Capt St. John

Mikel is standing before one of the large windows on the Control Tower watching the stars slowly spin by as the station rotates. His predecessor had mentioned that the view was one of the perks of the assignment and Mikel would have to admit, Nicholas was right. Mikel doesn't hear the tactical console beep behind him but he does hear the duty officer there clear her throat before saying "Sir, we're recieving an incoming transmission from Starfleet Command on a secure line. It's pegged as a priority transmission." Mikel sighs quietly, managing to keep from sarcastically remarking that all tranmissions from Starfleet Command were priority, especially the ones that shouldn't be. Mikel had long ago decided that humans, along with most of the other short lived species, had a penchant for pretending that high rank always made what one said important beyond measure even when really it was only about such menial things as a report getting lost in the system. "Put it through to my office, Lieutenant Saharin." With that said, Mikel walks across the Control Tower and steps inside his office. He takes a minute to retrive a beverage from the replicator and to situation himself behind his desk. After that he activates the display screen and waits for the computer to go through it's motions of patching through the transmission. Presently he finds himself face to face with a middle aged human with silver hair wearing an Admiral's uniform and rank. Mikel blinks then says evenly "Hello father. I assume this isn't going to be a pleasant chat?" The man frowns darkly and says "Captain, perhaps you shouldn't be so familiar over the comm channels. You should know that Admiral Centauris is present on this end." Mikel frowns and says "My apologies, Rear Admiral Sinjin, for my impertinence. What can I do for Admiral Centauris and yourself?" Mikel gets the sense that his father wanted to smirk at his abashed apology but the older man doesn't do so. After a few moments the Rear Admiral sighs quietly and says "The incident that started with the destruction of the USS Cairo has resurfaced according to reports. I hate to do this but how soon can you get back to Earth?" Mikel's frown darkens, "How long do you need me back there?" "That...will depend." A short time later Mikel steps out of his office and returns to his spot before the window. He decides he might as well enjoy the view while he can."

One of the first things Mikel had changed when he arrived onboard Aegis was the addition of a computer screen added to one of the walls in his office. Something that while certainly not as large as the three viewscreens out on the Control tower but was still bigger then the computer screen on his desk. For the simple reason he wanted something he could pace in front of when he was forced to deal with annoying people via private communications. An urge he's resisting doing in front of Vice Admiral Preuss. Preuss frowns and says "Again, Captain, I do not see the wisdom in sending more ships out into the middle of nonaligned space and risk them getting taken to who knows where by this wormhole your Commander Quark reported. We've already lost two ships to this wormhole. And as you yourself have reported, you've haven't recieved any indication that neither the USS Endeavour nor the USS Pandora's Box survived the trip to wherever they went." Mikel narrows his eyes and tries to keep his tone even as he says "Admiral, with all due respect, you have recieved no indication that they didn't survive the trip. And I find your apparent glibness at throwing people's lives away by not authorizing a rescue attempt appalling." Preuss frowns "If you wish to attempt a rescue, you may do so." Mikel arches an eyebrow and says "With what? A few runabouts and one fighter? When Admiral Goran left he took the USS Lewis with him leaving only the Pandora here. Which is one of the main reasons I want at least a fighter detachment permanently stationed here. And unlike Admiral Goran, I do not have authorization to call in any other ships which is why we're having this conversation. I do not have a flag rank after all. So again, I request that you authorize a rescue attempt. It doesn't need to be the whole fleet or even every ship in the sector. Just a couple of ships will do." If anything, Preuss' frowns becomes darker. "Perhaps if you hadn't been demoted you would have the authority that Admiral Goran had." Mikel blinks and this time he doesn't bother to keep his emotions out of his voice. When he speaks it's as if a parent chiding a recaltriant child. "Might I remind you, Vice Admiral, as I'm quite sure you've seen my service record but that demotion fifteen years ago was purely voluntary on my part. I wanted to Captain a starship again. And considering the depredations that the Battle of Wolf and other wars caused to the ranks of qualified senior Starship officers, I was of much more valuable use doing so then remaining an Admiral. I've been in Starfleet for most of the last hundred years, Vice Admiral. Frankly after spending a good portion of that as an Admiral it was boring me. And I certainly didn't wish to be promoted to the rank of Fleet Admiral. When you live as long as my people do the mundane..doing the same thing for decades ad nauseum has a way of getting to you. The Q are a perfect example of that. They act the way they do because they're terminally bored." Mikel pauses then says "Now, I ask you again to authorize the dispatch of at least a starship to the last coordinates of the Pandora and the Endeavour. They're going to either be lost like Voyager or they're going to die if we don't do anything." Preuss sighs "Very well, Captain, I will see what I can do. Good day, Captain." Mikel frowns as the screen turns itself off. He mutters "Like hell you will. Well, if I can't go through you, Admiral, lets see if I have enough pull to go around you." He says "Computer, open a priority channel to Starfleet Command. Admiral Jenning's office."

USS Endeavour Location: Valeria System Non-aligned space, near the Rolor Nebula Captain David Savage settles into his chair on the bridge after retrieving a cup of coffee. All in all, it had been a boring last few weeks despite patrolling the area of non-aligned space on the far side of the Cardassian Empire. They had stopped by Listening Post 85 and made some upgrades to it as well as rotating the small crew of personnel that were stationed to it. The main reason the Endeavour had been assigned to patrol this area of space was to keep an eye on the Breen. Considering the Breen's history, Starfleet wasn't about to actually believe the protestations of the Breen government that the recent raiding attacks on Federation and Cardassian shipping was actually the work of rogues. The new Commanding officer of Aegis, one Captain St. John, had requested the stepped up patrols and had, apparently from things David had heard, pulled more then a few strings to ensure that Command agreed to the request. He takes a sip of his coffee and has just set it down when the alarms start blaring. Before he even has time to demand an answer to what's going on the ship shakes violently and the viewscreen is blanked out by a white light. The last thing that David hears before the darkness claims him is the sound of his coffee cup shattering.

Mikel is looking out at the stars in his quarters as the USS Perseus, drops out of warp in the Cardassian system. He sighs quietly to himself as the stars revert to their normal look. He hadn't asked for this assignment as Sky Harbor Aegis' new Commanding Officer..in fact he hadn't been looking for a new command at all. The Perseus, which he had commanded for the last five years, was still a brand new ship really and that appealed to him. The fact that it is a Prometheus class also appealed to him. It was a sign that the Federation, after the wars with the Dominion and the Cardassian and the near wars with the Romulans, was finally paying attention to the fact that the galaxy wasn't a peaceful place. And that while peaceful contact and exploration was still one of the primary goals of Starfleet and the Federation..the fact remained that there was no guarantee that the relative peace that had settled about the Federation since the end of the Dominion war was going to last. Sooner or later the Federation would find itself in a new conflict and it needed starships that weren't just exploration vessels if the Federation was going to survive. And Prometheus class ships weren't exploration ships, though they could fill that role rather well, in their hearts they were warships. Even if there was some trepidation among Starfleet Command and the Federation Council on the message that the Prometheus class and the Sovereign class sent...they were still necessary. Sooner or later the darkness would return, the Breen attack on Sky Harbor Aegis was a testament to that fact. And now Mikel is being asked to give up command of a ship that can dance across the stars in order to take up command of a immobile fortress in the heart of what used to be enemy space, one who's mission was to oversee restoring that former enemy to a position where that former enemy could one day become a future enemy. Mikel shakes his head slightly, thinking that was a purely human thing to do. But then, humans were the glue of the Federation, whether they realized it or not. And the Federation had taken his people in when they could have turned them away. And for that grace given, Mikel could stand being put in charge of the exercise in cosmic politics that was waiting just ahead, if for only a little while. Besides, he had been commanding one Starfleet ship or another for the last eighty years, perhaps it was time for a change. Even if it wasn't quite the temporary retirement that Kiera had been asking him to take.