Stardate: 80420:2125
Title: Hardly Refreshed
Author: Maxine Jenna
Time: After "A Short Shore Leave"
Scene: Starbase 9


The gathering of Starfleet vessels at the behemoth station meant that Admiral Foster was more than willing to send the Relentless on yet another inter-universal exploration before things in the region became too unstable to risk such a mission or ship.

And so it was that, after their short shore leave, the crew of the Relentless that were to be continuing their voyages returned to the Intrepid-class vessel. Refreshed was not a word that could be used to describe many of the crew - the station was filled with chatter about small but nonetheless strange border skirmishes, a broken-up arms-smuggling cartel and the coincidentally-absent Chief of Special Operations, the arrival of a Trokarn 'messenger', a nearby and unexpected supernova, and a strange virus outbreak on a Federation station in a nearby sector...

~

The spacedoors of Starbase 9 opened, releasing the Relentless and two Defiant-class escorts out into the darkness of space; although it wasn't unheard of the Relentless to proceed to pre-determined jump co-ordinates with an escort, it wasn't usually a pair of 'weapons hot' Defiant warships that did the escorting. Even so, there was no denying that the Captain felt slightly relieved by their presence, a relief that emanated down to the crew.

~

As the crew prepared for another inter-universal transition, checking energy levels, plasma conduits, warp core status, jump drive power feeds and so forth, Maxine found Ravien at the Relentless' computer core.

"Everything good, Ensign?" She asked, her voice echoing between the two tall cylinders containing gigaquads of information.

"Yes, Sir," Ravien responded after a momentary hesitation.

"Relly?" Maxine spoke out, her voice only slightly raised. The holographic image of the young child form the Relentless' AI often chose appeared directly in front of the CSO.

"Yes, Lieutenant?" The young girl spoke.

"Do we have backups of all the data from the jump drive during our time in the Observer's universe?"

"Yes - that data has now been archived to the main computer core," Relly began. "Captain Winters also ordered a copy presented to Admiral Foster."

Maxine nodded her head. "I just don't want to risk losing any of that data." She tapped her combadge. "Lieutenant Jenna to Captain Winters."

[Winters here. Go ahead.]

"Sir, the jump drive is fully operational and the charging cycle will be complete within the hour. There appear to be no ill after-effects from our encounter with the Observers."

[Good. We should be at the jump co-ordinates shortly after the charge is complete then. Winters out.]


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Lieutenant Maxine Jenna
Chief Science Officer
USS Relentless
NCC-11966
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