Cute Ship

Posted on Tue Apr 14, 2026 @ 9:59am by Commander Timothy Rouse & Lieutenant JG Ellen Washington & Andy Rouse

812 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: S03E01 - Something about Tribbles
Location: Langley Station - Rouse Residence
Timeline: MD 02 - 17.45 hours

ON:

Ellen was sitting on the couch with her 5 year old son, holopad in hand, reading to him The Boy Who Painted the Nebula. "With a flick of his brush and a spark of a star, young Leo reached out for the nebulae afar. He painted the void in a bright, glowing green, the prettiest system that ever was seen."

Andy laughed with joy as the holographic spacedust jumped off the padd. Even though she'd read this book to him many times, he still responded with surprise each and every time she read it to him.

She looked up as the door to their quarters open and Tim entered the room. He had an appointment with station's XO but no idea what the meeting was about. Tim had been on reserve since the decommisioning of the Sedna.

Andy immediately left her lap and ran towards Tim, who lifted him in the air. "Hey buddy, did you miss me," Tim asked as he held Andy against his chest. "Down," Andy said and as Tim let him go he walked to his box of toys, already forgotten the books they were reading. Ellen stood up and walked to Tim, put her arms around his neck and kissed him.

Tim closed his arms around her. "Hi," she whispered, followed by a quick "and?"

"They gave me a ship. As in, I'm now the commanding officer of the USS Fury. a ship garrisonned to the station."

"What? No way," she said with a smile. She had expected the reason they called him for the meeting today would be about a new position for him. But a command of his own, that had not been on her list of possibilities.

Tim lifted her and carried her to the couch where he put her in his lap after sitting down, looking over at Andy who was now playing with a toy starfighter, which he'd probably had gotten from his sister. "Yeh, I hadn't really expected that." He took a deep breath. "It's terrifying.... Me, a captain."

"You can do it. You could have taken over from Meru if the vessel was salvageble." Ellen said giving him a encouraging kiss. "Tell me about her." she said as she leaned into his embrace.

"She's a defiant class vessel with patrol duties in the area. First mission is in a few days already." He wanted to add the part of the ship tactical abilities and the possible need for those given what happened 18 monhts ago, but he couldn't since she did not have the proper clearance. "Things will change for us, with Andy mostly."

"Andy goes to school now, which makes this actually perfect timing. I can request work hours during your absence that fit with his schooling." She said, thinking aloud. "It will indeed be a change not always finding you here when I get off shift." She hugged him a bit thighter. "But we've been kinda in a special kind of situation with you being off for the last 18 months."

He lifted her chin to look in her eyes. "It's only short missions, I've been told. A few days, maybe a week at a time." He kissed her before being interupted by a soft "I'm hungry," followed by Andy climbing next to them. Ellen chuckled. "Guess someone is hungry."

After dinner Tim sat behind the computer terminal in their quarters and decided to do some more research on his new ship, which turned out to be a lot easier then expected. Apperently his new position was already processed in the system.

Defiant class. Tactical Escort. That he already knew. He had hoped to find the real reason why a defiant class had been garrisonned to the station, but alas. There was no official record of why they assigned a tactical vessel with a command crew with extensive tactical background to the station.

What he did find were several other crew already assigned to the ship. And apperently Ron wasn't the only one with a double posting. He saw his security and medical chief also had a posting on the station, as well as his chief engineer. He send a message to the later to see if he could join Tim and Ron tomorrow during a walk through of the Fury.

"What are you doing?" Ellen asked as she put her arms around his neck and leaned on him. "Looking up some stuff on the Fury," When he looked at her and saw her look of confusion he ellaborated. "My new ship."

"Oh, nice name," she said lookin at the image attached to the file in front of him. "Cute ship,"

"It is a space ship! It is not cute." he exclaimed, which got him a reply of "What ever you say, I just think it's cute,"

OFF:

Timothy Rouse
Commanding Officer
USS Fury

Ellen Washington
Medical Officer
Langley Station

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