Enduring the Endurance

Posted on 21 Jul 2025 @ 9:09pm by Ensign Peris & Commander Terry Walsh & Lieutenant Commander Jonathan Carter & Ensign Aurilia Moretti

838 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Imposters Among Us
Location: USS Endurance
Timeline: July 7, 2390 || 1000 hours

Captain Graham Holmes was less than happy as he paced the bridge of the Sovereign class USS Endurance. It wasn't enough that Geisler had been made a Commodore, Brevit or not; no, now his fighter squadron was roosting on his ship and making a noisy mess of it on top of that. He looked at his Comms officer and glared. "Anything from the Black Hawk yet?" he asked,.

The Grazerite ensign turned and shook his head. "Nothing outside of the usual comm traffic, sir."

Graham wanted the man to make something happen, but he could only nod fiercely and pace to the other side of the bridge. "Anything on sensors?" he asked.

A Bolian Lieutenant looked up from his controls at the forward Operations station. "Looks like a couple of the fighters are completing their patrol and are currently on an intercept course for us."

Graham grunted. "I should have them extend their patrols if they're going to roost on my ship."

"Sir?" asked the Bolian. It was no secret on the ship, and especially on the bridge, that Captain Holmes was not at all pleased with the situation. In every way, the Sovereign-class starship was superior to that of the Black Hawk, except the Akira-class had a Commodore at the helm. Rank always won, no matter the firepower one had in their torpedo bays.

"What?" Graham growled as he turned his glare on the Bolian.

The Bolian gulped and considered his next words very carefully. "Black Hawk hasn't acknowledged that they are ready to receive the squadron again. So, should I have them extend their patrols?"

"Yes," Graham all but snarled. "Tell them to go a light year out if they have to." He didn't care if they ever came back to his ship.

"Aye, sir." The Bolian turned back to his console and tapped a button to open a comm channel. He took a deep breath before speaking, "Endurance to Black Knights. Command is requesting a patrol of the outer system before returning to the bay."

"Copy," came the response from Jax as he looked over at his winngperson and wagged the wings of his fighter before he turned back the way they had came,.

Aurilia sighed. It was another blind goose chase because the Captain of the Endurance had an issue with her Commodore. She sighed again and turned to head after Jax.


* * *

"They're sending them around again," announced the deck chief. The maintenance crew all sighed, frustrated by the commander of their temporary roost. This seemed to be more and more the norm lately, thought Ensign Peris. It was no secret that the Black Knights were not welcome aboard the Endurance, but they needed to operate from somewhere while the Black Hawk conducted its repairs.

Peris and her wingman were overdue yet again to go out on patrol, but operating on a different craft meant different logistics. And these different logistics were among Holmes' list of frustrations. Her bird had been queued for more than an hour, and if the patrol didn't return in the next hour and a half, she'd have to lose her flight time to the next set of birds.


* * *

"What are we doing out here when we should be back on the ship?" Jax asked over the private comm for the squadron.

Rocco chuckled over the channel. "Honestly, it feels like we're pawns in a pissing contest. Maybe if we go far enough out, we'll drag a big bad enemy of some sort back to the Endurance. Give him something to do other than screw with the Commodore."

"Maybe we should get them in a same room and make them measure," Tango came over the comm.

A fourth pilot, an Andorian dubbed "Icegirl" brought her fighter into formation. "Come on now," she cautioned Tango. "You know the crankiest voice always has the smaller member. Always compensating by carrying a bigger stick."

Tango began to laugh hysterically and had to mute her com and work harder to control her fighter as her body went into a giggle fit.

Icegirl didn't need the comms to know Tango lost control momentarily. She had a clear enough visual by looking across the viewport. "You know, I think I heard of a Wadi trader passing through the system. Maybe we can bring that prize in for Captain Graham to wave his stick at?"

"Copy that, Icegirl," Jax said. "Let's check it out."

Tango got control of her fighter again and formed up once more. "Sorry about that."

"I'm the one that should be sorry," Icegirl replied, looking out and over to Tango with a smirk on her face. "My comment's on the record, yours isn't. Now let's go get ourselves some Wadi." She brought her bird around and shot off into the distance.

Terry nodded. "Let's do it. Squadron, follow on departure coordinates.. Let's bring 'em back something to do." He followed on Icegirl's coordinates along with the others.

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