This was written in May 2015 as part of the Star Trek Online Forums Unofficial Literary Challenge #11, and aligns with the game’s release and training level from the Delta Recruit campaign. This story also establishes the event in the past that forced many of my Captains to go back to Starfleet Academy, effectively lining them up with the events of the game.

Unofficial Literary Challenge #11: Prompt #1: You’re an up-and-coming cadet/second officer/colonist, with your whole life ahead of you. Then one day, you’re confronted with an older version of yourself (and not that much older!), wearing the insignia of the very highest rank, and telling you that you have to use the device you’re being handed to gather intelligence on the supposedly-extinct Iconians, to prepare the galaxy for a massive invasion. How do you handle it? Does this feed your ambition? Do you have ambitions, or did you just join Starfleet to study nebulae? What is your reaction to finding out you’re destined to surpass anyone’s expectations – and that you have to prepare for total, all-out galactic war in less than two years?