I'm thinking of using simple attrition. After the destruction of the Buran, Starfleet realizes war is on the horizon and they need experienced officers. After his return, Federov enters a command training program for say 6 months and he leaves a Lt. Commander. He spends the next six months serving as second officer on a ship in combat (maybe a Neptune or Intrepid class) and is promoted to commander and XO when the former XO dies/transfers/gets promoted (pick one). He then spends a year or so as first officer, and once the Daedalus class starts production, starfleet now has more ships than they do Captains so to fill the void he gets promoted.Mark wrote:
So, if we stick with this, then we launch in 2158. This gives two years for our characters to grow "off screen". Sonic, you'll have to think of some halfway believable reason why Federov got promoted from Lt. to Capt. in 2 years. That's a hell of a rank jump. Reliant, we'll need you to come up with a reason why your character is still attached to a starfleet ship during a time of war for humans.
I picture the Earth Starfleet at this point as either having not enough ships for their crew, or not enough crews for their ships.