Chapter Text
2367
Vice Admiral JT Hansen hurried down the corridor of his flagship, the USS Melbourne. There was a sense of panic in the air but the admiral had no choice but to hurry. His only grandchild was next to him not knowing how much danger was coming there. He knew he should have left Charlie at the Starbase, but if things went very wrong, he didn’t know where Charlie would be safe. Right now, his favorite person was with him on the Melbourne as she headed towards danger.
“Papa, are the Borg really coming?” asked the eight-year-old boy who was far too bright for his age.
Finally, they were in the shuttle bay. The admiral paused and looked at the boy. “How do you know about the Borg?”
Charlie looked at his grandfather and told the truth, “Daddy and Uncle Scott talked about them the last time they were together. I forget which Starbase, but it’s the one where Uncle Scott taught me how to walk in zero Gs.”
Sighing, the admiral knew his sons taught Charlie too much, too soon. His older boy, Hercules, taught Charlie how to pilot a shuttle when he was six! Scott taught the kid how to fight in several variations. There was no time to thank all that was Good that Charlie could pilot.
“Come,” JT said as he approached a shuttle. He opened it and got Charlie in there. “There is an environmental suit in there for smaller Starfleet personnel. Put it on.” He pointed to a large computer array that was in the middle of the floor of the craft. “That is a communications device that will record all transmissions and scans between the fleet while we engage the Borg.”
Charlie looked at it and shrugged. “What do you need me to do?”
The admiral got down on a knee and hugged Charlie. “Pilot this craft out of the danger zone and power down everything but the comms array. Be in your suit and have it on. Play dead, son. If we win, then we’ll get you. If not…” he choked up a bit.
It took a moment for Charlie to understand. He grabbed his grandpa. “No!”
“You need to be brave, Charlie. This is the worst foe the Federation has ever faced. I need to you to do this mission. It is vital. You understand?” He looked his grandson in the eyes. “That’s an order, cadet.”
The pet name Charlie had been called by his grandpa since he was born stung a little, but he nodded. “I can do it, sir.”
“I know you can.” He got back up and messed with Charlie’s hair. “Get suited up. We’ll launch your shuttle when they are five minutes out.”
The comms chime rang. “This is Hansen, go ahead.”
“Sir, Starfleet Command says every ship they have is here. Forty in total,” came from his Bridge Officer. “Borg cube ETA, twelve minutes.”
“Battle stations!” the admiral said and then turned to Charlie. “Get suited, I want this shuttled launched in two minutes. I need you safe.”
Charlie watched as his grandfather left and sealed the shuttle doors. He got into the environment suit and sat at the console. “The is shuttle craft Sunbury requesting leave to depart,” Charlie said. His voice didn’t waiver despite how scared he was.
“You are clear to depart, Sunbury. Good luck, Charlie.”
He did exactly as his da and uncle taught him to. He cleared the shuttle bay and moved to clear the fleet. The comms array started picking up all the chatter. He tuned it out as he did his job.
“Borg cube is five minutes away. Fleet battle plan echo tango.”
Charlie got to his flight point and powered down everything and activated his suit. He moved from the pilot’s chair to the cabin. He didn’t want to watch the battle.
He desperately wanted to cover his ears as he heard the comms channels filled with the disaster of the Battle of Wolf 359. He did move to the front and watched as the cube raced towards Earth. Once it was gone, Charlie powered up and activated his emergency beacon. There was too much debris for him to attempt to navigate through it. A huge piece of one of the destroyed ships hit the shuttle. Charlie hit his head and was out for a bit.
Once he was up again, his hurt, he moved his shuttle away as much as it could in its damaged state. He knew how to amplify his distress beacon and did that. Scanners worked and he reached three people floating in space. He got them aboard and went to sit down as one of the survivors took over. It was three days before they got picked up. Charlie Hansen saved three people while injured. Only a select few at Starfleet Command knew what he did and what information survived because of him.
Ten years later (2377)
Utopia Planitia, Mars, Starfleet Shipyards
LTJG Chuck Hansen looked over his data pad at the latest results for one of the new engines designs he modeled. He’d been present on Earth when the Breen Confederacy attacked Starfleet Command and San Francisco. He never wanted to experience anything like that again. Two years removed from that horror, Chuck hoped his new engine designs could handle the Breen energy weapons and continue to function.
The work uniform he was in had seen better days, worn at the cuffs and tattered at the pants hem, but that didn’t bother Chuck in the least. He was building and designing starships. It was a dream come true; a chance to excel at things he dreamt about since he was a child.
The Dominion War was just coming to a close and the Borg crisis might be solved, but Chuck Hansen was known to have a front row seat to one of Starfleet’s worst days among Starfleet’s senior most commanders. He survived with some injuries, but they were a minor overall. That didn’t mean his mother, a doctor with Starfleet Medical, didn’t hover all the time after that.
“There you are little Hansen.”
Chuck turned to see Chief Tendo Choi walking over to him. “Choi, is there a problem?” The man made most of the shipyards run on time. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t also a sticky beak.
“You are in the one area that comms can’t seem to ever work right. You are needed in the conference room. Admiral Pentecost is on his way. Just enough time to clean up,” Choi noted. “Good luck!”
Taking off at a brisk walk, Chuck pondered what it could be. He’d come here right out of the Academy. A fifth-generation member of Starfleet, Chuck was the first of the Hansens to be in Engineering. Building was his passion.
But he wondered why Pentecost was coming. He wasn’t part of Starfleet Engineering. Utopia Planitia wasn’t under his portfolio, the man was part of Starfleet Operations. If he had enough time Chuck thought he’d try to contact his dad or uncle. His dad was a Captain assigned to the Cardassia rebuild. His uncle was a Commander watching over the Romulan situation. Getting either man would be near impossible at the moment.
Dressed in a regular uniform, Chuck made his way the administrative wing. As he walked in, he saw Rear Admiral Stacker Pentecost seated. “Admiral,” Chuck stated as he came to stand at attention in front of the table.
“Lieutenant, it is good to see you again,” Pentecost said. “I have new orders for you.” He looked directly at Chuck before he started. “There is a mandatory ten days off between now and when you report for your new assignment.
“We reviewed your records and you managed to spend time on every Academy break working on some Starbase, even when told it was too dangerous because of the War. You’ve been running around starships since I can remember,” Stacker said with an amused grin.
Chuck kept his face neutral at the words of a new assignment. He tried to pay attention despite the hammering of his heart.
“Here is a Commendation from Engineering for your paper published at the Cochrane Institute on trans-dimensional energy capacity. Honestly, for half of Engineering it went over their heads and the other half was too excited for words.”
Stacker looked at Chuck and held in the sigh. “In two weeks, the USS Sovereign is going to start her six-month refit and overhaul. You will be part of the team to work on her and then you will be part of her Engineering crew.”
He looked at the young man and this time did say something. “This is Starfleet, you need experience on a ship out in the stars. There is no doubt you understand how to design a ship, but you need to learn, in the famous words of Admiral Kirk, ‘Why things work on a starship,’ and in real time.”
On the table was a small pouch, Admiral Pentecost opened it and handed what was in it to Chuck. “You have five full Commendations under your belt already; you graduated at the top of your Class at the Academy. You’re young for it, but you are promoted to full Lieutenant.”
Chuck took the new pips and saw that they were for a full LT. “Thank you.” He paused and tried to say something.
“You can say something, Chuck. I’ve known you since you were born and this is the quietest you’ve ever been,” Pentecost noted. “This isn’t a punishment. You need the practical experience that is only gained by being out in space.” He held up a hand. “I know. Command knows what you’ve been through. LT Becket will be your supervisor on the Sovereign.”
“I thought he was a Commander and working with my mum at Medical,” Chuck finally said something.
“This is the younger brother, Raleigh. He’s not in Engineering but part of the skeleton Command Staff for the refit. He’s…more playful than Yancy is, but served during the Dominion War,” Stacker thought he put that rather diplomatically.
“Two days to get off of Mars and the ten days of mandatory shore leave. And visit your mother, she’ll have my head if she knew you were planet-side and didn’t drop by.” Pentecost still saw the frown on the kid’s face.
Taking a deep breath, Chuck nodded. Orders were orders. Even when the removed him from the one place he ever wanted to be. “Thank you, sir.”
He didn’t even realize he left without being dismissed. Chuck didn’t care at the moment. He was being sent away from his dream position and out into the unknown.
Earth - San Francisco, Starfleet Medical
His stuff was at the Hansen Family compound just outside of Sydney. But Chuck was here to see his mum. Admiral Pentecost was right about one thing, no one would hear the end of it if Chuck didn’t visit his mother while on Earth. He walked into her lab space, Captain Angela Graves-Hansen loved her family and her research. In that order.
“Can I help you?”
Chuck turned and noticed the handsome man with some great hair. “Is Capt. Hansen here? I’m her son.”
“You’re Chuck, a pleasure to finally meet you, Yancy Becket. She stepped out for a moment, please have a seat.” Yancy is grinning ear to ear as he walked around the lab. “What brings you here? I mean other than the obvious.”
The doors slid open and Angela instantly noticed the visitor. “SPROG!” She ran over and hugged her only child. “When did you get in?”
“My stuff is at the house and just now. I’ve been assigned to the Sovereign refit,” Chuck hugged her back tightly.
“My little brother is supposed to be part of that,” Yancy added as he watched the family reunion.
“Admiral Pentecost told me,” Chuck moved back and grinned. His mother looked just like she did when he left the Academy two years ago.
“Let me guess, you aren’t taking the new assignment well,” she offered. She knew her son better than he did most of the time. “What did Stacker say?”
Sighing, Chuck sat back down and fought for the right tone and words. “He said I needed the experience of being out on a ship and learning how a starship actually works. He basically said I’m more theory than reality at this point.”
She looked at his shoulders and the inflection in his voice. She could see the hurt he was trying to hide. “Charlie, luv, we grow with change. I know how much you loved being on Mars. How much you like writing your papers and building an academic record for Daystrom, Cochrane, or any of the other great science institutions. But this is a chance for you to feel a ship.”
He glanced at Yancy before focusing on his mother. “I’ve been on starships. I lived on one with dad for six months while you were treating whatever outbreak that was near Klingon space.”
“You were eleven and then you were on that remote Starbase with your uncle,” she grinned. “But that was as a child. This is you being responsible for the ship. Charlie, this is fantastic!”
Yancy saw Dr. Hansen’s reaction and noticed it wasn’t mirrored by the younger Hansen. He didn’t say anything, but he might drop a word in a few days when Raleigh arrived with the Sovereign for her refit.
“Okay, I need to find housing while I’m here for six months.” He raised his hand to stop his mother. “No, I am not sharing a place here with you. We learned that lesson my final year at the Academy. The compound is one thing, we each have a floor, but here, no way.”
She laughed and hugged him again. “I would be a poor mother if I didn’t offer. Now, do that and come back here in three hours and we’ll have dinner.”
Yancy watched Chuck leave and looked at his boss. “He wasn’t very happy.”
“No, he wasn’t but as his grandfather told him ages ago, ‘orders are orders,’ and Chuck will adapt. He raised to be Starfleet through and through. But he loved Mars and was in his dream job. He has a workshop at the family house that is full of ideas and models. He’s a true engineer.
“I think he’ll find he likes being on a starship and learning how it works while in motion. It’s about growing. And the refit will show him how even the newest ships can run down quickly.” She grinned as she walked back to her lab.
Again, he didn’t comment much, but he also didn’t know how much, if anything, to tell his little brother about Chuck Hansen. The situation looked more complex than his boss was letting on.