VAdm Sidra MacLaren - Per Tenebras, Lux
Posted on 27 Jul 2025 @ 8:53pm by Vice Admiral Sidra MacLaren
713 words; about a 4 minute read
=/\= Starbase 369, Fleet Commander’s Office =/\=
The office was unfinished.
Conduits lined the ceiling like exposed veins, a faint ozone tang still lingered in the air, and the promised panoramic viewport had yet to be installed. But the desk was solid, the terminal worked, and the fleet had arrived, at least on paper.
Vice Admiral Sidra MacLaren stood with her arms folded, her eyes on the glowing LCARS display. The personnel record of Captain Sabrina June Corbin hovered before her, sharp and pristine.
Thirty-eight. That was young for a Sovereign-class command, even now. But after Frontier Day, they didn’t have the luxury of time. The command pipeline had been gutted. Captains were now forged as much by potential as by years of experience. Besides, Sidra had been even younger when she had done the same.
Corbin’s file was textbook: commendations, high marks in logistics and operations, a cool temperament under pressure. Not showy, not political. That appealed to Sidra. But still, there was a difference between managing system flows and commanding a crew with lives in your hands. A thought escaped as a mutter to the empty office, “So many lives…”
A quiet alert tone drew her attention.
“Dock Control to Admiral MacLaren. The Arawyn is on final approach.”
She closed the file, picked up a mug of cold coffee and drained it, straightened her uniform jacket, and left the past behind. Or tried to.
The USS Arawyn docked with the smooth precision expected of a Sovereign-class vessel. Her hull gleamed, nacelles still warm from her shakedown run, and despite the placeholder crew, she carried herself like she already belonged in command.
Sidra stepped aboard in silence, returning salutes with a nod but saying little as she made her way to the bridge.
It was when the turbolift doors opened that her breath caught in her throat.
There it was, the Sovereign bridge layout. Sleek, angular, commanding. Everything refined. She stepped forward slowly, boots echoing on metal, and stopped just short of the center chair.
She didn’t sit.
Her hand moved to the rail beside it. The metal was cool and familiar beneath her fingertips. And memory came flooding back.
The Archer.
Her first assignment. Her proving ground. From green Ensign to Chief of Security, then XO, then, eventually, Captain. The ship had aged with her, molded to her stride, her command tone, her instinct. It had been more than a vessel. It had been home.
It was aboard the Archer that she had met Pla'kor Gonai, half-Klingon, fiercely brilliant, and disarmingly loyal. Their bond had been forged in the crucible of exploration and emergency beacons, of shared command drills and long nights in impulse corridors. A different lifetime. A different Sidra.
And the Archer was gone now. Its final fate, she hadn’t wanted to know.
Now this, Arawyn. The flagship of a newly minted fleet. A future flagship for a new captain.
Her hand fell away from the rail.
She was no longer a ship’s captain. That part of her life was done.
The deck officer approached, offering a tablet. “Admiral, the systems check is complete. The Arawyn is stable and docked. No issues reported.”
“Thank you,” Sidra replied, her voice smooth and controlled. “I’ll remain aboard a while longer.”
The officer nodded and stepped away.
She looked once more toward the command chair, then toward the quiet hum of the forward displays. She didn’t need to be here. Not really. But something about it had drawn her, this moment, this arrival.
Glancing at the time. Stephen and William would be arriving soon. Civilian transport, her husband, now retired Commodore MacCafferey, and their teenage son. The boy had never lived on a station this size before. She hoped the scaffolding, construction crews, and blinking hazard signs didn’t sour him too quickly.
Starbase 369 had a long way to go. So did Epsilon Fleet. But maybe, with the Arawyn berthed, something real had started.
Sidra turned and walked toward the lift.
Let the next generation take the chair. She had other stars to chart.
Vice Admiral Sidra MacLaren
Epsilon Fleet Commander
OOC: Welcome everyone, excited to get started. Just using Sidra to introduce the ship. She will sit firmly in her boring starbase and not bother anyone.
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