The Roads We Take Are Those We Make

Posted on Wed Jan 31st, 2018 @ 3:47pm by Fleet Admiral Donatella Figueroa

Mission: S01E02 D-8 With the Devil
Location: USS Musashi | Captain's Quarters

Several Stars Ago...
(Prior to the Musashi's repairs and relaunch)

The room aboard the Tellar Repair Yard had a view one could be tempted to kill to it for from the Captain's assigned guest quarters. She had figured these quarters were assigned to her for a reason as the view out the observation area in the designated living area of the quarters allowed Captain Figueroa the opportunity to literally oversee the work being done on the Ares class starship Musashi at the Tellar Fleet Yards. She was still hesitant about the new upgrades and repairs that the Tellarite and other Starfleet Engineering personnel were making to her starship. However, she was eager to be back seated in her command chair. The war was not anything she ever wanted to face. The war came with great personal loss to her and having to break the news to so many families that their loved ones died under her command or because of decisions that she was forced to make...that tore her up inside. I never want kids. I cannot be a mother and be a Starfleet Captain she thought to herself. Relationships had come and gone, but they were rarely serious these days.

Exploration! Now that was something that she had always wanted, but that was when she was a young naive reservist Starfleet Officer who dreamt of the galaxy being within her own hand, the ability to reach every star and see things that most people could not dare to dream of. All of that, the dreams and goals, the aspirations and the Starfleet uniform had all but been left behind in the past. Those dreams had been burned to ash. The ash left by the Klingons, burying her dreams and ruining her life. Some days it was difficult to even get up out of bed and look at herself in the mirror without feeling guilty for the deaths of her crew. It felt painful to put on a Starfleet uniform and be addressed as 'Captain Figueroa' when all the great Captains past and present like Archer and Pike shown like beacons of hope and radiated confidence. I don't bring about a sense of hope. I used to be confident, but now I am full of self doubt she thought to herself.

She had changed a lot over the past several years. She had been in the Starfleet reserves before the conflict with the Klingons started to boil. The approaching war had been a rallying cry for her to do something more, to make a difference and protect the United Federation of Planets. Donatella Figueroa began her career in the reserves. She was a nobody from nowhere, Earth. She had no reputation at that point, but in due time the Klingons would know her by many offensive names and the USS Musashi would become infamous in Klingon songs. Fig was damned determined to see to it that the name Musashi would bring about a sense of awe at any Klingon who saw her on their sensor readings, and she wanted the Musahsi to be the last thing they saw before their lives flashed before their eyes. Like the jolly rogers of pirate ships, Donatella wanted that same experience to be felt by the enemies of the Federation.

By the height of the war with the Klingons, Donatella was no longer some little girl in a woman's skirt, sitting at a desk in a Starfleet uniform playing dress up. She went from being a 'high ranking' Captain's Yeoman to rising in rank and taking on a more insightful position of Ship's Historian. She would learn the ropes of starship operations and over the years, grow battle hardened. She was a Commanding Officer in the making, forged in the heat of battle. She became a competent starship navigator and a Captain's eyes and ears as Second Officer. During the biggest battles of the war, Donatella Figueroa wore the rank of Commander, serving as First Officer aboard the USS Xenophon commanded by Fleet Captain Kelvar Garth, the crazy Izarian, the legendary Garth of Izar.

Present Day
USS Musashi – Captain's Quarters

The Captain was standing in front of the mirror, looking at herself. She had seen better days. She had looked a lot more attractive only a few days ago. She was not sleeping as well, her hair was disheveled, and she had a hybrid demon spawn growing within her womb. All in all though, she had her confidence back and a fine crew under her command. “Captain” she said the mirror image of herself. “Captain Donatella Figueroa, you can do this. These are your days. These are the voyages and the missions that will make or break you as Captain” she said the herself. She took a deep breath. We are going to complete this mission and everyone is coming home.


She felt her starship make a slight course adjustment. Some would argue with the dampners and such that you cannot feel such a subtle change, but Fig knew her starship even better than she knew herself.

"Captain Figueroa to the Bridge please. Captain to the Bridge" came Jakku's voice over the ship comm.