"You people just don’t give up, do you?" she asked in her Chinese-accented basic as the Jem Hadar fell.

She sensed more than saw her partner in the black op mission come up beside her. "Of course not. After all, these rebels still believe there’s a war going on."

She shrugged to him as she turned to face him. "There was, but it ended a month ago."

"Not to them," he replied. He gave her a questioning frown and added, "You know, you could have just stunned him with your rifle."

Lieutenant Ada Marquet just shrugged again as she started walking towards the beam-out point. "I needed the exercise."

"Like hell you do," he replied, rubbing a bruise unconsciously from a sparring contest they had had.

"Defiant to Black Team," Captain Benjamin Sisko’s familiar voice came over an open comm channel. "Prepare for beam up the moment you’ve finished the job."

"Umm, too late, sir," Ada replied. "We’ve been done for almost a minute now"

Instead of the reply she expected, she felt the familiar tingling sensation of transport as she was momentarily blinded by white light. A moment later, she found herself standing in the transporter room of the Defiant.

"You’re to report to the bridge immediately, Lieutenants," the transporter chief stated.

As they started to leave, Ada threw over her shoulder, "Couldn’t you have just beamed us there directly?"

"I thought you needed the exercise?" her partner asked.

She playfully pushed him down another corridor they passed by, which caused him to jog for a moment to catch back up.

"Take it easy there, Ada!"

A few minutes later of lively conversation and brisk walking, they both strolled onto the bridge. Captain Sisko stood up, then motioned his hand to someone else. Ada turned her head to look in the direction.

"Son of a…" she started. She quickly moved towards the person, a huge smile overtaking her face. "Chris Harriman?!"

"In the uniform!" he stated, taking her hand when she offered it. Their friendship never had developed enough to include friendly hugs.

She glanced at his uniform collar and asked, "So when the hell did you make Captain, sir?"

"Very recently," he stated, a distant looking coming onto his face.

She backed up from him and frowned, realization coursing through her mind. "No…no, you can’t take me off of this assignment! We’re in the middle of it, and we’re the only ones who can handle it!"

Chris shook his head regretfully. "I was given clearance to take any officers I needed for my ship. I’ve told Starfleet that they’ll have to recruit someone from Starfleet Intel."

Trust me, no one in Starfleet Intel will be able to substitute for us. They don’t even come close…

"Is your command really important enough to disrupt our peace-keeping operations?" her partner asked, finally adding voice to Ada’s argument.

He looked at her partner and smiled. "My command is what will make the peace-keeping operation easier," he stated. "I can’t say too much more right now, though from what I’ve heard, the DS9 crew is very good at keeping secrets." He looked at Captain Sisko. "No offense, Captain, but I can’t voice it in front of all of these crew members. I made that mistake at Starfleet Academy and Command bit down hard on me."

"Chris…why do you need me?" she asked quietly.

"Because you’re the only one I can trust that is this good in the security field," he replied, putting his hand on her shoulder. "I need someone with your kind of background."

Chris, you don’t know the half of my background, heh.

"I’m afraid your partner will just have to do without."

"I suppose I’ll manage," he replied slowly, unsure. He looked at Ada, who looked back at him. "You want me to call our CO, get him to stop this transfer?"

"No," Ada replied. "If what he just said is true, about making peace keeping easier, I’ll be more than happy to take part in his command."

"Permission to depart, Captain Sisko," Chris asked, satisfied.

"Of course, Captain," Sisko replied in his deep voice.

Chris then moved into a different position. Ada, knowing why, joined him. He tapped his comm badge and said, "Harriman to Melbourne. Two to beam up."

She looked at her partner, gave him a knowing look. Fed Intel would simply have to send another officer to the Defiant.

"Energize."

Commander Kalia Tarkent gazed at the starship through the view port of the Class 2 shuttlecraft. "What a remarkable ship," she commented quietly to herself.

"You haven’t seen the half of it, Commander!" the helmsman of the shuttle replied. "You think she’s a beaut from outside? Wait till you see what she looks like inside!"

The shuttle started running parallel to the Dragon, but headed towards her aft on the starboard side. Kalia tried to get a better view of her through the cramped cockpit of the shuttle, but only managed to make the helmsman uncomfortable. These Class 2 shuttles sure are cramped…

They reached the aft of the unusual looking nacelles, then swung a slow one-eighty arch to come up directly behind the Dragon. The primary shuttle bay, directly behind and beneath the bridge, began to slowly move open. Deck by deck, the huge bay doors receded, until Kalia began to wonder just how big the Dragon was.

"Now why the hell would you need a shuttle bay that large?" she asked.

"Well, actually, its several shuttle bays in one," the helmsman replied, bringing them in towards the ‘top’ of the shuttle bay. "As you can see now, the shuttle bay is divided into three sections, all of them ‘tall’ enough to fill two decks."

"Well, I’m sure we’ll never run out of room for our shuttles and runabouts," she commented, sitting back in her chair.

"Shuttle Eight-Theta requesting to be tractor beamed the rest of the way in," the helmsman said over a comm channel.

"Sorry, Eight-Theta," a female voice replied. "Tractor beams are still not operational in the shuttle bays. You’ll have to bring in the person who’s going to fix that manually."

Kalia smiled and commented, "Funny, Sarah."

In an amused tone, Commander Sarah Caft replied, "I’m laughing. Anyway, we were having some problems with the ship’s power relays, and most of our tractor beams, as well as a few other systems, have gone off-line. Looks like you just arrived on time."

"I would only expect work the moment I arrived on Chris Harriman’s first command," she said, smiling. "Anyway, we’re almost aboard now. Talk to you soon."

"Caft out."

With that, the shuttle passed through the atmospheric forcefield that kept the shuttle bay pressurized when the doors were open. A moment later, with a soft sounding, but somewhat violent feeling thud, the shuttle settled to the deck.

"Not bad, Lieutenant," Kalia stated, grabbing her duffel bag and heading for the exit.

Advanced bioneural command and control circuitry…new impulse engine class…new warp drive class… Chris sat back in his seat, staring with interest at the schematics for the new Dragon class USS Dragon. He rubbed his eyes, almost unable to believe the schematics of the advanced starship!

Despite the circumstances with which he had received command of the starship, he found himself very pleased with his first command. When he had been first officer, he had only occasionally had control of the ship he was on for more than one shift.

With a soft thump, the runabout Meridian set down on the deck. Must have fixed that problem with the tractor beams I heard about, he thought to himself.

"We’re down, sir," Lieutenant James Trikal reported.

The side hatch on the runabout opened, and Chris stood up. He looked out into the shuttle bay, seeing part of the crew that was assembled for his arrival. He had never dreamed he’d be here like this, now, getting ready to take command of his first ship… He was nervous as hell…

He finally worked up the courage and stepped down out of the runabout onto the deck of the ship…his ship!

"Commanding officer, USS Dragon, arriving!" Ada stated while at attention. Someone, an ensign Chris wasn’t familiar with, blew into a whistle that sounded the three tones that tradition called for. Chris nodded his thanks to Ada, then made his way to the podium that everyone was surrounding.

So many new faces, he thought, looking at each and every person’s face briefly. I don’t know where to begin getting to know them!

He finally stepped up to the podium and activated the little data pad.

"To Captain Christopher Harriman," he began reading. "You are hear-by requested and required to take command of the Dragon class starship USS Dragon on stardate 52157. God speed and good luck to you and your crew."

He looked up from the small speech and once again looked at his crew…his crew. It was an amazing sensation, knowing that he could give one order that could make all of these people suddenly become a bustling mass of activity.

This would be a day he would forever remember…

Comfortable chairs, Chris thought to himself as he repositioned himself in the command chair. He looked to his right to see his first officer and one true love, Sarah Caft. "So tell me, Commander, what’s our first job?"

She looked into his eyes and smiled. "Well, Captain, we’re to go to Deep Space Nine to pick up our remaining crew."

That’s right, he thought. We still only have three-fourths of our crew aboard. We don’t even have a Senior Ops officer yet.

"Very well," he replied, leaning back in his chair. "Hail the Delta Construction Facility."

"Channel open," Vendar stated from her position at the Ops station.

"This is Captain Harriman aboard the Dragon," he began. "We are requesting permission to depart."

"Permission granted, Captain. Take her out at your leisure." There was a pause for a moment. "I know this might sound odd to you, but…take care of her for us, will you? We’ve grown quite attached to the little hatchling."

Chris smiled in response. "Don’t worry…we’ll keep her in one piece, one way or another."

"I’ll hold you to that, Captain… DCF out."

Chris nodded his promise to them one more time, then focused on leaving. "All right, everyone. Let’s get this monster moving. Bridge to engineering, bring main power to full."

"Aye, sir," Kalia replied. "Warp reactors Alpha and Beta are online and producing nominal power. Fusion reactors are all functioning properly…I think we’re ready!"