An alarm chimed off in the darkness. Sleep had been a rare commodity these days and to be awaken in mid sleep cycle had become the norm aboard the Courageous. Not even Admiral Holt was safe from the constant goings on aboard the massive battleship. As the only active fleet anchorage for 3rd fleet 'and severely undermanned' Courageous crews worked double and even triple shifts to support the constant fleet activity.

Tonight it seems a Calamari Light cruiser had bitten of more than it could chew with two Victory Star Destroyers out near Ord Mirit and just barely escaped. It had managed to limp back to the Courageous but once there had to abandon all crew after a reactor breach flooded the ship with radiation. Now the crew had to deal with recovering survivors and dealing with a derelict bomb waiting to go off. Which was slowly drifting towards Courageous.

Holt had just finished a grueling twenty hour shift which had finished no more than three hours ago. Now he and his grew had to rise to the occasion once again and see if the cruiser was salvageable and if not see to it that the derelict did not damage any of the other ships birthed around the docking ring.

Holt stood and walked to the refresher. A quick shower and a bit to eat later Admiral Holt was once again in the operations control center.

“Captain Bening, launch twelve tugs and have them secure the cruiser.”

Holt's orders were relayed and carried out. Bening had been officer of the deck when the MC40 arrived. He had already started the crew recovery and moved any and all traffic which might have been in the way. Now the twelve small CT-11 space tugs moved to secure and stabilize the cruiser so repair crews could evaluate the derelict. A duro lieutenant turned and addressed Holt.

“Sir, the tugs have made contact and are working to stabilize the ship admiral”

The lieutenant overseeing the operation turned back to the monitor after Holt silently nodded. He looked out the forward view port at the small spec in the distance which was the MC40.

“Have the repair crew see if the ship can be salvaged Lieutenant. If not have them rig charges and scuttle the ship.”

“Yes sir.”

The duro officer issued the order and went back to monitoring the operation. Time seemed to stand still as the operation carried on into its third hour. Holt had taken a seat at the rest counter near the back of the command center. He had ordered the area installed so the crew could have short rest periods during the long shifts they had all been working. Moral had gotten very low and the rest area had somehow managed to fix it. The men and women on the command crew all praised the admiral for his idea. Holt knew a little rest goes a long way and had to admit his idea was as much for his moral as his crews.
As the recovery operation wound down the Repair crew returned after rigging the ship for scuttle. The tugs set the ship on a course into the sun and released it as soon as the suns gravity began to pull on it.

Holt watched as the small spec disappeared from view. Seconds later a small spot of light was seen as the explosives were set off and what was left of the Calamari cruiser moved off towards the sun.

Another disaster diverted. How long would it be before the next. The crew of the Courageous went back to their normal every day operations of repair and resupply of 3rd fleet, as did Admiral Holt.