A/N: Happy autumn everyone! Summer really did a number on me. Heat and light is not my jam whatsoever. Oof. But now I'm back and hopefully I'll get some more chapters out, and maybe we'll hit the 30 chapters mark and/or get past 100k words before the year's end.

In any case, warm handshakes to everyone who recognized the name of the new captain! As a lot of folks probably guessed, it's a sort of Swan Queen crossover/backdoor pilot. As always, knowledge of OUaT or Swan Queen won't be needed in the slightest, and if you're really not into that then just pretend they are called something else. They're going to stick around for the story arc, but I'll say right now that they're not going to join the main cast here, obviously. (I might write a separate fic with them at some point, who knows)

Thanks as always for reading and sticking with the fic! I always love getting y'alls comments 3 Hope you'll enjoy it!

Chapter 23 - A tale of two ships

Aurora entered the transporter room with a mix of impatience and nervousness. Even Maleficent's presence next to her didn't manage to quell her urge to fidget, but with her arms behind her back, at least it wasn't too obvious.

"We're not running on full power, so it'll be a minute or two before we can transport them over, Captain," the transporter officer said.

"That's alright." She shifted her position slightly, only to earn a raised eyebrow from Maleficent.

"Captain?" Maleficent said, low enough for the other officer not to hear. "I can assure you, the transporter is almost completely safe. The chance our guests will be irretrievably lost in the transporter buffer is well below five percent."

Aurora snapped her head to look up, then huffed and relaxed when she saw the hint of a smile playing on Maleficent's lips. Of course she took today of all days to practice her comedic timing. "Very funny. I'm just unused to, you know, having other Starfleet captains over. Especially ones I know nothing about." She brushed off some speck of dust from her thigh and adjusted her uniform jacket. "I'd like to make a good first impression. And why did she say she'd bring their chief of security over? Does she think we've turned into some kind of dangerous renegades after our time here?"

"Considering the rather heavy focus on offensive capabilities the Retribution seemed to have, it would only be logical that the Captain's away team has a similar focus."

"I suppose," Aurora muttered. Truth be told, that was the other reason she was a little wary of their incoming guests; the USS Retribution was armed to the teeth, even more than a regular Nebula class, and Aurora had never been much for shooting and fighting, no matter how much her father had tried to push her into a security profession in Starfleet. Having to deal with some trigger happy fighter of a Starfleet captain would certainly be easier than dealing with just about anyone on Jeresea's mining station, but it still wasn't anything she looked forward to.

Before she could fall too deep into her worries, the transporter officer gave the go ahead, and the transporter sprung to life. A few seconds later when the shimmering had died down, two Starfleet officers stood on the transporter platform.

"Welcome to the Fae," Aurora said, hoping her smile wasn't looking forced. "I'm Captain Aurora Rose, and this is my first officer, Commander Amalia Moors."

Captain Mills stepped off the platform and shook her hand. She was about Aurora's height, but the way she held herself made her seem a lot taller. "Regina Mills," she said with a smile of her own that was as dazzling as it was sharp. "You're not an easy person to find."

Aurora chuckled. Her cheeks felt a little warm. "I try my best."

"I've noticed. In any case, this is my chief of security, Lieutenant Commander Emma Swan."

Swan stepped up and shook Aurora's hand as well, her easy grin and light swagger to her step a sharp contrast to Mills. She was a Bajoran, a little taller than Mills, with wavy blonde hair that was almost as long as Aurora's, hanging loosely over her shoulders but braided tight against the right side of her head to show off her earring.

"So," Aurora said when the introductions were over, "I suppose there's a lot to go through, but maybe you'd like a quick tour of the ship to start off? It might give you a better feel for what state the ship is at than from looking at charts and numbers."

"Sounds like a plan," Swan said.

Mills nodded. "After you, Captain."

"I must say, I did not expect a ship of your class to fly that nimbly through the debris field," Maleficent said as they made their way through the corridors.

Swan let out a chuckle. "Our helmswoman flies like a beast. Put a few thrusters on it and Ruby could probably get Earth Spacedock through here without a scratch."

They stopped before the conversation could continue, causing both Mills and Swan to give the doors in front of them curious looks.

"A cargo bay?" Mills asked.

Aurora nodded, fiddling with the door panel. "Yes, I'd like to show–" The panel gave a sad, wobbly beeping noise, shot out a little shower of sparks, and then promptly fell down onto the floor. Aurora sighed. Perhaps not the best place to start at after all, but that was all a bit too late now. So she crouched down, pulled off a dented access panel next to the door, and reached in to pick up the manual door opener. With the door handle fastened onto the door, she finally managed to pry it open. "There," she said, chest heaving from the effort. "Computer, lights on."

"Nine hundred and forty-three," the computer unhelpfully replied.

The lights inside the cargo bay stayed off.

Aurora sighed. Again. "Well, I suppose this is a... good way of showing you just what state the ship is in."

"I'll see if I can bypass it," Maleficent said, heading inside with her SIMs beacon switched on.

Switching on her own SIMs beacon, Swan followed. "I'll help out."

"We've patched up most of the critical systems and are working on propulsion to be able to get back to Federation space without having to be towed – I'm sure you saw the nacelles outside already – but the rest..." Aurora left off with a shrug. "We've never really had time to fix the noncritical parts."

Mills hummed, craning her neck to sweep her eyes across the ceiling and walls, no doubt noticing all the little scuffs and patchwork repairs that marred it all. "I can tell you weren't exaggerating in your distress call. Was any system spared in the initial attack?"

"Not exactly. Everything, even our regular shuttles were targeted, but the waverider shuttle wasn't. We had to rely on that for communications and sensors for most of the way over here."

"The waverider?" Mills snapped her head down, frowning deeply. "But that's an atmospheric shuttle. We followed your warp trail all the way from the nebula to this system. You must've been doing what, warp three?"

Aurora shrugged. "We managed to boost the gain of its sensors a fair bit." Her smile turned wry. "You can get a lot done if you just skip all safety margins."

"I suppose that's right." Mills still looked a little wide-eyed. "We were wondering why you hadn't attempted to contact Starfleet again even when we thought you managed to repair your sensors enough to go to warp, but being limited to the waverider's systems would explain that as well."

The lights flickered on inside the cargo bay, followed by a low whistle by Swan.

"Okay, I can see why you wanted us here," she said.

One of the walls was lined with crates and barrels filled to various extents with metal and plastic, all bent or charred or broken in some way. Larger pieces of debris – chunks of bulkheads, two doors, among other things – that didn't fit, had been dumped next to the crates, together with even more smaller junk.

Mills, still frowning, asked, "Why haven't you recycled this in the replicators?"

"Besides the fact that both the power and the replicators have been offline for long periods of time," Maleficent explained, "even when they are online, they can be... unpredictable. Since we weren't running low on fuel, recycling would merely have added a unnecessary potential risk."

Swan leaned over to peer down one of the lesser filled crates, wincing slightly. "Makes sense. Not a whole lot of high quality stuff here either, from what I can see."

"And it's like this throughout the whole ship?" Mills asked. "Not the huge piles of debris, of course, but the state of the systems?"

Aurora winced. "Well, this cargo bay is pretty bad, but this deck is one of the better ones, since the mess hall is here and people have to use it. Deck six is much worse; it's still off limits to everyone except repair crews, and they've only been there when we installed the cable between the waverider and the deflectors."

"Oh." How Mills managed to put so much dread, surprise, and muted resignation in one syllable was a wonder in and of itself.

Deck six was indeed... not looking great. Aurora hadn't been there much since they had left the nebula, and seeing the state of if, she wasn't regretting her decision. Only a few systems had power – gravity plating, life support, and the occasional working console – so walking through the corridors felt more like exploring an old wreck than a part of her own ship, the eerie atmosphere only heightened by the lack of light besides the SIMs beacons everyone had brought.

"This kind of reminds me of my Bug," Swan said, ducking under a low hanging cable just outside the turbolift. "It's a little shuttle I've got back home," she clarified when she noticed the questioning looks from Aurora and Maleficent.

"It's a bucket of bolts," Mills scoffed. "Barely even space worthy."

"Didn't come apart when you rode in it, did it?" Swan shot back with a grin. Mills' glum look didn't even begin to faze her. "Anyway, is the whole deck like this?" She gestured forward at the gently turning corridor, its floor covered with dust, and charred junk.

"Pretty much. I think the repair crews only cleaned up enough to get to the main cable coming from the waverider, but after the explosion and the landing, more stuff might have fallen down," Aurora said. Leaning down, she pulled up a panel that blocked the corridor and placed it back up against the wall. "Engineering said it should be safe for us, at least."

"Certainly a relief," Mills muttered.

Swan turned her light at one of the doors they passed. "And none of these rooms are occupied, huh?"

"No. Most of us are still sharing quarters." Aurora shot an unbidden glance over at Maleficent, who was too busy moving some debris aside to notice. "I suppose we've gotten used to it by now." She chuckled. "I mean, it's a small ship to begin with, so it getting even more cramped maybe isn't all that noticeable."

Farther ahead, the main cable going through the deck came into view. In the darkness, it almost looked like some kind of snake monster crawling through the ship, spilling out through a hole in the ceiling.

"It's certainly... unorthodox," Mills said, but she sounded more impressed than her words let on. She stepped closer, too focused on the monstrosity coming out of the ceiling to see the metal bar right above her left foot until she tried to lift it and promptly lost her balance.

Thankfully, Swan managed to reach out and grab her just in time. "Maybe don't fall on your face, Captain?" she muttered.

"Thank you, Swan, I'll take that under consideration," Mills hissed back, yanking her arm free and smoothing over her uniform.

Maleficent cleared her throat. "Perhaps we should continue in the briefing room."

Fully briefing Mills and Swan on what had happened since the Fae had sent off that distress beacon took the better part of an hour, and even then it was far from exhaustive.

"As it stands now, we still need at least another week to finish minimal repairs to be able to get to warp six. However, those estimates weren't made with the Retribution's assistance in mind," Maleficent finished.

"Well, our engineering team is around the size of your entire crew," Mills noted. "They'll have it done in a day or two."

Maleficent shook her head. "I'm afraid it's not that simple. We can't let your crew work on the Fae on their own."

Mills stiffened, her eyes hardening, but Swan cut in before she could speak.

"Look, we're not trying to barge in and play fleet commander just because we've got a bigger ship. We just want this done as fast as possible, alright? No one's questioning anyone's authority here," she said, with a pointed glance towards Mills.

"This is not a matter of authority, Commander," Maleficent replied, "but safety. As you saw for yourselves, even the supposedly repaired parts of the ship are not necessarily working as intended, so the risk of crew injuries or failing systems would be rather high for your people not already familiarized with the ship and the repairs. We could, however, make good use of more engineers for the repairs, as long as they're working under one of ours."

Although Mills didn't look thrilled about the suggestion, she nodded. "Have your chief engineer coordinate the repairs with ours, then. I'm sure they'll sort it out. You're of course free to use our higher capacity replicators, shuttles, workbees, transporters... anything else that can assist with the repairs."

"We appreciate it, Captain," Aurora smiled. Her worries about the newcomers had mostly faded during their meeting, but there was still one needling thought left. "What are your plans when the repairs are finished?"

Mills and Swan didn't answer at first, looking a little confused.

"You said you were heading back to Earth, or Utopia Planitia, right? I had a thought about that, actually. Do you know about Starbase 409?" Swan asked. "It's not too far from here, way closer than Earth. Not really heavily traveled, but it's got a fully stocked dry dock almost as good as Utopia Planitia. I mean, anything we do here won't measure up to proper service in a dry dock anyway, and you wouldn't have to push the ship as much to get to 409 instead of Earth."

"We'll escort you to Federation space regardless of your choice, of course," Mills added.

That was the last thing weighing on Aurora's mind, and she could finally breathe out fully. Maybe it was her own inexperience, or her having gotten used to the more cutthroat way of doing things back on the mining station, but either way, she hadn't allowed herself to fully believe they were safe until just now.

"Now," Mills continued, "there was one more thing. I'd like to extend an invitation to the entire crew of the Fae to visit the Retribution for some R&R while we're staying here, if you're interested. It's not a starbase, but I'd like to think that it's a slightly more enticing vacation spot than the rock we're on, and a bit more... refined than that mining station." She scrunched up her nose in distaste. "Not that that's a particularly high bar to clear."

That evening, Aurora fell back onto her bed with a pleased sigh, half-intent on just falling asleep right there, in full uniform and all. She was relaxed in a way she hadn't been in weeks – maybe months, considering how tense she had been as a new first officer – and for once, the future didn't look somewhere between vaguely hostile and outright terrible anymore. Captain Mills seemed nice enough, and her ship was so much more than what Aurora could've hoped for. Not only could the repairs be completed a lot quicker, but with the resources of the Retribution, they wouldn't have to cut nearly as many corners while doing them.

She was halfway asleep when the doors to her quarters slid open and jostled her awake.

"Captain?" came Maleficent's voice. "Are you feeling unwell?"

Aurora pried her eyes open, blinking a little in the dim light. A tired smile spread across her lips. "No, I'm actually really good," she said with a little giggle. "Really, really good. It has just been a long day, you know?"

"Indeed." Maleficent looked a little hesitant, standing at a respectful distance from the foot of Aurora's bed.

"Join me?" Aurora said, before quickly adding, "I mean, sitting here." She patted a spot next to her on the bed for clarity. "I'm not really awake enough to go sit in the sofa."

After some more hesitation and a lot more awkward shuffling around and Aurora prying herself up to a vaguely sitting position, they were both huddled up with their backs against the wall and their shoulders almost touching.

"I looked at the latest repair estimates from Balthazar," Aurora murmured. "It's almost hard to believe we might be on a real Starbase in a week or two." She leaned her head against Maleficent's shoulder without really thinking about it, and when she realized it, it was already too late to pull back, so she didn't bother. Maleficent didn't seem to mind, anyway. "I... might actually miss this. A bit of it, at least."

"'This'?"

Aurora scrunched up her face in thought. "Well, the fact that we've had to do so much without the support of Starfleet; it has a kind of charm to it, I think."

"Self-reliance does have a certain appeal, yes," Maleficent said, her voice low and soothing. "Apart from the times people have tried to destroy the ship."

"Yeah," Aurora chuckled. "But... this has been nice, too. Sharing a room, getting to know each other. We might not have done that as much with separate quarters."

Maleficent hummed. "We will have to try to find a way to keep in touch after the ship is repaired, then." A pause, and when she spoke, Aurora could hear the smile in her voice. "Perhaps tin-can phones."

Aurora chuckled again, but by now she had trouble keeping her eyes open.

"We'll still have some more time before that, however," Maleficent murmured. "But right now, we should get some sleep." Despite Aurora's halfhearted protests, she carefully extracted herself from the bed. "Goodnight, Aurora."

Aurora quickly fell asleep, still smiling.