Commodore Povey winced as he saw what ship was due to arrive at Spacedock that day for a retrofit. He'd given them a five-year mission to get them out of his hair despite the fact that some would question the sanity of sending a scoutship on a mission that would severely tax the resources of a Constitution class vessel, and now that five-year reprieve had come to an end. There was nothing he could do about it however. The U.S.S. Troutbridge was once again his problem...
As Povey sat in his office downing Aspirin like water and considering taking something stronger like strychnine for instance, two maintenance workers who were on break were standing in front of a transparasteel window near the entrance to one of the docking bays and watching traffic.
"Magnificent, isn't it?" Maintenance worker Smith said to his partner as he watched a shuttle streak past between the Spacedock and Earth like a silvery fish darting through a lake. "This is what I signed up for."
"I know." Maintenance worker Jonson sighed as the Spacedock rotated to give the two a view of the stars and any incoming traffic from that direction. From the looks of things a rather battered Hermes class scout was coming in for a retrofit.
"I say, doesn't that ship look like it's coming in a bit fast?" Maintenance worker Smith asked as he watched the Hermes class vessel approach.
"Oh shit, it's the Troutbridge! Run!" Maintenance worker Jones yelled, dropping his sandwich and taking his own advice.
Without even thinking about it, Maintenance worker Smith followed after.
Captain Stanton sighed as he imagined the sort of fishing he'd get in during his leave while Starfleet decided how best to repair the Troutbridge. Either that, or how best to dismantle it and sell it for scrap which was something that Chief Engineer Pertwee had been slowly doing over the course of their mission. Speaking of the devil, he was on the bridge rather than in Engineering where he belonged, especially since they were coming into Spacedock.
He turned to look at the offending engineer.
"Ensign Johnson's got everything under control." Pertwee said before looking down at the communique from home.
"Cousin Stall is going on trial again." Pertwee said after half a minute of reading. "Apparently the Vulcan High Council didn't see the logic in selling off some science vessels that were just gathering dust."
Turning back to the viewscreen, Stanton noticed that Spacedock was getting awfully, awfully close. At Navigation, Lieutenant Phillips was muttering "Left hand down a bit". The captain was halfway out of his chair when Pertwee bellowed "EVERYBODY DOWN!".
With an almighty crash and a screech of metal on metal as the ship ran along the hull of Spacedock until it reached the open doors, spun for a short distance in the open space of the interior, and collided with the docking bay that had been set aside for it, the Troutbridge was home.
