4/14/2258
Enterprise Bridge

The Senior Staff had been released this morning and ordered to return to their posts. They had slunk off
to them silent and broken.

As she had made her way through the bright corridors towards the bridge, Uhura had noticed the silence.

Two days ago when she had first learned what they had done all that she'd been able to focus on was
getting to Kirk and somehow making this right. She hadn't paid much attention to the rest of the crew
of the Enterprise.

But now...now she noticed the change.

There were plenty of crewmembers moving through the corridors but none of them were talking except
in quiet whispers and none seemed willing to meet each other's eyes.

The Senior staff had been the closest to the Captain and through their neglect had wronged him the most.
But it hadn't been only them. The entire crew had been involved.

All of them had seen the Captain after his return from that fateful shore leave.
All of them had formed the same conclusion.
All of them had rolled their eyes, snickered, pointed and whispered.

And now all that any of them had left was guilt and shame.

The mood was even worse on the bridge, everyone was silent and wallowing in misery.

Her misery had deepened as she'd listened to the constant stream of communications data. Listened to
the stations' comm traffic, heard conversations between other ships. They all had the same common theme

Everyone and their mother was talking about Captain Kirk. But it wasn't just what had happened to him
that everyone was talking about.

They were also talking about how his crew. How the crew of the Enterprise, supposedly the greatest ship
in the Fleet had basically turned their backs on him.

She had even heard someone calling what had happened the Enterprise Incident.

Uhura was jerked from her miserable thoughts by a new signal. After listening to it she winced.
Not for herself but for whom the call was for.

"Commander," she called.

When Spock looked at her she spoke hesitantly. "Sir, I'm receiving a transmission from New Vulcan.
It's Ambassador Spock. He's requesting a private channel."

Spock's expression didn't change but Uhura knew well him enough to know that he was wincing internally.

"Direct it to the Ready Room."

As Spock slowly left the room, Uhura glanced out the window and noticed a tiny ship in the distance.
While listening to the station's comm traffic she had picked up its name…Saratoga.

Bridge of the Saratoga

'Saratoga this is Dock Control, you are cleared for departure.'

As the Saratoga pulled away from Spacedock, everyone looked at the massive silver ship in the distance.

"What do you know," Captain Martell said quietly. He'd been distracted a lot lately due to his wife's illness,
but he remained alert to both his and his ship's surroundings. "It's the Enterprise. We keep bumping into
each other."

The Saratoga had first encountered the Enterprise nearly three months ago. Returning from an extended
ecological survey in the Zopel system they had docked and seen the new Flagship undergoing the final
preparations for her Maiden Voyage which was scheduled for sometime that spring.

"She doesn't seem quite as big as the last time we saw her," Chief of Communications, M'Ress pointed out.

"She's been through a terrible time," Chief Helmsman Akari said. "Her Captain was violated and her crew
acted shamefully. That's not something that can be easily recovered from."

"I know one of the Senior staff." Lieutenant Arex had transferred to the Saratoga only a month before
to serve as Chief Navigator and now he stared sadly at the massive Flagship. "Ensign Chekov, the
Chief Navigator. He was a student of mine, one of the brightest I've ever taught." He sighed. "I would
have expected better of him."

"Being the brightest doesn't always mean the best, Arex-san," Akari commented.

"Unfortunately you're right, my young friend," the Edosian said softly.

"It's Captain Kirk that we should be concerned about now," Martell said firmly. "Being raped. His own crew
turning their backs on him. And then that fiasco of a trial…"

He sighed. As worried as he'd been lately about his wife he still took time to note another's pain.
"None of us can imagine the pain that he's going through right now. All we can do is wish him well
and hope that with his real friends beside him, he'll able to heal."

He turned to Arex. "Set our course, Lieutenant. We have a survey date with the Xolo system and I'd rather
we not be late."

Enterprise Bridge

As the Saratoga pulled away from Spacedock and went to warp Uhura thought; That is one tiny ship.
But I'm pretty sure everyone over there is a lot happier than over here.