by Hauk – Kaiwolf
Scene: Yard Master’s Office — Björkö Fleet Yards
Location: Yard Master’s Office — Björkö Fleet Yards, Moskoe Anchorage
—-
“I’m sorry, but Dahar Master Hauk … your twin … pulled the rug out from under you and assigned the Tempest to someone else.”
Twin if you overlooked the fact they stem from different realities, and one was missing an eye that is.
Capt. Alan Sollace slid the padd across the table to the one-eyed admiral.
Hauk’ had come to work with the captain quite closely lately as the yard master (soon to return to space as captain of the U.S.S. Sam Houston) was the current yard master for the Björkö Fleet Yards, located in the Moskoe Anchorage region along the outer “eastern” edge of the Malstrom Expanse.
Fleet Admiral Hauk picked the padd up and gave it a courtesy if not disgusted glance.
“I thought he was stepping down and Adoy was taking his place?”
Hauk’ and his double did not see eye to eye on many things at the moment as his counterpart still held a bit of a grudge over the ship Hauk’ had cost him during their … meeting …. back in the Klingon-Federation War.
“All that’s still happening, but something changed that made him authorize the change before that happens,” Alan answered.
The Klingon Starfleet admiral growled as he’d had his heart set on that ship.
“Where in Grethor is she going?”
“Tempest is being passed over to Fleet Admiral Miles Llewellyn’s task force, and he’s assigning it to Capt. Fox White.”
Hauk’ knew the Miles of his reality is a good man and even a friend.
This Miles remained a stranger … a stranger that now was standing in his way to this ship.
The Klingon took a measured breath and set the padd back down on the desk, seeing this as yet another battlefield.
Although Hauk’ preferred commanding starships and being out there … Thanks to his previous life, he also was quite at home playing the administrative game as well.
It was a game he first learned in Ancillary Division … Harbour Command and all the way up the chain to being Starfleet’s top dog himself.
That universe or this one, that game remained the same.
“I still want that ship.”
“Actually, Admiral … there is another option that’s just come available.”
Alan slid a second padd across the table while taking back the first before continuing.
“Another Connie III has just opened up and come available.”
For some reason, (likely all the new improvements to the class) the Constitution III …or Neo-Constitution as some like to call them … class had become quite popular and in demand by fleet admirals and captains seeking them for their fleets, task forces and commands.
So much so that as far as the newer retrofits go, she was definitely giving the Excelsior II and Sagan classes a run for their money.
And you couldn’t even compare her to the Odyssey variants out there as size put them in two completely different categories.
“I thought they were all spoken for,” Hauk commented.
“Where did this one come from?” he asked.
Alan’s face fell slightly.
“Capt. William Ruble was recently killed in action.”
The room went silent to the point Hauk only heard the sound of his heart beating in his chest. Or such was his imaginings.
Bill was a good man. One he’d only met once in this reality but had been a close friend back in the other.
“They were killed during an engagement with the Borg as were several members of his crew,” Alan continued.
“Borg drones boarded the ship. Bill led a fireteam into the bowels of his ship, seeking not just to save the ship from the Borg … but … you know the man … more so, his crew.”
“Was too late for many, but I’ve heard the stories first hand from survivors who say that without Bill’s sacrifice … they would now all be drones and the ship ‘assimilated,’” the captain finished.
There had been a reason Bill had been deserving of a new command.
The Efrosian-Scotsman tapped the back of the padd now in Hauk’s hand.
“I give you the NCC-71446 … Connie III-class Miracle Worker Cruiser,” Alan began.
Hauk’ recognized that number instantly as he’d seen it before on another ship in another reality.
He looked up quickly.
“…the U.S.S. Excalibur,” Alan continued.
What Alan didn’t know was that the name Excalibur held deep significance to the Klingon Starfleet Admiral.
As an alternate Excalibur had once served as his flagship and that of his fleet.
Seemed history was repeating but this time in a positive way.
Hauk pulled himself from the moment as he remembered this hull was one of two.
“Just like her sister, the Tempest,” Alan added as if on cue. “Well, almost … half-sisters as this one is … a bit unconventional in her systems.”
Sister ships are ships of the same class or of virtually identical design to another.
Half-sisters same class but with some significant differences.
“What’s her launch schedule?” Hauk asked.
“Almost identical to her sister. … Wanna go see her?”
With a nod, the fleet admiral was already half out of his seat.
—-OUT OF STORY—-
This sets the stage for the fact that the Tempest name is going to be one that will be flown by a character being written by a friend as well as sets the stage for what will become Hauk’s new flagship.
