Sisterly Reunions (Saguenay and Skeena)

The first day of July on Earth was the anniversary of the founding of the Dominion of Canada in 1867 CE, originally called "Dominion Day" and later named "Canada Day". In 2069 CE, the Ottawa Incident happened. Forces of the Optimum Movement for the Purification of Humanity, a Khmer Rouge-like far-left communist organization who dedicated themselves into "purifying" the human race in the growing face of the post-First Contact explosion of migration beyond the long-devastated motherworld of humanity, wanted to ensure those who were "not optimal" would not escape Earth and permit what they viewed as decadent thought and belief from spreading into the stars. At that time, Canada was one of the few nations who had survived the Third World War relatively intact despite the land's southern neighbour collapsing into a decades-long civil war influenced by the Augments and other forces who wanted to tear down the post-Cold War international order, unleashing carnage that cost over half a billion lives, including thousands of Canadians. Not wanting to submit to the Optimum's leadership under the infamous Colonel Phillip Green, the Dominion were preparing for war when a first-strike was unleashed on Canada Day celebrations on Parliament Hill, unleashing a radiological bomb that killed half a million people in both Ottawa and neighbouring Gatineau. The following decade would see the Optimum War - effectively the last phase of World War Three - burn Green's supporters to the bedrock and chased off Earth, though in a final act of "deletion", dozens of nuclear weapons were detonated, unleashing the Post-Atomic Horror (as noted on in the first episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation). It is the anniversary of the Ottawa Incident in the year 2401 CE, sometime after the Frontier Day disaster that nearly cost the Federation everything against the fragmented remnants of the Borg Collective and rogue Changelings who - due to their being separated for too long from the Great Link, never mind their falling under the influence of brethren turned into slave spies of Section 31 through Project: Proteus - were hell-bent on seeing Earth burn. While such had been averted by the veterans of USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D under Admiral Jean-Luc Picard, it got close...and the two shipgirls now viewing the ruins of their spiritual homeland's capital city from an observation lounge near the edge of the total destruction zone centred on Parliament Hill. For both these girls, coming to visit the ruins of Ottawa on Canada Day is a ritual, a reminder of what they had been created over a century before to help protect, both on Earth and beyond. Two of the most experienced of the Port Weller girls even if they're both of the second generation created in the wake of the Khitomer Agreement of 2293, they serve as effective spiritual leaders of all those who followed in their footsteps, especially the fifth generation "City" girls, the sixth generation "Town" girls and the seventh generation "Island/Bay" boys who fleshed out the new incarnation of the Royal Canadian Navy within Starfleet. The lady on the left is the shipgirl SI of USS Saguenay, named in honour of the Rivière Saguenay in east-central Québec, a tributary of the Saint Lawrence River who would provide the name of a megacity on its shores (formed at the turn of the Third Millennium) as well as three warships of the RCN that served in World War Two, the Cold War and World War Three. An adopted Innu spiritually, she first saw service as a Matsumoto-class destroyer/frigate in 2294, serving as the spiritual "soul" of that hull for twenty-six years until the warp drive got wrecked by a stray comet. She then switched to a Centaur-class light cruiser, a "kitbashed" Miranda-like Excelsior-descent design which proved more her style; commissioned in 2322 and lasting until 2341 when a harsh skirmish with rogue Orion pirates saw the hull gutted and a quarter of her crew killed. She would spend the next two years learning all sorts of survival techniques thanks to the Royal Canadian Rangers (the aboriginal-manned patrol volunteers who watched over Canada's far north) before helping commission a Lancelot-class destroyer which would last for twenty-four years until another asteroid strike saw the hull written off. Next came a Challenger-class destroyer, one that only lasted for five years until the first battle of Chin'toka saw it lost in battle, though most of her crew survived. To her delight, the next USS Saguenay would be a Defiant-class heavy escort frigate, commissioned a year after the Treaty of Bajor and lasting until 2398 when the chance to upgrade to a Valiant-class heavy escort (effectively a Defiant-class on steroids) came up. Such was commissioned in 2400 and would weather through Frontier Day with ease. Her sister on the right is the shipgirl SI of USS Skeena, named in honour of the Skeena River in the northwest part of British Columbia near the border of Alaska, such flowing into the Pacific at Prince Rupert opposite Haida Gwaii. She is also the namesake of two Royal Canadian Navy destroyers, one that served in World War Two and the second in the Cold War, both of them being HMCS Saguenay's sisters in both incarnations; sadly, the hectic nature of World War Three would see no add-on River-class destroyers to revive the name of HMCS Skeena a third time. While not a true "twin" born from the same programming tree which had been developed by Port Weller Spacedocks and Yoyodyne Propulsion to create the artificial "souls" which would help their organic crews man their ships properly, Skeena is very close to Saguenay even if the former is a British Columbian fisherman's daughter in spirit while the latter is an Innu warrior maiden used to life in the wilderness (as the SI of USS Veracruz could confirm many times over). Launching her career as a Matsumoto-class frigate in 2294, Skeena would remain in that hull until 2332, then also switch to a Centaur-class destroyer in 2334. That commission would only last seven years until a Tholian cruiser wrecked the hull; fortunately for Skeena, another ship was close by to rescue survivors. She was soon back into space with a Lancelot-class destroyer which lasted twenty years until a comet strike saw it written off and she shifted to a Challenger-class destroyer. That ship lasted until the second battle of Chin'toka, which forced Skeena to miss out on the "Hockey Night in the Confederacy" incident launched by many Canadian-named ships near the end of 2374. Like Saguenay, Skeena would get a Defiant-class next, serving from 2377 to 2398 before switching to a Valiant-class herself in 2400, where she was more than ready to deal with Frontier Day. Happy Canada Day, all!