“Remember this is our first match for the season; let’s not get any one hurt. I will make the calls from the second position. Remember we work as a team, keep your feet forward of your knees. Looks like we are the third match. So let us go watch the other matches. He then points out eight others from the group. That will make up the team for today. 

These matches are set up in the starboard dragon’s wing and in a way that the crowd can watch from the lower level and from the second level. They work their way towards the match area and see a team in red and black shirts all wearing a large number one printed on the back and front approach one side of the strung out heavy rope. While on the other side a group in blue jerseys approaches their end of the rope.

“Welcome everyone to the first night of the tug -o-war season. Let’s remember the rules as you all have been given.” Chief Thorn stands over the middle of the rope. “Ok then, the first match will be between Deck One and the Blues, the referee will be Chief Ngiazav from security.” An Orion stepped forward wearing a black and white striped shirt and steps up placing one foot on the middle of the rope. He looks at both teams. “You know the rules first over the line,” he points at the two yellow lines, one on either side, about two and half feet from the center of the rope where an orange streamer is tied on. “Wins. You may take your positions.” The crowd watches as the two teams approach the rope and arrange themselves/ “Captains, are you ready?”

A human in red along with another human wearing a blue jersey both nod and say that they are ready.

“You may pick up the rope” as he takes his foot off the rope and takes a step back. He looks at the two teams “Are you ready?” he asks and points as each team captain says that they are. He nods “On my mark, get set, pull”

The match goes for several minutes as the flag moves back and forth. Till finally the flag starts to slowly make its way towards the Deck one side, a little further every couple seconds as finally with a loud ”Heave” from the Deck one captain. They all take a large step backwards and give the rope a single huge tug pulling the rope over the line as the team in blue teams lead person steps over the line.  Chief Ngiazav holds up his right hand to signify that the match is over and who won. As a loud cheer goes through the crowd and the two teams meet in the middle to shake hands.

The human male in yellow and grey nodded as he turned toward Sarah, “Nice strategy.” Then he looked across at a few of the other teams and noticed several having conversations of their own.

The second match took place between the engineering alpha team and the security Bravo team. With the win going to the security team, after a several minute long battle of strategy and strength.

The third match took place between the yellow and grey, engineering Bravo team, and the Cargo masters. This one was rather quick with the win going to the Bravo team, as their opponents seemed a bit lost and confused on exactly what they should be doing as they had thought that their size would be an overpowering advantage.

They stayed to watch and cheer on the remaining teams as the last five matches took place.

————————————————————————————————

“Captain, I’m getting a distress signal from the Bajoran colony on Qisuemna four. Seems as if they are calling for any federation ship to respond.”

Aryanna nodded “How far?”

Viameli turned to face her “four days at warp eight, ma’am.”

“Do they say what the emergency is?”

The comms officer shook her head. “Just that they require assistance.”

“Anyone else closer than we are?”

“No captain, the next closest would be the Williamsburg and according to the latest reports from them, they would take about six to seven days to respond at their max warp.”

“Very well, comms let the Aztec know that we will be responding to the distress signal. Tell Capt Mathisson that we will return as fast as we can. Then respond to the distress call and let them know that we are on our way and that we should be there in four days’ time.