Aw man, lots to love and reflect on in this chapter. I mean, to see Donners and Owens begin to get together is a great big Eagle moment. This set up was from way back in book one. It's been quite a journey since. I guess they are growing up and by dent of the war, by dent of their experiences captaining, they are maybe more in a position to make something of their relationship. Equally, both are as like to put their respective ship, crew, duty and career before their happiness - so either one of them has the great potential to scupper things before they even start. As it seemed almost for a moment that Owens had done.

As to Wenera, a lovely goodbye scene. I like the fact we have changes and a passing of the torch moment. All too often, these moments do not get to happen - in canon because of budgetry reasons and contracts ended, etc and in fanfiction, all too often the goodbye is a death knell. So it is charming to see a goodbye - and one that may be an au revoir. Albeit, Wenera is in for an interesting future.

Then there's her replacement. He's already a character. And apart from his own introduction, it is Donner's summation of the doc that is going to prove on the nose and very interesting I imagine. He's of the McCoy era and possibly of a McCoy cut. Just what Owens needs - a McCoy berating his war time decisions!

And then there's Donner's commentary on Star. How on the nose is that? Probably a fair and accurate enough assessment. However, she doesn't have Owens knowledge of how Star handled matters in the last mission - though perhaps not knowing some of the details helps. Regardless, Star has shown she has potential. However, she's got a lot of people who don't rate or trust her. In the end, Donners is right about Owens not trusting and yet needing to trust Star. After all, if something happened Owens, then it would be Star who has command of his crew and ship. If he can't trust her implicitly, then maybe she shouldn't be there.