“Operation Bedlam isn’t a personal vendetta, Captain Dvorak,” Admiral Seku said from behind the desk. “It’s an assignment like any other. And if you can’t treat it as such, coldly and objectively, then Captain Reyes and the Courage can replace you.”

Great, Johann thought sarcastically. It was exact thing the Admiral could have said to get under his skin, and it worked rather well.

“You’ve hardly distinguished yourself, have you? You were supposed to observe Doctor Chorkit, not blow up his space station. Now Chorkit is in Romulan space, and it’s only by the grace of the Prophets, your friend Admiral Liu, and my intervention with the Bolian government that Korolev hasn’t been impounded. Or worse.”

“Sir, I’m aware of my shortcomings, but I’m prepared to continue this assignment in the spirit you suggest. With the data we recovered from Chorkit’s lab, we could finally figure out how to operate the device.”

The Admiral just sighed.

“Korolev is staying here until the diplomatic situation blows over,” the senior man said. “Your crew can have a week’s leave. But don’t you leave Earth. And definitely don’t start looking into that machine. The data was passed on to the appropriate research team, there’s nothing more for you to do with it. Report back here at 0900, next week. Dismissed.”

The doors parted, and Johann found himself in back in the Operations Room at Starfleet Command. Large viewscreens showing star charts and ship’s status reports covered the walls. The room was filled with desks of staff officers updating displays and processing information, all with the goal of keeping the largest space fleet on this side of the galaxy running smoothly. Having finished getting the ritual humiliation from Admiral Seku upstairs, he came here to make sure Korolev was getting appropriate priority for resupply.

He was angry. He was angry at himself because he let Doctor Chorkit get away, the best lead uncovered during Operation Bedlam to try to find the man who had stolen his wife and sent her to some other universe. He had no particular problem with continuing the pursuit all the way through whatever passed for Romulan space these days; it’s not like there was a Romulan Empire to care about anymore. Then again, if there was, it likely wouldn’t have stopped him either. He was angry at the Bajoran Admiral for making a big deal out of something nobody really was going to be upset about, either. Yes, technically the research station was in a neutral government’s territory, so yes, technically he had overstepped his authority by trying to apprehend the doctor there, but it’s not like the Bolians were really an independent government. It’s not like one rogue station that had nobody actually living on it besides the Doctor and his goons actually mattered. He was doing them a favor, taking out the galaxy’s trash.

It’s what he was now, a garbage collector. At least when Johann was able to keep the search up for the man who kidnapped Sienna, and his criminal associates. There were other missions the Korolev was assigned, but Johann was always thinking about the next move to try to get her back. The next move now probably involved a trip to Romulan space, though he would be lucky if he were able to pull that off after what happened. It was with these thoughts he was rather angrily pre-occupied with as he looked around for the right staff officer to help him out with Korolev’s resupply…

– Johann Dvorak, CO Korolev