2 MONTHS LATER…
Captain. The title still felt odd to Renji Abarai. The soul society gave him his new assignment. Work with the Federation to find out what got 38 of their reapers killed. He looked out of the window of Drydock 19 as he saw his ship coming into view. He himself was in shock that Starfleet would give him such a powerful vessel. The USS Courageous came into his view as he smiled and looked to his side. Standing next to him was his first officer, assigned to him by the new First Division Captain. Rukia smiled up at her commanding officer before he said to her "It's a beautiful ship." She nodded then glanced out her window, realizing it had been pulled out of the Junkyard. Hull breaches dotted her exterior, as burn marks scorched the Aztec painted hull. "Beautiful? I'm surprised it can still maneuver." Renji laughed at her comments as he sighed while staring off at the ship "It doesn't have to be in perfect condition in order to have promise. And this ship? Has more promise then any other ship I've seen. She's a fighter, and so are we." Rukia looked up at him with a smile and nodded, understanding what he meant as they headed for the main docking hatch. The door opened to the main bridge in shambles, wires hung from the ceiling as sparks flew from the computer terminals. Suddenly the constant hum of the warp core dimmed into nothingness as the lights faded and a cracking noise echoed from the Turboshaft. Renji remembered the Kongo all too well as he asked "What the hell is going on?" Quickly the turbolift doors opened as smoke poured out of the turbolift. "Get an extinguisher in there!" Three engineers ran to the doors and sprayed what looked to be a white foam into the turbolift. Another man began to climb his way out of the turbolift. His armor and mask were unmistakably that of Mayori, the lead scientist in the Soul Society. "That damned turbolift is down again. Plasma rupture on Deck 3, best go contain it." Mayori looked up at Renji and smiled "You picked a fine ship." He said, noticing Renji's slight smirk. "Well, I knew you like to tinker around, so why not find out about human engineering?" Renji's smirk widened as Mayori said "I don't care how advanced Soul Society is, if they want to keep this SSE program running they had better explain the difference between a plasma manifold and an EPS conduit." Mayori shook his head and continued. "Either way, she should be out of Drydock within the week, providing we can contain the hull breaches until we bring the Structural Integrity Fields online." Renji looked at him. "And that would be when, exactly?" Mayori sighed and said "As long as everything holds, within three hours. However noise is at a premium, you may want to sleep aboard the station until were ready to depart." Suddenly a red alert siren went off as the computer chimed "Plasma leak on deck three. Emergency forcefield offline." Mayori chucked and said "If you'll excuse me, I have a slight problem." He ran off as Renji and Rukia headed for the airlock. Rukia looked up at Renji with a big smirk and said "A beauty, huh?"