Location: USS Paso Robles, CO Ready Room

Captain Renato Jose Gutierrez-Lopez had just completed his meeting with the Task Force 17 command staff. He was a little on edge for the meeting, but he felt that the meeting went well. Officially he had his first real mission. The Paso Robles would be dropping off supplies to Starbase Bravo, and to several support vessels in the area.

Renato hoped he was not to late to drop off supplies. The fleet was hit hard, and he was not the only support vessel going to support “Project Nightfall.” His cargo bays, and several corridors were filled with gear. His ship was stuff to the brim.

It was going to take some time to get out to the fleet. More time than Renato wanted. For the moment though it could not be helped. The Federation was spread a little think between a bulk fleet at Starbase Bravo, and the rest of the fleet protecting other assets.

The Paso Robles was now traveling at warp speed. Her next stop was Starbase Bravo. Renato just sat in his command chair in his ready room. For the moment he was looking at windows watching the stars zip by.

He was taking a momentarily much needed break. He had been reviewing reviewing reports of damaging casualties that the Vasdwaur had inflicted on the Federation fleet and station.

So many ships were damaged in so many of the crew were either injured or killed. The numbers kind of appalled him. He hadn’t seen these kind of devastating numbers since the Battle of frontiers day. Which wasn’t that long ago.

He was hoping no one he knew, was on the list of injuries or casualties. After scrolling through the list he sadly one person on the list. There was aLieutenant that he had served with a few years back when they were an Ensign. He didn’t know them personally but he knew of them and worked with them in the past. But never developed a long-term friendship with them.

The list was still incomplete, the blackout had really made it difficult to track a good portion of the fleet. So it was hard to know for sure how bad things were out there near Starbase Bravo.

“Have you seen the latest numbers?” Renato ass is he licked over to Mira.

“Yes sir I have, but the list is far from complete. I’m hoping starfleet can get contact with some of the ships that are still missing in action.

“We have several squadrons still un-accounted for. This blackout isn’t helping.” Renato suggested, as you take a step from his drink that was sitting at his desk. It was a nice steaming cup of coffee.

“What’s our current ETA?” Renato asked, as he looked over to Mira. He had a reminder set on his computer terminal to tell him to go back onto the bridge, but he had a feeling that his first officer knew how much time they had before they reached the system.

“2.75 hours, Captain.” Mira then she went on to say, “I hope we can get supplies to play in time.”

“As do I, my only complaint about the california class is, she doesn’t have the fastest engine in the fleet. But she is built for logistical support. And right now, the Fleet is counting on us.

“Yes sir.” Mira said, thinking that they were kind of talking at circles at this point. She wanted to move the conversation forward but she could tell that it was really bothering him.

Renato picked up on her cue with the deflection of her tone. He wasn’t trying to be disrespectful, but he got the message. He then picked up a data pad and started to review the performance of the crew. “The shifts perform adequately on your last battle drill simulation.”

“Yes they did captain, they all could definitely use some improvement. Most of them are straight out of the academy and don’t have any real experience with battle jail formations. Sadly I don’t think the academy truly prepares our new generation of leaders to deal with combat scenarios.” Mira suggested, not trying to dis on the academy program but she also understood that they had only 4 years to prepare officers to run all kind of aspects of the star fleet’s mission.

In theory 4 years sounds like a lot of time but in practicality it wasn’t a lot of time to prepare cadets to become officers and to carry out all aspects of Starfleet.

“Well that’s the way they hired us. We’ll get them trained up. And now that we have a base understanding of where their performance levels are, we can work on techniques to improve their stats.” Renato suggested to her.

“I would like to see you did a remarkable job with your evaluation reports, this is a good step for you getting your own command.” Renato suggested to her, as he continued reading the report.

“I was just trying to be thorough in my report, I appreciate the compliment, Captain.” Mira simply said in response.

“ I appreciate your due diligence, and I wanted to say it doesn’t go unnoticed.” Renato said. He then moved the conversation along to the next thing he wanted to discuss. “I don’t pretend to fully understand Betazed traditions. So this is more of a personal nature and a inquiry only.” Renato started to say as he tried to debate how to bring up the topic.

“iIt looks like we have a request from Lieutenant Jaxon Thorne and Ensign Lira Chameer to share quarters together, because dating and they engaged? Typically that’s going to be an issue. Actually it’s not an issue. But I am a little curious am I supposed to appreciate some wedding here? I don’t truly understand the customs involved in this is it sounds like it’s an arranged marriage from what I understand?” Renato run out there said as he looked over to Mira knowing that she herself was Betazed, and a married one so she would know the protocol is better than anybody.

“I’m familiar with the family, it is an arranged marriage most of our marriages are arranged. But this one isn’t for a political gain. This one looks like it was done more as a favor to The Thorn family because of close ties between the two families.

“Do I need to be concerned because of the fact that it’s arranged and not because of love?” Renato asked his first officer.

“No sir, from young age both of them were bonded to each other. They actually do care about each other they just don’t know each other well enough yet to actually a kiss the term would be fall in love. But they’re working on it, and this is a mutual decision between the both of them. It is not unusual in the circumstances for the two to live together to make sure they can cohabitate before they get married.” Mira tried to explain to her Captain.

“That makes more sense now, I appreciate the response. Thank you numb

er one.” Renato said, as a scene starts to fade away.