If you desire, see Maw I for appropriate background.

Five weeks were just about up.

The Imperial Star Destroyer Judicator looked marvellously clean from a distance. Almost 50% of the mass of the ship was new parts, and that included the crew. It had been a massive repair project, one that probably crossed the line into "reconstruction" after only a week. Captain Faust had been told to have it finished, however, and he'd be damned (or shot) if he was going to flush the opportunity at naval success he'd been given down the toilet the same way Weems did at Morricon.

He sat back and gazed at the hard metal ceiling of his ready room. A great deal had happened in those five weeks.

His path to success began when he was promoted to fill the space left by Captain Weems having had his immediate superior, Sub-Commander Reest, shot on the spot for letting a small band of mercenaries from a rather noisome Rebel frigate infiltrate their ship and escape unharmed.

Then, he'd been field-promoted to Commander and Exec when the next superior officer in his way had been broiled in a painfully successful sabotage attempt wrought by the same rather noisome Rebel frigate.

Not long after that, he'd made Captain when Admiral Tirgge had his last remaining superior on the ship, Weems himself, shot for incompetence for allowing the very same Rebel ship to utterly foil the Elite Stormtrooper project.

Captain Faust, now clearly on the fast track to success, had been given five weeks to repair the saboteur's damage and get the Judicator underway once more. He had enough experience with the bureaucracy of the Imperial navy to know that he also had to use those five weeks to demonstrate to Tirgge that he was worthy of the position, and to ensure that he himself would not, in turn, be shot. He'd also spent enough time as a non-com in the Imperial navy to know that one accomplished this by being harsh, callous, and unreasonably demanding in his treatment of his crew, and Faust was not one to defy tradition.

The Judicator's repairs at Bilbringi Shipyards had progressed excellently, and the finishing touches were now being incorporated as the final crew complement that would staff the ship for her next run was coming aboard and getting organized. He may very well be, he thought, the only Imperial officer to ever complete a project like this within the time frame allowed by his superiors, who would surely be most pleased with him. His inferiors were anything but pleased with him, but their opinions didn't matter. The only way they'd gain him favor with the top brass was by doing what he said.

It would be five weeks ago tomorrow - one month - that he became Captain, and tomorrow would be the day the Judicator began operating on fully autonomous power and left the Bilbringi moorings for open space. This was not the last of his duties, however, for Admiral Tirgge had given him one last task to accomplish. There was still the matter of the noisome Rebel frigate.

Commander Griss, his new XO, was just knocking on his stateroom door with news concerning that very matter.

"Enter."

Griss stepped sharply into the room, nodding crisply and as true to form as he could. Of all the officers on the ship, he was the best at avoiding Faust's ill will.

"Coded transmission from Admiral Tirgge on the Avenger, sir."

Faust visibly perked with attention at this. "And what has the good Admiral to say, Commander?"

"It was coded with an Imperial transmission key only a week old, sir. I assumed that the extra security meant I should bring it directly to you."

This was enough to make Faust actually sit forward in his chair, and extend an arm. "Let me see it."

Faust smiled menacingly. Tirgge's message was exactly what he had been hoping to hear.

"Griss," he ordered, "I want us out of Bilbringi by the end of the day. We have some old friends to find ... "