DISCLAIMER: I ONLY OWN THE CHARACTERS AND THE PLOT, AND THE NAME OF THE SHIP. ALL ELSE BELONGS TO THEIR RIGHTFUL OWNERS, I'm just playing in the sandbox.
2 Days later...
"This is the Federation Starship U.S.S. Bulwark of Dawn. We have recieved your distress beacon. U.S.S. Autumnal Shadow come in." The bridge crew looked to Elisa Flores, who stood in front of the Captains chair, right where Cerana would stand. The light made the armor pieces she wore gleam a bit as she said "This is Captain Elisa Flores, we hear you." the shock can be heard in the other captain's voice "Elisa Flores, what happened to Vice Admiral Roth. Last transmission from your ship states that she still remained command of the vessel, have you mutinied?" Elisa shook her head before telling the comm officer to open a viewing channel. "Captain can we use the viewscreens, It'll be easier to explain than just voices." "Sure. I see your channel open now, hold on." The viewscreen flickers to life and a stern face appears in the screen. "Ok now explain, where is Vice Admiral Cerana Jade Roth? I see her sister Celeste there." Celeste looks at Elisa, Silently asking to tell what happened. Elisa nods at her then turns "I'll let Celeste explain what happened." Celeste stands up and walks over to Elisa then says in a loud voice "She's dead sir. She died two days ago due to her wounds from the crash." the captain onscreen laughs arrogantly. "That has to be the biggest load of bullcrap I've ever heard. I'm going to leave now, and report to Starfleet Command that the crew mutinied and took the ship over. We'll be back soon to take the ship back and arrest all of you. Bulwark of Dawn out." And with that he cuts all transmissions. The bridge crew of the bulwark looks at the captain in shock, never had he been like this to a downed ship before. meanwhile on the Autumnal Shadow Celeste is cursing at the viewscreen in many languages, some not even recognized by the universal translator. The rest of the crew is standing there in shock as well, half because of the arrogant captain, half from the vulgarity pouring out of the usually calm female Roth. Then Celeste stops cursing and starts laughing. "That poor fool. Starfleet Command will read his report then have his command. They know the strong bond me and Cerana had. Nothing would convince me to mutiny against her. All they have to do is take one look at the logs and then they will know the truth." At this the rest of the crew sees the humor and laughs with her and settle down to wait.
3 Days after Contact...
"U.S.S. Autumnal Shadow, This is the Starfleet task force Dark Horse. Prepare to be boarded, I repeat prepare to be boarded." Celeste looks at Elisa who nods, everything is in place already. All the weapons are in the armory, and they are all sitting calmly in the bridge, just waiting. As the first group beams into the bridge they are shocked to see the crew just calmly sitting there before Elisa stands. "Where have you been? It's been 3 days since we last heard from any Starfleet vessel." The boarding party just stands there. Celeste then takes the opportunity to speak up. "Are you going to look at our logs now, this will be the first time since before we crashed here that they have been checked. Oh yeah don't forget to check the captain's orders." The boarding party stares at the crew in shock. The Bulwark of Dawn didn't check the logs. The leader of the party speaks up, "Uhh, sure let's go over the logs in here." He goes over to the console behind the Captain's chair and brings up the logs. he reads over them for about ten minutes, checking with the computer to make sure that they weren't falsified before looking up at the bridge crew in shock. "How are you all so calm about that.?" He asks. Celeste answers for them all, "We all knew the risks when joining up. She chose to live an honorable life. And we had a memorial service for her as well before putting the body in stasis." The man nods before looking at the captain's orders and seeing the Omega coded order, taps his combadge. "Boarding party to transport vessel Nightsword we need a captain down here, I've found an Omega coded order." A minute later, a woman is beamed down with a captain's insigna. "Where is the oreder Commander O'Brian?" The commander, the man looking through the logs, motions to the captain. "Here it is Captain Treina. It's the last order from the captain. Why would she use Omega coding ma'am?" The captain responds, "Because Omega coding is a special type of code. It is only used by a captain to make sure that the record stays the same. It can't be altered by anyone and only fully decoded by another Starfleet Captain. Intelligence can't even crack this coding to falsify records. Well I'll decode it now." She decodes the order and then reads it before looking at the bridge crew of the Autumnal Shadow. She then says, "Captain Elisa Flores, you and your crew have suffered a terrible loss, and then a miscarrige of justice by the first passing Starfleet vessel that responded. I Captain Treina of the U.S.S. Nightsword apologize for this. Would you like some of our crew to assist you in getting the remains of your vessel star ready again and then a lift back to ESD where you can all have an extended leave while the stardrive section of your ship is rebuilt?" Celeste looks at the Captain then snorts "About time. We've been waiting five days to hear those words and I think I speak for all of us when I say thanks. There is one other thing I want from starfleet though." Treina looks at Celeste and asks, "What is that?" Celeste responds "I want that Captain of the Bulwark of Dawn arrested for abandoning a Starfleet vessel in distress, insulting my family's name, accusing us of mutiny and misuse of Starfleet resources. And I want to be there when they arrest him." Treina looks around at the bridge crew who all nod. "I'll see what I can do Commander Celeste Roth." Everyone looks at Treina in shock. Celeste was only a LC. Treina then laughs "I think everyone on this ship deserves a rank up wouldn't you say? after all, losing a captain then being accused of mutiny while being stranded on an unknown planet without losing faith in Starfleet is amazing." She then taps her combadge, "Nightsword beam down the Engineering Corps, we need to get this saucer back into space." The team then does that and in an hour the saucer section is back in space floating next to the five ships of the Dark Horse task force, The Nightsword towing the saucer section.
The Next Day..
The Dark Horse task force comes out of warp with the Autumnal Shadow saucer section in the middle of the formation, a special one designed for SAR warp manuevers. It allows a disabled/damaged ship to go into warp by surrounding it in a warp field from 5 ships. As the Nightsword tows the saucer section into place at the shipyards, Starfleet Command hails the group, telling them to come to ESD to recieve the orders. Captain Treina, Commander O'Brien, and the Bridge crew of the Autumnal Shadow arrive there to find the heads of Command saluting them and the rest of Command applauding. Then Fleet Admiral Ricky looks at the group before saying briefly "Your request has been Approved, go get that Captain and the ship, and bring it back here, yesterday." Treina nods then motions for the rest of the group to follow her. Everyone has a determined look on their face to find and catch the rogue captain.