Chapter One
Captain Caroline Rousseau stared at her reflection in her ready room window more than the white streaks representing countless stars which streamed past at faster-than-light speed. The delicate porcelain teacup she held, perched precariously on the equally delicate saucer beneath it, emanated steam and the fragrant scent of chamomile tea. The blend was rumored to sooth the nerves. How could anyone's nerves be soothed at a time such as this? She wondered. And so it was that she discovered herself staring into a haggard shadow of herself, reflected by the transparent aluminum and filled with the darkness of space. Full of doubt, full of anger, full of fear. Perhaps not so unusually, she wondered if this wasn't a true representation of herself. A transparent void, obvious to all who knew her, full of darkness and doubt. The door chimed, breaking her self-recriminations.
She rounded the desk, no small feat in so small a room, and sat in her captain's chair behind her captain's desk and wondered why she was sitting there. The events surrounding her captaincy weighed heavily on her mind, especially of late. She sipped the tea, placing the cup and saucer on the desk when she'd finished, arranged her hair and uniform, and finally answered, "Entre," in the language of her homeland. She steeled herself, knowing whom it would be, Michael Taylor. Commander. First officer. Current friend. Former lover.
Michael entered the ready room with the accompanying swish of the pneumatic doors. "Bon matin, mademoiselle." It was intended as a jolly good morning, but it came off sounding as half hearted as Caroline felt. Mike obviously felt the weight of their impending mission. "Sorry," he said as he sat in the deep, gray chair across from Caroline, "it's hard to be chipper at a time like this."
A time like this, Caroline thought, his words echoing the thought she'd had just a moment earlier. "Funny you should say that,. I was just thinking the same exact thing. With all that's happened in the last year, in the last few years, who could really blame these worlds for wanting to secede from the Federation? The Dominion took a lot out of us, all of us," Caroline thought of her own haunted expression, the ship under her command because of the death of senior officers, of friends and colleagues. "Then the Borg, the Bak'u and Sona escapade, the Tezwa, the Romulan coup, the subsequent fall of the Romulan Empire…the whole quadrant is a mess and the Federation is spreading itself so thin that they can't possibly cover it all. Michael, we're returning to Earth only to be sent to some world full of people who no longer want us there."
"At least we'll be able to refresh the crew and fill some important positions."
He was right, the Odyssey, was still missing several key senior officers and she'd been run ragged since Shinzon had deposed and murdered the Romulan Senate. Odyssey had been patrolling borders along the neutral zone, and though the Romulans seemed far more interested in their own power struggles, it couldn't be denied that the Romulans could strike at any moment. In any case, the Odyssey was missing its chief conn officer, chief of sciences, chief of security, chief transporter operator, and so many more key personnel.
Caroline knew that Michael had been reviewing personnel files for the last three days. Consequently, she asked, "So, have you decided on any of the new replacements?" Caroline had allowed Michael the pleasure of selecting the new personnel. She hardly had the time to review the files of thousands of Starfleet officers and noncommissioned personnel applying for transfer, promotion, or first assignment.
Michael smiled knowingly before answering. "You're aware that the list you forwarded to me was several thousand names long…" His voice trailed, it wasn't really a question so much as bait for his next comment.
Now it was Caroline's turn to smile. "I am, but I have every confidence in you to sort through and find us the right personnel, Mike. However, you may want to start by narrowing the parameters a bit."
From his interior jacket pocket, Taylor produced a padd and gently laid it on Caroline's desk. It contained a list of twenty names, each assigned to a key position, some to the same position. "As your first officer, I've already taken the liberty to reduce the number of qualified candidates."
Michael saw the look of puzzlement cross her face and answered the unspoken question of how he had accomplished this so quickly. "If you're so inclined to ask, I started by asking the computer to single out officers and noncoms with exemplary records, ready and recommended for advancement. Of course, that narrowed it down to several hundred. My next query was to limit the personnel to those officers already on Earth which narrowed the list to less than a hundred. My final query was to limit it to personnel available to ship on or around the date required."
"Sometimes you amaze me, I knew there was a reason I kept you around" she replied gently. "After all those months in the Rashanar Battle Site, you still have so much energy, so much enthusiasm for the job."
"Rashanar was bad," Mike said referring to the site of the deadliest battle of the Dominion War where hulks of dead Federation, Romulan, Cardassian, and Dominion ships orbited an unexplained gravity well, where violent, toxic, explosive gas nebulas formed from the vented atmospheres of those dead ships, the corpses of their former crews floated freely in space, energy spikes from dying warp cores stabbed from hulk to hulk, and an antimatter "asteroid" traversed the region at incaculable intervals. Then there were the legends of ghosts, raiders, death, and the unknown which threatened the very core of any officer stationed there. Odyssey had recently finished a three month tour of duty there, like the soldiers once posted at the tomb of the unknown soldier, guarding the sacred site. It was enough to make every member of this crew introspective.
"It was bad," Caroline agreed reverently. "And now, we go from one nightmare mission to another, and another again." Caroline looked at the teacup resting on its saucer and decided she didn't want the tea within it any longer. "Who would have ever thought that we would be evacuating key Federation personnel from one of the member worlds?"
"Former member worlds," Mike corrected her. He had read about the secession of tens of member worlds throughout the Federation. He never would have thought he would see the day. "So, do you have any idea which world we'll be evacuating?"
"I'm as privileged as you, Mike," Caroline replied tersely.
"So you don't know either then?" Mike chuckled halfheartedly.
"That's the reason for our return to Earth. A personal briefing by the C&C of Starfleet itself. Whichever planet it is, I'd say it's a longtime member. If I were to venture a guess, I would say Denobula." Caroline had long considered to what planet Odyssey would be assigned, the Sovereign class starship was no toy with which to be trifled. Thankfully, Odyssey had always gotten important missions.
Mike whistled low. "Denobula is seceding?"
"Consider that top secret, Mike. At least for now." Caroline stood and picked up the padd from her desk before she crossed to look out the window, this time at the streaking stars. She sighed and began scrolling through the names. "Let's talk about Kashida Ishikawa as chief Security officer, shall we?"