“Welcome back, Commander,” a recently promoted Captain Nathan Kennedy said from the comfort of his chair behind the ready room desk. The walls were still mostly bare, save for a handful of trinkets all senior officers tended to find in their possession – Starfleet Academy certificate, a few gifts from alien dignitaries as mementoes of visits and a collection of photos.

Though none of Nate’s photos included fellow officers. All the same collection of faces spanning a few decades, new ones appearing as old ones became absent. Nate himself was present only in a few group photos.

“Good to be back,” Gabrielle Camargo replied, taking the proffered seat across from him at a wave of Nate’s hand. “Sea trials all passed?”

“Flying colours and then some,” he answered, setting the padd in his hand down and looking up at the young woman opposite him. And he couldn’t help but grin when she recognised the extra pip on his collar that his downward cast face had previously hidden. “Mr Velen tells me we might just have received, purely accidentally of course, some experimental engine upgrades for the Sovereign-class to give us not more speed, but a bit more endurance.”

“Purely accidentally,” Gabrielle echoed. “Captain.” The emphasis on the word was heavy, both brows raised in surprised congratulations. “Congratulations.”

“I think the Commodore just doesn’t want to hand over her first brand-new ship to someone she hasn’t at least served with, even if just for five minutes.”

“She’s a good read of character,” Gabrielle countered. “Besides, with the state of the fleet still, you had it coming if you were going to stay in uniform.”

“What, promote all the grey-haired folks on the grounds we must know what we’re doing?” He didn’t wait for her response before waving it away. “I’m just grumbling because I was enjoying being in the lead and guide role that an XO gets to do more than the captain.”

“Still can you know,” Gabrielle’s smile never faltered, optimism being such a core part of who she was. “Your boat, your rules after all.”

“Shouldn’t have said that,” Nate said, then slid the padd on his desk across for Gabrielle to pick up. “We’ve got orders and are expected to push off in six hours. We’re heading out to the Shackleton Expanse, destination to be assigned to us once we hit Framheim Station.”

Gabrielle skimmed the padd quickly, smiling the whole time, before setting it down. “Pure exploration, and we’re going to be the first ship there. Sounds fantastic. But, uh, if we’re pushing off, who’s the new XO?”

“Much like the Commodore, I’m having a hell of a time deciding on whom to offer the posting to. But with a mission briefing like we’ve been given, I’ve got a couple of ideas. One of them, however, has made themselves a fair bit more distinguished than the others.”

“Can I ask who?” Gabrielle asked.

“Might know them.” Nate leaned back in his seat, keeping his face impassive. “Young officer, exceedingly brilliant in their field. Knowledgeable scientist with a passing knowledge in a variety of fields. Pretty good people leader from what I’ve seen.” Then he turned to look Gabrielle directly in the eyes. “Passed with high marks from a recent command extension course and a glowing review from her tutors.”

“Me?”

“Not permanently,” Nate said, raising a hand to quell further protests. “Not yet, anyway.” He sucked in a breath, lowering his hand and giving an ever so slight shrug. “But we’re looking at doing some good old fashion survey work. Multidisciplinary work cataloguing an entire star system. It also gives us a chance to work Atlantis a bit more and let Velan and the rest of the team at the coalface iron out any kinks we might not have found post-repair.”

Gabrielle’s mouth scrunched to one side in thought, her eyes going to Nate’s desk, flicking back and forth. Anyone slower of thought and you’d be able to hear the gears turning, but not with Gabrielle. It only took a couple of seconds before she looked back up, nodding her head in agreement. “Alright, I’ll do it. But on one condition.”

“Shoot.”

“I’m staying as your chief science officer.”

“That was going to be one of my conditions, actually,” Nate said with a chuckle. “Got anything else?”

Again, she went somewhere else while thinking; processing data he couldn’t see. Then she came back, and there was something in her expression that he liked. A restrained hunger that promised something. “I want to be seriously considered for the position when you get around to actually making a decision.”

And there it was. Not hunger, but drive. Nate smiled, nodding his head. “Top of the list.” He watched Gabrielle balk for a moment, realising he hadn’t even started on his search, then smiled as she realised she was the first off the blocks in a race that others weren’t even aware of yet.

“Thank you, sir.”

“Don’t thank me yet. We have to push off in a minimum of six hours. I want us out of dock as soon as possible. Make it happen.”

Gabrielle shot to her feet with the speed of youth he envied. “How persuasive can I be with any wayward crew?”

“No press gangs, but siccing station security on anyone is…up to your discretion, Commander.”

It had taken forty-five minutes to round up the last crewmembers, secure the last supplies and button up Atlantis for departure. Forty-five minutes where Gabrielle had been forcing herself to sit as calm and relaxed as she could in the centre-seat, letting everyone else go about their duties after she’d passed along the captain’s orders.

Forty-five minutes of staring at the mission briefing, not really reading, but giving the impression she was. Relaxed. Controlled. Not wanting to ask for updates continually. So focused on not micro-managing she’d disassociated.

And so, it had taken multiple coughs of the large Gaen standing in front of her to get her attention, pulling it away from the nowhere she’d been. “Oh, sorry, away with the faeries,” she said as an excuse.

“It is a fascinating mission brief,” Rrr’mmm’bal’rrr rumbled, their gravel intonations actually a welcome familiarity after months away from Atlantis. “Though I doubt that fascinating?” A padd was then offered, held between two of Rrr’s fingers and bearing familiar scuff marks of having been in their possession for a while now. “Final readiness report.”

“All crew accounted for,” she said, flicking through the report. “Full inventory of probes and then some. An extra two rovers. Flatpack shelters. How tight are the cargobays?”

“Tight. We’re also using some of shuttlebay two, so until we offload a few pallets of probes, traffic management is going to be key.”

She smiled, flicked through a few more items on the report, then handed it back. “Oh, this is going to be exciting. First contact, first surveys, new discoveries.”

“New executive officer, her own brand of tyranny and oppression brought upon we who serve under her,” Rrr joked.

“I’ll save the riding crop and court martial shenanigans for when I make captain.” They both scoffed at the same time. “Power situation?”

“Impulse reactors are online and we’re ready to switch over to internal power at any moment.”

She nodded once, twice, then pushed herself to her feet on the third, barely coming to Rrr’s shoulder. “Very good. Bring main power online and switch us to internal. Disconnect all umbilicals and boarding tubes.” Rrr gave a single curt nod and returned to their station.

“Atlantis to Docking Control,” Gabrielle said firmly, answered by the computer’s little ‘bleep’ as it recognised the command and opened a channel with the station.

“Docking control here. How can we assist you, Atlantis?”

“Requesting permission to depart and vectors out of the system.”

“Roger that, Atlantis. Permission to depart is granted. Space door three will be opening in one minute. Maintain flight restrictions until you pass the inner marker. Be advised, traffic just outside the space doors.”

“Thank you, Control.”

“And thank you, Atlantis. Fly safe out there.”

Gabrielle stepped up behind the young woman at the helm, a hand on the back of her chair. “Catch all that, Kelly?”

“Quarter thrusters, space door three, don’t hit the lumbering hulk just outside,” Kelly Tabaaha answered.

As the space doors directly ahead of Atlantis slowly started to part, Atlantis herself started to edge forward, equally slowly, drawing out the heat death of the universe. No traffic presented itself immediately until Atlantis made the threshold of Brahms Station. There, glittering in the bright sunlight of the Avalon system, her hull a resplendent light grey, as the starship Republic, hull lights blinking in a silent salute to Atlantis as she slipped past spacedock and back into the void.

“Message from Republic,” Rrr announced. “It reads ‘Mind if we tag along?’”