Prologue

The silence of the turbolift was broken as the doors swept aside and he entered the chaos of the bridge. The blaring of Red Alert around him was dampened down by half a dozen different voices speaking into their comms, desperately trying to relate everything about their situation to Starfleet Command. The normally brightly illuminated white walls were glowing an almost intimidating shade of red now, the standard lighting having given way to combat lighting the instant red alert had been called.

He quickly surveyed the bridge, and then stepped onto it with haste, moving immediately to the first standing transparency computer terminal he could reach and double checking what engineering had just told him. He cursed and grabbed the sides of the terminal as the bridge shook around him again, the readout in front of him confirming beyond any doubt that the primary interface to the warp systems was fried. He moved quickly to the center chair, the man in it turning to face him. He had a trimmed black beard and neatly kept short black hair.

"Any luck, commander?" Captain Riker asked, his perfect poker face betraying none of the fear that gripped at his insides over their present situation. With nothing left to do, Ranma Saotome pursed his lips together tightly and shook his head.

"There ain't no way we're going to warp until the chief's had at least six hours to work on the primary interface."

"Captain," the ensign at the helm station called out. "The second warbird is coming around for another pass!"

Riker spun around in his seat and Ranma quickly took his own, twisting a little to face the readout beside his chair.

"All power to forward shields," Riker ordered. "Lock all weapons on their shield generators lieutenant Kara, let's try to knock them out."

"Aye sir!" Lieutenant Kara replied, her short red hair clinging to her forehead in a few random places where sweat had soaked through it. She began laying in Riker's instructions when Ranma's voice broke the air once again.

"Helm, change course; 210 mark 47 to intercept," Ranma ordered, his eyes not leaving the console. "Full impulse. Go below their bottom wing at 100 meters, mark... six degrees starboard. Lieutenant Kara, when I give the word, flip the polarity of the #2 shield generator."

Kara took only an instant to flash a look at Riker, who appeared to have no objections to the actions of his first officer. She shot a single nod in Ranma's direction and altered her orders accordingly with nothing more than a simple "Aye."

"What have you got, Ranma?" Riker asked, curiosity the better part of his present disposition. Ranma turned in his chair to face his captain, his expression lit with some form of enlightenment.

"It's just a hunch... but I think we can rip a hole in their shield grid. If we get close enough to one of their generators with one of our own and then flip the polarity –"

"The particle density of their shield matrix would be thrown out of balance by the sudden polaric variance," Riker interrupted him, a smile growing slowly on his face, "and at impulse the negative magnetic disruption would rip their generator right out of the hull."

"Damn straight," Ranma grinned, his cocky expression one that was more than just a little familiar to Riker. "There's a catch, thoough."

"The best plans always have the best catches," Riker responded.

"I don't know how strong Romulan shield generators' polarity coils are." Ranma blurted. "If they use stronger coils... We're fucked."

Riker's eyes went a little wider at Ranma's choice of profanity, a devilish smile appearing on his face slowly before he winked at Ranma and replied, "No guts, no good stories to tell when you're drinking!"

"Captain, there's no way I can navigate us within 100 meters of their generator," the helmsman spoke up.

"I can," Riker stood immediately and headed for the helm console. "You're relieved, ensign."

The ensign quickly moved out of his seat, allowing Riker to take his place. The instant he sat down, Riker began laying in co-ordinates at breakneck speeds. On the viewscreen, the warbird was rapidly moving towards them.

"Lieutenant Kara, soon as that hole shows up, you blast into it with everything you got," Ranma spoke to her quickly. "Understood?"

"They won't even know what hit them, sir," she replied enthusiastically, causing her commanding officer to grin despite himself.

The warbird fired as soon as the Titan was within range, and the bridge shook again. At the helm, Riker's face became laced with intense concentration as he laid in the slightest of course corrections faster than the eye could follow.

"Ten seconds to target," he called over his shoulder as the bridge rocked around them, a rear panel exploding out of the wall beside Lieutenant Kara's post. She cringed for an instant only, just long enough to make sure that none of the shrapnel had been heading her way. Ranma kept his eyes on her for a second to make sure that she was uninjured, but Kara's own came back up to meet his and she merely waved him off.

"I'm fine," she reassured him. "Let's do this!"

"FIIVE SECCOOONDS!" Riker hollered over the noise. Multiple electrical explosions sparked from the ceiling; the wall panels; the engineering maintenance hatches, disruptor fire constantly pelting the Titan for all she was worth as she dove swiftly at the warbird's underbelly.

"FLIPPING #2 GENERATOR," Kara called back, entering the commands into her station.

Out in space, the Titan's shield grid glowed bright blue against the sickly green of the warbird's shielding. Then there was an incredible flash between the grids, and suddenly the ventral hull of the warbird was ripped open from the generator all the way to the stern of the ship, the magnetic polarity of the Titan's own generator tearing the other out at the combined force generated by two vessels travelling away from each other at maximum impulse.

"FIIIRE!" Ranma called out his order over the intense shaking, deafening rumble and showers of electrical sparks, the proximity of the two sets of shields wreaking havoc with the power grid.

The Titan had one hell of an impressive aft weapons arsenal; Quantum and photon torpedoes flew from her launchers in awesome numbers to slam into the hull of the warbird through the hole in its shields as the rear phaser cannons pierced into her hull where the generator used to be, tearing into the very core of the Romulan vessel.

As the Titan pulled away the warbird glowed steadily red hot, quickly exploding outwards with incredible force as its containment fields failed. The Titan was overcome by the wave, tilting horribly to the side and being forced away from the explosion at speeds that exceeded the standards of the current settings of her inertial dampeners.

The main isolenear relay wall to Ranma's left exploded violently, his reflexes barely kicking in fast enough to propel him out of his seat in a flying leap before it was covered in a shower of half melted isolenear debris. As he hit the ground, the helm console right in front of Riker blew out. He was thrown backwards out of his chair by the explosion, his face blackened and charred.

"Captain!" Ranma was back up off the deck in a flash. As the computer reported a primary systems failure, Ranma skidded to a stop on his knees beside Riker. The combat lighting blinked out, and the bridge went black. Searching fingers found the side of Riker's neck and in the sudden ear-piercing ring of silence Ranma's mind focused on feeling any signs of life coming from him. The combat lighting returned as the computer announced the startup of secondary systems and a pulse of blood glided by beneath his pressed fingers, the unsteady rise and fall of Riker's abdomen indicating shaky breathing. Relief instantly washed over Ranma.

Thank fuck for that!

"Damage Report," he hollered out. "All stations!"

"Reports coming in from all over the ship, sir!" The voice of his ops officer was panicked, despite the fact that they were down one warbird and still relatively intact. Ranma smirked humorlessly in his mind when the word 'relatively' crossed it. In space, he supposed, relatively intact was not something that made people all that comfortable.

"Medical Emergency," Ranma called out to the barely functioning computer. "Beam Captain Riker to sickbay. Bridge to Doctor Olestra, stand by to receive the Captain. The helm panel blew out in his face, but he's got a pulse."

"Understood, Commander," the voice replied over the comm. Ranma stood slowly and the static-electric buzz of the transporter took Riker in its grasp, disassembling him molecule by molecule. Once Riker was gone, Ranma turned back to the center of the bridge, taking large strides back to the captain's chair and sitting in it. He turned to the railing where the officer Riker had dismissed from the helm still clung awaiting instructions.

"Ensign, take your post," Ranma ordered the young man. "Get us clear."

"Aye sir," came the response as the ensign quickly resumed his station. Taking a second to brush the debris out of the way, he quickly had the systems from the destroyed displays transferred to the remaining operational ones and laid in a course away from the remnants of the warbird's explosion.

"Kara, where's that other warbird?" Ranma called out to his tactical officer, his eyes not leaving the viewscreen before him. On it, through the haze of distortion caused by what Ranma could only guess was damage to the array, a planet was looming slowly closer, the orange swirls in its atmosphere only just becoming distinguishable.

"It's taken up position behind us," Kara replied to Ranma. Worry embedded itself into her features when she came to a realization. "They're faster than us, sir. She'll be back in weapons range in 30 seconds."

Ranma's features hardened. He would not allow himself to be overcome by the same fear that was gripping half his bridge crew. He was the man in the center chair now, and as such he had to maintain an even facade. Control was imperative, and he would best serve his crew now by keeping his cool.

"Science, what's the story on this planet?" Ranma asked.

"Planet is Class D, sir," lieutenant Modine reported. "Geo-plastic planetary body, recently formed. The atmosphere contains many reacti-"

"Thank you Lieutenant," Ranma cut him off. He was more than familiar with the planetary classes, and what each one entailed. Class D's were infamous for their reactive atmospheric compositions. The gasses were unstable and, when mixed with just the right dose of collected space gasses from a starship's bussard collection system, quite volatile. "Helm, take us into low orbit and prepare for atmospheric entry. All hands, this is Saotome. Hold onto your pants, it's gunna be a bumpy ride. Kara, all power to the shield grid."

"What's left of it," she mumbled under her breath. At the center chair, Ranma chuckled dryly.

"Not a fan of my strategies, Lieutenant?"

"That's not what I meant, sir," she hastened to correct herself, obviously bothered by the fact that she may have just made her commanding officer upset. "I-I-I was just-"

"Relax, Kara," Ranma grinned. "I know the ship can take it. Engineering," Ranma clicked the comm switch on the arm of his chair. "Marty, I'm gunna need you to take the impulse reactors into the red zone. It'll only be for a few seconds, I promise."

There was a little crackling of static over the comm line before the Australian reply came back to him. "Won't be a problem, sir, the impulse engines just might be the only system left in tip top shape, heheh. Just make sure it's only for a few seconds. If you hold the burst for too long, you'll blow out the reactors and with our shoddy structural integrity right now, probably take two sizable chunks out of the rear section of the saucer."

"Understood," Ranma winced internally, deciding that telling Marty he was about to slam into a gaseous planetoid with their 'shoddy structural integrity' was a bad idea and closing the comm link. "Helm, go to 140% on the impulse reactors."

"Aye, sir," the ensign replied unevenly, upping the intermix ratio as he sucked in a deep, shaky breath. Inside, he was just waiting for the ship to suddenly swell up and explode under his very feet. Instead, the deck plating howled and began to shudder violently. On the viewscreen, the planet loomed rapidly closer in comparison to its previous gradual closure.

"12 thousand kilometres and closing awfully fast!"

"Reduce the reactors to 75%," Ranma called out over the sounds of the ship shaking.

"Aye!"

"Five seconds to atmospheric entry," the science officer reported.

"All hands, brace for impact!" Ranma exclaimed into the comm.

Three seconds passed, and Ranma inhaled deeply. A nanosecond later the g-forces of the ship slamming itself into the gaseous atmosphere of the Class D planetoid rammed right through the inertial dampeners like they were paper maché shock absorbers. The bridge crew, all wise enough to brace themselves, managed to keep from being thrown around like rag dolls, tho not all of them stayed on their feet. The ship shook violently for a few seconds before the badly damaged dampeners finally adjusted to the new conditions outside the hull. Gradually, the shaking died down to a low key, manageable rumble.

"Report," Ranma asked, the unpredictability of the planet's atmosphere not something he was willing to hold on to for long.

"Shields at 18%, sir," Kara replied. "If you don't plan on counting the gaping hole above the number two generator, that is."

"I don't plan on needing the shields once we get outta the atmosphere," Ranma replied. "Lieutenant Modine, start collecting the gasses."

"Aye, sir,"

"Can you use the warbird's last position and take a stab at how far off she is?"

"She'll be in orbit in fifteen seconds, sir." came the prompt, experienced reply of Lieutenant Modine.

In his head, Ranma began to count down from ten. Everything after that would have to happen very quickly, or they'd be nothing more than a floating field of debris in the atmosphere of some random Class D planetoid. He'd heard his captain speak of the manoeuvre that he used to outsmart the Son'a ships in the briar patch. This was going to be his own private briar patch. This was going to be the manoeuvre that, if it worked, was going to assure that this ship and crew made it home safely. He could let nothing go wrong. No margin for error.

Three... two... one...

"All decks prepare for emergency evasive manoeuvres," Ranma sprang his plan into action. "Close off the Bussard Collectors - Kara, light up ALL aft torpedo banks - Helm, L4!"

Three people fell over themselves at Ranma's sudden tidal wave of orders, barely managing not to trip over their own fingers as they carried out their instructions. In space, the Titan veered back heavily, swinging itself in a backward arc as the impulse engines flared back to life, propelling the ship forward through the heavy, fast arc of an L4 manoeuvre.

The warbird entered orbit of the planet the exact instant that the Titan punched its way back out of the atmosphere, never having a chance to so much as discharge a disruptor bank before Ranma put the final part of his plan into effect.

"Science, purge the Collectors - Helm, hold your course and speed - Tactical, get a lock on that warbird," Ranma was speaking out orders now like he was on automatic. His eyes took in everything that happened on the viewscreen, and he coupled it with the information that his officers were kind enough to rapid fire back to him and what little he could learn from the display on the arm of his chair.

The Titan cruised past the warbird at full impulse, the venting Bussard Collectors flooding the space it was in with the dangerous gasses from the Class D's atmosphere.

"Weapons lock established on target's primary core!" Kara said excitedly.

"Clear of the warbird's space, Commander," the helm officer reported.

"Bussard collectors empty, Sir," Science informed him. At the center chair, Ranma smirked cockily. He knew it would all come together in the end. Their fingers were hovering over the proverbial trigger, and the Romulans had yet to even acquire a target lock on them. He took the moment in as he leaned forward in the chair, the smirk fading into an expression of dead seriousness as he gave the final command.

"Fire."

Jupiter station hung proudly over earth, orbiting at an altitude of 35,800 kilometers. Her metallic exterior was truly a sight to behold against the bright flare of the sun coming around the horizon of a spinning blue globe. At just over six miles in width and ten miles in height, the mega station could house over a dozen starships in her four internal docking sections. If one were to look a little closer at the hundreds of windows surrounding the main docking section, they would find them spread fairly evenly over 60 decks. Upon closer inspection, they might also see the one window that had an executive officer looking out on the docking section at that exact moment. They might even notice the look of mild annoyance mingled with determination written across his face, or the vice admiral who was stepping up behind him.

Ranma's eyes shifted to the left at the sound of his father approaching. It seemed most likely to him that his father wanted to rub his latest accomplishment back in his son's face. He snorted briefly at the slight pang of betrayal he felt when it came to his old man, but then he supposed that he'd always harbour that deep inside. After all, a curse that turned you into a member of the opposite sex wasn't something easy to forget. This wasn't the reason for his current bout of bitterness, however. His thoughts were flying back to a man who was, as of 12 hours ago, his former Captain. He'd served under William T. Riker for over a year. He'd fought tooth and nail to be the very best to come out of the academy, and had graduated from San Francisco as a full lieutenant commander. Even Riker hadn't been able to hold a candle to that.

Naturally, Ranma sailed upwards, reaching the rank of Commander in a mere year and marking himself as the youngest man in Starfleet to achieve that rank so quickly. The honor had come with his choice of next assignment, and he hadn't held back. The first officer position on the Enterprise (Ranma's dream post the instant he'd heard of Riker's promotion) had already been taken, but Ranma hadn't been as disheartened by this as he would have thought. After all, there was a 500 page book with Riker's name on it at Starfleet Command that was required reading for young lieutenant commanders hoping to take the leap to the next rank. So he quickly applied for the first officer position on the Titan, and had received the accepting reply a mere 36 hours later.

It was the height of his career, and he didn't feel all that pleased over having to leave. He had sworn vengeance for the act directly to his father's face when he'd been given the news of his promotion, since he and his captain were just beginning to become tuned to one another's behaviors, habits and responses.

"Well, Boy?" Genma sounded far too smug for Ranma's liking, and it actually caused him to sneer a little as he resisted the urge to pick up the old idiot and throw him through the glass and into the vacuum of the main docking section. He closed his eyes briefly, repeating his calming mantra a few times over in his head to ease his boiling blood.

It's not his fault he's stupid… it's NOT his fault he's stupid… It's not HIS fault he's stupid... It's MY fault from kicking him in the head so many times! Ranma allowed a hint of a proud smirk to show, but neutralized his expression a split second later, finally casting his gaze over to Genma as the older man stepped up beside him. "What do you think of her?"

Ranma took a second to answer, pouring over how he felt about the ship he'd been staring at the side of for the last two hours. When he'd first come into the observation area and laid eyes on what was to be his first command, he had to be honest… he'd almost gotten hard. First off, the four nacelle look was something that Ranma had always been fond of. He thought it made a ship appear much more balanced design wise. The ship outside sported four sleek, streamlined nacelles on four of the most aggressive pylons he'd ever seen on a federation ship. The nacelles themselves were a cast-off of the design used by Sovereign-class starships, with obvious upgrades and modifications. Moving his eyes to the body of the ship, Ranma felt his heart skip a beat. The round body of the Star-drive section was a blatant throwback to the Ambassador-class (and therefore to the Constitution-class by default). The Shuttle Hangar Deck doors were curtain-style titanium alloy, gleaming as the worker lights from a passing shuttle reflected off them.

From there, the underbelly curved elegantly from a flat surface to meet the bottom of the fuselage at the primary tractor emitter. Three weapons banks adorned the side facing the starbase hangar observation lounge, mixing beauty with deadliness as his gaze fell on the main deflector array. As he locked his eyes on it, it came to life and Ranma's pulse seemed to quicken momentarily.

Lingering there for only a moment, he let his eyes drift up the neck, pointed at the front, and widening gradually from the base at the back of the neck all the way up to the saucer. It was at this point that Ranma was certain he was head over heels. The saucer section looked like the love child of saucers from an ambassador class and a sovereign class, a high yield plasma weapon gliding off the front of the neck to run along the underside of the saucer all the way to just forward of the Captain's Yacht.

Yep. Love. Of course, he couldn't admit that to his old man. That would be giving the bald fat idiot satisfaction, and that just wouldn't do at all. So instead of making his feelings known, Ranma shook his head in emulated disgust.

"Let's see," Ranma mused sarcastically. "It has a body on the drive section that looks like you robbed it off an ambassador class ship and the deflector to match. The neck going up to the saucer looks like it's from a galaxy class. The saucer looks like a round version of the ones on a sovereign class, and the engines and their mounts look sovereign class as well, even if there are four of them. So I'm gunna go ahead and just paint 'Built out of Admiral Saotome's scraps' across the side of the ship, and we can call it-"

"Foolish Boy!" Genma snapped, his hand flying out and slapping Ranma hard across the back of the head. "The design teams for this ship are at the top of Starfleet. She's almost a full hundred meters longer than the Sovereign class! If I was trying to teach you a lesson, do you think I would hand you a hybrid built from scraps?!"

Ranma cocked his head and turned it a little to eye his father. "Considering that you're trying to show me how HARD this job is, I'm gunna go with Yes for $200, Alex."

Genma blinked in silence for a moment, never really considering up until this point that handing Ranma a constellation class starship and sending him out into the great unknown would have been MUCH more challenging than giving him something that was brand new. This realization had the vice Admiral kicking himself mentally as he fought to get his reply out as fast as possible.

"W-we-well fine then!" He did his best to appear irate at Ranma. "Just for that, you can captain the Stargazer instead. Let me just go get it out of the Smithsonian and re-commission it and -"

"Too late, Oyaji," Ranma cut him off, eyes back to being firmly fixed on the gorgeous boner maker on the other side of the glass. "You gave me this one, and my crew is showing up in less than an hour. Then it's just a few short hours before launch, and I get to go out into the galaxy and show you just how easy this job is."

FLASHBACK

"Ranma, My boy," Genma snarled at his son across his desk in his office. "You obviously don't have the slightest clue what you're babbling on about."

"Oh please," Ranma huffed, a shiny new third pip on his collar flashing in indirect light as he lowered his head a little. "Don't even bother, Pops. Captain's don't have to do anything but give the orders. You're so concerned whether or not I'm ready for command, yet there you sit behind an admiral's desk; and considering how much better I am at doing the exact same things as you, I don't see what I have to be worried about."

"Oh, is that what you think?" Genma's eyes tightened into slits, glaring deep into Ranma. "Just another walk in the park? You foolish boy! I'll have you know the hardships that fall on the shoulders of a captain make anything you've ever experienced in your life look like a ride in an amusement park."

"Bullshit," Ranma scoffed, a half chuckle following right behind it. "All I gotta do is not get people killed and follow instructions from Starfleet command. Nothing to it."

"Nothing?" Genma echoed, his face becoming stern as he folded his hands in front of it, obscuring everything but his eyes from Ranma's view. If Ranma hadn't taken looks like that from his father for the entirety of his life thus far, he might have actually considered it intimidating.

"Nadda," Ranma confirmed with a nod. "When I get my fourth pip, I'm gunna RULE out there."

Silence drifted between them for a couple of seconds before Genma suddenly changed his entire demeanor. His stern face was exchanged for a look of almost childish giddiness as he turned to face his computer notebook.

"Alright then," He cheered. "Why wait for the promotion process. Let's get started as soon as possible!"

"…What?" Ranma blinked.

"Ooh, look," Genma crowed, pointing at the monitor. "One of the latest NX ships is rolling off the assembly line in just 13 months!"

"So?" Ranma shook his head a little, still not understanding exactly what his father was implying. As he tried to put the pieces together in his mind, Genma was happily pushing buttons on his terminal's keypad. It wasn't until the double beep of a confirmed executive command came out of the machine that Ranma's eyes lit up like fire and he threw himself out of his chair, leaning over Genma's desk to try and read the monitor.

"What did you do?" Ranma asked frantically. He had spent the better part of his existence getting into deep shit for the decisions that Genma made FOR him on a regular basis. Experience taught Ranma to always be on the lookout for suspicious circumstances with his father. Instead, Ranma's face met with Genma's foot, which promptly booted him across the office to impact the far wall with a grunt of mild inconvenience. While Ranma was across the room, Genma took the opportunity to quickly hit a few more keystrokes, effectively locking out whatever he was doing, and then proceeded to put his fist thru the base of the notebook.

Upon seeing this, Ranma (who had begun to make his way back to Genma's desk) halted his approach, his shoulders slumping.

"Dammit, Oyaji…" he mumbled. With the originating terminal completely destroyed, there was no way Ranma could trace the orders Genma had passed along. The last set of commands he had entered were no doubt classifying the orders at a level Ranma couldn't possibly hope to get his hands on to unlock them with.

Genma was grinning like an idiot. "Now there's no accessible record of what I've done. Ranma, my boy, when that ship is ready to fly, you're going to find out just how wrong you are!"

END FLASHBACK

A fourth pip glinted from Ranma's collar as he finished recalling the scene from thirteen months ago. He had no idea that the orders Genma had passed along were promotion papers, let alone promotion papers with a new posting. The thousand megaton NX class starship Ranma had been staring at the last two hours was to be his new command. The only reason that Ranma hadn't flat out refused the promotion and transfer was because of a fact that his old man knew all too well and had played upon by not allowing Ranma to see, and therefore object to, his plan before it came to fruition. Genma knew Ranma wouldn't back down from a challenge once he was faced with it, so he had made sure that Ranma would be at Jupiter II on launch day, promoted to Captain and given his ship and crew before he even knew what had hit him. Ranma growled lightly. Well played, you fat idiot…

"So do I get to know who any of my staff are?" Ranma muttered. Genma simply shook his head.

"No, my boy. I'm afraid you'll just have to wait and find out."

Ranma cast him a wary look. Why wouldn't Genma tell him? It wasn't as if he would know them personally. Space was way too big for that to happen by chance. It was that thought that made Ranma scowl for a second. Space was way too big, and his father was telling him way too little for that to even begin to be a comfort. These reasons combined had Ranma glaring at the side of his father's head. It was at this moment that a quick realization hit Ranma, and he let out a short chuckle despite himself.

"Well, I know I've got at least a couple of experienced people on board."

Genma's eyes moved to the side, looking at Ranma through his peripherals, his expression betraying him slightly. This was all Ranma needed to see. He turned and faced his fool of a father with a pointed glare, arms crossing in front of his chest.

"After all, it wouldn't do to have a ship full of 'miscreants' led by an 'immature boy' get itself stuck up shit creek without a paddle. There's gotta be a couple of 'competent officers'," Ranma had brought his arms out, making repetitive quotations in the air, "on board for when I 'inevitably fail'."

Genma turned to stare at him silently for a moment, examining Ranma's face briefly before turning to look back out the window.

"Now what kind of father would I be if I didn't give you a safety net to land on when you-OOF!"

Ranma's foot to the side of his face quickly shut him up.

"Whatever, you old, fat retard!" Ranma spat back. "This has NOTHING to do with being a good father and EVERYTHING to do with covering your ass! You're so sure I'm gunna fail, you've already come up with a backup plan to get the fucking ship home and save that fifth pip on the side of your chunky neck!"

Genma, who was holding the side of his face gingerly, now went red with rage and barked back just as fast.

"You ungrateful brat! How dare you strike your father! Furthermore, do you know the penalty for hitting a superior officer?! Why I could have you -"

"Try it." Ranma cut him short. His eyes bored into Genma's, challenging the older man to do his worst. Ranma knew deep inside that he had conquered every single hurdle Genma had thrown his way all his life. There was no way he was worried.

Genma had stopped speaking, effectively being intimidated into silence. Ranma's eyes were alight with a serious lack of tolerance for bullshit, and Genma's skull couldn't take another hit like that last one. Ever since Ranma had dropped Saffron, he had been biting Genma back harder and harder. While the older man was loathe to admit it out loud, Ranma had more than demonstrated his ability to kick him around like a little crumpled up piece of paper. The Admiral had no intentions of further provoking the young captain until there was more space between them. Literally.

"Feh," Ranma spat. "No use talkin' to you. I'm going to my ship. I'll get someone in here to mop up your piss. Stupid Oyaji."

Ranma made his exit, spitting out the insult as the doors whooshed shut behind him. Genma immediately stopped shaking and turned to face the window. As he straightened out his tunic and cleared his throat, his expression hardened. Ranma would soon understand. There was so much to command that he couldn't hope to be prepared for. He was certain that the ship would come back under the command of his selected trusted officers, with Ranma apologizing hand and foot. He could just hear the boy's voice in his head now, saying 'I'm sorry' and 'you were right' over and over. It made him smile slightly. He had set Ranma up for failure. When his son's crew arrived, Ranma would be faced with one of the most difficult and intense psychological challenges he had ever faced. Oh yes, Ranma would fail.

"It's only a matter of time."

The Main Bridge. On any ship throughout history, it has been the central heartbeat. A section of the vessel dedicated to the culmination of man and technology in the most harmonious method possibly accomplishable. It was considered to function within the confines of a command structure, teasing the imagination with images of order, organization and a respectable level of quiet.

But what about life... before? What about the existence of this section prior to all the shiny white bulkheads, gorgeous transparency terminals, and fully functional self-adapting lumbar seats that could be heated or cooled? What was it like when there was bare framework still showing; where bulkheads had yet to cover up the bio-neural-fibre-optics until they were properly routed, engineers stood on anti-gravity pads to quickly set relays shoved half way through the ceiling and the aforementioned seating wasn't even a consideration as people loudly made their needs known to their aides or parts suppliers or whoever that was on the other end of the intercom. This was the bridge under final construction, and it was barely controlled chaos.

The starboard back turbolift doors slid apart silently against the wall of noise and a preoccupied Ranma stepped out, very nearly kissing the anti-gravity pad with an engineer on it shoved half way up the open ceiling right in front of the lift. Shaking his head slightly to clear his mind and focus, Ranma manoeuvred around the pad and headed to the only fixed seat currently on the bridge; the captain's chair. As he cast his eyes towards his objective, Ranma took note first of the spiky array of black hair that protruded out the side of the chair's head rest. He frowned. Was one of the engineers in his chair? Reaching out, he took hold of the side of the chair and spun it slowly around to face him.

The first thing he noticed was the command uniform, filling him with the realization that this must be one of his bridge officers. Even as the officer was raising his head up from the arm console readout he was surveying, Ranma's senses were already on overdrive. The man in the chair just poured pure chi off himself in what Ranma could only describe as a tide rising and ebbing in a relaxing breeze. The calm he felt spreading throughout his system just as a result of proximity to the man also mildly alarmed him, making for a strange contradiction of state. The man's eyes finally met his.

"You've got a really high strung aura," the officer blurted. Ranma blinked as his mind temporarily blanked, completely caught off guard by the officer's blunt outburst. Before he could recover, the man had recognized his commanding officer as the confused pig-tailed martial artist before him, and the sudden look of excited elation that quickly plastered itself across his expression made Ranma's left eye twitch involuntarily.

"Oh, Captain Saotome!" The man jumped to his feet and stood at attention. "I'm sorry for my bold statement, sir. It's just your aura was so charged it broke my train of thought."

Ranma frowned, now thoroughly disrupted. "My... huh?" It seemed his brain had decided to reboot, and the loading bar was still sliding its way over to comprehension of the situation.

"Oh, what's wrong with me," deep brown eyes rolled at the officer's own expense. "I'm Son Goku. I'm your first officer!"

The newly introduced Commander Goku stuck out his hand. Still recovering from the onslaught of the last 45 seconds, Ranma's own hand slowly drifted up to meet it, finally gaining a firm grip and a solid shake.

"Uh, Commander. Ya, sorry, good to meet you. Um... boldness is all good, but uh, for the record? Your aura is pretty fucked up too. I'd go with creepily happy and calm."

Goku grinned with a chuckle. "Hehey, you can read chi too? Oh man, that's great!"

"Call it one of my simpler talents," Ranma replied with a grin, forgetting in an instant that Goku was the first to speak of HIS aura and immediately becoming engrossed in himself. "I got WAY more impressive stuff than THAT in my skill list!"

Goku laughed briefly, his smile unfaltering. "Well the admiral did say you were cocky hahah!"

"Eh... xcuse me?" Ranma deflated.

"Good thing I'm used to Vegeta," Goku continued unhindered.

"My father told you I'm cocky." Ranma stated for confirmation.

"Well, he used more colorful words that I didn't really understand entirely, but don't worry sir. I don't judge people for having healthy egos. We'll get along great, I promise!"

Ranma began to seethe slowly, his face becoming noticeably more red. How dare his idiot father ruin his first meeting with his new first officer! It made him wonder what else Genma had prattled on to Goku about. Most likely went through the whole speech on how inept and ungrateful his son was and how badly he needed to learn his place and kiss his father's feet.. Then it occurred to him that he could just ask the man in front of him. Goku seemed eager to be honest and real with people, so why not let him flex that desire a little?

"What else did he tell you?" Ranma blurted, the question springing out of him much faster than he had intended.

"huh?" Goku blinked, his smile being replaced by a blank expression. "Well, quite a bit, actually. To be honest, I kind of tuned him out after a few minutes. He was going on about some lesson he wanted to teach you. He said that's why me and Vegeta are here; to take over when things go south."

"I don't need no fucking babysitters!" Ranma snapped. "Stupid Oyaji, who does he think he is?"

"Captain, please, calm down!" Goku urged, making a stopping motion with his hands. "I'm sure he didn't mean -"

"Of course he did!" Ranma spat. "He always does. He expects me to fail at every turn and learn some valuable lesson about how he's always right and I'm just his dumb kid! Like Riker taught me NOTHING!"

"You served under Captain Riker?" Goku's eyes went a little wider.

"I was his first officer until my idiot pops pulled this stunt on me," Ranma grunted in reply.

"I don't get it," Goku frowned. "Riker is one of the best. If you were his first officer, then there's no way you can be as incompetent as the admiral made you sound."

"Pfft." Ranma rolled his eyes. "Try telling HIM that."

"Well gee," Goku blinked. "What started this between you two?

It was at that exact moment that an electrical spark went off inside the ceiling panel that the engineer on the anti gravity pad was working on and a quick, loud cuss came out of the compartment. Instantly, the bridge filled with the sound of a fire klaxon and the fire suppression system kicked in, raining down water from the overhead sprinklers. Goku looked up from Ranma to see if the engineer was OK. The instant he looked up, he heard Ranma curse in shifting tone.

"Son of a fucking bitch!" Ranma swore through the change, bringing Goku's eyes back to his. When they doubled in size, Ranma sighed heavily. Ample cleavage rose up and fell when she did so, confirming what Goku's eyes were already telling his brain.

"Uh..."

"I know," Ranma drolled out, an apology drifting out of the ceiling as the sprinkler system finally deactivated. "Follow me, commander. Let's go talk in my ready room."

Goku's vision followed Ranma as she walked past him, heading for the ready room. Once his brain had caught back up with reality (he had to admit, the redhead was definitely drop dead gorgeous), he started to follow her, bumbling out his confusion.

"You... kinda switched genders on me there, Captain."

"You Stupid Idiot!"

The insult reverberated heavily off the walls of the engine room, even dulling out the sound of the barely pulsing warp core, which was only just managing to keep up with the requirements of providing the starship with main power. Several staff that had been moving about their duties, rather like ants scurrying about a colony in construction, stopped now and turned their heads in the direction of the heavily intoned insult. Experience had taught them that many different things could bring around such anger, and that getting involved would only result in more suffering for additional individuals. That didn't change the facts, however; watching the end results of such explosions had rapidly become a spectator sport.

In this case, the lieutenant getting yelled at, one Roy Clayton, gulped heavily as the circuits sticking out of an open section of the central table station before him smouldered with the occasional shower of spitting sparks. The sonic tuner he held in his hand sported a completely melted transparent aluminium tuning fork, his actions in the circuitry obviously having had detrimental effects as his superior continued to give him shit.

"I told you to check the polarization of the matrix BEFORE you balanced the fucking outputs!"

"I-I-I-I'm sorry, Commander Vegeta, sir," Roy stammered nervously. He had long since learned that aggravating the Prince of Saiyans had painful consequences. He wasn't sure exactly how the man got away with it, Starfleet regulations being very clear about turning your fellow shipmates black and blue outside of a training exercise, but get away with it he did. Frequently. "I d-d-didn't know that the p-p-power matrix hadn't been -"

"Oh, for the love of my Father himself," Vegeta cursed, effectively cutting off Lieutenant Clayton. "STOP YIPPING AND FIX IT!"

He made a fist and growled under his breath as he turned to the sparking central table station and slapped the console in frustration, triggering the com and hailing the bridge.

"Bridge; Engineering," He growled out, shaking his head as Lieutenant Roy quickly vacated the premises to find the tools he would need to effect repairs to the destroyed circuitry. As he watched the man's back disappear around the door frame of the 'tool shed', he couldn't help but feel that old familiar violent tendency creeping back up on him. There were times he had to remind himself that airlocks were for loading and unloading cargo; NOT for shoving personnel out of!

"Go ahead, Vegeta." Goku's voice chirped back over the com system. It almost sickened Vegeta just how cheerful he sounded all the time. Unless he got flustered to your face, he could get into a heated argument with one person and then turn around and treat the person right beside him like nothing had just upset him in the first place.

"Listen, Kakarot," Vegeta breathed out as he closed his eyes, counting to ten a few times in his head so as not to lose his cool over the com system. Flipping out on Kakarot would accomplish nothing, and the problem was being addressed. Of course, Vegeta would watch the repairs like a hawk now, making sure that the problem didn't repeat itself. "One of my brilliant lackeys just tried to balance the harmonic outputs on the bridge emergency transporter systems without making sure he had negative polarity. Needless to say the 'light-pipes' have turned into bio-neural soup now. It'll be at least an hour to repair."

There was a short chuckle from Goku, causing Vegeta to growl under his breath a little. He failed to see what was so funny about the sheer number of fuck ups that had happened in the last 72 hours since they had received their launch orders. Kakarot shouldn't be laughing, he should be just as upset as Vegeta himself was!

"Alrighty then, I'll pass the message along," Goku replied just as cheerfully. Vegeta felt like he wanted to puke. That or reach through the com and break Kakarot's neck, one of the two. "The captain is on board now, by the way, and he wants to see you as soon as possible."

He felt a nerve in his brain explode violently. "Are you fucking KIDDING ME?" Did you not hear what I JUST told you? I have a team full of amateurs down here that are going to be the death of this ship very shortly after her launch, and I CANNOT leave them unsupervised! Do you want to become space dust the moment we leave the starbase? NEITHER DO I! You tell the Captain I'll be there when I'm done shoving all their HEADS up their fucking ASSES!"

There was a moment of silence from the com before a new, oddly feminine sounding voice came over it. "Untie your panties, Commander, I'll come to you instead."

Vegeta's wall of rage crumbled around him as he realized he had just done the one thing he didn't want to do and come unglued, and that the Captain of all people had been privy to his outburst. He closed his eyes and turned his head to the side, cursing softly under his breath. Sucking in a deep breath of air, imagining it as strength and control entering his body, he finally replied, "Aye, sir."

Reaching forward and switching the com off, Vegeta turned sharply and began to holler out across engineering at the top of his lungs. "LISTEN UP, YOU PACK OF MORONS!"

Within seconds, Vegeta's entire engineering crew had assembled around him, a little fear showing on almost all their faces, his second being the only exception. Dana Jorgensen. The two of them had hit it off much easier than he and any other human ever had before, and Vegeta was never able to put his thumb on exactly why. Maybe it was because she never let show if she felt intimidated, exhausted, angered, frustrated; any number of negative things. She was always just.. Focused. Determined. Driven and confident. He couldn't count the number of times she had gotten so heavily on his nerves, yet he never once struck her nor seemed to be able to penalize her afterwards. She was like his backup brain that would catch things that slipped thru the cracks of his own. No matter how much they argued over equations or mechanics, both of them remained stubborn to the last, defeat always being a grating admission on the other. There was respect there. No reason, just BAM! New human in his life. BAM! She's a stubborn, determined piece of work. BAM! Respect. He shook his head a few seconds slowly side to side, then began to address them all as one.

"You lot," he started out, voice lowered a little at first, "have screwed up on basics, made stupid decisions regarding key systems, lost tools, broken tools, borrowed MY tools and lost and or broken THEM... I mean, at this point a five year old would understand quantum mechanics better than most of YOU. Now the captain is on his way down here Right.. Now.. and what I need from this engineering crew the most is for them to KNOCK IT THE FUCK OFF!"

Several gulps were audible throughout the engine compartment as Vegeta's eyes crawled along their own gazes. Some hung their heads in shame, others took half a step back. Dana just scowled deeply right back at him, silently daring him to give her shit before she turned to the group as well.

"Ya guys, like, geeeezuhh!"

"Oh, shut up," Vegeta snarled at her, causing her to grin back at him with a wink. "Mr. Jorgensen's attempt to lighten the mood in the face of my ire aside, you all have two minutes to start doing things CORRECTLY, or I start popping people off my crew sheet left right and center. HAVE I MADE MYSELF PERFECTLY CLEAR?!"

"SIR, YES, SIR!" the entire crew sans Dana replied in unison.

"Fan Fucking Tastic. Get to it then." Vegeta grumbled back with a wave of dismissal. As the group broke away to rush back to their tasks, a renewed fear of Vegeta actually eating their faces keeping them in check, Dana simply stood giggling at them scurrying about.

"Heheh.. heheheheheh... 'sir, yes, sir' " she squeaked out mockingly, then tuning her voice down gruff to imitate her commanding officer, " 'Fan fucking tastic' That's what you all sound like, you know." her voice returning to normal at the last.

"Just... Just go mind your station, you mocking witch.." Vegeta rumbled halfheartedly before turning to walk away, Dana raising her arm to wave after him.

"You too, you antisocial doormat." Then she walked away chuckling, Vegeta turning and flipping her the dual birds going completely missed as she giggled her way back to her post.

Author's Note: WELL! I'm alive. After... what's it been now.. 8 years? o.o wow... Anyways! I've recently decided to reconnect with the writing side of my brain (I'm sure I may have had better wording for that at one point in time, but for now I'm just plowing thru this author's note so...) and I realized after re-reading this old story I had been writing that I'd ended up with a terrible knot of plot holes, contradictions and an overall feel of just... missing something. I didn't want to post another chapter without addressing this, but it meant a drastic rewrite of most of the story. So; Challenge Accepted :-)

I give you Star Trek: Wildstar the way it was always meant to be. Please flame gently, and for those of you who were waiting for an end to the old story... please don't throw too many pots and pans in my direction. I can only promise you that the quality of the story has been greatly improved upon and that you should hopefully enjoy it :D

Please review!