June 4th, 2391, 12 years after the Shinzon Incident.

Commander Alona Benson sat at an outdoor table at the Majestic Bistro, enjoying a cappuccino and soaking in the San Fransisco sun. Commonly known among the Starfleet Headquarters personnel as the "Mess Deck", it sat across the street from the HQ entry gate, the same place where CMDR Benson was acting chief-of-staff for the very famous, Admiral Kathryn Janeway. She had just closed her eyes for a moment enjoying the warmth of the sun when a shadow covered her face.

Opening her eyes, it took a second for her recognize Admiral Janeway standing there with a cup of coffee in her hand and a smile on her face. "Hi, Alona" she said. Alona stood up and offered a seat to which Janeway sat down.

"Gorgeous day" Alona said.

"Yes it is and there was no fog this morning either!" Janeway said, then, "I have something for you" she said as she laid a felt case on the table and pushed it towards Alona. "Admiral, I didn't know you felt that way about me" Alona said with a grin. Janeway snorted and shook her head, Alona looked down at the case. "Open it" Janeway said. Picking it up, it reminded her of a case in which someone might give a ring in or some earrings.

She opened the case and smiled, inside a single gold pip glittered in the sunlight at her. "Congratulations Captain" Janeway said with a grin, sipping her coffee. Alona sipped some of her cappuccino and then placed the new pip on her uniform. When she had finished, she noticed Janeway had placed a PADD on the table too, the screen showing personnel transfer orders.

"That pip is part of your transfer orders. Alona, you're getting your own command" Janeway said, then held a hand up when Alona immediately opened her mouth. "I know what Starfleet told you and your...siblings. Think about it, you served as first officer on two different ships, one of which was a Galaxy. One of those has plenty of firepower and you know it, so if Starfleet was going to remember to keep its promises, you and I wouldn't be having this conversation" she said.

"What command am I getting?" Alona asked.

"I'll tell you about it in my office" Janeway replied, tapping her combadge. "Admiral Janeway to Starfleet HQ, two to beam to my office please" she said. When they stepped into the office proper, Alona sat down in one of the chairs in front of Janeways desk. Janeway sat down, took another sip of her coffee and sighed.

"Alright, there is a retrofitted starship for deep space exploration for a purely volunteer mission that, if you decide to refuse nothing will be held against you"

"What is the volunteer mission Admiral?" Alona asked

"The mission involves you going to the Delta Quadrant, there are resources that still need to be extensively mapped, the spacial anomalies more extensively looked at, as well as all those new species we met while Voyager was out there. You are looking at a minimum five year mission so please remember, there are people out there where they had wanted to talk to Starfleet some more when we got home. Thats why many of them helped us along" Janeway said, then added "You know, some of those people I promised I would or someone in my place would come back to meet with them. Theres a planet out there full of humans, taken from Earth from different times"

"I've viewed your logs Admiral. Can you tell more about this volunteer mission, also, rather than sending out a retrofitted starship, wouldn't it be better to send out one of those new Deep Space Expeditionary Heavy Cruisers? What did they call them by the way?" Alona asked.

"No, Starfleet is keeping all the Wayfarer-class starships delegated to stick inside Federation territory and to patrol the neutral zone, you know the Klingons are getting frisky. Also theres only three of them, the next one is still under construction and won't be completed for at least a couple years, and they all have Captains that aren't transferring for some time. But, just between you and me, I am going to see if I can commandeer that ship. Its been a while since I have been underway, I want to see if I still have my starship legs"

"It was the council" Janeway continued, "That made the choice to send a ship back out there, not me. In fact, I was against them sending a ship out to the Delta Quadrant, but" she shrugged her shoulders and took a sip of coffee, "We need the resources, Starfleet didn't expect the Wayfarers to consume so much during construction. So they decided that a Sovereign or a Galaxy class starship would be equipped enough to do the job so Utopia Planetia is finishing retrofitting one of those two for deep space exploration, Utopia Planetia didn't give me specifics.

"Starfleet wanted, after reading all my logs dealing with the situations and the peoples out in the Delta Quadrant" Janeway continued "To make sure someone has more options than I did, more people to work with, a tougher, more capable ship, to handle any situations they ran across while out there. There were plenty of times while I was out there where I thought Voyager would be destroyed and we would all die, but, thankfully I brought almost all of us home with Voyager still intact" Janeway trailed off.

Alona furrowed her eyebrows, "Admiral, a five year mission would mean that I would not get very far into the quadrant. When you went through that Borg transwarp hub, you were still a good fifteen to twenty years out weren't you" Alona said.

"More like ten to thirteen years if I kept my stops to a minimum and maybe kept the ship running home at warp 9. Officially, this is a five year mission, when in actuality, its going to be around two to three years, however, you also could be out there for at a decade or more too, so thats why this mission and her crew is purely volunteer. In fact, I have offered this to other Captains this mission, all of which had refused to go. Thats why I am asking if you would be willing to go" Janeway said.

"Admiral, what do you mean this could be a two to three year mission but possibly a decade or more? You're confusing me" Alona said. Was she planning on utilizing a ship with transwarp capabilities? Alona didn't she could, no ship in Starfleet is capable of maintaining a stable transwarp conduit to travel through and Starfleets own transwarp technology is less than reliable at this point in time.

"The thing is, near the center of the Azure Nebula there is a brown dwarf and a single class Y planet. In orbit of that planet is a transwarp gateway that will launch you into the Delta Quadrant. While you're out there, you're not just going to be looking at spatial anomalies and mapping resources. You will also be charting locations for landings of transwarp conduits and locating areas to establish new Starbases out there and making new friends for the Federation" Janeway said.

"Ma'am, our transwarp technology still in the experimental stage, as in not fully stable and could launch the ship further out than the target coordinates? Hell, ma'am, if the target coordinates are miscalculated by as much as a decimal point or two we could end up in another galaxy or even between galaxies" Alona said.

Janeway nodded, "Yes it is, that is why this mission is voluntary. Since the tech is still experimental, the gateways location and such is the other reason why Starfleet wanted a Sovereign or a Galaxy-class sent into the Delta Quadrant. Again, command wanted solid ships to do the job" she said.

Alona nodded agreement. Although, when she thought about it, its kind of unheard of that a newly minted Captain to receive command of one of the advanced starships in the fleet. 'A Sovereign or a Galaxy' she thought. She then glanced over at Admiral Janeways pips. They made her an Admiral when she got back from seven years in the Delta Quadrant, a trip that should have taken her 70 years. Perhaps if she got her ship back in say, two or three years instead of the allocated five all the while completing what she was ordered to do she might be bumped up too. However, I may not be able to get the ship back in that amount of time either, especially if they end up in another galaxy. Two to three years. Pfft, not going to happen. Then again, if I refuse, who knows what they may assign me. Oppurtunity like this doesn't come around much.

"Admiral" she said looking into Janeway's eyes, her own intense.

"I'll do it" Alona said.

"Good, I will have a runabout arrive from the ship at 1500 hours" Janeway said, sipping her coffee, then grimaced. It was getting cold. "Which gives you eight hours to get ready" Janeway said, looking at her clock. Alona stood, smiled, thanked Admiral Janeway. "Whats her name?" Alona asked. Janeway picked up her PADD and tossed it at Alona. "Dossiers of your senior officers. Unfortunately I could not dig up the schematics for her, I was busy, you know how that goes. Her name is the Endeavour, its on the PADD. Dismissed" Janeway said picking up another PADD and activating her viewer. "Alona" Janeway said as Alona got to her office door. She turned towards Janeway, "Yes Admiral?" she inquired.

"Thanks, you don't know how much I appreciate you doing this. You are a good officer, a good friend, so I can't let you leave yet in good conscience without saying good luck. You're going to need it" Janeway said, "Now go, you have a ship to go take command of" she added waving her away. Alona smiled and left.

When Alona got back to her apartment, her smile had not faded. Just like that, she got her own command. She typed in the command to bring up the dossiers, and then she grinned. "NCC-1895-C, U.S.S. Endeavour" she read aloud. 'Just wait til Mom and Dad hear about this, hell, Justin and Marie are going to shit themselves' she thought. 'Endeavour' she thought, where had she heard of that ship name? Then, it hit her. It was the Endeavour-B, one of the few remaining Ambassador-class starships still in service at the time, was the sole survivor of Wolf-359. Alona remembered some engineering lectures while going through the Academy on how the engineering crews basically got that ship back to Vulcan on a mixure between occasionally venting and repressurizing the shuttlebays, maneuvering thrusters, and the barely working starboard impulse engine. It took the ship nearly a week to get to Vulcan using such methods of propulsion, it would have taken longer had a Vulcan freighter not detected her. It was decided by the ships senior staff to order the distress signal disabled for fear the Borg would home in on her emergency signals.

The ship had suffered such extreme damage, Vulcan would not let her near any of the orbit facilities for fear her warp core would go at any minute resulting in a fabricated repair dock for her they assigned at the L5 Lagrange point of Vulcan. When the captain had been killed during the battle, the First Officer took command of the ship and what remained of her bridge crew then effectively managed to play dead until the Borg left Wolf-359. She then limped to the nearest friendly port. Miraculously, the damage the ship had received caused the computer to initiate and complete an emergency shut down of the warp core, then prepped it for emergency ejection thereby preventing a core breach. When the repair crews began working on the warp core of the ship, repairing the battle damage it had received, they had found an oddity with the dilithium crystals: they went inert. Starfleet Engineering Corps had never seen, heard, or even thought that dilithium could go inert. Since then, another case as what happened to Endeavour-B has not been found. After Endeavour's repairs had been complete she had served for a few more years then was decommissioned and placed in the Academy training ship flotilla.

She scrolled down a bit on the PADD and found they had a copy of the ships plaque on it. 'Odd they would have a picture of the plaque in here' she thought, then read the quote at the bottom, "Ambition leads me not only father than any other man before, but as far as I think its possible for man to go" - Captain James Cook. 'Fitting' she thought. "Better get packed" Alona said to herself.

The Delta Quadrant is still one of the most unknown areas of space within the Milky Way and after reading Admiral Janeways logs, one of the most inhospitable places a Federation ship and her crew could go. Sure, there were plenty of friendly people there, some of which were more friendly than others. Then there was the Borg. No one really knew that most of the Borg controlled space was in the Delta Quadrant, however, the information did not surprise Starfleet when it was recieved by Voyager the first time. Starfleet had suspected that the Borg were operating either Delta Quadrant or the Gamma Quadrant due to the lack of any sufficiently resistant species out there or most of the resistant species out there had already been assimilated, also due to the lack of any data on either locales. It was a far fetched assumption at the time.

Truth be told, it was a safe assumption, there were hardly any space faring species that were capable enough to defend themselves in the Delta Quadrant. When the Wormhole near Bajor was found to be stable and that it lead deep into the Gamma Quadrant, the Borg were no where to be found in that Quadrant, which lead Starfleet to believe they may be in either the Delta or Beta Quadrants. Voyager ran across very few species, besides the Undine, that were strong enough to fight against the Borg and it seemed that most of the Delta Quadrant seemed like it was underdeveloped or undeveloped planets and species. Granted there were plenty of space faring species out there, however, most were either raiders or small hegemonies of a star system or two.

With the Federation establishing Starbases out that far without any real support or real time communication might prove disastrous. Alona did not think it would work out quite as well as they would hope. In order to have a decent presence out in the Delta Quadrant, the Federation would have to have several colonies, ships, and alien species willing to work together with similar goals in order to crew the ships. Not to mention to have plenty of resources readily available for use, such as dilithium. Materials to build ships, food, housing, support bases and the list goes on.

She shook her head. None of that is her problem to think about. Her job is to successfully Transwarp into the Delta Quadrant, then get her ship and crew back to Earth as intact as when she took command. That isn't going to be the case, she knew already that during away missions, things happen, and there were plenty of ships out there that had the capability to seriously damage or destroy both a Sovereign-class and a Galaxy-class. Especially in the Delta Quadrant. She put her four bags on her bed.

Looking around, Alona began to put stuff away, cleaning the apartment as best as she could. Then she began to put dust covers on all the furniture. She stopped at her desk and sat down for a moment. "Computer" she said. The computer chirped. "Access information on U.S.S. Endeavour, NCC one-eight-niner-five dash charlie" Alona said. The computer chirped again.

"NCC one-eight-nine-five cee is the registry number for the U.S.S. Endeavour, a Sovereign class starship. Current acting commanding officer is Commander Harold Kim" the computer began. A Sovereign huh? Reliable, but they are getting a little old.

"No computer, I want to know what did the ship do before the change of command, where had the ship been, when was it built? What accomplishments the ship and crew have made" Alona said.

"Construction of the U.S.S. Endeavour began on Stardate 63357 and was completed on Stardate 64482. On Stardate 64484, Admiral Benjamin Hayes took command of the vessel to utilize as a command ship. Since Admiral Hayes took command, U.S.S. Endeavour has logged exiting Earth Spacedock four times and has accumulated 284 warp flight hours. The U.S.S. Endeavour has also logged assuming geosyncronous orbit over Rigel, Vulcan, and Andoria. Whenever U.S.S Endeavour was not in use by Admiral Hayes, the starship was docked in Earth Spacedock and was reputed on Earth Spacedock for being known as Section 78 due to the ship remaining at dock for an extended periods of time. U.S.S. Endeavour has no known awards or service commendations of note other than a Flag Officer Command Ship citation" the computer finished.

What? The ship is almost four years old and shes only clocked 284 warp flight hours? Shit. "Computer, before Endeavours recall to Utopia Planetia and her last logged exit from Spacedock, how long was the ship at dock?" Alona asked.
"The U.S.S. Endeavour was docked for 1 year, 9 months and 18 days before her last logged exit from Earth Spacedock and her recall to Utopia Planetia" the computer said.

"Computer, while the ship was docked at Earth Spacedock for those extended periods, was there anyone on board her at those times" Alona asked.

"During her docked time, a skeletal maintenance crew was kept aboard to maintain ships systems, however, it was repeatedly documented that the second officer remained onboard while the ship was docked" the computer said. Well, at least they maintained her, but thats odd.

"Who was the second officer?" she asked.

"The Second Officer during the time the ship was docked is Commander Harold Kim" the computer answered.

"I know that the Commander is currently acting commanding officer of the Endeavour, what is his normal duty assignment when he is finished acting as commmanding officer?" she asked.

"Commander Harold Kim's current assignment is Executive Officer of the U.S.S. Endeavour" the computer replied.

Interesting. My first officer served under Admiral Hayes. Why did he stay aboard when all there was a basic maintainence crew aboard her? Something I will have to ask him about when I get aboard her. She leaned back in her chair and placed her feet on the desk. She glanced at her clock, it was 1120. Alona picked up the PADD and began reading the dossiers, before she knew it, she had dozed off. She woke to her combadge chirping. She tapped it quickly while looking at the clock.

"Captain Benson" she said.

"Good Afternoon Captain, I am Leiutenant Morgana Drake, your Operations Officer. I am reporting that we will be arriving in 15 minutes" a female voice answered cordially.

"Thank you Leiutenant, what is the runabouts name?" Alona asked.

"U.S.S. Cook" Drake said. Alona smiled.

"Thank you again Leiutentant, I will meet you at the North San Francisco Shuttleport, Benson out" Alona said with a grin.

Alona waitied at platform 98 awaiting the Cook's landing. She was in her uniform, the Antares model, she tugged at her jacket to make sure its in place. Over the years, particularly through the 2360s to the late 2370s, Starfleet had been adjusting its uniform, often repeatedly in many cases but finally in 2382, they settled on the Antares model uniform. The Antares model uniform is generally the same for both genders and can be tailored for species that require something special like a breathing apperatus. Typically it has an outter jacket that appears to be a leather like material but under very close scrutiny, its a cloth. There are a left and right breast pocket and there are name tapes above each one: On the left it says U.F.O.P. and either Starfleet or M.A.C.O. There are sometimes badges worn on the uniform that are earn by accomodations such as extended service on a starship. Above the right breast pocket is the wearers surname and their rank "pips" are above their name, usually in silver or gold squares. If the wearer has no surname usually their name is placed on the jacket.

The jacket has a couple interesting functions such as the material allows the wearer to resist stun settings on many different directed energy weapons and is also rated as an "all atmospheric enviroment" jacket. Keeps the wearer cool when its hot, warm when its cold, dry when its wet and so on. Underneath the jacket either a black tee-shirt or long-sleeved shirt is worn and is tucked into the pants. The lower half of the uniform are black cargo pants made out of the same material as the jacket that are bloused into black safety toed combat boots.

She watch the runabout land with such precision and smoothness that Alona thought the computer had landed it. She knew it wasn't uncommon to hear of pilots using the computer to make a soft landing. Perhaps her operations officer was a stickler for efficency or was wanting to look good for the new captain.

She snapped back into focus as the side door opened to reveal a perfectly proportioned woman with nearly paper white skin, silver hair, and gold colored eyes. Alona's first thought was that the woman that stood before her must work hard to keep that figure. Her uniform indicated she worked the operations department of a ship, Lieutenant Junior Grade pips indicated her rank.

The woman stepped down the ramp and off the pad and stood in front of Alona and extended her hand. "Leiutenant Morgana Drake, pleased to meet you Captain Benson" the woman said. When Alona grasped her hand, it was warm, but her grip felt too controlled and solid.

"Its nice to meet you too Leiutenant, may I call you Morgana?" Alona asked.

"You may, sir" Drake replied calmly.

"Thanks for picking me up" Alona said.

"You're welcome Captain"

They both walked in silence into the runabout. Drake sat down at the console and began preflight checks and contacted Starfleet traffic control for departure. Ten minutes later they were breaking orbit, cleared of traffic and jumped to warp.

"We will be arriving at Utopia Planetia in 10 minutes, sir" Drake said.

"Good, that gives me 10 minutes to get to know you Morganna, tell me about yourself" Alona said smiling. She hated having to be the one to break ice.

"As you may have surmised, I am a Mark-2 Soong type android Captain, but I am not sure about what you would like to know" Drake said.

"Wait, I thought Soong type androids weren't being made yet, due to some positronic network issue of some sort. Also, I thought they made a ruling where they didn't want to make new androids of your caliber with you being considered a sentient being and all that" Alona said.

"I am one of the first models built by Starfleet Captain. Creation of Soong type androids were never prevented, just the current active models at the time were deemed sentient beings and could not be deactivated for disassembly and study. However, about seven years ago, Captain Data and Captain LaForge had gone to the Soong Foundation and allowed deep penetration scans done of Captain Data, essentially mapping out his systems, positronic brain, and internal components while they were trying to unlock the "Data matrix" locked within the model B-4's positronic net. This allowed the Soong foundation to begin producing Soong type androids to assist Starfleet in all situations. There was a problem but they had corrected the issue, it did take them around six years to figure out how to get the positronic brain from overloading and the lifeform dieing not long after when it was activated as well as the internal components to work properly" Drake said.

"If I might add Captain, the Soong Foundation has been lobbying the council and Starfleet Judiciary for adding artifical lifeforms into the Starfleet Constitution" she said.

Alona nodded, understanding that. In fact, she whole heartedly agreed with the addition of artificial lifeforms as well as self-aware, sentient photonic lifeforms into the constitution, remembering the many different log entries she had read over the years from the Enterprise crew where Captain Data had stated that he felt he was an expendable, disposable being and not a true sentient lifeform. The personal logs of the EMH Mark 1 from Voyager was interesting as well, stating almost the same thing. Wait, Mark 2 she said?

"You said you're a Mark-2 model? What happened to the Mark-1 models?" Alona asked. Drake smiled at Alona. Shes smiling, she must have an emotion chip or is capable of simulating emotions. Interesting.

"Captain, theres only one remaining Mark-1 and he's Captain of the Enterprise-E" Drake said. Ahh, she must have meant Captain Data, a unique perspective on the Mark-1 models.

"Well, how about your name. Where did you come up with the name 'Morgana Drake'?" Alona asked.

"While in Starfleet Academy I majored in Xenology and Artificial Intelligences, however, I have a minor degree in Xeno-Diplomacy and History, specializing in Earth History. I am most intrigued by rampant piracy in the Bahamas, the Florida Keys, and the Caribbean during the 15th and 16th centuries. I really did not have a name until I went to the Academy, everyone that I knew and met had simply called me Silver, which I think that was because of my hair color.

"While being called a color seemed to fit for the time being, I came to dislike the name, almost the same way a human dislikes a poorly chosen nickname. So I combined two of my favorite pirates names: Sir Henry Morgan and Sir Francis Drake. I did take the feminine version of Morgan though, to match what I appear as, sir" Drake finished.

"Pirates?" Alona asked.

Drake nodded.

Alona blinked at Drake, then opened her mouth for a second then closed it, "Ok...what exactly do you mean by 'what you appear as'?" Alona asked, already knowing where she was going to take this.

"Well I appear as a female human Captain, however, andr-"

"You are a woman Morgana, I can prove it to you that you are" Alona said.

"How Captain?" Drake asked skeptically, an eyebrow raised.

"Well, you look like a human female as you said. Thats part of it, you wear your hair long like a human woman would. You hold yourself and walk like a woman would, you sound like a woman, you have breasts, you have a wide hips like a woman" Alona said.

"That is true but that is part of my programming. Remember, I am not truely alive, therefore, I do not have a menstrual cycle nor am I capable of one, as I do not have a uterus. Isn't that key to indicate being female?" Drake asked.

Alona shook her head, "You may say that is part of it, but not the whole picture. You're a woman to me and I am pretty sure many people who look at you will think the same thing. From a distance you look exactly like a well proportioned human female who just doesn't see the sun very often. In fact, I thought you were a human when I saw you from a distance but what you need to do is explore human femininism, use the holodeck or the holosuites, read up on women of Earth" Alona said.

Drake sat there for a moment, processing the information, "I think I understand Captain, like all Soong-type androids, I do wish to become human or the closest thing to one and you are telling me that I am doing a good job appearing like a human female" Drake said. Alona smiled at Drake, "No, while appearances are part of what make us who we are, not just being part of the species, you need to go beyond appearing female to being female. Understand?" she said.

Drake nodded as the helm console began chirping.

"We are arriving at Utopia Planetia Captain" Drake said.

"Which slip are we in?" Alona asked.

"Retrofit Construction Dock 33, sir"

"No longer slips, huh? Still, its way in the back. Oh, by the way, its either 'Ma'am' or 'Captain' please" Alona said.

Drake looked at Alona for a moment, then nodded, "Aye, ma'am" she said, then hailed ahead to the ship, "Runabout Cook to U.S.S. Endeavour, requesting permission to dock. Endeavour Actual sends regards"

"Copy Cook, Permission to Dock is granted. The Primary Shuttle Bay is clear for approach" a voice said over the comm.

Acting-Captain's log, Stardate 67848.5, Commander Harry Kim-Acting. I just received word from Admiral Janeway that a Captain has volunteered to command the Endeavour. Her name Alona Benson. Never met her but her service record is exemplary, but also most of it is classified so high, I didn't think Starfleet had something that secret. As such, her last post was Chief-of-Staff for Admiral Janeway which says light-years. She also was first officer for two ships prior to working under Admiral Janeway. I think Admiral Janeway presented the job to Captain Benson and she took the job and knowing Admiral Janeway, she wouldn't just offer this job to just anyone who would've volunteered. I hope that she can handle being out in the Delta Quadrant.

Commander Harry Kim said. His combadge chirped, "Sir, Captain Benson's runabout will be here in about 10 minutes" a female voice said. "Very well, thank you Ensign" Kim replied, "End of Log entry" Kim finished.

Drake landed the runabout as smoothly as she landed on Earth. When the struts touched deck, Alona opened the side hatch and stepped out onto the deck. When her foot touched deck, an annoucement went throughout the ship: "Endeavour Aboard" followed by a sharp ding from a bell. A short, young looking man of asian decent with cropped black hair, deep brown eyes and friendly demeanor about him stepped up to Alona with a smile and an extended hand, three pips on his uniform. "Permission to come aboard?" Alona asked as she grasped his hand and returned the smile, "Permission Granted. I am Commander Harry Kim, sir, your First Officer. Pleased to meet you" he said.

"Pleased to meet you too Commander, can you walk with me to my quarters? I want to get settled in quickly" Alona said.

Kim nodded and waved his hand towards the turbolift. "Of course, this way sir" he said.

They stepped into the turbolift and the doors shut. "Deck two, Captains Quarters" Kim said. The turbolift began humming as it moved along. Alona turned to Harry. "Harry, if you want, when we're in private you can call me Alona. Less formal settings, being called by my first name doesn't bother me, but while we're in front of everyone its 'Ma'am' or 'Captain' please. That should go with everyone, the 'ma'am' instead of 'sir' part that is" Alona said breaking the ice. 'Again' she thought with a unnoticed wince.

"Ok...Alona" Harry said with a smile, he had to resist the urge, she could tell.

This woman reminded him of Janeway alot. The way she seemed to walk into any room and have a commanding presence in it as well as a calm, enjoyable demeanor, also slightly laxed. Someone whom said she has an open door policy about anything and meant it. She was also not bad on the eyes too. She has grey eyes that remind you of an overcast sky. Her fine, mid-shoulder-length hair is colored like coffee with cream which she wore in a uncomplicated pony-tail. Kims eyes wandered from her face in a quick glance. Her uniform fit her well, and she had a Constitution-class Extended Starship Service Badge. What skin that was exposed showed that she was nicely tanned from the San Francisco sun and she has a very athletic build, he thought she was probably really toned. There was just something a little off with her an he couldn't figure it out. Odd.

'Figures' he thought, 'I find a good looking woman, who isn't hologram or seperate species from me and she ends up being my commanding officer'

"How are the retrofits coming along?" Alona asked, snapping Kim back to reality.

Kim cleared his throat, "Uh, they are actually almost finished, in fact our CMO is due to report aboard in about three hours, after that we will have all senior staff aboard. From there the retrofits are pretty much just putting the last coats of paint on and we're ready to get underway"

"Are the Ospreys' on board yet?"

"No, we'll be picking them up off Neptune on our way out of Sol"

"Good, what about our M.A.C.O. troopers?"

The turbolift doors opened and Kim stepped out, Alona following him. "They are already aboard. The Colonel and I were assigning them quarters when you arrived, we were almost done" Kim said.

"There's no rush, now that I am here, I can help you out by taking some responsibilities off your shoulders"

"Yes ma'am and thank you" Kim said, turning right at a T-section. At the end of the hall was a door. He stopped in front of it.

Alona stopped at the door, she read the bar of the door. 'Commanding Officer's Quarters' it said, followed by deck, section, frame, and compartment numbers. "Is there something wrong?" Kim asked. Alona shook her head, "No, its just, becoming captain of a ship just hasn't sunk in all the way yet. I see it says Commanding Officers Quarters and my first impulse it to chime before entering" she said.

Kim smiled, "I know what you mean" he said, then opened the door for her. Alona stepped inside, it was dark. "Lights" she said and the room illuminated. It was huge, much bigger than her apartment in San Francisco. She turned back to Kim and grinned. "It's big" she said. Kim nodded, then began showing her: the head, sonic shower, kitchenette, dining and living areas, bedroom and so on.

"I am surprised they have a kitchenette installed here. Most people have forgetten how to cook, very good. I can actually do some cooking" Alona said. Kim squinted at her, "You can cook?" he asked. She nodded, he smirked. "I'll have to try it then sometime" he said.

Alona placed her bags on the couch and looked around some more, then turned back to Kim. "Thanks Harry. Can you, in say four hours, call all senior staff to the conference lounge, I want to meet everyone, get a system and personnel status update on all departments, you know how it goes" Alona said. "Sure, if theres anything you need or want please let me know" Kim said and began to step out. He turned back to Alona as sat down on her couch, she looked back at Kim with a raised eyebrow.

"Almost forgot, Computer, transfer all command controls and codes to Captain Alona Benson, authorization: Kim-kappa-alpha-five-seven-two"
The computer chirped, "Authorization confirmed, transfer complete. U.S.S. Endeavour now under the command of Captain Alona Benson" it said. "Thanks" Alona said. Kim nodded and left without another word.