[Starhawk]

2402.6 Welcome to the fleet.
Commander Sandra Fowler stood in front of the large viewport in the off duty rec area aboard HMSS Wycoff orbital shipyards and looked out upon the two famous Saber class frigates that were in port with awe.
HMS Repulse was still undergoing heavy repairs and the massive hole in her port side stood out like a sore thumb on such the grey hull and Fowler couldn't help but wince when she saw such a beautiful ship scarred so badly.

Her attention drifted a little to the stern of the damaged frigate and her mood brightened a little as she saw HMS Saber herself docked in port, her gleaming grey hull with that unscarred perfection, the shimering pure white prow with the Royal blue trim at the front of the ship made Saber look almost like a dagger to the newly promoted Commander, the sight filled her with confidence as she remembered that she would Command such a vessel some day soon.
She tried to remember what she could about the Frigate's when she had first been assigned to the orbital shipyards and one paragraph stood out in her mind.

(The prow of a warship was not simply decoration, it was where the forward gfg was located and perhaps almost as importantly it was where the ship's two missile tubes were located, hidden under armored plating as she waited in port. Her dagger shape is in fact why the frigate recieved her name.)

A slight click behind her snapped her attention back to the present as the young captain turned around and tensed to attention, reflexivley saluting the man behind her. "Sir!" her voice trembled slightly and she couldn't help but reproach herself.
The older man simply saluted back and smiled politely, he wore the gold tri-star of a Rear Admiral on the cuffs of his space black tunic and the dark blue troUsers wore the red stripe of a "non-combat" officer as apposed to the white of a fleet officer.

"At ease Captain......we need to talk." his voice sounded lighthearted but his eyes considered her seriously as he calmly walked next to her and looked out of the viewport.

"What about Admiral Ralley?" her voice was finally under control but her nerves were not, somehow even though Ralley always came across as fatherly he always made her very nervious, ever since her days at the Academy.

"Well Commander I have good news for you, but you'll need to meet me in my office at 0500 hours if you want to find out. "Ralley smiled at her again and without even giving her a chance to ask him another question he walked of down the corridor.
As Fowler realized what time he had mentioned she groaned to herself quietly, still four hours away by the station's clock....she figured she'd better get a little sleep first and walked casually to her quarters.

*****

Commander Fowler walked into the office of Admiral Ralley rather cautiously, as if she were walking into a room full of tree vipers and stopped up short when she noticed who sat at Ralley's desk with him.
"Captain Ross!...." Fowler said rather sheepishly as she snapped to attention and saluted as smartly as she could manage.
Ralley made her nervious enough because of his rank but now she a bonified hero sitting in front of her, Ross hadn't seen any combat action like Bradley had but he was a hero none the less and Fowler noted he wasn't much older then her.

"At ease Commander" Ralley said with a smile as Ross stood and offered his hand to the young woman, she took it out of reflex and shook it crisply before letting go just as quickly (mainly to hide the fact that when she got nervious her hands trembled a little).

Ross showed her to her seat and looked over to Ralley with what could only be called a grin on his holostar handsom face. "Well Ralley you are right, she is young." his voice was more human then Fowler had expected.
She almost blushed at the remark before remembering what Ralley had told her back in the Academy, something about no officer ever got anywhere blushing like a Feldoni Peakock.

Both her superiors laughed softly a moment before Ralley focused on her, those peircing grey eyes seemingly sizing her up.
"Sandra Captain Ross is going to be transfered from his command in two months to a new ship that the Shiptech boys beleive is the (wave of the future) or some such like that." His smile grew broader and Ross grinned back.
"Well anyway Commander, he was given a list of all available officers that had the seniority or grade to command a ship of their own and we were wondering if you had any sugjestions for his replacement?" Riley's smile disapeared instantly and he looked at her quite seriously.

The youung woman's mind raced as she began considering all the officers she knew of that were of the proper qualifications and grade when Ralley suddenly started smiling again.

"Relax Sandra, he chose you after I told him what a good officer you are, congratulations Commander, though it won't be official till Ross takes command of his new ship." Ralley had always backed the cadets from his class but Sandra was a special case to him, she was almost like a daughter to him because of all the hours he had to spend with her, helping kick her butt into shape so she could graduate the academy, and the swell of pride in his eyes could have made the room light up.

After a few seconds of letting it sink in Sandra too began to smile and thanked her superiors for almost twenty minutes streight before Ross offered to give her a tour of her future command.

Enterprise
The "new command" Ralley had been talking about was a new class of starship that had been designed at the Wycoff's own Shiptech bureau, they called it a destroyer.
The Enterprise class was 50,000 tons more massive and half again the size of a 300m frigate. More then that she packed an extra missile tube, a fourth cannon and a new weapon called a "sprint missile" launcher which was a close in high speed weapon designed to increase the close in killing power against Point Defense weapons.
The first ship of the new class HMS Enterprise would be finished in two months and when she was launched she would be the largest ship in the Icaran navy (for a time anyway) and she would be Captained by a living legend.
With the new threat on the frontier these new warships would be more necessary than ever now.