Two Friends, Two Captains, Two Plans

Posted on Sun Feb 22nd, 2026 @ 5:42pm by Captain Taiga Aisaka & Captain Minori Kushieda

1,225 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Flight Of The Valkyries
Location: USS Tokyo Ready Room
Timeline: March 13th, 2397

Captains Log.

The Tokyo has been holding position in the Latroux System for the last twelve hours. The crew have responded well to preparing for the attack on the Iconian Starbase. I am hopeful that we will be able to pull off such a mission and put that starbase out of commission.

Our sister ship the USS Armitage has just arrived in the system. The other Armitage class starships are due to arrive in the next couple of days. I however am looking forward to seeing my old friend Captain Kushieda again. She is beaming over shortly.

End Log.

The doors of the ready room opened and in walked a red haired captain. She looked around and discovered Taiga sitting on one of the ready room couches. Taiga rose to her feet only to be pulled into a tight hug by the other captain.

"Nice to see you too Minorin." Taiga laughed as she hugged her friend back.

"Using my old nickname huh. You seem to be growing softer the more your belly grows Taiga." Minori joked as she released the shorter woman.

"Old habit," Taiga smiled. "How are you doing these days? Its been a while."

"Oh I'm not too bad. Just keeping my ship on course." Minori replied with a smile as she made her way and sat down on the couch. Taiga moved over to the replicator and returned with two cups of tea. Steam swirled and danced from the rims as she passed one to Minori and then lowered herself onto the couch.

"But how about you Taiga? How many weeks are you along now? No offense, but you looks huge!" Minori smiled.

Taiga ran a hand over her belly. "Thirty Seven weeks now. So little mister or madam should be gracing with his or her appearance anytime soon. Quite frankly, I want this baby out of me. My back is killing me and I'm sat more on the head than I am the Captains chair." Taiga smiled. "Never get pregnant Minori."

"I'd need to find a man first," Minori winked. "Speaking of which, hows Ryuuji?"

"Oh he's fine. His obsession with cleaning is going into overdrive. I think he's either as excited about the baby arriving as I am. Or he's going into panicking 'daddy mode'." Taiga laughed. "Speaking of which, he extends an invitation to dinner tonight. He said he's going to make something special for us. Its not often we get visitors."

Minori let out a laugh. "Sure, I have no plans. So I'll come over. Your Ryuuji is a fantastic cook." She then shifted position and pulled a PADD out of her pocket. "Speaking of plans. Here's something I think you need to see..."

Taiga raised an eyebrow as she took the PADD and skimmed over its comments. A moments silence fell upon the room only broken by the beeping as Taiga read through the contents.

"Is this for real?" Taiga asked simply looking her friend dead in the eyes. Her gaze was sharp and stern.

"Yeah. If you look at the bottom, those are the sensor readings from the Armitage. I couldn't let this just pass us, so I confirmed it myself." Minori replied simply.

Taiga looked down at the PADD once again. "Does Starfleet know about this?"

Minori shook her head. "No. I haven't told Starfleet about this information."

"Minori... Why?"

"Taiga. We're the ones out here. If I sent this off to Starfleet Command they'd not only cancel this mission, but they'd have to run simulations, make new plans and it would take days if not weeks for them to issue new orders. Thats all good usually. However they're sat in San Francisco behind desks, safe and get to go home to their families every night." She paused. "Unlike them, we're the ones out here fighting. Losing people every day. Having to say goodbyes to our friends and the ones who are risking our lives on the front line every day."

"I can see your point. This does change things about the plan." Taiga stated simply as she once again consulted the PADD. "But, this is your idea Minori. Why don't you have your crew do this? Why bring this to me?"

"Oh trust me I thought about it. But my crew have far less experience with Iconian technology and Heralds than yours. If I believed that my own crew could pull this off I would have been all over this like bee's to honey." Minori stated. "However, I know your people are far more qualified than mine to do such a thing."

"You know its risky..." Taiga said as she looked up from the PADD.

"I know it is. But it'll give us an advantage. It'll give us that extra security."

"I wish I had something like this before. I would have reworked the entire plan of attack." Taiga sighed. She placed the PADD on her knee and took a sip of her tea. "The Heralds are ruthless, they don't stop at anything and they have no need for the rules of war."

"I know Taiga. I'm sorry I couldn't get to Starbase 234 before. I understand you had to leave a lot of people behind. That couldn't have been an easy decision to make." Minori said her eyes dropping to the deck as she looked away from her friend.

"It wasn't." Taiga replied softly. "But I knew that saving some was better than saving none. I had to get those people we could save out of there. Although I still feel guilty for leaving all those people behind."

"There's no need to feel guilty. You did what you could and you put yourself and your crew in risk to save as many as you could. There are many other Captains who wouldn't have done that." Minori comforted her. She also took a sip of her tea.

A long pause fell upon the room, before Taiga broke the silence once again. "Regardless, thanks for bringing this to me. I know that the Tokyo is going to be the command ship for this mission. But I feel better knowing that we can have an alternate method of dealing with this starbase." Taiga told her. "But, how are we going to pull this off?"

"Leave that to me and the Armitage." Minori smiled. "Now, before we get down to the nitty gritty stuff. Do you know who you want to do this?" she asked.

Taiga pondered for a few moments. "I think I do."

"Good." Minori replied. "If you'll approve my plan. How about we get this ball rolling?"

A smile stretched across Taiga's face as she finished the last of her tea and pulled herself up off the couch. She crossed to the replicator and recycled the empty cup. "I think we should. After all, this is an opportunity that they'll need to simulate and practise if we're going to pull this off."

Minori nodded. "I'm willing to stick around to explain the finer details if you need me?"

"I'd like that. Plus, this is your plan, you can help iron out any creases." Taiga smiled as she then tapped her comm badge. "Commanders, Johnson, Hunt, and Lieutenants Nezuko, Quinn and Inoue. Report to my ready room."

Posting by

Captain Taiga Aisaka
Commanding Officer
USS Tokyo

Captain Minori Kushieda
Commanding Officer
USS Armitage

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