Captain Kaldur stood next to the door to the conference room. "I must warn you, Mister Grayson," he spoke, "The crew is relatively new at bridge command. They are… eccentric."

The way the Vulcan chose his words was interesting to the Commander. For a creature of supposed emotional suppression, it was hilarious to use a word like eccentric. "No worries, sir," Dick chuckled, "I can take whatever you throw at me."

Kaldur raised an eyebrow but said nothing further. His hand reached out to the control panel and pressed on a finger scanner. The door to the conference slid open to reveal a large oak table, massive windows peering into space, and a diverse group of people.

Dick instantly recognized the massive hulk of the Chief Tactical Officer from earlier, who was leaning against the wall on the other side of the room. His arms were crossed together; showing off his built arms. Although he was deeply upset earlier, it seemed like he was in deep conversation with an Orion female. Surprising it seemed as though he was enjoying the conversation.

The Orion female was dressed in a blue-green uniform with a blue medical coat. Dick could instantly tell she was the medical officer from that very coat. She had her red hair cut neck length short and seemed to have freckles too. Whatever she and the Chief Tactical Officer were talking about it seemed to be making her smile too.

Just kiddy-corner from the couple, a slim, raven headed science officer sat at the table with a stack of PADDs laid out before her. From the look of her blue uniform, Dick could tell she was in the Science Division and was probably the Chief Science Officer of the Justice. The current PADD she was looking at seemed to have a graphic of the Badlands on it; he would recognized those orange plasma fields anywhere. He knew it was going to be fun getting her opinion on the region.

Beside her, Artemis Crock; the Chief Engineer, was seated. Artemis was looking across that table with a glare that would shred any Cardassian ship that came by. The person who she was glaring at had a bowl of potato crisps out before him and a mop of red hair. Dick recognized that mop of hair right away, "Wally?

The person spun around so quick that Dick thought the entire ship could be powered by his momentum. "Dick? Is that you?" The red head set down the bowl and jumped up to greet the Commander, revealing his bright red command uniform. "Dick it's been a while!" Wally wrapped his arms around Dick before he backed up to better see his best friend. "What have you been up to, dude?! I haven't seen you since the Academy!"

Richard couldn't contain his smile, "It's great to see you too, man! I didn't expect to see you here!"

"Of course I'm here! Every ship needs the best helmsman!" He exclaimed.

"Then we need to keep looking, then!" Artemis butted in from across the table with a mischievous smirk.

Wally glared back in return, "I heard that."

"Good!" She shot back.

"Miss Crock, Mister West; that behavior will not be tolerated about my vessel." Kaldur let his displeasure known by admonishing his officers.

"Sorry, sir." They spoke together and looked at the floor in unison.

Wally scratched the back of his head awkwardly before speaking, "So… what brings you here Dick?"

"Mr. Grayson is your new acting executive officer." Kaldur'ahm spoke. "His experience in Cardassian affairs will be most beneficial in our current operation. I expect you treat him with the utmost respect and welcome him as a member of our crew."

The last part seemed like it was aimed at the Chief Tactical Officer who was only now taking a seat with the Orion Medical Officer. The Tactical Officer placed both his arms on the table and spoke, "Of course, sir. Can I ask what our next op is?"

"Of course, Mr. Kent." Kaldur looked to both Wally and Dick, "Take your seats."

The two friends grabbed their chairs and comfortably came to the table. Kaldur seated himself at the head of the table and placed his hands overlapping on the oak finish. Once everyone was seat the Captain spoke, "According to Starfleet Command, there had been a rise in activity near and in the Demilitarized Zone. An organization known as the Maquis has been sending raiding parties against Federation, Cardassian, and neutral party convoys."

"Do we know the exact location the Maquis are based out of?" Conner asked curiously.

Dick shook his head, "Not at this point in time. From what we could figure, we believe that the Maquis have at least five separate bases; based upon their attack patterns and warp trajectories."

"Furthermore several of these locations are dangerous for space travel," Kaldur'ahm pressed a button on the desk bringing up a diagram of the DMZ on the opposing wall. "The best location that we could consider would be the Badlands. Miss Zatara, are you familiar with that locality of space?"

"Sorta," The raven haired science officer spoke, "The Badlands; sector 04-70, an area of localized plasma storms, EM interference, gravitational drifts, and a number of habitable planets. The whole region is full of highly charged plasma. One wrong hit and the Justice will be in Space Dock for weeks; even with modulated shields."

Kaldur nodded and zoomed the screen into the Badlands region, "What would our combat conditions be in the Badlands; provided we were to engage in a fight?"

The science officer shook her head, "I can't say. We would have to limit phaser output in case we miss and hit the energized plasma. Too much power into the storms would create a chain reaction that would severely damage anything in the area. Torpedoes likewise would be unusable unless their yield was drastically reduced. We would basically be fighting in an oversized shuttlecraft."

"I understand. Kent, what combat capabilities would we have in the Badlands?" Kaldur quickly questioned the tactical officer.

"No high yield torpedoes and high power phaser; I can't say I can disagree with Zatanna's assessment." Conner scratched his head and thought for a moment. "The Justice's shields would be the only saving grace, but that's a waste of a ship should it get hit during a fight between the plasma storms. I would recommend extreme use of shuttlecraft and the new Peregrine fighters. The Peregrine's phasers can reach the mid range power levels of the Justice, plus the ships have much heavier shields than regular shuttlecraft and could possibly take down a Bird-of-Prey."

"What's the Justice's current complement?" Dick asked reflexively.

"A full squadron of Peregrines, four Type 6 shuttlecrafts, four Hopper Infantry Movers, and two Danube Runabouts." Kent automatically listed. "Not quite standard for an Akira, but we're here to defeat the Maquis. We need all the combat craft we can get."

Dick nodded and turned to Kaldur, "Sir, I think we could do a lot with those kind of vessels. The reports say that the Maquis usually use modified shuttlecraft."

Kaldur nodded slowly, "That would help them navigate the Badlands easier. Although I believe they do have larger raiders. We do need to take that into consideration when in an engagement."

"Speaking of considerations," Artemis spoke up, "What would the Justice do in the event we engage the Maquis? With phaser output down, we wouldn't have much to defend ourselves with."

Conner and Dick both frowned at that aspect. Conner spoke up first, "Artemis is right. The Justice would be a massive punching bag."

The bridge officers let those words hang in the air for a few moments before the red-headed helmsman had an idea, "An aircraft carrier!"

Everyone looked at Wally with peaked interest. Kaldur in particular raised an eyebrow, "Mr. West, what is an aircraft carrier?"

"Sorry," He apologized, "During the 20th Century on Earth there was a naval vessel that was designed to carry atmospheric craft into battle. Earth militaries called it an aircraft carrier. Usually they were lightly armed, but they used their squadrons of aircraft to attack different targets while the vessels themselves hung back. We could adapt a similar strategy and have the Justice stand by just outside the Badlands."

"Huh, the dork actually has a good idea." Artemis sounded amazed, "But what do we do if one of our pilots are injured or a fighter is disabled?"

"I think I can answer that." The green-skinned Orion spoke as she furiously typed into a PADD that she pulled from her lab-coat.

"Miss Morse?" Kaldur'ahm asked, "Megan?"

"Sorry, I was just pulling up the schematics of the runabouts." Megan Morse replied as she continued to type on the PADD. Eventually she set it down and spoke again. "The runabouts might be an option. If Artemis could modify them to house a medical suite and improve the tractor beams, we could use them as support vessels."

"And we could rely on them to get our crew out of harm's way!" Conner beamed at his fellow officer, "That's brilliant Megan!"

"Very impressive, Miss Morse." Kaldur'ahm congratulated her in Vulcan tradition, "Miss Crock, can you assign an engineering team to modify two of the runabouts into this configuration?"

Artemis shrugged, "I don't see why not. Shouldn't be too difficult, might take six hours at most."

"Excellent. I expect it done before we arrive at Deep Space Nine." Kaldur'ahm ordered. "Likewise, I would like everyone to prepare for departure. We leave Space Dock in an hour for Deep Space Nine. Make sure the ship is completely stocked and read and I want full reports by 1800 Federation Standard Time. Understood?"

"Yes sir," the entire room sounded off.

"Excellent, dismissed." Kaldur stood up from his chair and made his way to the bridge.

Wally turned towards Dick, still in his chair, "Dude, we have so much to catch up on. Like the fact that you now outrank me?"

Dick shook his head and laughed a little, "It's a long story. I'll tell you once I get finished unpacking." The Commander looked away from his friend for a moment at Zatanna to see her exit the conference room. "So do you know where my quarters are at?"

Wally grinned, "Follow me."

/Chapter four is up! Thanks to Black' Victor CaChat and HuHotLover0023 for reviewing!