The Hornet was back at Starbase 901. Nathaniel took a deep breath as he tugged his black and gray tunic down, then turned his head sharply to crack his neck. The door to the Hornet conference room slid open as the tall human man took another step.
The room was filled with the four remaining senior officers on the Hornet. The senior staff began to stand as the Captain entered the room. "At ease and take your seats!" Captain Sharpe said as walked to the lead chair at the table.
"I am Captain Nathaniel Sharpe. I am here to rescue Commodore Wallace, Commander Wolf, and Lieutenant Jenara Chee. I'm not here to replace Wallace. I'm a temp replacement. I want to know the status of the ship's damaged systems," Sharpe said in a very firm and fair tone. He scanned around the table to see how the other officers viewed him. They viewed him as a stranger. That was to be understood.
"Sir, the Hornet will have transwarp capabilities in ten hours. Weapons and transporters have been repaired," Chief Matthews replied with a serious look on his face.
"Very well then Chief. Make sure we arm up with an extra thirty-four quantum torpedoes. I don't want to be stuck out there with a limited supply of torpedoes." Sharpe then stood up and walked over to the viewer.
"Captain Lataro. I want you and Commander Chee to study those Nipron charts that were given to you. Have that Cardassian launch probes where those charts were supposedly charted." Sharpe was quiet for a few minutes.
"Then what, sir?" Commander Chee asked.
"What??" replied Sharpe.
"How do we locate and rescue the three officers?"
"We go back to Nipron space and squeeze some information out of them. Someone down there helped these Freedom Fighters out. Perhaps they know where the Commodore was taken. Oh-- one more thing. We are not to return to Starbase 901 until Commodore Wallace has been rescued." Sharpe left the conference room for the bridge.
Once on the bridge he walked down to the young counselor. "Lieutenant Liaji, I need you to keep up the crew's morale. It may be some time before we come back to the station." The young lady nodded her head.
"Ensign Okul. You're acting Chief Operations Officer until you're killed or I find someone better." Sharpe turned around and looked at the bridge crew and saw a look of uncertainty. "Listen please. I served with Wallace going on twelve years ago. He was my tactical student. I taught him almost everything there is to know about battle and tactics. I assure you, we will find him and your other missing crew. This task won't be easy, so if you think you can't hack it, get the hell off the ship and let the men and women do the work.
"Major Yazi, you're our Chief Conn officer. Commander Chee, Captain Lataro, I want those scans done yesterday." Sharpe walked off the bridge into the Captain's ready room.
Nathan stopped and looked around the room and saw everything Wallace had done to make this office his. Somehow this told Sharpe he was only using this and it wasn't his, also more importantly, don't get used to it.