The double doors to from the turbolift to the bridge slid open with a quiet hiss. Commander Kirk stepped out and examined the crew. Lieutenant Tony Moreau sat in the systems overview station just next to the turbolift. Lieutenant Elaine Davies sat in the communications station just past Tony's. Stephen was glad to hear the latest report from Tony; he and Elaine had patched things up and were friends again. There was an empty station just past Elaine, then... a more curious sight. Ensign P'rr's, a catian female, was working on the station just past the empty one. The captain's seat, as has been for the past two weeks, was occupied by Captain Andrei Bolerov. The two seats on either side of the captain were empty. Seated at the twin console in front of the captain's chair was Ensign Tyler Bristol at the helm and Ensign Boors, a Xindi, at tactical. Stephen's presence signaled the beginning of the second shift. He would be relieving Captain Bolerov after his normal, boring update.

As Kirk walked past his old friend Tony Moreau, he patted him on the back. "Good afternoon, Lieutenant," he offered with a knowing smile.

"How's it going, Commander?" Tony replied with a wink. The formalities were being enforced by the captain, who thought there was too much fraternizing on duty. There was a new standing policies of 'keep off-duty talk off-duty' and 'on-duty we have titles, off-duty we have names' in place. By golly, the rest of Starfleet may be getting scientific and exploratory, but not this ship, Kirk thought to himself. Silently, he waved to Elaine, who smiled and waved back.

Kirk stepped down into the lowered portion of the bridge that held the command, weapons, and flight control systems. The bridge was unusually small for a ship that was as large as the USS Warlord, but that was for a reason. The bridge was protected by several layers of reinforced armored plates. She was built to prevent being compromised in any way. The metallic gray, brown, and green color scheme of the room was the ship designers' best attempts to add variety to an obviously military set up. Stephen walked up to the captain and snapped to attention. "Captain, I'm here to relieve you for second shift."

The captain nodded. It had been sixteen weeks since he had taken command of the ship after her previous captain, Lydia Velasquez, was forced to retire due to a viral infection. Things had started smoothly, but for the past few months, he had become tired. He was short tempered, though he tried to hide it. He had been losing weight, as his thinned face demonstrated, and his hair had gone completely gray from the peppered look it had when he first arrived. He motioned to the seat off his right side. With a mild russian-accented voice, he said, "Excellent, Commander. Please have a seat." Kirk obediently sat next to his captain. The captain took a deep breath, then reached for the PADD in the seat to his left. "Here is your status report for the shift, Commander," he said flatly.

Kirk took the PADD and looked at it. There were only three entries; a medical entry for Ensign Matthews, who fell from a crew ladder in engineering and twisted her ankle, a misalignment in the secondary sensor system that Lieutenant Kelly was looking into, and the reconfiguring of bridge conosole for sensor analysis. Persumably, that was what P'rr's was working on. "Thank you, Sir." He motioned to P'rr's with his thumb. "Does that mean we're getting a science officer?"

Bolerov nodded. "Starfleet finally listened to me. Our tactical officer won't have to worry about pulling double duty in tight situations any more." He added a tired, but triumpant smile.

"Sounds good, Sir," Kirk concluded. He recalled their previous combat situations. Either T'Nia, Tyler, or Elaine were stuck with double duty during the fight. It wasn't good. It slowed their reaction time. "Who is it?"

"What?" Bolerov took the PADD from Kirk's hand and stared at it momentarily. He shook his head. "Oh, hell. I forgot to list it in the status report. Commander Kenyon Richards is being transferred when we arrive at Earth. He'll be our new second officer. He's also our new science officer. My apologies for neglecting that, Commander." He pulled a small, metallic rod from the side of the PADD and began writing on the screen.

"No problem, Sir." Kirk nodded. Actually, it was starting to be a problem. Captain Bolerov had been acting a bit more erratic in the past few months. Actually, it started with the zone-out the captain had during the fight with the three hijacked romulan warbirds three weeks ago.

Bolerov finished writing and tapped the screen hard with the stylus before reinserting it. "There." He handed the PADD back to Kirk. "Now, if you'll excuse me... I have a long overdue date with a pillow." He stood to leave. "I stand relieved."

Kirk stood as well. "I relieve you, Sir." Bolerov gestured to the captain's chair.

As Stephen sat down, Lieutenant Davies interrupted. "Captain, I have a message coming in from Starfleet Command. It's Admiral Leonard."