The broken ruins

Posted on Fri Oct 24th, 2025 @ 9:34pm by Rear Admiral Jarred Wallace & Commander Zera Tirado & Lieutenant Commander Jorel Torin II & Lieutenant Commander Bellona Juventus & Lieutenant Commander Johanna Lyngstad & Lieutenant Hamlyn Ambrose & Lieutenant Daniel Martin & Lieutenant Eira Cortez

1,778 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Match sticks and Gasoline
Location: Jupiter Shipyard
Timeline: Day 1 1454 hrs

On:

The crew ante room of the shipyard looked like a cross between a dinning room and a meeting room, a single large table and food service and a drafting room. A single drafting table that lacked blueprints and a large viewport whish held the broken hull of the Columbia. The battered and scarred hull looked like the broken hulls from Wolf three five nine. Rear Admiral Wallace stood in the room alone looking out on the broken ship, his scared face looking like some ancient map, his lone biological eye swept over the view, he was holding the report in one hand and a large cup of steaming coffee in the other. A yeoman was standing next to the food service table ready to serve anyone, he turned as the senior officers entered, minus the Captain who'd been place on administrative leave upon arrival in the Terran system. He turned as the entered, his expression was fixed almost emotionless.

"Please take a seat or grab some refreshments, so we can begin." The Admiral said.

Jorel walked over and got himself something to drink before taking a seat at the rather large looking table. He looked at the scared hull of the Columbia. It made him a bit sad, as that was his home for the better part of a year or two now. So, to see it in such shape made his heart ache a little bit.

Wincing as he stepped into the room, Hobb made a bee-line for the coffee, pouring himself a generous amount of the strongest he could find, and took a seat. He knew it was his imagination, but the skin grafts that covered his upper body across the back, shoulder and chest, seemed like they were pulling again.

Like most of the Engineering team aboard Columbia, he had taken a beating. A few hadn't made it back. It had almost broken him to have to record so many messages of condolence for their families. It reminded him too much of his time during the Dominion War. Hobb regarded the wreck of the Columbia through the window silently, lips thinning to a bloodless line before he took a large swig of coffee.

Johanna entered and headed towards the food service. The yeoman that was there handed her a plate and placed several pieces of finger food on it. She also poured Johanna a coffee (two cream, two sugar). Now ready, Johanna looked at the battered Columbia. Like Jorel, she was sad to see the ship in such bad shape. At the same time, she was anxious to see her new ship. She took a seat and started eating.

Eira took a moment as she entered the room to take a look at the Columbia and how such a lovely ship could be damaged so badly. A look of sadness flitted across her face briefly before returning to normal, and she spied Hobb already seated with a coffee.

Getting her own coffee from the yeoman, Eira walked behind Hobb and gave him a comforting squeeze on the shoulder and took the seat next to him before getting herself interested in the map before them all.

Zero had been last to enter. She looked around, it looks like everyone had made it. She slipped into an empty seat.

The Admiral fully turned to look out too the remaining senior staff the lighting unintentionally emphasizing the scaring on his face, "Thank you for coming," he began "As you may have noticed Captain Elliot is not with us for this meeting, he's on administrative leave as is required in situations like this, he hasn't been charged criminally as this is regarded and a natural event but there is a formal procedure that has to take place and as such it was viewed that I oversee things here." he paused seeing some confusion, "Under normal circumstances the first officer would oversee this operation in the captains absence but considering your previous mission it was felt that it would be more appropriate if someone from the Admiralty was present. "To business, as you might surmise the Columbia is a write off, teams are removing the salvaged materials that Commander Torrin and Lieutenant Wiseman collected on their mission along with all of the sensor data that was collected, a follow up mission is being planned to contact the Interstellar Concordium in the near future along with further study of the under space corridor you traversed, this being the second on discovered in this part of space."

"Admiral," Zera said on response. "Lets skip the pleasantries. When are we getting a new ship?"

"twelve weeks." The Admiral said without a blink, "Unless you intend to take on a new assignment."

Dr Daniel Martin arrived and heard the exchange. He was loving the lay over but he too wanted his own sickbay.

The Admiral just nodded to the late arriving doctor, "I'd suggest that until we get things sorted out for Columbia's remaining crew take advantage of the down time for now, soon as fleet operations gets a ship assigned I'll ensure you're all called back." He paused waiting for the yeoman to leave, "There are other things in motion right now and I'd like for Captain Elliot to have some continuity with his staff if possible and based on his reviews of each of you he's got a good crew assembled here."

" I for one would love some good old down time. Turtle races on the beach with the drink of my choice. Cloud counting, mango coladas." Martin joked.

"Heck, I think all of us could use the time to relax for a bit and figure out what's next for all of us. I'm definitely staying, but I think we could use some time for us," Jorel offered up quietly before taking another sip of his coffee and looking at the wreckage of the Columbia.

Looking back at the Admiral, Jorel asked, "Do we even know what kind of ship we'll have or are they still figuring that part out? I know that they're building plenty of ships for the fleet, even after everything else."

Jarred smiled for the first time, "I'm hoping for one of the Connie three's that are in the Titan dry docks right now, most of the others are several weeks out and Starfleet might be mothballing the Odyssey class as they come in for refits this incident just puts a match too that fire, it's bad enough we lost another intrepid days before you got wrecked."

"I actually liked the Odyssey class ships. I just think there's a few bugs that they have to work out of the computer systems is all," Jorel offered up with a small smile.

The Admiral turned his head slightly, "The Fleet formation systems were it's downfall unfortunately."

'No more Odyssey's huh?' Hobb offered as he leant his elbows on the table. 'Big move. Should free up a lot of materiel for the fleet - do with them what they did with the Titan to make the Titan-A.' Taking a great gulp of coffee, he continued. 'So is that all, Admiral? I'm sure they didn't send you along just to tell us we'd be getting a new berth after a short holiday ...'

The admiral paused as a yeoman entered passing him a pad, he nodded slightly taking it, "For possibly the first time since the Dominion war ended fleet ops actually did something in less than a two months, this reads; All crew of Odyssey Class USS Columbia are here by reassigned, senior staff are assigned to the USS Columbia NCC-1706-A Constitution three class under temporary command of Rear Admiral Jarred Wallace while Captain Jason Elliot attends to a personal and medical matter." he set down the pad "I wasn't expecting that last part."

"When do we leave?" Bellona asked, sitting up in her seat, arms folded. "My department is eager for action. Whatever is left of them, at any rate. I know them well."

The Admiral smiled, "We'll have to address the staffing issues as we go and I'd like to get everyone into training and orientation sessions starting in two weeks time, that will also give me time to address the lack of medical staff and get everyone into other briefing sessions I feel you'll need moving forward, for now once salvage operations are finished everyone is on leave and I strongly recommend you all use it."

"Oh, a whole new ship and a new registry number! How cool is that and we actually got a connie III," Jorel said with a small smile as he thought about the even newer amenities aboard those new Constitution III starships. He was sure that the diplomatic department onboard would even be expanded for sure.

The Admiral looked over at the diplomatic officer, "I've read your reports on the debris field mission and I agree on things Captain Elliot has said, I think it'll be of more value to the crew if you expand your second officer role, you've already proven you can take on difficult technical challenges, I'd like for you too spend a couple of days at the Academy completing the entire bridge officers course, those scores you got were high enough you could earn your own command in the future I'd like for you to take the test as well." He said referring too the infamous Kobayashi Maru test.

" Oh Boy...the test." Dr Martin chuckled.

The admiral turned his good eye too the doctor, "I think I've found your first officer Mr Torrin." he said with a sinister smile.

Jorel looked at the Admiral and the Doctor for a moment before finally replying, "You think that I would be a good fit for the command training program? I'm just a humble diplomat. Heck, I'm barely in my 30's myself. You think that I could actually fit into the program and go through THE test?"

"Think of it this way, cadets learn about both things Picard did, the tactics and the diplomacy." The Admiral said.

"Alright, I'm totally down for it. Just let me know when and where I need to be to take the test and I'll be there, as well as anything else I might need to do for the test," Jorel replied with a smile forming across his face. He never thought about a command track until now. But, it sounded exciting.

The Admiral looked around the room, "Soon as I know which ship for sure I'll start calling all of you back and I'll have a clearer picture on Captain Elliot's return." pausing for effect "Dismissed."

End

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