Lieutenant JG Lucius, the new Chief of Engineering aboard the USS Valiant, didn't really want to report to Sick Bay for his check up, but he knew it was part of the routine of coming onboard a new ship. Hopefully, he could do it just this one time and be done with it. He thought it best to get it over with as soon as possible. Sick Bay wasn't far from Engineering anyway and a break might do him some good. Perhaps the doctor could distract him from his thoughts for a little bit. He had been aboard a few ships and each time he had suffered some sort of acclimation period where he didn't sleep very well and lost his appetite, but he also knew it would pass with time. Other than being in his acclimation period he felt fit as a fiddle and was confident that the Doctor would give him a clean bill of health.

The door swooshed open before him and he stepped into Sick Bay, looking around for anyone who could help him out. The medical facilities aboard the Valiant were much, much smaller than any ship he had ever been on. Not that it said anything against the men and women that served in this room.

Alara looked up from her makeshift desk in the corner of the pitiful excuse that was sickbay towards the new arrival and flashed her patented smile. "Excellent! Come in! I've been hoping to see you." Heading towards him, she pulled her tricorder out of her lab coat and motioned towards one of the three biobeds. "Lieutenant Lucious, right? Our Chief Engineer? It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Doctor Alara Samar. It seems you're overdue on a number of scans, but don't worry, this won't take long and will be perfectly painless."

Lucius was unprepared for her pleasant nature. He blinked for a moment, standing there like he was stunned. He finally managed to start for one of the biobeds. "Greetings Doctor. It's a pleasure to meet you as well." He smiled a little. It was the smile of someone who wasn't used to smiling and was also uncomfortable. "Overdue?" He went over in his head the last time he had had scans of any sort and nodded finally, figuring she was probably correct. He chose the bed in the middle and sat down on it. "Hopefully we can catch up." He'd always thought that Trill spots were appealing and was currently examining the Doctor's spots.

Alara kept up her patented smile as she started her scans, first flipping on the biobed, then starting up with her tricorder. "I do indeed intend to catch you up. And if you need any counseling, I'm trained in that as well, though I get the feeling you'd prefer to avoid sickbay to discuss any more personal matters. I understand many people find it difficult to work on vessels with family, for instance."

Lucius furrowed his eyebrows. "Do you think I need counseling?" He was concerned suddenly about what she was saying to him. What did she see that he didn't? He felt like he was mentally alright, but maybe he wasn't, maybe she could tell how tired he was. "Do you mean my brother? He's not a problem. Actually, it's quite the opposite. We're twins. We've been separated for a few years, but it's been difficult to be away from him." He shrugged. "Sometimes I feel like he's the only person in the world that makes any sense," he attempted to joke. "Even if he does annoy the hell out of me."

"And if something were to happen to one of you?" Alara prompted, continuing her scans. "In a way, you're responsible for his safety and he's responsible for your health. Are you both ok with that?"

"Why wouldn't I be okay with that?" Lucius tipped his head to one side. It was sort of how it had always been with them, so having them actually hold the roles in which they affected each other in that way made perfectly good sense Lucius. "I'm very okay with that. He's always been more nurturing than I am anyway," he said. "I've always been more athletic and such. I used to beat people up all the time for him when we were kids... and at the Academy," he chuckled.

"Just making sure. I don't want either of you having any regrets is all." Alara finished up her scans and tucked her tricorder away. "Is there anything that is bothering you then? Something you'd like to talk about? Or is it just normal sickbay jitters I'm sensing? I'm only half Betazoid so sometimes it's hard for me to tell."

"I think we'll be okay. I hope we don't have any regrets either. We might kill each other," Lucius joked. "That would probably be bad. I've just been trying to acclimate. New ship and all. Sometimes it takes me awhile. Just the normal. Trying to get Engineering kicked into shape and you're correct. I don't really like medical visits, but who does? How are my scans looking?"

"I'd say you're the perfect picture of health if I didn't pick up slight traces of warp plasma radiation on you. I'll have to give you a magic hypo. The next time a warp plasma conduit leaks on you, please let me know, ok? Too much of that radiation and your flesh can turn to goo." As Alara spoke, she loaded up a hypo with a few CCs of a mild anti-radiation medicine and injected it into Lucious' neck. "There you go. All better." Smiling, she set the hypo aside.

Lucius grimaced at being stabbed in the neck. "I'll try and remember that, Doctor." He wasn't sure when he'd gotten the warp plasma on himself to be totally honest so he was glad she was taking care of that. "Thank you so much. Are we all up to date now? I didn't mean to get behind, but sometimes the ship takes priority."

Alara nodded and smiled happily. "All up to date. And I have to agree. The ship has to come first. Without it, we don't stand a chance against the cold vacuum of space. However, my priority in that is to take care of you so you can keep the ship running. Since you had traces of warp plasma radiation on you, I'll have to ask that you scan engineering for any leaks. If you find it on any of your engineers, please send them down here immediately. Preferably before their flesh starts falling off."

Lucius made a face. "No problem, Doctor. Thank you for catching that. I will definitely check everyone for leaks... I think rotting flesh would not be a good smell and it would make a mess.... slimy, icky, smelly mess." He hopped down off the biobed. "Should I worry about anyone I've come in contact with?"

"No, it's not contagious. But if anyone not from engineering has gotten near the leak, I'd have them stop by for an inoculation as well." Alara turned to her tray of tools and started setting up a few vials of the proper anti-radiation inoculants.

Lucius nodded. "Alright, thank you Doctor. Am I dismissed?" he smiled a little. "I'd like to go check for leaks."

Alara nodded back, "Yes, please, good luck."

"Thank you. Enjoy your day." He bowed a little in respect and headed for the exit.

OOC - Apologies guys, just realised I've been sitting on this log from before we departed. Posted a little out-of-turn now!

Mark wrapped his hands around his umpteenth mug of coffee in what had been an extremely long transfer. Having finally reached the destination where he would join up with his new ship, he chose to take a final pit-stop to load up on caffeine before climbing aboard. His eyes wandered absently around the lounge, watching the world pass him by.

Colt's sensitive ears picked up the gentle sound of three instruments: a piano, a double bass, and a drum set. The song was Ahmad's Blues, one of Colt's favorites. He followed the sound into the lounge where he found the trio playing. Deciding he had time for a good cup of coffee, and time to listen to the trio for a few minutes, Colt went over to the barista and ordered a double espresso. While his drink was being prepared, Colt explored his surroundings with his eyes while his ears took in the rich sounds of Ahmad Jamal's signature song. Colt's eyes fell on a man who appeared to be doing the same thing. The the trio was good and lounge was crowded with people who had come in for the same reason as Colt. The other man's table had one of the few remaining chairs in the place. The man looked like he might be an officer in transit. Colt was thirty-two years Starfleet and had developed a knack for determining who was an officer and who wasn't when he encountered service members out of uniform or otherwise not wearing rank insignia. Figuring sitting was more comfortable than standing, Colt took his coffee and walked over to the man's table.

"Sir?" he said when he arrived. "Mind if I join you? These guys seem to have attracted a crowd."

Mark glanced across at his visitor, his eyes showing the signs of a long, arduous trek to get to this point. He was impressed, normally that made him look far less welcoming than he actually was, and would often get left alone on transfers. “Of course, pull up a chair!” He turned to look in the direction of the band. As a musician himself, he loved to watch others ply their craft.

Colt set his cup on the table and sat down. On closer inspection of the man, he appeared to be a bit rough around the edges.

Definitely in transit, Colt thought to himself.

"Mast...damn it," Colt said, annoyed that he'd gotten his rank wrong again. This was going to take some getting used to. "Sorry. Senior Chief Hospital Corpsman Coltan Xan, Chief of the Boat on the Valiant. Thanks for sharing the table."

“The Valiant huh?” Mark smirked a little. That rank thing was always tough right at the start too. “Lieutenant Commander Mark Cross, Chief FCO and XO of the same fine vessel.”

"In that case," Colt said. "Welcome aboard, Commander...or should that be welcome soon to be aboard? Either way, welcome. I'm sure the captain will be as pleased as I am that you're taking over as XO. The CMO is currently holding down the post. She's handling the admin aspects well while we're docked, but I shudder to think of what she'd be like in the center seat in a combat situation. And you should know that I mean her no disrespect. She and I work well together. My rating before I became a command NCO was Hospital Corpsman. I was assigned to the Marines, first in an infantry platoon, then as a Special Aerospace/Amphibious Reconnaissance Corpsman. Since part of that training including training as an Independent Duty Corpsman, I'll likely be helping out down in Sickbay as the need arises, just to keep my hand in and hopefully getting some away mission time in as well. I've definitely got the experience to qualify. This attractive, youthful appearance of mine hides thirty-two years of service in Starfleet."

Colt took a sip of his coffee.

"So," he said, turning the conversation back to Mark. "What was your last assignment?"

Mark blinked twice. That wasn’t enough, he took a sip of coffee too. Colt...seemed to like the sound of his own voice. To say the least. As an officer that was pretty well known as a man of few words, he was a stark contrast. Plus the last assignment thing was a rather sore subject too. Perfect.

“I was Executive Officer on the Kennedy. A lot of the crew were reassigned, me included. That’s how I wound up here!”

Colt nodded but said nothing, not reacting to the officer's outburst. Neither did he pull away. After a moment, he spoke up.

"You lost your CO," he said. "Want to talk about it? My ears are as big as my mouth and I have two of them so I'm even better at listening than I am at sounding off. Talking about it, no matter how painful it is, is better than losing your temper with your subordinates when they to refer to the subject. That's how you lose the respect of your crew."

“So let me get this straight...you knew the answer, and the circumstances behind it, but you asked anyway. In a cafe, when we first met?” Mark sighed and shook his head in dismay. “While I’m sure it was with good intentions, that comes across more than a little insensitive to be honest. I will talk about it, with the right people, at the right time, and this quite clearly isn’t it. As for the respect you talk about, it has to be earned. My rank and my position are as meaningless as your 32 years of service to Starfleet. It’s all just words on a display. The experiences that we go through don’t define us, we’re judged on The actions we take. I’m choosing to grab this new assignment with both hands and bounce back.”

Colt said nothing for a moment. He didn't seem to be anymore offended by this outburst than he was by the previous one. He simply waited until he was relatively sure the commander was finished before speaking.

"I'm sorry," he said after a moment or two. "I am aware I can come off as arrogant, however my concern for your well-being was genuine. Losing someone under traumatic circumstances is difficult to come to terms with. I know that as much if not more than, if not anyone, then at least many people. I thought I had come to terms with my traumatic experience. I worked hard to achieve that peace of mind. Then I saw the man I held responsible for my trauma, and it all came back to me. My response set me back. You seem like a decent person, a decent officer. Further, you are the executive officer of the Valiant. Part of my responsibilities include helping you be successful and being a sounding board for whatever is on your mind. So again I extend my offer. If you would like to talk, I'd be happy to listen. Just listen. Not judge or give advice. Over coffee, or, if you'd like, I have some very nice applejack brewed from my family's distillery on Rigel IV. It packs a wallop but it goes down smooth."

Colt drained his cup and rose from his seat.

"It was nice meeting you, Commander," he said. "I look forward to working with you. Oh, and Commander? My training, education, experience, and position, just like yours, grants me the benefit of the doubt. My actions going forward determine whether I'm worthy of that benefit. Good day, Commander."

Colt closed his eyes, took a deep breath and listened to the music, drinking in the rich sound. It would be a long time before he heard good live music again. After a moment, he turned and left the lounge.

There were benefits to serving aboard the USS Valiant, benefits to Braith that were actually seen as cons rather than pros for most people. He dealt with anxiety all his life and no amount of counseling nor any prescription was going to eradicate that from existence. So long as he existed and was breathing, anxiety would be there as his constant companion. However, it was far more manageable now that he had gone through counseling sessions, was on routine medication that he took via hypospray on the dot every time, and of course having his brother, Lucius aboard was helping the matter...somewhat...maybe. Okay, so he was not entirely sure if Lucius helped his anxiety or perpetuated it further.

Braith did not miss a treatment and never did he flake on his counseling sessions. However, with a change in assignment and being posted on the USS Valiant, he would need to confer with his superior, the Chief Medical Officer and hope that she could help him with his counseling needs. He would need her anyways to continue prescribing him the medications he needed. What Braith had not quite realized until after accepting the assignment to the Valiant was that the starship was more than just ideally small, which Braith actually loved; The Valiant had no assigned Counselor aboard and no plans for one either. This caused him to freak a little as Braith had never gone a week in all his years without having at least one session.

He took a deep breath, several of them actually which caused him to look remotely like a fish out of water. "Computer" he said as he rummaged around in some of his personal belongings in his tiny quarters shared with his brother. "Is there a Ship's Counselor assigned to this starship?" he inquired once again, somewhat praying that it was just some technical fluke and the computer had glitched or something the last time he asked, but again it replied "Negative. There are no Counselors assigned to the USS Valiant" and this made his chest feel tight as she pulled his legs back, her knees connecting to his chin and he rocked a bit on the edge of his bunk. It's going to be okay...it will be okay. You have this, Braith. Not every starship has a Counselor. They should but they don't he thought to himself as he rocked back and forth for several minutes.

"Computer, how many crew serve on a Defiant class starship?" he asked, knowing the number had to be fairly low given the ship's size. He was reassured by the computer that "A Defiant class starship holds a maximum crew compliment of forty individuals" to which Braith felt himself relax a bit more. His life was dictated by numbers or guided at least. He preferred to think of it as simply guided by numbers rather than the words 'controlled' or 'dictated' which made him feel less in control of himself and his life. He was not in Starfleet because it was his dream or his calling of any sort. In stead He attended the Starfleet Academy and become an officer, following his brother because that was a family obligation. He was unfortunately his brother's keeper or at least his brother's eye for his parents. "And what about the medical staff aboard this starship?. What is our medical department like?" he asked the computer.

"Unable to accurately comply with requested information. Medically trained personnel currently cross-trained and assigned to other departments" replied the ship's computer. This caused Braith to roll his eyes. He narrowed his inquiry to just medical personnel rather than those cross-trained and such. “Doctor Alara Samar, Chief Medical Officer...Ensign Braith, Head Nurse” replied the computer causing Braith to feel more relaxed as he was starting to ease his posture a bit as his knees slid away and his feet dropped, dangling over the floor, hovering there “De facto” Braith added correcting the computer. Maybe this won't be so bad after all he thought to himself

ON

Ensign Nora sat at a sub-station console in Main Engineering as that was the best area to examine the Tholians' evidence that supposedly proved that a Federation ship destroyed a Tholian Colony. "All of the Tholians' information is loaded into the system," Nora reported.

There wasn't really a large display screen in Engineering, so Lieutenant JG Lucius sat down at a console next to Ensign Nora and pulled up the information there too, so they would have more than one screen to look at. He smiled a little. "There we go. Now, shall we see what we're looking at?" He indicated for the Ensign to go ahead.

Lougheed entered Engineering, and approached the Chief Engineer and Science Officer. "How bad's it looking?"

Nora tapped in several commands as she brought up the sensor readouts onto the monitors. "We're just bringing the information up now, sir." Nora's jaw dropped at the coordinates of the Tholian colony on Vestixx Two. The visual only showed a large crater-like area in its place. "My God... what could do something like this?"

Lucius looked over her shoulder at the crater. "Wow... apparently someone can. That's messed up. It looks like the colony didn't have much of a chance." He looked at the other two. "We all know that Starfleet didn't do this. It's sort of not the way they conduct themselves."

"We'll most of Starfleet doesn't, but I can't see even the shadowiest part of starfleet ordering that kind of attack outside of war. It's not the Klingons' style, the Cardassians or the Breen would be my bet. Motive though, I can't see either having motive here. The Cardassians really only attack when they can benefit from it. It's outside the habitable range for the Breen," Lougheed said, thinking out loud.

Lucius looked over at the screen he had pulled up and retrieved the sensor reading of the warp trail. After only a few moments he frowned. "Well, regardless of the direction they came from they weren't Federation. Federation ships leave a distinctive amount of neutrino emissions. I mean, warp trails can even be like fingerprints... but this one isn't one that I recognize, like, at all."

Nora was still shocked at the loss as her eyes scanned over the sensor logs. "The sensor readings indicate abnormal radiation at the crater site as well... so they were attacked by an unknown person or thing? Or..." the thought that came into Nora's mind chilled her to the bone, "...could it have been the Borg?"

Lucius stared at Nora as the possibility sunk in. He started to check the warp signatures for any known Borg trails. "That would be terrifying," he tried to state calmly. "Let's hope that's not the case." He glanced over his shoulder at the Intelligence officer. "Do you know if the Borg usually leave this kind of destruction? This... annihilation? I mean I know they're known to blow up things, but I would think it would a waste of their time to explode everything when what they usually want is the people. They don't usually waste resources for no reason."

"Intel believes that the Tholian's would have a degree of resistance against the Borg, normal drones wouldn't be able to operate in the environmental conditions the Tholians require. However, specialized drones designed for severe environments have been encountered. There's no evidence of attempted assimilation, and normally the MO of the borg would see a trail of attacks like this enroute to their actual objective. This appears to be a one off surgical strike. Someone local, with something to gain for the geopolitical disruption, possible with the goal of a Federation-Tholian conflict would be more likely in my book," Lougheed said.

Lucius was nodding in relief while he spoke. "Okay, that's good. Please no Borg today or anytime soon. I know we have special shielding to deal with them, but damn." He ran through the warp signatures again, this time checking them against any information they had on the Tholians. "Aren't the Tholians xenophobic?" Lucius asked offhandedly.

"Yes, they are." Lougheed said mulling over the readings. "Do we have anything that looks like an energy trace."

Nora continued to look at the sensor logs. "Odd... no, there isn't. The logs indicate abnormal radiation levels in the vicinity... wait... one log shows a trace amount of polaron energy residue."

"That's odd, the only weapon that would do that is something along the lines of a Jem'hadar phased polaron beam. They definitely would have the technology to cook up something to damage on this scale, and they wouldn't be bother by the loss of life, but again I'm not seeing a motive. Reports out of the Gamma quadrant don't indicate any new activity by the Dominion, and to start here of all places doesn't seem like their kind of play," Lougheed said looking at the readings. "Polarons can also be used to in several very specific applications for identification of cloaked vessels, and types of sensor and communication applications."

Lucius nodded in agreement. "Jem"hadar... the Borg used their polaron energy to scan ships. Although, there are two more species. I'm not sure why either one of them would be all the way over here though." He slid back to his console to look at it and run more tests. "The Swarm... is one. They used polaron bursts to mark their targets for the larger fleet to attack. The other is the Overlookers. They're good at spying and espionage... but both species are from the Delta quadrant."

"Then that leaves us with a possible unknown attacker?" Nora asked. Although they weren't too far from unexplored space, she doubted there could be such advanced civilizations without the Federation knowing about it.

Lucius nodded. "It would seem so. I mean, a Starfleet ship could produce a polaron beam that could cause this, but why would they, unless they were trying to frame someone... it just seems a little elaborate, but a polaron beam that does that doesn't come as standard equipment on Federation vessels... so it has to be someone else. We could probably rule out the Borg as well... depending on the amount of polaron particles... are you getting a small reading? Or a big one, like a weapon? A weapon would leave more of the particle behind."

"It's composition seems to indicate a weapon, sir... but it shows a rapid decaying process," Nora replied.

"I'm going to modify the long range sensors, see if we can detect any stray polaron traces. The vessel that did this may have a left a trail, if we're lucky it might be at least enough to get a bearing."

The doors parted as Commander Jacobs entered Engineering. She spotted the group of officers gathered around a few monitors. "What have we got so far?"

Lucius stood. "We found a trace of polaron particles, sir. It appears to be from a weapon of some sort, but it's decaying at a rapid rate. We are currently hoping to trace any stray polaron emissions. We are fairly certain that it is not a Federation vessel or a Borg vessel, unless the Borg are trying new things. More than likely Jem'Hadar. At least that's my best guess, currently." He looked at Nora and Evan to see if they had anything to add.

"The Jem'Hadar are the only known adversary to use polaron based weapons, but the profile of the attack makes them unlikely. Several other space fairing races use them in non weapon applications, it wouldn't be too hard to weaponize them, but it would take a significant amount of power to generate a strong enough polaron stream to this damage. Based on the Tholian information I would suggest we're looking for a ship equivalent in power generation to a Nebula-class cruiser or larger." Lougheed added.

"Good work, everyone. Store your findings in a file to send back to the Tholians, so we can prove that we didn't attack their colony," Leigh commanded, giving Lougheed a pat on the shoulder before turning to exit engineering. "I'll be on the bridge."

"I'll finalize the report and send it the Tholians." Lougheed said, "Anything to add?"

"I think that's all, sir," Lucius replied.

ON:

Jacobs walked briskly onto the bridge. "Open a channel to the Tholian vessel," she ordered as she stopped just behind the helm station.

"Aye ma'am," Shath said, tapping a few panels at his station. The view screen switched to the Tholian Leigh had been talking to.

"We have examined the evidence and have determined that it's not Federation," Jacobs stated.

"Convenient Federation lies!" the Tholian exclaimed, slamming a arm down on an off screen console.

"We will submit our findings to you review," Jacobs nodded at Shath to submit the findings. "We were able to detect Polaron traces and abnormal radiation levels at the site of the colony which the Federation currently does not use such weaponry. The warp signature we scanned in your logs does not comply with Federation standards."

The Tholian was silent for a moment as he looked over the report. "I will submit your report to my superiors to review."

"May I also request that we aid in your investigation of this incident," Jacobs continued. "It seems as someone may be trying to get our two governments to declare war on one another and I believe it would be in both of our interests to investigate this issue together."

The Tholian commander seemed distracted by a console off screen and took a moment before turning back to address Jacobs. "My superior, Commander Zor wishes to meet with you. He wants to rendezvous at the attacked colony. We are to escort you." The screen went blank before returning to the image of the Tholian ship as the Tholian ended the transmission.

"Such friendly people aren't they?" Jacobs commented as she turned and headed for her chair.

"Tholians are typically dismissive of humanoids," Shath mused, not looking up from his station. "It's hardly surprising that their reaction is thus, though it is somewhat encouraging that they're bothering to look over the results at all."

Jacobs sat down in the captain's chair. "Mister Cross, lay in a course for the attacked colony and engage at Warp 7." The Tholian vessel and the Valiant both disappeared as their warp engines engaged.

"Aye, course laid in, engaging" Mark reported, punching the ship to warp speed.

<>

The Valiant and the Tholian vessel dropped out of warp near Vestixx Two. In orbit was a rarely seen Tholian Dreadnought Class vessel and two Tholian web ships. Jacobs let out a low whistle as her eyes locked onto the sight of the triangle-shaped Tholian Dreadnought.

"We're being hailed by the Tholian Dreadnought," the Operations officer reported.

"On screen," Jacobs replied.

The screen switched to what seemed to be a larger Tholian. "Commander Jacobs, I am am Commander Zor. I was monitoring the communications with my subordinate. I agree we must work together and therefore we will allow you to establish orbit over Vestixx Two."

"I am glad to hear that, Commander Zor," Jacobs replied. "May we be allowed to visit the surface?"

"To what end?" Zor demanded.

"We may be able to find clues as to who attacked the colony while we conduct investigations aboard the ship," Jacobs explained.

There was a moment of silence before Zor replied. "I will allow it, but know that we will be monitoring your every move and that the radiation levels on the surface may be dangerous for you. Commander Zor, out."

"Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside doesn't it?" Jacobs remarked sarcastically.

Colt arrived on the bridge and looked around. "Well," he said. "I see we've made progress breaking the ship in, but maybe we should try not to actually break it our first time out."

"Where's the fun in that?" Leigh replied with a grin.

Nora was at the science station as she ran a preliminary scan. "Captain, I'm still showing abnormal radiation levels. I would recommend a shuttle as radiation level will interfere with a transporter beam. We can land but will not able to stand exposure for long."

"Mister Cross, establish standard geosynchronous orbit and get an Away Team together to take to the planet. I also want a team aboard the ship to take more scans of the area," Jacobs ordered.

"Establishing orbit..." Mark acknowledged, his hands going to work, becoming ever more familiar with the way the new vessel handled to his touch. He was about to spin around and consider the makeup of his team, but instead he was faced with a domino effect of volunteers.

"I volunteer for the Away Team," Colt said, turning to Cross. "It will be good for me to get out there and stretch my legs. If that's alright with you, Commander."

Doctor Samar had wandered onto the bridge to see what trouble the ship was in now - everyone in sickbay was either sent back to their stations or stable for now and she needed a better idea of what they were up against. Seeing the planetary sensors over Nora's shoulder though... "Captain... In an environment like that, I'm going to run out of inoculations fast. I recommend the away team use EV suits to maximize the effect. I still wouldn't recommend anyone stay down there for more than eight or nine hours at a time even then, though."

"Agreed, doctor," Leigh replied.

"I'd like to volunteer as well, Captain," Lieutenant JG Lucius said, as he crawled out from under the console he had been working on. He stood and straightened his uniform. "I know a fair bit about the different uses of polaron particles and who uses what... I could be useful."

Shath glanced at the engineer and then then back to the captain. Andorian physiology involved a higher metabolic rate than humans, making exposure to radiation a larger concern for him, but he had something unique to offer. "I studied exotic particle generation as a minor subject in the academy," the ops officer said. "Between myself and Lieutenant Lucius, we should be able to offer some insight on what happened."

"Alright," Leigh began. "You two are on it."

Braith had to concur with the Doctor's assessment. Chemistry, Biology, and Mathematics were all in agreement on this one, and he knew she was correct. Unless they had a Saurian aboard, the majority of the crew were not going to last more than the Doctor's recommended time limit. He cleared his throat I cannot believe I'm going to even suggest this he thought to himself, but his brother's willingness to bravely volunteer had pushed Braith to lay his cards on the table. "I agree with the Doctor. If there's room for medical personnel and the Doctor wishes to remain aboard the Valiant, I can go. I can monitor everyone's life signs and make sure their vitals remain within normal range."

Alara nodded sagely. She was about to volunteer as well, but her biology was slightly more susceptible than most of the crew's to radiation like that, being half Trill and half Betazoid. "Not that I don't want to risk my own skin... But thank you. If you need to give anyone a hypo through the EV suit adapter, remember to feel for both clicks when you lock it in place. That goes for all of you. Without both seals clicked in, it just sprays all over the suit."

"I will go as well, Captain," Nora said. "I mean... if you want me to, ma'am."

"Alright," Leigh agreed. She knew the Type 10 shuttle was going to be packed but the more people she had on the surface, the quicker they could examine the scene and get back.

"Looks like I have a team then... I could almost stay here there's so many volunteers..." Mark said with the slightest of smirks. "Alright, everyone gear up and meet me in the shuttle bay. Travel light!" he instructed. Some of the crew on his last assignment seemed to want to bring all manner of exotic blades that were far from standard issue with them on Away missions.

Lucius packed up his tool kit and headed for Engineering. He wanted to get a small kit together for the away mission, quickly, before he went to the shuttle bay. He had wanted to protest when Braith had volunteered, but he couldn't protect his brother from everything, no matter how much he wanted to.

Likewise, Ensign Braith though he had an overall concern for the crew, was especially inclined to volunteer once his brother did. His parents would be heartbroken if anything ever happened to Lucius. Now, Braith had very few excuses to save him from bearing any of that guilt. They served together on the same starship. Travel light? he thought hearing the XO's words. Do you know how many medical supplies and tech I need to fit into a medical kit and holster on me for this? Have you read the environmental readings? Braith simply remained quiet and nodded.

"Captain. I've begun a series of focused scans of the area. I'm also detecting anti-polarons. The only known way to create anti-polarons is through exposure of polarons to high intensity subspace fields. It could have been a side effect of the weapon used on the colony, or an interaction between the weapon and something the Tholians were doing here. Either way I'd like to recalibrate the deflector to take some more focused scans." Lougheed said.

"Do it," Leigh ordered. "Away Team, get geared up and get to the shuttle bay." She watched as the Away team filed out off of the bridge as relief officers took up the vacant positions. The one thing she hated about being a captain was being stuck aboard ship--she had always enjoyed going on Away Missions. 'The sacrifices of being a captain,' she mused.

"I'm going to head to main engineering I can recalibrate the deflector better from there." Lougheed said with a nod to the Captain.

Leigh nodded in return as she sat back down in her chair--forced to wait for any results.

After what seemed like an odd night and one awfully strange and awkward morning, Ensign Braith was to start his day. It took him several minutes to roll outta bed and gather his thoughts, trying organize them appropriately and prioritize his day. This was of course much easier said than actually done. He had turned in at a decent hour and dozed off at some point, but even with all of those alleged hours of sleep, Braith felt as though he did not sleep more than a couple of hours. Maybe Lucius stirred a lot a kept making me restless he thought. The two had been bunked together for their sleeping assignments thanks to Lucius' stepping in to ensure that was done before Braith even got to set foot on the starship. Siblings he thought as he rolled his eyes and got into uniform.

Several minutes later, he was fairly well put together. However, he was still having an issue concentrating and organizing his day in his mind. Lack of sleep and a million thoughts racing through his mind were undoubtedly keeping him from being productive. The rumbling of his stomach also did not help matters. Proper nutrition is the key to a good day he reminded himself, as he made a course adjustment to his walking path down the corridors. You have an hour before you actually need to do anything, Braith. You need to have breakfast he thought though in his mind he heard the voice of his father reprimanding him for trying to skip out on breakfast.

The problem with a ship as small as the Valiant was the mess hall was tiny. Of course the crew compliment was small compared to other starship classes, but it was suitable for the Defiant class. That still did not mean that it was not without crowding issues. When he walked into the mess hall, there were people at each table. That was not to say there were not seats available. It just meant he would need to get rather close with a perfect stranger which was not something he was super fond of, but he had much better social skills than his brother. He actually treated people like people rather than obstacles and laborers.

Braith approached the food and beverage replicator and ordered himself a decently balanced breakfast with one of his programmed 'Braith Juices,' this one was juice number five. Number five was a peculiar orange color, a deep and rich orange. It had a lovely sweet scent that was almost floral. With his food tray in his hands, Braith walked and pretty randomly picked a table, but it was not as random as he wanted to convince himself. He saw a table that was mostly empty except for one occupant: An Andorian who appeared to be male was sitting at the table. That makes the second Andorian on this starship that I am aware of thought Braith as he approached the table and sat his tray down with a smile on his face. He greeted the Andorian pleasantly. “Hello there” he said warmly. “Fair morning to you, Lieutenant. I Guess everyone was a little hungry this morning” added the young ensign. Braith took a seat opposite the

"Isn't it a human expression that breakfast is the most important meal of the day?" The Andorian asked, curious. "Given the wealth of them in Starfleet, it becomes a tradition, I suppose."

Braith nodded. I cannot disagree with that he thought as breakfast was also a valued meal on his home world as well.

Shath's plate was heaped high with something that looked distinctly like blue-tinged scrambled eggs. He pointed to them with a fork. "Normally, I would eat eshiyah as an evening meal, but it's the closest thing to Human breakfast food, so I've developed a habit of eating them to start the day."

The explanation was interrupted suddenly as he realized he hadn't introduced himself. "Shath Birev," he said, clapping a fist to his chest. "I'm the new chief of operations."

"Ensign Braith" replied the other man. "Chief of nothing, but I am Head Nurse" he added jokingly. He studied the man's eshiyah. "Esh..." he was having a difficult time remembering what the Andorian had called and pronounced it. "Is that a traditional Andorian dish? I imagine there probably isn't much in the way of breakfast in the Earth sense on a world that is predominately ice and snow" commented Braith.

"It's made from shaysha, a beetle native to Andor," Shath confirmed. "Mostly it's good for an evening meal because it tends to be heavy. But it still works for breakfast as long as I'm not too greedy. Also, replicated eshiyah tends to be much lighter."

He gestured to Braith's plate with his fork. "What is it you're eating?"

Braith proudly started to point out the food on his plate and the two smaller side dishes. "That is a vegetable omlet made from the unfertilized egg of a large avian creature found on Capella. That's just a piece of toasted bread with butter from Earth and Betazoid Uttaberry jam smeared on it. This dish has a Cardassian fruit and this one holds a Bajoran fruit....and my drink is a juice that I added myself."

Shath looked over the spread appraisingly. "So then, your plate seems to be carrying six separate cultures' nutrition on it. Quite a cosmopolitan meal. Are any of those your home?"

The ensign shook his head. "No, but the juice does have Ovara juice, it is a fruit from my world that had leathery like skin that when ripe is a nice vibrant magenta color. The skin is kind of tough and nobody eats it. Inside is nice and soft like a tangerine from Earth, but instead of being orange it is purple" he explained. "I am from Angel I. I don't know if you know of it, but it is not a Federation world. At least not yet anyways."

"I seem to recall a discussion about your world at the academy," Shath thought back, though he couldn't directly recall any facts about the world. "Welcome to Starfleet then. May your world's future be brightened by your service." The intonation sounded formal, like something he had been taught to say. Though by who was hard to say.

Braith snorted and nearly spat his juice all over the man's blue face, but he managed to keep it in and swallowed hard. "Oh boy" he said shaking his head. "That sounds like it would be a good slogan for Starfleet Academy recruitment. Maybe you missed your calling with the whole Operations thing? Perhaps you should consider working in Human Resources."

Shath offered a wan smile in response. "Perhaps. But I much prefer taking things apart to sales pitches. Let someone else stand in the recruitment holos. It's just a thing we're taught in the Andorian preparatory schools that lead to Starfleet - respecting all cultures' choice to join the Federation, whether as one or a million."

The young nurse nodded. "Yeah, that is certainly true. So many worlds make up the Federation. I am not sure if my world will ever become one, but it is nice seeing species from independent worlds or from the Klingon Empire, choose to try and do some good in the galaxy by applying to the academy. Making in and through the academy is most certainly no easy task and I can say from experience, it is harder when you aren't a member of the Federation. Fortunately Angel I has never been in conflict with the Federation, but the Klingons and Cardassians have. So, I can only imagine how much tougher it is on cadets from those species."

"I remember meeting a Cardassian woman in the academy. We were part of the same group in a Hostile Environment Survival outing. We sort of bonded over the fact that I hated the desert we crossed, but she hated the glacier we had to camp on."

Braith snorted. "Sounds like a grand time" said Braith as he started to finish up his meal. "I have to take care of a few things before reporting to duty, but I will see you around the ship, Lieutenant" added Braith with a smile. "Excuse me for leaving you to finish your meal by yourself" said the nurse as he departed from the table.

Evan entered the main engineering bay. He saw the Andorian woman he recognized from the launch party. "Vita, how are things doing down here." He asked the woman as he approached her station.

"Lieutenant. Not too bad, we've got most of the Tholian damage repaired. What can I do for you?" She asked.

"I need to recalibrate the main deflector. We need do a deep scan of the colony site for anti-polarons." He said.

She nodded, "The Chief isn't going to like that, he's a bit particular." She said.

"Well good thing the chief isn't here." Lougheed said with a smirk, "Can you lend me a hand."

"Of course sir." She said with a small smile, "Why don't we use the secondary control station on the upper level."

"Sure, lead the way," He said, following her up the ladder.

She accessed the system and began to make the modifications. "Disable the main field coils, while I recalibrate the emitter array." The pair worked in silence for a few moments. "Now activate the particle emitters, we've calibrated the deflector to work like an anti-poloron mirror."

"Good, I've calibrated the lateral sensors, we should be able to detect even trace levels of anti-polorons." Evan said. "Activating the lateral arrays."

"Activating the deflector." She said, they watched the screen as the computer displayed a schematic of the processes. High energy particles streamed from the deflector down to the colony. The interactions allowed the sensors to detect the subatomic anti-polorons.

"Interesting, based on these readings whatever the Tholions were doing down there involved an incredible strong and focused subspace field. I should report to the Captain. Thanks Vita." He said with a smile.

"Anytime sir." She said nodding, her antenna turning up slightly,.

ON:

With the Valiant about to launch, Jacobs was relieved to hear that the Chief of Operations was finally aboard. Looking over final preparations on the PaDD, she finally placed the PaDD on the desk when her chime sounded. "Enter."

The Andorian lieutenant strode in, another PaDD in his hand. He held it up as he entered, meeting the captain's eyes with his own. "Greetings sir," he said cheerfully. "Lieutenant Birev, Chief of Operations, reporting for duty and also bearing a system readiness report I ran prior to coming up here."

He set the device on her desk. "Fairly standard, I would expect, since she's already been underway, but I never like to assume something's been processed by a predecessor. There's a covariance issue on the computer's reprocessing protocol, but I've already noted a level 2 diagnostic before we get back under power."

His speech finished, Shath snapped into parade rest, hands clasped behind his back.

Leigh nodded and gestured to the seat in front of her desk. "At ease. Please have a seat," she said as she read over the report and his service record. "Good job on the report," she said after a minute, setting both PaDDs down on her desk. "So tell me drove you to become an Operations Officer?" Leigh admired Andorians for their military prowess and had served alongside many fine Andorian Security Officers during her career.

"You mean instead of a security officer?" he said, a ghost of a smirk crossing his lips for an instant. "I'm sure you've perused my file - it's in my clan, to be certain. However, my aptitudes weren't merely in physical endeavors. I also received high marks during my schooling for technical aptitudes. And rather than be the third Ch'velloq in my generation to fall into the military, I chose instead to apply all my talents. You'll also note in my file that I'm rated for hand-to-hand combat and phaser marksmanship. I'm no slouch."

"I never implied that you were," Leigh replied. "It's good that you chose to pursue something that you enjoy doing. However, I also noticed that your previous commanding officers noted that you intended to stay to yourself outside of your duty. That will likely be an issue given the size of the Valiant. On a ship this size, the crew tends to get close and have to rely on one another more so than on larger vessels."

Shath frowned suddenly. He hadn't been aware of that note in his personnel file, and felt no small amount of shame at the revelation. "I... wasn't aware that Captain Taggert had felt that way." His shoulders sagged slightly, and he bit at his lip, considering his next words. "Captain... my last assignment was aboard a much larger ship. Working relationships were the best one could hope for unless you made special effort to socialize, and with my duties and my efforts assisting the science division since the ship didn't have a dedicated quantum mechanics specialist, I..." he deflated. "I set that effort aside in favor of other pursuits."

Shath straightened. "What I mean to say is, I'm not incapable of it. Out of practice perhaps, but given the close quarters and the lack of recreation, I don't feel like I'll have much choice but to get to know my crew mates."

Leigh took note of his changed demeanor and grinned. "Don't be hard on yourself, lieutenant. We all have our short comings and that report does nothing to change the fact that your record shows you are a very talented and competent officer. You have nothing to feel ashamed or embarrassed about. It's just something that will take time."

"I have a lot to live up to," he said honestly, not even requesting permission to speak freely. "My keth has a long, storied history of battle. My grandfather fought in Wolf 359, my sisters were both in the Dominion War... that I chose a different path means that family gatherings are usually an opportunity to point out how I'm not carrying the Ch'velloq legacy forward. So I've thrown myself at my work. It's why I've ended up in the position I'm in with only a few years out of the academy."

"Well, without Operations and Engineering, we wouldn't be able to get to the fight or fight very effectively," Leigh replied with a grin. "I have a feeling you'll do just fine aboard the Valiant, lieutenant. Members of your keth should be proud of you. Did you have any questions?"

"Several, honestly. I cultivated a list on leave in order to be prepared when I reported for duty. First and foremost, as your chief of Operations, I'd like to know your designated critical functions in emergencies. I know the standard protocol, but have learned that most captains prefer it slightly different, dependent upon mission. And I've never served on a strictly combat assignment, so it's worth inquiring about."

"As a smaller ship, every system is vital," Leigh replied. "But if we're in a combat situation, then weapons and shields take precedence.

Shath nodded. "Good to know, thank you. Are there any other operational considerations I should know about before I step onto your bridge, sir?"

Leigh shook her head. "Not at the moment. Use your judgement for each situation that we're in if not given a specific order from myself or the XO. I have faith in you, Mr. Birev," she grinned--she liked Shath so far.

Another nod came in response to her. "Very well. I'll reserve the rest of my queries for when they might become more relevant, but rest assured, I'll make sure the Valiant runs as smoothly as I can make her. Oh - that's another thought, though slightly off-topic. Why does human nomenclature paint starships as 'she'? I don't mind, it's just not a cultural norm for my people."

"As I am only half human, I do not know other than it's naval tradition," Leigh replied with a shrug.

He shrugged in return. "A mystery I will solve yet. However, I'll cease taking up your time, sir. If there's nothing else?"

"You're dismissed," Leigh chuckled with a nod, watching the man turn and leave her office.

ON:

Nora stepped into the shuttle bay with her EVA suit on. She hated the things--she always felt like a bloated balloon in one. She hefted her Science hit that she had slung over her shoulder as she waited for the rest of the team to arrive.

Ensign Braith was not entirely sure when the last time he wore an EV suit was. He did know that he probably could count on one hand the number of times he had to wear one. All of those times were for a class at Starfleet Academy. So, the last time he had to do so was a few years ago. Nevertheless, he got suited up and showed up with a medical kit and other gear that was necessary. “Ensign” he said politely to the woman. It was nice seeing another Ensign.

Mark followed next, his hands wrestling with various parts of his EVA suit as he attempted to click it all into place/make it comfortable/some combination of both. He'd been last off the Bridge, but was determined to make sure he wasn't the last to arrive. He didn't know why, exactly, but it meant getting geared up on the move as much as humanly possible. It was extra impressive given he'd picked up an engineering kit, realized he wasn't an engineer anymore, and gone to put it back. Old habits died hard, he guessed.

"Ensigns," he nodded to both in turn.

Shath was next to arrive, stepping into the cramped bay with his EV helmet tucked under his arm. Given that he was going to have to tamp down his antennae in order to fit the standard-issue helmet on his head, he opted not to put it on until strictly required. He brought a tricorder and phaser, both clipped to the webbing at his suit's waist. Given their mission, he opted to leave any other accouterments behind, though he did think wistfully to the ushaan sitting under his bunk's mattress.

"Commander," he said with a nod to the first officer. "Ensigns," he offered Braith and Nora nods as well. Other than Braith, he'd had little social interaction with the rest of those gathered, but he knew his job and stood a few steps aside, double-checking his suit seals and his equipment's holsters.

Colt arrived also kitted out in an EVA suit with HAZMAT modifications. It was the combat version. Colt was still qualified as a Special Operations Independent Duty Corpsman. He felt a little naked without a full field medkit, but he was carrying a smaller version designed for short-term missions and better mobility. For weapons, he carried a Type II phaser pistol and his Raider issue folding knife, discretely. It would likely escape notice except on close examination. It was more a good luck charm in this situation. Trying to handle the knife in EVA/HAZMAT gloves was very difficult. Like Shath, Colt hadn't put his helmet on, but carried it.

"Commander," Colt said. "Lieutenant, Ensigns. Is everyone looking forward to a walk in the radiation?"

Ensign Braith looked at the blue eyed man who showed up. He knew the man was the Chief of the Boat, a command division personnel with a mixed background that did include medical training. Part of Braith saw that as a bit of relief, yet another part of him was intimidated by his presence. "Absolutely, I always wanted to wear one of these things in the field," Braith replied in jest.

Shath offered a hesitant smile to Colt. "I am ever ready to do my duty," he said, apprehension just barely hidden. He was still sweating the biological truth of his species that meant he might become a liability on the mission. But he knew he could help. He just had to focus on that.

Braith looked over at the Andorian and patted him on the shoulder. It was perhaps a gesture that was a little peculiar and out of line, but Braith thought Shath needed some moral support in that moment. "The fish from the icy blue pond jumping into the lake of fire," commented Braith.

Nora grinned. "You'll be alright, sir. The suit's environmental systems should keep your body temperature within norms," she tried to calm Shath.

Now that all the junior officers had noticed his anxiety, Shath's expression darkened and he pulled his helmet up over his head, one hand tucked inside in order to get his antennae placed somewhere relatively comfortable.

Lieutenant JG Lucius was last to arrive with a tool kit slung over one shoulder. He was already in his EVA suit and also carrying his helmet. His last posting had actually required him to do quite a bit of space walking so he felt pretty comfortable in the EVA suit. He went straight to Braith without saying anything and started to double check his brother's suit. "Are you ready for this?"

Braith tried to discreetly swat his brother away like a pesky fly interrupting your picnic date right in the middle of trying to eat some potato salad. "Stop," he said quietly. "You are embarrassing me," he said in a hushed tone. "Yeah, I'm fine. I'm ready. I went to the same academy you did," he added in his response to his brother's messing around with his suit.

Lucius was not dissuaded, regardless of the swatting, until he had checked his brother's suit completely. Then he nodded. "I know you went to the same academy... but I got a lot of time in this thing on my last assignment and I wasn't sure if you had." He turned his attention back to Cross. "Sorry, sir. Ready to go."

The other sibling also looked at Cross. "I'm also ready, Commander Cross," said Braith though he quickly turned his head and looked at his brother. "More than ready," he added kind of competitively. He turned his whole body and inched closer to his brother and lowered his voice. "I am a Starfleet officer, Lieutenant. Risk. Risk is part of our business. You may have logged more time in this thing, but I've taken more survival classes, understand the biological hazards of the chemical composition of that atmosphere, and took several classes in Environmental Sciences."

"I wasn't questioning your abilities," Lucius shot back quietly. "I was questioning your EVA suit."

"Well if you're all quite finished!" Mark smirked and made his way towards the shuttle. It hadn't been discussed, but since he was generally responsible for flying the Valiant, he'd be taking the driving seat. He slid into the relevant seat, beginning his pre-flight routine.

Sienna followed Commander Cross as he boarded the shuttle, taking a position in the rear crew area of the shuttle on a jump seat. "I hope this ride is a smooth one," Sienna said, letting out a sigh.

Lucius followed them onto the shuttle as well. "Well... whatever it is we can handle it," he said in his best attempt to be encouraging. He started to strap himself in. "Have you done this before, Ensign Nora?" He knew that sometimes people could be comforted by chatter, but he wasn't good at the "off topic" sort of chatter that might be necessary to actually comfort anyone.

While Lucius waited for Nora to respond, Colt boarded the shuttle and took a seat. Colt really hated this class of shuttle. Too cramped, even when it wasn't filled to capacity. He sighed took a deep breath. It wouldn't be the first cramped shuttle ride he'd taken. Nothing to be done. It wasn't as though there was room for a nice, big, Type 11 in the Valiant's shuttle bay.

Shath climbed in and moved to an empty seat in the shuttle. The away team's size taxed the interior space of the vehicle, so the Andorian determined to present the least amount of occupied area possible. He was silent otherwise, content to simply mentally prepare for the mission below.

"Only in a simulator at the Academy," Nora said. "This is my first Away Team mission."

"Don't worry, I've done this plenty of times before..." Mark fired up the shuttle and prepared to disembark, giving it a far more exaggerated "shimmy-and-shake" than he normally would to give the rookies a bit of a wake-up call as he began to ascend. "Please keep all arms and legs inside the shuttle at all times."

Lucius laughed. "Don't you mean the Mixer, Commander?"

"Please do keep all arms, legs, and everything else in the shuttle. I do not want to put my surgical knowledge to the test this early on in my assignment here," said Braith.

"Don't want to explain to Dad at the holidays why I now have hand-foot?" Lucius teased.

Braith smirked and nodded agreeing with what his brother said. "Exactly," he replied. "I still haven't been able to explain head-ass yet, jerkface," added the nurse teasingly.

Lucius flipped Braith off, with a grin on his face. "Yet, you still love me. Are we there yet?"

Sienna rolled her eyes at the two and let out a chuckle--she would never be able to be stationed with her sister. The shuttle soon began ist's decent into Vestixx Two.

Leigh paced about the bridge with her arms crossed, waiting for a report or something from the ground team, though with the amount of radiation, she doubt communications could be established and from Lieutenant Lougheed's investigation. She hated this part of being a starship captain--the waiting and being patient for results. She turned quickly at seeing the doors to the bridge slide open to reveal Alara. "Doctor," she greeted with a nod. "Has everyone recovered from their injuries sustained during our fight with the Tholians?"

Alara flashed her patented smile as she offered the Captain a PaDD with a list of the wounded. "We almost lost one, but other than him everyone else is fit enough for duty if it comes down to it. Fitzpatrick's condition is going to demand he book an extended stay in sickbay. I should be ready to release him after another two days of further treatments though. Most of the wounds that had to be treated were only minor, thankfully. After brief instruction, pretty much everyone that needed it could treat their own minor burns with a protoplaser, which helped immensely. One thing I did not expect was for seemingly every EPS conduit on this ship to leak like that. I don't think a single crewmember escaped without some sort of burn from them and sickbay lost main power and lighting about halfway through the battle and had to work by flashlight and backup power systems. Even the grav plating felt weird. Then again, I'm used to working on larger ships and starbases and this was my first time in combat..."

"That's good to hear doctor," Leigh was relieved they hadn't suffered any casualties in their first mission. "I'll have engineering look into seeing what they can do to stabilize Sickbay's systems and our fortifying our EPS relays," Leigh replied. She heard the doors to the bridge open again to reveal Lieutenant Lougheed. "Lieutenant, what did you find?"

He handed a PADD to the Captain. "Whatever the Tholians were doing down there it involved a very strong subspace field. Way stronger that would be needed for comms, research, defence combined."

Leigh looked at the PaDD and after a moment looked back at Lougheed. "Good work, lieutenant. Could they have been hiding something?"

"Yes." He said bluntly. "A heavily shielded development lab for something, possibly some very high power subspace telescopes or listening arrays. I guess the subspace field strength would have to be on par with the power output of large starbase. There's a lot of possibilities."

"Radiation at the site of the crater is hampering communications with the Away Team but they need to know this. Is there anyway..." Leigh was interrupted as the bridge turned a blue haze for a moment. "What the hell..." Less than a second later, Leigh disappeared in a flash of white light.

"Shields up. Someone get me a location on the Captain." Lougheed ordered.

Me'Shlaht growled as she raised the shields and activated the ship's scanners. "I'm picking up her comm badge signal port astern... moving away at high impulse speeds. Trying to get a lock."

Lougheed took his station. "I'm not reading anything other than some stray tachyons, likely a cloaked ship."

Alara just realized something. Something that she really didn't like. With the Captain gone and the first officer on an away mission, she was in charge. Taking the few steps over to the big chair, she took a deep breath and glanced around. They were so screwed... "Ok. track those stray tachyon emissions and see if they correlate with the Captain's comm signal and see if we can triangulate a target lock between the two and our position. Helm, break orbit and stay with it but not so closely that it seems like we know right where they are. In fact, vary our position a bit to try and help triangulate their position. Do we have decent sensors for uh... Emissions... Plasma wake... If there's a cloaked ship and it's moving, it's probably burning fuel to move so scan for plasma emissions as well to help triangulate it." Right about now, she was glad she had listened to all those old spacer tales. Maybe a few of them would come in handy. She just hoped she wasn't overloading the crew - there were only like 40 left on the ship.

"Tracking tachyons," Me'Shlaht hissed, doing a few quick triangulation calculations on her panel. With what little information she had - emissions, tachyons, the comm badge signal - she mapped a handful of possible courses and projected them onto the main viewscreen. All of them led away from the planet and in the same general direction. "What about the away team? Commander Jacobs would not want us to leave them."

We'll try not to go too far. Besides, they have a shuttle. If things get too bad, they can still get off the planet and get away at warp two." Alara didn't like it either, but at least the away team had a means of transportation. The Captain had to be recovered quickly, in any case.

**Gluak Ship**

Leigh tried to moved but couldn't finding that she had been secured to a metallic table by three thick metal straps around her body. The room was dark as a single bright white light engulfed her. She could hear clicking noises in the not too far distance. "Whoever you are, your actions can be constituted as an act of war."

A bipedal humanoid being emerged from the darkness, with two large, long arms and four smaller, shorter arms--each with three fingers that looked more like claws. It's knees were reversed with two toes on each foot. It's head flanked by two shorter mandibles with it's head, shoulders, back, arms, and legs covered in a thick looking exoskeleton. It walked up to a mere foot away from Leigh as one of it's shorter arms reached out and forcibly grabbed her face along her jaw and chin, squeezing. It's breath was warm as it began to speak, taking a moment for the translator to dissect the language. "Your threats are meaningless, soft skin! I have never seen your species. Why are you working with the Tholians?!" It released it's hand enough for Leigh to speak.

"To aid them in finding out who destroyed their outpost. Was it you?," she said accusingly.

The Gluak's smaller hand backhanded Leigh hard in response. "So you are allies! That planet belongs to the Gluak!"

Leigh's head hung as she blinked several times, tasting blood in her mouth. She raised her head to look at the Gluak. "So, you're called the Gluak?"

"The tiny vessel is following us with the Tholian vessel not far behind it," another Gluak reported from the shadows.

"Then we show them our might! Ready the Polaron cannon! Come about, drop cloak, and destroy them!," the Gluak commander ordered. He looked at Leigh, taking in her form before looking at a nearby console that gave out information as the table scanned Leigh. "You must be a female of your species," he sounded with disgust. "Our females are protected! They serve in logistics and breeding duites only!"

"A shame. Women are the true warriors," Leigh replied in an attempt to agitate the commander, which she succeeded as the Gluak turned, delivering another powerful backhand.

"Then you are indeed a pathetic race deserving of being wiped out as we did so with those Iconian Devils!" the commander replied, disappearing back into the shadows.

******

The Gluak Vessel decloaked, revealing a ship that resembled something similar to a terran Manta Ray. At the center of the ship, appeared to be a large cannon barrel that was now glowing a bluish color.

"That does not look good... Evasive maneuvers! Red alert! Target their... Uh..." Alara was a Doctor, not a tactical officer! Engines or weapons? Maybe power systems? "Target to disable them and open fire! As soon as you have a lock on the Captain, beam her back!"

With the majority of the senior officers away Lougheed had taken the helm. "Evasive action Lambda sequence. I'm unable to detect any discrete nacelles or FTL engines, the ships is odd, to say the least."

The Gluak vessel fired it's polaron cannon at the Tholian vessel. The shot seemed to visibly shake the large ship as it's shields collapsed. Aboard, Commander Zor cursed. The ancient stories were indeed true about the Gluak and their weapons. He recalled that their weapons required a charging period however. Now would be the time to attack. "Press forward! Fire all weapons on that ship and destroy it!"

"That enemy vessel appears to be charging it's main weapons again, I'm detecting a slow power build in the same area where it's fire came from." Lougheed reported. "The Tholians appear to have sustained significant damage but are still engaging."

"Did they just knock out the Tholian shields with that weapon? Fire those phasers and ready quantum torpedoes! Get a lock on the Captain! I want her transported back immediately!" Alara was not liking combat at all and they hadn't even yet directly exchanged fire under her command. Seeing the Gluak and Tholians firing at each other was more than enough for her.

Ensign Mortewomble at the sensor station called out. "I've got the Captain on sensors but there's too much interference from that polaron weapon to get a solid lock! I'm transferring the coordinates to the Conn now in case there's an opening."

"Polaron weapons ought to be illegal," Me'Shlaht growled. The interference from such weapons also interrupted her target locks, but she knew a few tricks for that. Setting a series of targets, she fired phasers on both ships in rapid sequence while she readied the quantum torpedoes with her other paw. "Firing phasers. Torpedoes ready for launch." The Tholians appeared to lose interest in the Valiant, and with their shields down they would be easy enough to finish off with a few torpedoes. Me'Shlaht decided to focus more phaser fire on the other attacking ship, trying to develop a weakness in the shielding.

"I've got a lock, transporting the Captain's signal back." Evan said, maintaining the vessel through evasive actions trying to keep the firing solutions open for tactical.

Leigh felt the transporter beam grab her, hearing the Gluak cry out in anger as she dematerialized. A moment later, she rematerialized aboard the bridge. Not being supported by the table she had been strapped to, her legs were weak and stiff and she collapsed to the deck. She blinked a few times, recognizing the Valiant's bridge. She felt a wave of relief wash over her, knowing she was no longer aboard the Gluak vessel. She pushed herself up into a kneeling position, taking a several deep breaths. She heard the ship's weapons firing as she blinked several more times. "Keep firing all weapons," she said.

Alara hopped out of the command chair like it was on fire, tricorder already in hand and scanning Captain Jacobs before she got the words out of her mouth. "Me'Shlaht, at your leisure, please deliver those quantum torpedoes to the enemy." After a quick scan, Alara reached into her other lab coat pocket and pulled out a hypo and a few ampules, loaded one into the hypo, and injected it into the Captain's neck. "That should ease the pain enough to clear your head for now. Once this is over I'll expect to see you in sickbay without complaint. You have a few minor fractures and a bit of internal bleeding."

"And here I thought it was something serious, doctor," she breathed heavily with a grin as the pain subsided. With a grunt, she stood and took a few weak, painful steps to the captain's chair and sat down. The chair had never felt so comfortable as it did at that moment. "Good job, keeping the ship in one piece, Doctor. Mr. Lougheed, initiate tactical maneuver Beta-Gamma. Keep us fast and agile but give Lieutenant Me'Shlaht a clear window of fire into their engineering section. Blow those sons of bitches out of my sight."

"It's serious enough." Pulling a piece of gauze out of her pocket, Alara dabbed at a bit of blood on the Captain's brow to make sure it didn't drip into her eye. "Don't worry, you're only bleeding because you don't floss. I'll have you fixed up in no time once this battle is over. Computer, activate the EM... H... That we don't have... Disregard."

The Gluak vessel fired once again as the second shot, seemed to disintegrate the port section of the Tholian dreadnought as it seemed to lose main power and dip, dead.

"I'm picking up some serious power fluctuations in that enemy vessel. I think we've managed to destablize whatever they use as a power system. Tactical giving you a firing solution." Lougheed reported as he swung the vessel through a tight spin to bring all of the Valiants forward weapons to bear on the main ventral line of the ship.

"Firing." Me'Shlaht did not wait for an fire order, unleashing all of the Valiant's forward weapons on the crippled ship. The strange vessel took a hell of a pounding, even with its power fluctuating wildly. But Lougheed's flying kept the ship in her sights, and after a long barrage of fire the enemy vessel - finally - exploded in a rather large puff of fire.

Leigh nodded, allowing a grin form at seeing the destruction of the Gluak ship. "Good work Lougheed and Me'Shlaht. Mr. Lougheed, take us back to Vestixx Two. Standard orbit."

"Aye ma'am, course laid in. Engaging." Lougheed said, his fingers dancing over the controls, the sleek Defiant-class ship spinning on her axis to come about and return towards the planet.

OOC NOTES: While scanning the crater, the team will uncover the entrance to very old ruins near the bottom of the crater--these ruins will not be Tholian and will come across as unknown to the team but the Tholians will show increased agitation if the team ventures too close to the ruins but will not attack due to their orders. There will be debris of a exploded anti matter energy source (which is the source of the high radiation). If you have any questions, feel free to IM me. --Allison


The rear door to the Type 10 shuttle lowered and almost immediately, Sienna could feel the heat from the planet. Stepping out onto the ramp, she looked around. The ground was rocky and bare with the sky a light orange color. In the distance, she could spot lava flows and a few volcanoes and mountain ranges. She could see several Tholians off in the distance in a sort of field base camp and then she saw what she thought was a drop off near the Tholians. 'I wonder if that's the crater of where the outpost was located,' Sienna thought. An alarm on her suit sounded, notifying her of the radiation levels before she silenced it.

The site of the destroyed outpost brought back unpleasant memories for Colt, memories of being sent to the scene of an orbital bombardment to look for and treat survivors and collect the remains of all the KIAs. There was almost always more 'collecting of remains' than 'treatment of survivors'. He took out his tricorder.

"The Tholians weren't kidding," he said. "The radiation here is nasty. Even in these HAZMAT suits, we shouldn't linger too long." He looked at Braith. "Sorry, Ensign Braith," Colt said. "Old Corpsman habits die hard. I defer to your medical opinion."

Ensign Braith glaringly looked at Colt at first. He was too focused on everything else going on around him to care all that much about Colt slithering over into 'old habits' "Yes, old habits die slowly much like Vulcanoids. They have a long life span usually barring any unforeseeable circumstances of course" replied Braith.

Lucius made a face. "Lovely, maybe we should consider this for a summer home, Braith. I'm pretty sure the property value is low right now." He also silenced the alarm on his suit, before stepping out into the "environment" as it was. He pulled the kit on his shoulder around his body so he could access it and opened it and pulling out a tricorder. "This shit is bad," he murmured. He'd only been outside for a few moments and he was already sweating in his suit. "These readings are crazy... there's just so much."

"Compartmentalize," replied Braith to his brother.

Shath configured his suit's HUD to display radiation levels, and muted the alarm before it was ever triggered by the local environs. However, he already felt an unpleasant tingling on his skin upon exiting the shuttle. His tricorder was quick to come to hand, and he looked over his scanner's version of the readings Lucius saw. "Particle density is extremely high," he mused over the open suit-com. "It's consistent with directed polarons. The troubling thing is the Dominion is the only recorded power to utilize directed polaron weapons - even the Borg only used phased polarons only for scanning purposes. This is why," he gestured toward the crater. "But of course, the Dominion has no reason to be in Tholian space."

Do they need a reason thought the ensign. People have done things for little or no reason before. Or it is possible there is a reason and we just have not figured that out yet he continued thinking to himself, but he did not voice anything of the sort. He was simply the nurse and was more than anything just along for the ride.

The Andorian moved with purpose, stepping forward to gather readings closer to the crater. He didn't approach the base camp or the crater directly yet, but was scanning the area around the shuttle to get a better image of the radiation's scattering pattern. "Lieutenant Lucius," he glanced back at the engineer. "What do you think of the dispersion of the radiation?"

"Definitely a weapon... The particles in the center are even more dense than they are out here. It suggests a concentrated beam, not scattered like a scan would be." He knelt down and put his gloved hand in the soil. He wasn't a biologist, but he grew up on Angel One. Gardening was something he had been taught and this soil was dead. It was dry and sifted through the glove like sand. "It destroyed everything..."

Mark stood a little back from the rest of the team as they made their initial observations. This was a hostile environment to say the least. One thing he was certainly agreeing with, they had to work fast and get out of dodge. Tricorder in hand, he shuffled forward, working nimbly in between the crew in his suit, having been through enough mandatory training sessions to become something of a master. "What's the feeling about pressing on?" he asked to nobody in particular.

"The radiation levels are significant but I wouldn't want to remain here any longer than two or three hours, sir--and that's pushing our exposure to the limits," she replied, looking at her tricorder. She looked back up at the group of Tholians, wondering how they seemed to thrive in such an environment. "Leave it to the Tholians to pick such a world for the location of an outpost," she mused quietly as she made her way towards the crater, keeping her tricorder in scanning mode.

"Tholians prefer temperatures around 480 Kelvin," Shath quipped. "Their worlds are not many species' favorites for resort getaways."

Ensign Braith smiled hearing Shath quip in with that tidbit of information. "Biologically speaking, that is correct. sociologically and psychologically, the Tholians would probably he having similar thoughts were they setting foot... feet... whatever on one of our outposts. They probably would be quite disgusted," offered Braith. "Apples and oranges... boxers or briefs," added the nurse.

"Boxers," Lucius exclaimed. "Although, if I remember correctly you, Braith, are a briefs man." Lucius had started to move forward as well. "We might want to be careful about where we step out here... the ground might be unstable. Sometimes blasts like this can open up things underneath that we can't see. I don't want anyone falling to their death out here."

"How considerate of you," commented Braith. "And you can think whatever you want, but when it comes to my underwear, I think we can leave that a private inquiry. I was not asking... I was simply saying what we find appealing of habitable is different from what works best for them, but when it comes right down to it they are the same... both are underwear, and both are homes or bases."

Lucius put one hand up in the air and made talking gestures with it, his eyes locked on his tricorder. "Blah blah blah... just don't step it a hole, dear brother. Test your steps." He wasn't sure if spreading out or staying together was better. Their combined weight might be a problem, but he couldn't micromanage, they were on limited time. He looked around for Xan or Cross. "Do we want to go all the way out there?" he pointed more towards the center of the crater.

Colt held up his tricorder. "Whatever we do," he said. "Let's get on with it before we all start glowing in the dark."

"Yes, we want to go all the way out there..." Mark continued on in the direction of the crater. "We're on the clock a little here, unfortunately. If you see me disappear into a hole, then I suggest taking an alternative route, and when you make it back to the ship feel free to help yourselves to anything in my quarters." He proceeded a little gingerly at first, testing the ground beneath him as best he could in the suit.

Sienna chuckled nervously as she took careful steps as the team spread out, making their way down into the crater. She checked her tricorder, which was picking up alot of interference from the radiation. Tapping a few commands, she was able to get a clearer picture as she screened some of the interference. "I'm picking up some matter/anti matter traces," she reported. However, her foot caught on something as she paid attention to her tricorder. The next thing she knew, she landed with a hard thud face first, sliding a few feet due to the angle of the crater wall before coming to a stop. 'Great, new girl does face plant on first away mission,' she thought.

Lucius made his way to her quickly and offered her a hand up. "Are you okay, Ensign?" He knew it was a pain to fall over in the EVA suit and not have a hand up. They sort of made you like a rounded bean bag and suddenly normal things were five times harder, simple things, like standing from a prone position. "The radiation is interfering with my tricorder too. It's not getting any better the closer we get to center either."

Colt made his way to Sienna carefully and ran his tricorder over her suit, visually inspecting it for rips and tears as well. He linked to her suits control system and ran a diagnostic, both on Sienna and her suit. "Looks like you managed to keep your suit and yourself in one piece, Ensign," he said. "If it makes you feel any better, on my very first deployment, the transport lands, the back door opens, out goes the ramp, and there I go, tearing off into the unknown... until I get to the top of the ramp, at which point I trip and take a flying screamer down the ramp, knocking over four marines and my squad leader in the process."

"So who had Ensign Nora as the first to go down in the sweepstakes?" Mark chuckled, saving the humour for after getting the all-clear that her suit was undamaged. They were pretty robust, but it never hurt to be too careful. "I think what we might be looking for is in the crater, especially if you're getting an increase in radiation. Let's push on."

Nora knew the crew wasn't going to let this down as she got up, her pride more hurt than herself as she brushed the dirt off of her EVA Suit. "I'm alright, sir. Thank you," she replied to Lieutenant Lucius as she picked up her tricorder. Seeing movement out of the side of her face shield, she turned and looked up to see a few Tholians watching them intently from above, as if their glowing eyes were boring into her. Tholians creeped her out, as she began to move along with the others towards the center of the crater. "Am I the only one who thinks the Tholians don't want us here?"

"They are Tholians, Ensign. When have they ever wanted us anywhere near them," said Braith with a sigh. "An aggressively xenophobic species. They tend to go out of the way to avoid us like we have cooties," continued the nurse. "Which I can safely say none us have except Lieutenant Lucius. He probably does have cooties."

"Someone please remind me not to bring these two along on the same mission at once..." he sighed. At least the back-and-forth between the brothers was lightening the mood a little for some of the less experienced on the team. "At least the Tholians can put their prejudices on hold when the right time comes around. They're not completely one-track minded."

Braith felt a little embarrassed. Right, concentrate on the mission. We have work to do he thought to himself.

Lucius actually ignored the comment this time. He was looking at his tricorder intently. "So... this whole area is flooded with particles, but what is that?" He pointed to his tricorder screen and then leaned toward whoever was closest to him and showed them his screen, moving the tricorder from right to left. "See... particles... particles... particles... and there's this empty space for just a moment... then more particles... what is that?" he asked, meaning the space in his scan. "Like there's something in the way..."

Braith had a look at what his brother was talking about, but did not have much to offer himself. "Ensign Nora," said Braith, looking at the woman. "I think this is more your expertise," he said knowing that outside of basic scientific matters relating to medicine, he was kind of at a loss.

Nora adjusted her tricorder again, pointing it at the area Braith had indicated. After a moment of adjusting her tricorder, the readings surprised her. "It's artificially constructed," Nora said, her curiosity getting the better of her as she pressed forward. She soon came to the spot indicated by her tricorder. She knelt down and brushed some dirt away before the soil revealed a damaged metallic hatch. "What is this?" she asked as she scanned the hatch. She couldn't scan beyond it, but the hatch readings itself shocked Nora. "Commander, the hatch reads to be nearly 150,000 years old and appears to have been damaged by whatever destroyed the colony."

"Can anyone get a reading on what's inside?" Colt asked, adjusting his tricorder. "Whatever is under there is large, that I can tell... sort of. I assume we want to go in there, but it would really suck if we let loose some kind of pathogen into the atmosphere here. It might not be toxic to us in these environmental conditions, but it might not be good for our Tholian friends."

"I can't get a reading either," Lucius confirmed. "Our tricorders aren't powerful enough to penetrate whatever that is. You are right though, I'm concerned about what might be down there that needs to be kept like that." Lucius was quiet for a moment as he too tried to adjust his equipment. "You don't think that whoever blew up the colony might have been after whatever's down there... do you?" he asked to the group.

"But who would know about a 150,000 year old hatch beneath a Tholian Colony?" Sienna asked, turning her attention to the other as she she stood. She felt a slight vibration and looked in the direction it was coming from. She saw several Tholians at the edge of the crater, chirping away loud enough to cause low vibrations through the air but not enough for the universal translators to decipher as they paced back and forth. "Well, it looks like we certainly got their attention now," Sienna noted. She watched their movements and it seemed as if they were more anxious than angry. 'What could be on the other side of that hatch that would get the Tholians so riled up?' she thought, looking back at the damaged hatch.

"Well," Colt said. "We could always ask them, in the spirit of cooperation and all that."

Lucius looked toward the Tholians. He had to admit to himself that he wasn't usually concerned about other species, but the Tholians creeped him out. "If they were going to get this upset, why didn't they already tell us. Maybe they were hoping we wouldn't find it..." he suggested, shuddering. "What do we do now?" He was trying not to think about them and concentrate on the hatch.

As if reading Colt's thoughts, a single Tholian jumped over the crater's edge and scampered down the slope with grace and ease on it's six legs, looking more like a spider as it moved across the terrain. A moment later, the Tholian approached the group and emitted as series of chirps that was soon translated by the universal translator. "What are you doing, Starfleet? Stay away from that hatch!" the Tholian demanded.

Sienna was intimidated by the Tholian--she had never seen one up close, rather only in holo vids as she waited for the more senior Away Team members to answer.

“Whatever it is that’s stopping us from getting clear readings is coming from down there” Mark responded. He didn’t tell the Tholian that it was his best guess from what he’d heard so far, and instead pressed on as if it was of utmost importance that they get in there. “Could you fill in the blanks?”

He took a step closer to the six-legged being, positioning himself between it and the rest of the team. He stood at roughly the same height, it appeared. It was already a deliberate attempt to ‘posture up’ on his part, so he was grateful not to be vertically challenged at this point.

The Tholian paused as it regarded this human who had stepped up before him. "You are the leader here. If you value you and your officer's lives, you will leave the hatch as it was." A series of beeping noises emanated from the hatch. The Tholian moved back a few steps. "It is too late. If you proceed, you will only find death," the Tholian replied, knowing he could no longer hide the truth. "The Gluak will awaken."

Ensign Braith backed away a bit. He did not need the Tholian's warning, but the warning of 'Gluak will awaken' was creepy to say the least.

"Commander," Sienna spoke. "I'm picking up an energy surge beneath us. It's slow and steady."

Lucius blinked. "Gluak? What's a Gluak? I don't like the sound of a Gluak." His eyes went from the hatch to the Tholian and back to the hatch.

Colt put away his tricorder and drew his phaser. The Type II looked rather pathetic in his hand. He kicked himself for not bringing a carbine and a compression phaser pistol.

The Tholian looked at the Away Team--he was under orders not to discuss anything related to the Gluak by Commander Zor. Yet, the stories he had heard of them were enough to strike fear even in the bravest soldier and for the moment he and these Starfleet were allies. Unknown to outsiders, traditional stories told of early Tholians who fought a fierce battle with a race only known as the Gluak who rumored to have helped defeat the ancient Iconians. "The energy build up is for awakening the Gluak... ancient Tholians once battled the Gluak at a terrible price."

"Terrible price," Lucius repeated, nodding. He still had his tricorder out, trying to get accurate readings. There was indeed some sort of energy surge building up behind the hatch. "We might want to move away from the hatch. I'm pretty sure it's going to open whether we want it to or not. The energy surge is also building up pressure under that door," he warned.

The Tholian shook his head. "We should evacuate the crater. The hatch actually belongs to a stasis pod that crashed here thousands of years ago," he paused for a moment. "It runs on polaric energy."

Sienna's comm link chirped to life with a static-filled voice. "Valiant... Away Team. Please... to the ship... as possible... kidnapped."

Colt cursed. "Guess this little excursion is over," he said. He leveled his phaser at the Tholian. "What did your people do? What the Hells is going on up there?"

Lucius dropped his tricorder and reached for the phaser rifle over his shoulder. He lifted it slowly, unsure of what was about to happen. He waited at the ready, his eyes on the Tholian.

Braith, however, did not draw a phaser. He maintained his calm the best he could those he knees were weak and body trembling. He kept his tricorder out. I'm not here to anger anyone stupidly he thought. Too many instances of conflict started because people started firing out of fear.

The Tholian seemed to glow as the fluid within his body moved faster, angry at being threatened. "I do not know what is happening and who are you to threaten me on Tholian soil?!"

"Let's not jump to conclusions...or point weapons at anyone..." Mark chimed in, hoping to somewhat diffuse the situation. Riling up the Tholians probably wouldn't help matters, even if this was in some way their doing. "Everyone form up and let's get back to the shuttle." Preparing for the worst, he drew his phaser, pointing it in a neutral location.

Ensign Braith practically swooned over Lieutenant Commander Cross. A voice of reason thought the nurse. Now, Braith put his tricorder away and had his hand on his phaser.

Sienna was froze with indecision. If the Tholian was telling the truth then the rapid decay of the polaric particles made sense--the radiation from the polaric weapon used to destroy the Tholian Outpost was also fueling whatever was under the colony--a jump start.

The Tholian then paused as it received a comm link from Commander Zor. "The Starfleet ship has broken orbit. We are investigating the reason. Remain diligent. Commander Zor, out."

At the same time, the hatch opened. A moment later, a bipedal humanoid being emerged from the hatch, with two large, long arms and four smaller, shorter arms--each with three fingers that looked more like claws. It's knees were reversed with two toes on each foot. It's head flanked by two shorter mandibles with it's head, shoulders, back, arms, and legs covered in a thick looking exoskeleton. It's eyes immediately went to the Tholian as it launched itself through the air with impressive speed before the Tholian could react, grabbing the Tholian and slamming him down onto the ground hard enough to cause his caprice body to crack before pounding him with his two large arms. Each hit seems to cause more cracks in the Tholian who screamed in agony.

Colt wasted no time. As soon as the creature, who Colt assumed was a Gluak, landed on the Tholian, he thumbed his phaser to heavy stun and fired a burst. The beam hit the Gluak amidships.

Following suit, Mark trained his phaser in the direction of the creature, firing off a burst that caught it square in the back of the head.

The first phaser caused the Gluak to stagger back, shaking it's head as it fought off the effects of the stun as the second shot seemed to barely register with the Gluak as the exoskeleton protected it from the fire. His attention turned on Colt and lept through the air, emitting a fierce screech.

At this point Lucius had the phaser rifle raised and pointed at the Gluak. When it jumped for the CoB, Lucius fired the phaser rifle several times. He had been a fairly decent shot at the Academy. He didn't really expect to miss now, but the Gluak didn't seem phased.

"This strategy isn't working!" shouted Braith over the phaser fire. He was not sure if anyone heard him, but that did not matter. He let his grip on his phaser handle go, letting it slide back into the holster and again went back to his old trusted friend: his medical tricorder was his tool of trade. He scanned the lifeform 'Gluak' and made some findings that he thought would be useful.

Ensign Braith was nearest his brother at the time. His brother seemed pretty busy just trying to blast the thing all willy nilly. Braith gently tugged on his brother's arm to grab his attention. The Nurse shoved the medical tricorder in Lucius' face and pointed to the abdominal region of the image shown on the screen. "He's weakest there!" shouted Braith.

Lucius was annoyed at first, but quickly understood what his brother was trying to tell him. He took more careful aim and fired again. "AIM FOR ITS ABDOMEN!" he yelled to the group.

Colt managed to evade the Gluak's charge, but it was on him again quickly. The Gluak was deceptively nimble. This wasn't Colt's first dance and he figured out that he needed to shoot the thing in it's soft... well... softer underbelly but before he could do that, the Gluak slapped his phaser out of his hand and then hit him with a backhand that spun him around and launched him into the air. Colt landed ten feet from where he had been struck.

Shath had been quiet in everything that occurred so far, figuring adding a voice to everything that was going on would only increase the confusion. But now, in the midst of a legitimate combat situation, the Andorian knew how to contribute. Even if it wasn't his preferred contribution. Hearing Lucius's voice over his comm, he dialed his phaser's power level to ten - Kill, and sighted on the beast's abdomen, firing the weapon as soon as the beast had none of his crewmates nearby.

The phaser beam from Shath's weapon cause the Gluak to take a step back before dropping to it's knees and falling over onto the ground.

The injured Tholian got up as the rest of his team arrived. Every movement was extremely painful as his legs gave out, he managed to keep himself erect with his arms. "It is too late," he said as he looked at the Gluak now lying dead on the ground. "We should... evacuate before the... rest awaken. Destroy it... from... orbit." He emitted what sounded like several deep, hard coughs as fluid began to seep from some of the cracks in his caprice body.

Sienna ran to check on Colt. "Are you alright, Senior Chief?!"

Lucius lowered the phaser rifle. "More? Yeah we need to get out of here." He tapped his comm badge and then remembered that the Valiant had left orbit and they came down here in a shuttle. He looked over at Braith. "Hey medic... maybe you should medic him..."

Braith corrected his brother "Nurse" he said glaringly. "I have more education than a medic" he added. Colt had been potentially injured, but truthfully Braith was in no rush to tend to him. "He will live" commented Braith.

Colt groaned. He rolled over and sat up, then ran a systems and structural integrity check on his suit and ran a medical diagnostic on himself.

"Damn," he said. "These suits are tough. The suit is intact and its systems are functioning normally. As for me..."

He grimaced.

"My bruises are going to have bruises," Colt said. "Thank the Prime Number you guys shot that thing when you did. It it had gotten a chance to wail on me like it did on the Tholian, I'd be dead. Speaking of which, Ensign Braith? Would you mind giving me a hand with the Tholian?"

The Ensign made his way over to the Tholian.

Colt got to his feet and walked over to the severely injured Tholian. He took out his tricorder and used the medical scanner to diagnose him. He shook his head.

"His carapace is a mess," Colt said. "If it was just one or two cracks or even a few clean breaks, I could repair it using the protoplaser... I think. But this... I can try. Ensign, want to give me a hand?

The Tholian pushed them away with an arm as the rest of the Tholian party arrived. "No... there is... no time," he said as he grabbed his disruptor rifle and used it to stand, not wanting to appear weak in front of the Starfleet Officers. "You... must seal the... hatch."

"How?" Lucius asked. "Phasers?" He scooped up his tricorder to take a look at the hatch again.

Braith did not need the Tholians actions to tell him there were more pressing matters. Besides, treating a Tholian was similar to trying to treat a Klingon. They often did not want treated. Let alone the fact Tholians were extremely xenophobic and the Federation knew way more about the Klingon physiology than that of the Tholians. Braith looked at Colt. "He's a Tholian. We could possibly do more damage than good in trying to help," he said. It wasn't that Braith did not want to help. It was just that he was over his head.

The Ensign had heard the chatter about sealing the hatch. "Could we not have the Valiant do that?" he offered.

"From the sounds of it, the Valiant is in battle or at least Red Alert, so they may not have the time to help out," Sienna offered. "But the phasers can be set to seal doors."

"Good enough for me," Colt said. He drew his phaser again and looked at Sienna. Having seen (and felt) what just one Gluak could do, Colt wasn't about to let the officers stand around debating the issue until the Gluak broke out of their prison and killed everyone. "What setting would be most effective, ma'am?"

Lucius pulled his phaser rifle back into position. He pointed it at the hatch and waited for the go ahead.

"Hand them over..." Mark took the phasers one-by-one, the engineer in him rising to the surface as he performed a quick modification to each of them before passing them back to their respective owners. The highest setting would have done the job, but it wasn't the most effective way of making a weld without a little tweak of the settings. He lastly adjusted his own phaser before pointing it in readiness. "Now."

Lucius took careful aim at the hatch and fired, a sustained burst. He continued to fire and planned to do so until told otherwise. He wanted that hatch sealed now.

Braith had followed suit. Though he was not the best aim with a phaser, he was still trained on basic Type-II hand phasers with an accuracy that was passable for certification. He too, like his brother, wanted to see the hatch sealed sooner rather than later in fear of more of those Gluaks coming through.

Shath focused his phaser on the hatch as well, opposite the other three phaser beams. Between the four of them, they had the door sealed in short order.

Sienna looked at the dead Gluak and she hurried over to it and pressed an empty hypospray to it's neck, drawing blood from it for analysis later. "I think we should do as the Tholian said and get the hell outta here," she said as she stored the hypospray back into her kit.

"I'm with her," Colt said as he finished welding the door shut. "Let's get the Hells out of here."

Lucius stopped firing and lifted his phaser. "I agree. Back to the shuttle?" He checked the hatch with his tricorder to make sure that it was sealed.

Sienna began to head back to the shuttle at a steady, yet quickened pace--who knew how long that seal would hold and she didn't feel like being knocked around like a rag doll or pounded on like a drum.

Lucius offered a hand to Colt, knowing that he wasn't exactly in the greatest shape. If he leaned on Lucius they could get back to the shuttle faster. "Come on Chief... let's get you back."

"I'm fine, Lieutenant," Colt said, waving Lucius off. "Let's get moving."

As the group moved out of the crater, the entire ground seemed to shake violently. Sienna stopped and glanced at the volcanoes nearby--they weren't erupting so that wasn't the cause. She looked back at the crater as the edge began to collapse, spreading towards the team and the shuttle. Her eyes widened with fear. "Shit! Let's get out of here!" Her tricorder beeped an alert. She flipped it open to glance at it, not believing the readings. "There's a polaric energy buildup coming from the crater!" Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the Tholian Team dematerialize in a transporter beam. She heard a scream over the comm system and looked back to see Commander Cross disappear down collapsing crater. She closed her eyes, forcing tears away as she knew they had to keep running and there was nothing they could do.

Shath cursed under his breath, a florid bit of profanity in his native tongue that mercifully, the universal translator was considerate enough not to try and translate over the comms. "Get back to the shuttle!" He exclaimed, suddenly realizing that the situation left him in charge. "Lucius, get the preflight started!" The Andorian brought up the rear, pulling out his tricorder as he ran and setting it for continuous scan. He didn't have enough time to review the readings now, but any scans they got would be valuable down the line.

Lucius turned and looked back at what was happening behind them and went straight for his brother. He grabbed Ensign Braith roughly, mostly by his EVA suit and started dragging him along with him. "We gotta go we gotta go!" He went as fast as his body would let him go in the heavy, bulky suit and partially dragging a protesting brother. Once on the shuttle, he deposited his brother and slid into the nearest seat with a console and started the preflight sequence as requested.

Once everyone was in, Shath spared one look back at the growing dust cloud, cursed again, and closed the hatch, settling into the seat beside Lucius. "Taking us up," he said gravely, snapping loose the connectors on his helmet as he fired up helm control.

Ensign Braith and Lieutenant Lucius had both been on that away mission, the first of the Valiant's with its crew. Both brothers had essentially volunteered to go along on the away mission and both of them had come back safely. However, one member of that away team did not come back, not at all. Cross, the First Officer of the USS Valiant was a man that Braith had barely even spoken a word to since coming aboard, but he was a man that Braith had found himself instantly looking up to. He had the confidence and charisma that all officers in Starfleet strived for. He had that tone of voice that was commanding without being harsh or gruff. Now, there was nothing but the faint memories left behind, memories of a man who should not have perished on that planet.

The young Ensign was a nurse. His duty was to help save lives and ensure the health and well being in accordance to regulations and ethics. He was aboard to serve underneath the Chief Medical Officer and to learn from her. Now, he was forced to prepare a mission report and not one he was happy to be filling out. This was more than a simple medical mission report about crew health during the mission or if there were any plants and etcetera that held medicinal properties. This was a mission report with the darkest of marks, the blackest of black welts: Crewmember Fatality. Those were the words that glared back at him. Not just any member of the crew, the First Officer. That was about as bad as it got. The only thing worse was the loss of the Captain.

Others had been injured, but ultimately a member of the crew died, and then the Tholian. Oh where the heck was he to start on this blunder of a mission. He walked into his shared living quarters that had two bunks. He shared the cabin with his brother, the Chief Engineer. Braith came in carrying a PaDD and without any words exchanged, Braith took that PaDD and launched it towards the nearest bulkhead where its screen shattered and the casing was busted up pretty badly. He was still in uniform, but his hair was disheveled and no sooner had he destroyed the PaDD did he rip his comm badge off from the breast of his uniform and toss it onto a night stand. The comm badge nearly slid straight across the flat surface and over the edge, but it managed to stop before going over.

"DAMN IT!" he shouted louder than he had every vented anger and frustration before. He looked up towards the top bunk where his brother sat watching him. "That was fu" he let out a heavy sigh and whimper, unable to use the curse word to its full strength. "-King ridiculous. That was the Kling of absurdity. I have never..." continued Braith shaking his head.

Lucius jumped when his brother's PaDD hit the wall. He had been lounging in his own bunk. Now he was staring at Braith. "What was ridiculous?" He held the PaDD he was working on out to Braith. "You need to break this one too?"

"No" replied Braith with a sigh. "If I break too many of them, I won't have enough food rations left to maintain my required calorie intake" he replied. "What's ridiculous? That away mission. This starship. Our Captain. Where do I even start" he said naming several things he was angry at or about. "Lieutenant Commander Cross should have come back with us, Lucius. That death was senseless and stupid."

"Wait, wait, wait... hold your horses. What does... you know, never mind. Just explain to me how all those things are ridiculous." Lucius sat up and put his hands out, trying to placate his brother. "It was an accident, Braith..."

Braith nodded. "It was an accident," he said agreeingly. "And I do appreciate you pulling me to safety," he said. Then Braith crossed his arms. "But we left. We left, Lucius. We got our asses out of there so fast and headed back to the starship. We made no attempts to try and contact Cross. We saw the earth... for lack of a better word... we watched it open up and him get swallowed, but we didn't even try to see if somehow he survived. We didn't try to reach him by communicator. We didn't even scan for his lifesigns or lock onto his combadge even if just to recover his body," commented the nurse.

"Do you want to go back and look?" Lucius said, his tone one of impatience. "I did look... there was no bottom to that hole... His comm signal disappeared. Did you want us to beam him out? It's a body, Braith. He's not in it. If it was going to bother you this much why didn't you say anything while we were still close to the planet?"

"Because, it was not my place to. I am a junior medical officer, not a senior officer, and not a department head," replied Braith. "It was not my place to make such a decision or recommendation. It was yours and Lieutenant Birvev's place to do so," added the young nurse. "There's a chain of command and I followed it. There is also duty and responsibility, morality and ethics, and personally speaking, I felt you all failed on that front. Yes, it might just be a body to you, but it's somebody's loved one. We don't leave a man behind, Lucious. It isn't the Starfleet way."

Lucius pushed himself up. "See... this is the problem with you. I never did get it. Braith, you wear that uniform too. What if the Captain ordered you to do something you knew was wrong? What if I did? Would you really just blindly do it because of chain of command? Please tell me that you're not this spineless?" He sighed. "Look... maybe we shouldn't have left his body, but did you want us to die too? Polaron particles were building up under there, Braith. That place was imploding... we might have faced greater risk to retrieve his body. I know he was someone's loved one, but seriously. Would you kill yourself to find my body? When you already know I'm not alive? What's the point in that? So, instead of losing one life, we all die? How is that better?"

Braith snapped back a quick response. "I am NOT spineless!" he said firmly clenching his fist. "I am not. I am an officer in Starfleet, Lieutenant Braith, a representative of the United Federation of Planets and that means something. We have a chain of command and that must be followed. If you ordered or anyone ordered me to do something wrong, I would begrudgingly do it, not because I am spineless, but because we have a command structure. I would not let anyone get away with it though. You can damn well count on me filing a report and doing whatever I could," he said shaking his head.

"And yes, Lieutenant. Yes, I would risk it," he said in response to the other part of his brother's questioning. "I would do anything for my fellow shipmates and any life that I am duty bound and sworn to protect. You? You know I would not leave you behind alive, injured, or deceased. I love you," he said letting out a sigh as his body shook, trembling at his words and the passion behind them, the anger and frustration shaking his core.

"I know you love me and I love you, but you gotta say you'll never go after my dead body if it risks anyone. You got me?" He hopped down off his bunk and took several steps toward his brother. "It's stupid. Now, live people. Don't leave those behind, ever. I would hope that you would at least protest... before you jumped to the command. You are allowed to protest. No matter your rank." He shook his head. "You're even allowed to make formal protests. Go on record. Just speak the hell up. Especially on away missions like that. You're not just an Ensign... you're our medical officer. Not everyone can think of everything when we're in a hurry or running for our damn lives..."

Braith knew his brother was correct, but he also did not know if he really had it in him to protest there on the spot or undermine a superior officer. He did not want to harm his career, especially since it was already on the slow path towards getting a second pip. "I know that you are right. I mean look at you and look at me. We are twins, but you are already a full Lieutenant and a Department Head. I'm just a nurse with one rank pip," he said with a defeated sigh. "And I promise... in my own way. I would make sure the lives of others were safe, and just risk myself."

"No Braith." Lucius stepped over to Braith and put his hands on his brother's shoulders. He shook him gently. "No... no risking anyone. What are you going to do if I get burned up in a warp core? Jump in? No. There are just some things that don't matter as much as we want them to." He tried to hug Braith. "Look... put it in your report. There's no reason not to. If you think it was wrong then you should include it. I love you very much... but I'm not going to sift ashes or risk my team of living people. Sometimes things happen. We might not always be happy about it, but sometimes there's just no other way."

"And as far as your rank is concerned," Lucius said softly. "You don't want what comes with this. It will change you. When you get here... you will be a different person."

Braith allowed the hug albeit he was awkwardly stiff, his arms still crossed. "You can count on me filing these reports and making my opinions known. I know that things happen and I know we all knew the risks when we joined Starfleet. The academy beat it into us for four years, but it still hurts to see someone perish like that. At first I was in shock, frozen in fear. Then I was just numb and could not feel anything. Now, all I can feel is anger and I want to break things because Cross cannot come back," he said bitterly.

"It made you a different person, but you are still my brother," stated Braith as he wrapped his arms around Lucius embracing him. He rested his head on Lucius' shoulder and whispered into his brother's ear with a soft sigh a simple, "Hold me."

"You're gonna be okay." Lucius squeezed Braith tightly and breathed into his brother's hair. He didn't want to tell him the stories. Part of Lucius always wanted to see his brother succeed, but part of him wanted him to stay untainted too. He had known that it was just a matter of time before Braith experienced his first crew loss, but Lucius had not been so fortunate. He had scars from plasma burns and they had not come from him being foolish. Lucius had been lucky to walk away at all, many others from the Engineering crew on that day and ship had not been so lucky. "You really are..."

Ensign Braith felt the warmth and protection in his brother's secure embrace. The scent of his brother reminded him of home, and having his brother's arms around him kept his anxiety contained for the time being. His brother always had that sort of effect on him, able to calm Braith down and yank him back away from the edge and keep him grounded. Braith gently nuzzled his brother's neck with his head and took in a whiff of his brother's scent. It was nostalgic, musty, sweaty, and overall what someone from a more human society would label as 'masculine.' Braith took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I know. I'm always safe when I am with you."

"If I can help it, I'll always keep you safe..." Lucius said softly, rubbing his face in his brother's hair. Funny how the person you're supposed to be keeping safe makes you feel safe, he thought to himself. "Ya goober..." he chuckled.

"Yeah," replied his brother softly. "If you didn't dad would be unconsolable and mom would have you castrated," teased Braith. "So, you had better keep me safe. I do not think I'll be volunteering myself for any away missions anytime soon. The Doctor can handle them."

"Just don't stay away forever. You're going to have to get out there sometime, but I understand wanting a break." He put a hand under Braith's chin and made him look at him. "I do love you... you know that right?"

Braith nodded as he lay his head on Lucius' shoulder and nuzzled against his neck. "Of course I do. I've known that since we were young," said the slightly younger of the two twins. "I just want to make sure I do everything right... that I don't mess up on these away missions," added Braith as his guard collapsed and he was inched closer into his brother's secure embrace. Lucius' hug felt amazing.

Lucius made a pleased noise and hugged Braith tighter, actually dropping one hand to the middle of his brother's back. There was a long pause, where they were just silent, taking comfort in each other and their closeness. He rubbed Braith's back and shuffled his feet a little. "Hey..." he finally said softly. "Weren't you supposed to turn in your phaser to security when we got back? You'd forget your damn head if it wasn't screwed on... Lemme take it, I'll take it back to security. I have to go back to Engineering anyway, for a little while." He started to pull back, out of the embrace, and went to reach for his brother's phaser.

Braith's heart nearly stopped, or at least that was what it felt like. As though his warm flesh had just been dipped into the icy glaciated lakes of Andoria. His eyes widened. No, he thought to himself, and as though a man possessed by some unforeseen entity, his arm immediately raised up a few inches and snatched a hold of Lucius' wrist, his fingers lacing around it's bones.

The younger of the two twins met his brother's gaze. "Uh um uh... it's checked," said Braith swallowing hard. "I turned it over to the security chief when we came back aboard." There was nothing more he could say as he looked into his brother's eyes embarrassed.

Lucius smirked.

Mark stared down, part angrily, part glumly at the PADD in his hand as he trudged towards Sickbay. It was the final dagger delivered by Starfleet Command as they sent him on his way to his next assignment. Unfortunately that wasn’t to his first Command position, as he had hoped and expected, but rather to the Valiant. It would later dawn on him that perhaps the nature of his assignment here, at Flight Control rather than his normal home of Engineering, might be for a deliberate purpose, but right now he was just annoyed by it.

The doors to Sickbay slid open willingly, revealing an area that was suitably scaled-down with the rest of the ship. Like many, he didn’t particularly enjoy being in this part of the vessel and was keen to leave as soon as possible.

Alara looked up and smiled at the person entering the medbay with her patented smile. Standing, she moved out from behind the tiny makeshift desk she'd been using to greet him. "Commander Mark Cross, I presume? It's a pleasure to meet you." He seemed like an angry sort right out of the gate - Alara hoped this wasn't a sign of things to come. On a small ship like this, an unpleasant XO could lead to a very unpleasant working environment.

"Lieutenant...Samar?" Mark glanced in the direction of the voice. He'd gone over the crew manifest as best as he could en route, but there was still that period of putting names to faces to get through. "Nice to meet you too! How are you settling in?"

Mark cradled the PADD uncomfortably in his hands. It was a hit on his professional pride that he'd rather not have delivered, but not enough to make him rip the head off every crew member he met on the way. A teenage Mark maybe wouldn't have done the same, but that was a long time ago.

Alara pulled out her tricorder and popped it open, holding it at the ready. "Just Doctor, please. I assume you're here for your entry physical and for any info I might have for my short time as Acting XO. Fortunately, other than signing a few supply transfer requests, I didn't need to use that authority."

"Actually..." Mark passes over the PADD in his hand. "My last post ended in...traumatic circumstances, to say the least. Starfleet Command have requested I attend counselling sessions for a while." He tried to keep the bitterness from his voice as he explained. "Normally I'd go straight to the Counselor but since we don't currently have one I'm afraid you're left with the request..."

"Ah yes..." Alara took the PaDD and looked it over. "Luckily, I have some counseling training. Do you mind if I get a quick physical scan out of the way first though? Then we can adjourn to somewhere a bit more private if you prefer. The science and medical labs next door are normally pretty quiet and there's more than one chair. Or we could go to your quarters, if you like."

"Sure thing!" Mark had been through a few of these in his time. "I honestly don't mind. Personally I think it might just be ticking Starfleet's boxes but I'm willing to give anything a chance"

Setting the PaDD Side, Alara started a quick scan with her tricorder. "Sometimes ticking a box or two is all it takes to start the long road to healing. I'm not saying that's all there is to it, but you have to start somewhere, right? Why not take your first step with ticking a box that Starfleet recommends? At the very least it couldn't hurt, could it? And if it does, I'm a doctor."

"I think the debate's as to whether any healing is needed in the first place, to be honest." It felt a lot like he was going down the same path as he'd done previously. "You're right though, everyone I speak to seems determined that it's the right course of action and I should give it a try. I'm being as open-minded about it as I can be!"

"Then if there's nothing to heal, we can check those boxes and I'll tell Starfleet we're done." Alara finished up her scan and smiled her patented smile as she tucked her tricorder back in the pocket of her lab coat. Picking the PaDD back up, she looked over it again before handing it back to Mark. "So where would you like to do this at?"

Mark thought about working on trying to get that box ticked WITHOUT everything that came before it. One, he thought he'd be in for a fight on that front, and two, his Commanding Officer got sliced into pieces a few feet away from him. Maybe he did need to talk about his feelings for a while. "One of the labs will be fine, maybe it'll cure my dislike of Sickbays too, if I come down here often enough?"

Alara gave him a teasing look before turning to head for the opposite door in the tiny medbay. "Why would you dislike sickbay? I'm here!" The equally small Science/Medical lab that she led him into was barely equipped for more than a basic survey mission and had quite a few crates stacked and secured to the walls but at least there were a few somewhat comfortable looking chairs scattered around the consoles. "Computer, lights at three quarters."

"Maybe that's what's been wrong with all the other Sickbays!" Mark laughed as he pulled up one of the chairs. "The only time I'm ever here is when a console's blown up in my face, or where one of my team have found themselves down here. I don't have many good things to associate with them..." Mark stretches out, having been travelling for some time to catch his new assignment in the first place. "Plus they always smell so...clean."

"I can't do much about most of that, unfortunately, but I can invite you to have tea or coffee with me," Alara replied as she too pulled up a chair.

“I love coffee! See, positive associations!” Mark rocks back in the chair a little and gets as comfortable as he can. “So should I start with why I got given that PADD?”

"Yeah, I mean there's an explanation on it, but I'd like to hear from you what happened if that's ok." Furrowing her brow a bit, Alara perked up a bit more. she didn't want to miss anything in the hopes of helping him if she could.

Mark leaned back a little in the chair. “My last assignment, the Kennedy, was attacked. We were able to raise shields in time but we didn’t know about the weapons capabilities of the race we were faced with. I was flung from my chair, but the Captain was less fortunate. He was struck by a falling support, killed instantly, I imagine. I hope. The system had a nebula that we’d avoided, but another hit like the first would have crippled us, so I took us in there. It took us out of sensor range long enough to slip away and limp to safety. Instead of being assigned back to the Kennedy as most of the crew were, I was sent here. My first command lasted...maybe 7 hours?”

Alara nodded, listening intently. "That sounds like a rather harrowing ordeal. You did what you had to do though and it sounds like you made a sound command decision. How do you feel about it all though?"

"Honestly?" Mark gave it one more moment of thought before he explained how it rationalized best in his mind. "Honestly, I'm disappointed. At the very least I would have liked to keep my position on the Kennedy, maybe even been given the command. I was happy and comfortable there, the crew knew they could trust me, even in the worst of situations like right at the end. It was difficult to watch the vessel leave without me on board"

"I can understand that. In a way you lost the chance of a lifetime. I don't know why Command reassigned you but I trust it was for the right reasons as they see them. What about your former captain though? How much of his death did you actually see? What went through your mind when it happened?" This is what Alara was more worried about and why she suspected he was reassigned. Seeing a Captain killed in such a fashion like that on the bridge tended to leave lasting, if delayed, emotional scars, and Starfleet tended to reassign crew on bridge duty at the time immediately. In fact the odds of him ever getting assigned to another similar class of ship again was now incredibly low because of this incident.

"I didn't see it, to be honest. I was flung from my chair during the impact." he recounted the incident in his head one more time. "By the time I actually saw what had happened it was already too late. On reflection, I probably should have had him beamed from the Bridge a little sooner than I did, the number one priority was to get us to safety, but when I went back to my chair I was literally sitting a few feet away from his corpse until we'd managed to get ourselves to safety."

"No, you made the right decision. The safety of the ship comes first. Without the ship, the crew can't survive." Alara replied. Maybe she was looking at this the wrong way. "How well did you know your former Captain?"

“Aside from serving alongside him?” Mark asked. “Not very, to be honest. Captain Nastchev and myself were similar characters, we were all about the job, so it meant we had an excellent working relationship, but that’s about it. Anything I knew about him personally I’d read from his file and I think vice versa with me. We barely disagreed on a decision, I think it was a very comfortable situation”

"Fair enough." Alara pursed her lips. She was missing something and she thought she had an idea of what it might be but wasn't sure how to go about testing to see if she was right. Normally, the death of a colleague or a Captain hit someone harder than this, even if they didn't know them or if the feelings hadn't sank in yet. He wasn't showing any of the classic signs though, which was throwing her. He just seemed to be an XO that needed more experience that wanted his shot at the big chair and thought that that was it. Was that why Command ordered this in the first place? His lack of empathy? Then a thought dawned on her.

"You were just like the former CO? Knowing that, how do you think the rest of the crew would have felt if you had been made CO?" Alara asked.

"Business as usual?" Mark thought aloud. He was probably missing a point here, a fact that wasn't lost on him, but it had flown way over his head. "If anything it probably would have made the transition easier. It seemed Command were keen to get the ship back out there as soon as possible"

Alara decided to explain it to him then. "Business wasn't as usual. No, Command doesn't swap out Captains for people that are just like the last Captain. especially when something traumatic happened to the prior one, for the crew's sake. Odds are, the new Captain is nothing like the old one for that very reason. It may not seem fair to the crew, but in the long run, it's much better for their professional and personal mental well being as a crew."

Shath despised the medbay.

He'd tried to keep his visits to them only to bi-annual physicals and when he was injured severely enough to warrant professional care. He had skipped them for strains and sprains earned during downtime, but he was now reporting to a new assignment. That meant another trip to sickbay, against his instincts.

He stepped into the small medbay, looking around for someone in order to expedite this.

"Ooh an Andorian! I love working with Andorians! Sorry, I'm Doctor Alara Samar. Welcome to what Starfleet decided to call a sickbay on this ship." As Alara spoke, she smiled her patented smile and left her makeshift desk and headed towards Shath. "We may only have three biobeds and a large closet to work out of, but any medical need that may arise, I'm sure we can at least do our best. You're our new Operations Chief, right? Lieutenant Shath Birev?" She then fell silent, waiting for Shath to respond to her... outpouring of gushy emotions at his entrance.

Shath pursed his lips, watching Alara as she strode over and... spoke excitedly. He offered a polite nod in answer to her pair of questions, still scrutinizing her face in order to get a read on her. Humans and human-like species were all so different, it was hard to predict how an interaction would go. "Yes, that's correct. I understand it's procedure to submit to a physical examination when reporting to a new post. I thought perhaps to save you the trouble of hunting me down."

He peered around at the sickbay, such as it was. "And if it helps at all, the Repulse was an Excelsior cruiser, and it's medbay was of similar size. Though it had three, so I suppose it's not quite the same. Are you the chief medical officer?"

"I am. If your last ship's medical staff worked out of a closet like this, I feel sorry for them. I'm told most Klingon ships have better medical facilities than we do." Alara motioned to one of the three biobeds as she pulled a tricorder out of her lab coat. "If you could, please?"

Shath hopped up to sit on the biobed. "If you require anything from my division, please let me know. I can't imagine the frustration inherent to trying to keep us all healthy with hardly any of the necessary equipment or personnel."

Alara started the scans as she spoke. "I could use a lot of things, but none of them will fit on this ship. Like an operation bay or a proper stasis unit. These biobeds aren't even the latest model. They're a low powered version of a model from ten years ago. On the bright side, the internal power pack can keep them going for a few days, so there's that at least. I can keep working with main power out."

"We could, in theory, rig one bed to serve as an operating theatre. It's really just a matter of modifying a bed to contain sterilization field circuitry. It's not my strength, but I've assembled a few necessities from less in my time."

He offered a smile, though it was clear from the expression his talking was meant to stave off nerves.

"Relax, I'm not going to bite," Alara said as she continued her scans. She didn't need to see his expression to know he was on edge. "As for the circuitry, I'd need the other equipment that went with it. The arch, the stasis field generators, the sensor platforms... No, that's ok. There's just nowhere to put it all and not enough power to spare to run it."

"It's not that you'll bite," he said, apparently missing the idiom. "It's that medical equipment makes me uncomfortable. I don't like being told that something in my body is failing." Shath's expression was tinged with shame - apparently admitting such a thing had not been on his agenda.

"Then you'll be happy to know that nothing in your body is failing. You are perfectly healthy." Alara closed up her tricorder and tucked it away, giving him her patented smile. "All done."

He offered a tentative smile. "A positive sign, at least. And you don't need blood or tissue or anything else? Or were the medical officers on my previous assignments messing with me?"

"I think they were messing with you. There's no need for that." Alara couldn't help but chuckle softly. "You're not carrying any rare genetic diseases or anything. You're not allergic to any common materials. No red biohazard flags in your records. Therefore, no need to check your submolecular particles or anything like that, not that I could with the equipment I have here. No, I have no need to take anything from you but scans. Do you have any questions for me?"

"Just logisitical ones," Shath offered a smile, trying to cut through the nerves now that the exam was over. "Not patient ones. If I'm in good health, I've no reason to further bother you right this moment."

"If you want to ask your logistical questions now, I'll be your patient for a while, unless you'd rather wait until later." Alara smiled patiently, waiting to see which he'd rather do.

"I'll wait," he said, pushing off from the biobed and standing. "I'm certain you'd prefer an interaction or two without my health at the forefront, so I'll save it for another time."

"Just let me know when and I'll make the time." Alara flashed her patented smile one more time.

[2384 | Angel I | Private Residence]

The Origins of Jerkface

It was New Harvests Eve, a day of celebration and festivities around the cities, towns, and small villages of Angel I. The children were out in the fields singing and dancing while the teenagers sought refuge to escape the forced socialization with the community. Men were in the kitchens preparing the New Harvest Eave feasts while the women were attending to assemblies. Field workers were preparing the fields for fertilization as new crops were being planted to replace those which were being harvested. Braith and Lucius' mother would be away for the remainder of the day, having to journey several villages over in order to see the Elected One give an empowering speech. Their home already was filled with the scent of freshly baked goods and the slow cooked meats and vegetables for the planned evening's feast. However, their father had left some several minutes ago in order to walk to the local fish market.

Braith was supposed to have left with his father, leaving Lucius alone to brood or whatever it was that Lucius did in his alone time, not that either of the two ever really got that much alone time since they had shared sleeping arrangements for as long as they could remember. Though Braith had volunteered to stay behind and tend to the kitchen while his father sought some fresh fish from the market. The 'younger' of the two fifteen year old twin brothers from Angel I was in the kitchen monitoring the low heat slow cookers. It was important that the feasts be done in older fashioned ways with less sophisticated technology in order to pay homage to generations before them. Lucius was off somewhere in the home. The last known whereabouts had been their bedroom.

While Braith was taste testing the various dishes that were cooking in order to make sure they had the right consistency and seasoning, just like mother preferred. It was important that she was pleased when she came home from a long day. However, Braith dropped his wooden spoon onto the rest when something disrupted his peaceful taste testing. It was coming from his bedroom. Male voices that he did not recognize and a slow tempo Angel I music that sounded so awkward. He of course went to investigate wondering what his brother was perhaps watching. Though the closer he got to the room, the different the sounds became. The two male voices were making noises that were so foreign to him and it sounded like his brother was bouncing atop the bed. Braith rolled his eyes. If mother caught you jumping on the bed, she would yank you off by that overgrown nest on your head, he thought to himself.

Lucius thought he was alone. He wasn't aware that Braith had agreed to stay behind and watch the food. With a few moments to himself he was eager to spend some quality time in front of the viewer. He had a little more in mind then the regularly scheduled programming. Just recently, he had discovered a channel where he could view more adult happenings on the viewer, he hadn't gotten a chance to watch it with any sort of dedication, but today he felt like he might get a chance to really enjoy the channel and what it might have to offer. He had found a comfortable place on the bed and turned the viewer in such a way that he could see it while he was laying on the bed. He was only fifteen, so he wasn't quite sure what to expect.

The channel had a lot more to offer then Lucius ever thought it would and it was all hot and exciting to Lucius. It wasn't long at all before he had lost total track of everything and everyone and was completely focused on what was happening on the screen.

Their house was nice though not as modernized as some other people. There doors did not have detectors that triggered the doors to slide open. Instead, one had to manually pull on the handle and slide the door aside. Braith's footfalls were muffled behind the louder sound of the male voices doing whatever the heck it was they were doing on the viewer. When Braith placed his hand on the handle, all he could picture was his brother being an idiot and bouncing atop the bed blarring some garbage on the viewer as loud as he could tolerate in order to break household rules while his parents and seemingly Braith were away.

You are so naughty, brother, thought Braith shaking his head as he slid the door aside. The first thing he saw was the viewer which had two Angel I men wearing practically nothing at all and participating in some sort of sport. It looked like wrestling, but males could not wrestle on Angel I. It was against the law. But even when males wrestled from what Braith knew about it anyways, they wore more articles of clothing than the two on the viewer did and they definitely did not make those noises.

Braith's next sight only seconds later was his brother on the bed, wearing slightly more clothing but his torso bare chested and his undergarments pushed downward to thigh level just above the knees. "Brother!" shouted Braith at the unsightly scene he was witnessing.

Lucius jumped, shaken out of his pleasure induced daze to stare at his brother. He grabbed the nearest blanket and pulled it over himself quickly. "What the hell, Braith!? Get out! Get... ngh..." The blanket wasn't fast enough though. Not nearly fast enough to avoid the end result of what Lucius had been doing. Lucius received the end result, mostly to his own face. "Shit! Oh shit... shit..." It had been such a great day until now, at least for Lucius. Now, his brother was in the room and his eyes were on fire.

Though they were the same age and only minutes apart, maturity in this aspect was seemingly more explored by Lucius than it was by Braith who was still trying to process what exactly he had walked in on, but now was not the time to process Angelian male anatomy and functionalities, nor was it the time to inquire why his brother was slightly larger looking in certain areas. Though his brother had practically shouted for Braith to get out, he did not.

When his brother's tone of voice changed to one that seemed to be in some sort of pain from the glaze that had coated Lucius' face and which was oozing from his nether regions, Braith trembled for a moment before grabbing a cup of water that sat by the bedside on a stand. He was not very subtle about it and reacted without a plan. Braith tossed the water right at Lucius' face and handed his brother the kitchen rag that was tucked into his apron. "Here take this," he said to his brother. "What... how... what happened?"

Lucius gurgled a protest from the glass of water to the face and fixed his brother with a death glare. He took the proffered kitchen towel and wiped off his face. "Like you don't know what happened!" Lucius was obviously angry. He continued his death glare at his brother while he re-dressed himself slowly. At the moment Lucius felt like he was angry at everything, but it was mostly caused by his embarrassment. He tried to change the subject. "Why are you wearing Father's apron?" he demanded out of nowhere.

"I don't," replied Braith as he shook his head. "And I don't think I am ready to know either," he added with a gulp. He looked down at the apron that he was wearing. "Oh. I told father I would watch over the kitchen while he went to buy some fish from the port market. I was about to tenderize the meat and beat it so I could make some jerk... but I think you've beaten me to that."


[2386 | Angel I | Private Residence]

Jerkface II: The Revenge

Lucius was definitely not your typical Angel One male. Most Angel One males spent their time cooking, cleaning, taking care of children and giggling at girls. Lucius was none of these. It wasn't that he didn't know how, or lacked education in the ways of what young gentleman should do. It was that Lucius felt oppressed in his home. He felt oppressed everywhere. He felt that being kept in the kitchen and taking care of children was definitely not for him. It was an uncommon attitude. He was not completely alone in his ideas that men should have more freedom to do as they wished, but companions in his way of thinking were far and few between. He had tons of friends, but only two shared his opinions.

In the last year, Lucius had been more and more active with groups that were interested in male rights. He spent a lot of time out of the house and sometimes it seemed that was on purpose. The only person he had any luck talking to in any sort of personable fashion was Braith, his twin. He was often at odds with their father and their mother was rarely home, being that she was involved in politics. During this time in his life, Lucius often snuck out of the house to go to these secret meetings, sometimes with one or both of his like-minded friends. Even if he did sneak out he was usually back by morning and no one was really the wiser.

It was early in the morning of one of these nights and Lucius had made a serious error. He had fallen asleep at a friend's house and only come home in the morning. He snuck quietly back into the house, which was really difficult at that moment because he seriously needed to relieve himself. He didn't want to use the facilities downstairs of his parent's home, instead he quickly and quietly bolted upstairs to the bathroom that he shared with his twin. He was in such a hurry that he didn't hear the sounds of the water as he bolted through the bathroom door.

Braith was the good child who never tested his parents' patience and always came back well before curfew. He did not get mixed up in the wrong crowds like his brother did. Braith was the role model that his brother, Lucius should have emulated and followed. Instead, Lucius was wayward and out of control, at least he was in the eyes of their mother. It was the reason they both would be attending Starfleet Academy. Both had passed the entrance exams and were awaiting their acceptance correspondence, but Braith could just feel it that any day now it would be coming.

The younger of the two brothers had been upstairs showering and had just finished up when he exited the shower, only to have the door to the bathroom almost violently be opened on him intrusively. Fortunately, it was neither of his parents, but it was his brother. "Mother of the stars, Lucius! Mother of the stars! I am naked here," he said raising his voice to his brother. He had been so startled by Lucius that Braith had dropped the two round bathing sponges he had used in the shower.

"You made me drop my balls, brother," he said with a frustrated sigh. Braith glared at his brother "Hey! Close your eyes, I'm exposed here," he continued as he quickly snatched a nearby towel and wrapped it around his waist. "Where in the burning ground have you been? Scheming with your deviant friends I bet."

Lucius pushed Braith out of the way and and tried to snag the towel off of him as he did. He rushed to the toilet and began to relieve himself with a long sigh of relief. "You better pick your balls back up. I'm really surprised mother let you have them at all..." he replied, taking advantage of the double entendre. "I about pissed myself... and what the hells do I care if you're naked. I shared a womb with you. I'm pretty sure we were naked." Despite his announcement of not caring he still looked over his shoulder and eyed his naked brother. "You should get some sun... you're blinding."

If you were not so mouthy maybe you could have these balls too, thought Braith as he rolled his eyes at his brother's logic. "We were fetuses, then. Now, we are about to be men. We are going to be cadets," he said to his brother. "Maybe you should stay inside more and stop tanning out in the sun like a woman," countered Braith. "Have you ever thought about that? I like the way that I look. It makes me look proper," he added.

"WHY?" said Braith, groaning as he had the towel wrapped around him. "Really? Really, Lucius. You are just going to whip it out in front of me and urinate with me still here?"

"I told you! I almost pissed my pants! What did you want me to do, pee on you?" He did up the front of his pants and turned to look at his brother, smirking. "I like the way you look too..." he said suggestively. "I have been accused of being in love with myself..." He reached out and grabbed his brother's towel again and tried to pull it off Braith. "C'mon, I know you want it."

Braith mockingly laughed and rolled his eyes. "No, I do not want you to piss on me. I am not interested in that sort of stuff," he said shaking his head, and unexpectedly before he could even do anything about stopping his brother, Lucius had yanked the towel off Braith, causing Braith to gasp and quickly try to cover his nether region with his hands. "LUCIUS!" Braith said in a heavy handed tone of voice.

Lucius held out the towel for Braith, but when he reached for it, Lucius yanked it back.

Ugh brothers, he thought to himself as he reached forward with one hand trying to take the towel back. "What I want is a normal brother," he said as he tried once again to get the towel but Lucius kept pulling it back after holding it out. This time Braith used both his hands, managed to just grab onto the towel as Lucius yanked it back towards himself.

The force of the pull and gravity, caused Braith to be pulled forward towards his brother. Whether it was the pile of clothing on the floor or something Lucius had done to brace for impact, the two had tumbled to the floor without much of a sound. Their parents would not stir. However, Braith found himself entirely bare and awkwardly atop his brother whom had collapsed onto his back. "Look what you made me do," Braith said to Lucius.

Lucius made a little "oof" sound when he hit the floor and Braith landed on top of him. "Wow Braith. I had no idea you felt this way about me."

Braith looked at his brother and stuck his tongue out. "Don't gaze too long you might fall in and drown," commented Braith.


[2389 | Starfleet Academy | Student Dorms]

What's Love got to do With it?

His name was Degn and he was Bajoran. Lucius had met him in the pub on campus. He had plans with Braith for the evening, but he also had time to kill before his brother was free of his classes. The two spent hours talking about political differences and the different views of their two peoples. Lucius was really enjoying the Bajoran's company and found Degn very attractive as well. When the suggestion came up that they take their conversation back to the dorm rooms, Lucius readily agreed and volunteered his own dorm. On their way back to the room it became pretty clear, fairly quickly, that they weren't going there to talk and that was more than okay with Lucius.

After leaving home and being accepted into Starfleet Academy for different programs, the twins opted not to request one another to share a dorm. They went their separate ways in that sense. However, they still saw one another regularly and socialized once in awhile. Lucius had not told Braith anything about being on a date. So, Braith just stuck to their normal schedule which meant that tonight was game night. Braith would come over after his night classes and anatomy lab and the two would play a few games for a couple of hours. Privacy was never something that Lucius had really adhered to himself. So, his brother knew the codes to enter in order to unlock Lucius' dorm in the event Lucius fell asleep. When Lucius' room was locked when Braith arrived he assumed that Lucius had been drinking and passed out on the sofa or something. So, he helped himself to entering the personal override codes and entering.

The dorm rooms were not complicated. There were two bedrooms off of a shared space. Lucius, who had always had disgustingly good luck, had a roommate briefly, but they had been called away from school and now he had both rooms and the shared space all to himself. If there was anything that could be said about Lucius it was that he was fastidiously clean. He always put everything back in its place and everything had a place. His clothing was always folded neatly. He wasn't the type of person to fling his belongings all over the place, but tonight was different. Not far inside the doorway was Lucius' Starfleet shirt and then a little ways away from that was another Starfleet shirt, shoes and socks were also strewn about, but there were two pairs, suggesting that perhaps someone else was here as well.

Even from the front doorway voices could be heard coming from the bedroom on the left, which was the room that Lucius usually used. Both sounded male, but they weren't really talking. It was more like a rhythmic grunting. Before Braith had even arrived Lucius and Degn had been engaging in some naked, after-drinking, festivities. Lucius was definitely enjoying himself and had even decided to try some more compromising positions then he was used to. He was on his back with the Bajoran over him when Braith decided to show up. When he heard the front door of the dorm open he knew immedately that he had completely forgotten that his brother was going to be there for game night. He debated for a brief moment what to do and decided that he would do nothing. For all he cared at the moment his brother could join them if he liked.

There were noises and voices coming from the bedroom, sounds that were not all that foreign to Cadet Braith now. After sharing a room with a teenaged Lucius during those years of puberty, Braith had learned overtime and several instances that sometimes his brother sought 'alone time' to take care of an unyielding thirst. Visual and auditory stimulation aids were not uncommon for Lucius either. The sounds that Braith heard coming from the bedroom reminded him of the first time he walked in on his brother just a few years ago. Standing me up on game night to play with yourself, brother? Really? Am I that unimportant to you? thought Braith as he advanced on the bedroom.

Braith thought he was going to be clever and just a slight annoyance by walking in on his brother's solo performance. Braith was fully ready to walk on in and tease his brother. However, what Braith was about to walk in on was something so obscene and unsightly that it would practically scar him for the rest of his adult life. The younger of the two twins quickly entered the room and called out to the computer "Comupter, lights" he ordered and immediately the room was illuminated to standard brightness and what Braith saw was enough to caught him to drop the Kadis-Kot board he had been carrying, pieces rolled all over the place. Braith brough a hand up to his mouth.

The Bajoran whom was atop his brother had looked over at Braith momentarily flashed a smile before returning his attention to Lucius. The two men were intimately together. The Bajoran was inside Braith's brother and Lucius' legs were being spread apart by Degn. Braith was just frozen and couldn't look away from what was happening and what was about to happen as Degn arched his back and thrusted several more times into Lucius. Braith watched his brother's eyes widened and heard the unholy sound of pleasure his brother made. It was only then that Braith was able to say anything. "LUCIUS!" shouted Braith as he quickly turned and ran out of the room, his throat tight and eyes watering. His brother had forgotten about him, had forgotten about their plans. He ran to Lucius' sofa and collpased onto it, burrying his head into a pillow.

About five minutes later Lucius appeared out of the bedroom. "Hey... are you okay?" He had no shirt on and was wearing the equivalent of sweatpants. He eased his way towards his brother who was still prone on the couch.

Braith rolled over and wiped his wet face on the sleeve of his cadet's uniform. "Do I look okay? Is he still here? Is he? Send him home Lucius. Send him back to Bajor," said the younger twin bitterly. "I shouldn't have had to see that. I never want to see that. How could you? How could you just... I don't even know him?! How long have you been seeing that Bajoran? Are you even seeing that Bajoran or was this just some distraction for you, an excuse not to pay me any attention. Did you forget to cancel on me?" Braith had a dozen questions in his interrogative tirade.

"Yes, he's still here. He's getting dressed and he's going to go. I'm not dating him. I met him tonight at the pub because I had time to kill. I didn't forget about you. I just expected it to be over before you got here. It's not an excuse! It had nothing to do with you! I'm sorry he's still here, but he's going now," Lucius sat down in a chair next to the couch. "Actually it was pretty easy to just..."

"To just what, Lucius?" countered Braith glaring at his brother. "To just find some random Bajoran street rat that got lucky enough to attend Starfleet Academy out of some sort of Federation pity because they were so easily allowed to join because we shared a space station with them for several years and had sat on by doing nothing while their planet was occupied by an oppressive force," he said to his brother. "Because it was actually pretty easy to just get laid by someone just like you who would sleep around with anything that moved and had the right parts for satisfaction."

Parts of what Braith just said to him actually made Lucius angry. "What? He's a good student here. Jeeze Braith, are you a racist? What's wrong with you? That's a lot of stupid assumptions... and I spent most of my evening with him... you didn't. If you wanna be mad at someone, be mad at me. He didn't do shit to you... so cut the attitude. I don't know why you're so upset anyway. I'm not allowed to do and be with who I want to?"

Braith practically snorted in his huff of anger. "Oh yeah because doing what I saw the two of you doing really constitutes getting to know someone and spending the evenng with them" replied Braith. He had nothing to say about the accusations of racism. Truthfully, Braith held some prejudices towards Bajorans and other species who seemed to have an easier time getting into Starfleet Academy or in general being accepted as members of the Federation whereas Angel I had not. He did wince internally at the racism coming from his mouth in his heated passion.

The younger of the two twins got up from the sofa. The Bajoran could stay for all he cared. He would leave. It was probably for the better anyways. "Why should you," said Braith frustrated and bitter. "Why should you be allowed to do and be with whomever you want, Lucius, when I cannot be with who my heart wants? It's not fair and it will never be fair!"

Lucius rose as well. "Wait just a minute! What? You've never said anything about wanting to be with anyone? Why am I just finding out about this now?" He didn't want Braith to leave. He wished that his brother could understand. He knew it wasn't common for his people to act the way he acted, but he had had no idea that his brother would come so unglued over a one night stand. "Braith... come on. Come back and talk to me."

Braith turned to look at his brother one more time, even if it was just for a parting glance. Even if this would be the last real time they would ever have together outside of holidayds and family gatherings, Braith was cursed with an infliction. He was unable to break away from the 'human' instincts of stopping to look back at someone he cared about and would give his life for. "I'm sorry Lucius. I really am, and please tell your Bajoran friend that I am sorry for what I said about him and his species. It was rude and unbecoming of an officer cadet and soon to be nurse, but I must be going. I have condemed us both to our separate fates. I looked back. I looked back to see if you were there just as Orpheus did for Eurydice."

Lucius watched his brother walk out of his dorm without really knowing what to say to him. Afterwards, he didn't see Braith as much, much as his brother had promised him. He would later look back on that day and remember it as the day that Braith broke him. Lucius felt that that day something inside of him had broken, something that had to do with Braith's statement concerning Orpheus and Eurydice. He would never be the same again.


[2394 | USS Valiant | Crew Quarters]

Apparently Love is Everything

After their argument, Lucius couldn't sleep. He had crawled back up into his own bunk for a time, while Braith finished his paperwork, but he couldn't get comfortable. Finally, he climbed back down out of his bunk and crawled into his brother's bunk. It seemed to be more comfortable there, but he still couldn't fall asleep. Something about this fight had really struck a chord with Lucius. He kept thinking back to a moment that was almost more than five years in the past. It made his chest ache with sorrow. "Are you almost done?" he asked, loud enough for Braith to hear him.

Braith was tapping away as the PaDD with a stylus. He thought it would be easier on Lucius if he wrote out his reports and transcribed his personal log into words rather than recording everything auditorily. However, it became quickly apparent that Lucius was still awake and that perhaps Braith's constant tapping and scribing was keeping the Chief Engineer awake. "No, Lieutenant, I am not almost done. I have several reports to make and a personal log as well. A man died down there. I think his life is more valuable than a few extra hours of sleep," replied Braith.

Though he also knew how hard Lucius worked and how harsh his words may have been. "I am sorry," he said aloud. "I won't be finished tonight, but I still want to get some more words in. I know you need to be up in a few hours for your Engineering shift," commented Braith. "I can go and try to find somewhere quieter to work on this while you sleep," he said, stopping what he was doing and starting to pack up his things. "I have a few days until these absolutely need to be done, but everything is still so fresh on my mind right now."

Lucius sighed. "Even if you leave I won't be able to sleep..." he said softly, not moving from his brother's bunk. There was a different tone to his words. Nothing hateful or sarcastic as per Lucius' usual behavior, just sadness.

Of course you cannot sleep. How could you sleep after everything, thought Braith inaccurately thinking that his brother was having a difficult time with the loss of Commander Cross. Braith too was having difficulties shaking the images that flashed through his mind of the phaser fire, the injuries, the constant bombardment the creature received, and the ground opening up and swallowing the First Officer whole with no regard for his life. "Lieutenant Commander Cross was a fine officer and a good man. I may not have gotten to know him, but I could tell," said Braith. "Doctor Samar is qualified to handle the psychological needs of this crew... at least for a short term period of time. If you are having difficulty with his loss, I encourage you to make an appointment with her, brother. She can schedule you in for some grief counselling."

"It's not that. I just don't like fighting with you." There was a momentary pause, like he was weighing his words. "I don't like that you're upset. I don't like that I'm not. I've missed you and now you're here and we're fighting," he said forlornly. He rolled over on his side so he could see Braith and wadded Brath's blanket up, hugging it.

Braith sighed and shook his head. "A fight?" he said looked back over his shoulder at his brother who had wadded up his blanket and was cuddling with it. The imagery was rather adorable if not a siren's call to lure Braith to crash head on to an ill timely fate. Why must you do this to me, thought Braith but he said nothing on the matter. "Lucius, that was hardly a fight. We had a minor disagreement because we are two entirely different types of individuals. You are outgoing, outspoken, and could not care less what anyone thinks about you. I'm just not that way. I stay in line and follow orders. I do not speak out and I do not cause a fuss. I do care about what people think about me every moment of my life," explained Braith.

Lucius buried his face in the blanket. He felt miserable, something about this made him feel miserable, like somehow he was a miserable person. "I know... but that's what I like about you." His words were muffled because his face was in the blanket. It smelled like Braith, something that was currently, surprisingly comforting. "I should care more. I just... can't. Haven't been able to give a damn about anything in a very long time..." he admitted.

"Jerkface," said Braith teasingly. He was hoping that calling his brother by that nickname would shake him from his drought. It was crude, but sometimes crude was effective. "Did something happen? Did something change you? Because, as far as I remember you always were the rebel without a cause," stated the Ensign.

"There's always been a cause..." Lucius rolled over, taking the blanket with him. "Just finish your paperwork. Dictate it... it'll go faster. I'll be quiet."

Braith stopped what he was doing. This can wait. You cannot, thought the younger of the twins. It was only a few minutes difference that separated their delivery times and dictated which of the two was older, but Lucius loved being the older brother. Braith left his desk and walked over to their bunks. He had reached out and placed his hand on Lucius' turned shoulder, and with a gentle push, he rolled his brother over and looked into his eyes. "What is really bothering you? We've had worse fights. There was the time you threw that ball in the house and knocked over father's vase. Blamed it on me as I recall."

"It was your fault," he said simply. "I was throwing the ball at you." He smiled a little at being rolled over. "It bothers me that I'm not... I don't know... maybe I just don't care. Maybe I'm psychotic. I hear that psychotic people don't have any feelings. "I shouldn't not care."

Lucius' brother just looked at him awkwardly. About what? thought Braith. "You should care about what? About the Commander's death? About what people think about you? About your romantic life? If it is the latter, do not worry about it. At least you've had one. Dad is always going to look at me as the disappointment for not settling down. You are the rebel and can get away with flipping off societal norms. At least they know you've been with people. I haven't."

"I should be more like you. The only person I've ever cared about what they cared about me is you and you don't even like me. Yeah, I know you love me, but I'm your brother. You're required to love me." He shook his head. "You're right to not be with anyone... it's not worth it."

I love you more than you know, thought Braith. His brother's words were tugging at him and he felt his palms become sweaty, his heart was doing something. Maybe it was not his heart, but he felt slightly light headed and as if there was a ballet going on within his chest. "You're worth it," he blurted out without thinking about the context his words just were plunged into. He looked at Lucius. He gazed longer than he should have. Oh shit he thought to himself. No, no, no. Bad idea. Very very bad idea! he reprimanded himself. "To someone who's worth your time. You are worth it. Someone will be very lucky to have you as theirs," he said, scrambling to smoothly recover from his blunderous mouth and foolish heart, both working against him trying to undermine everything he has worked so hard to conceal.

"I don't want anyone... you would think with everything that I would have at least found one person I wanted to be in a relationship with, but no. Still here, by myself. I never dated anyone... I'm sure you heard what they said at the Academy about me. I haven't been with anyone since I got assigned to a ship." Lucius hugged the blanket as if his statement bothered him in some way. "I haven't had time... I didn't make time... I didn't make time because I didn't want to make time for anyone, but now you're here."

Braith blushed, standing next to the bunk. He crossed his legs awkwardly and looked downward and aside, not wanting to make any eye contact with his brother until he could get himself psychologically and anatomically under control again. That would take a few moments. "Well, yeah, you had a pretty bad reputation. Sorry about that," said Braith clearing his throat. "I may have had a small teeny tiny part in that," he said easing his way into a confession. "It's Starfleet, Lucius. We are not really expected to meet someone and settle down."

"I know, but some do and I didn't even try. Not once." Lucius wasn't even mad that Braith might have something to do with his reputation for being a slut at the Academy. "Why is it that you're a waste for not finding someone and I'm not? I think that might be a double standard."

Braith thought about their world and where they came from as well as the parents who raised them. “Of course it is a double standard, Lucius. Look where we come from. Angel I is nothing but double standards and prejudices left and right,” said Braith, shaking his head. “They gave up on you. Our parents knew you’d never be like us. So, all that weight was put onto me, Lucius. It is all mine to shoulder, but I can’t! I cannot do it. I had a glimpse at love and it’s a love that I cannot have. Don’t waste away lying there thinking about what you could have done... just do it. Go find that person and be yourself. It’s not too late for you to find happiness.”

Lucius propped himself up on one elbow. "What are you talking about, a love you cannot have? And what falls on you? I'm totally confused now. I mean I get the pep talk... thank you, but what's all that other stuff?" He seemed genuinely confused and he was genuinely confused. "I know they gave up on me. They don't even call me. They call you. Not that I've returned the favor so I guess we're even there..."

Braith sighed and climbed up into the bunk with his brother. He lay as still as he could as he contemplated how to go about discussing things without making it weird or actually discussing the heart of the matter exactly. "There is someone," said Braith taking a deep breath. "A special someone, kind of. It can never be anything more than what it is which at this point is close, but not that kind of close," Braith tried to explain. "I care about them a great deal, but people would talk, people would stare, and it's just not possible," said Braith. "It was doomed from the start," added Braith.

Lucius had actually cuddled up to Braith and was now hugging both his brother and the blanket, which was squished between them. He furrowed his eyebrows. "I've never heard of no "special someone"! What are you going on about? What do you mean people will stare? What the hells are you in love with?" Lucius was starting to get a little concerned. Maybe something was wrong. "Is it an older woman? How much older? I mean I know they wouldn't be thrilled... but jeeze... all the way to talking and staring? How bad can it be? I mean... if you really love someone. Does that matter?"

"Bad, Lucius. Really bad," replied Braith, rolling his eyes at the woman comment. "Women terrify me. I do not understand them. I understand them even less than I understand men. I could never see myself with them," added Braith, but that was not really much of a problem. Angel I men had been with other Angel I men for millennia. In fact, it was someone common as women were often far to busy running the planet to be tied down with families and romance. They only procrated when necessary to maintain blood lines and ensure the survival of the species as a whole.

"Then if you're not gonna procreate... what's with the "It allll fallls to meeee" routine? That's bullshit and who cares if it's bad. I mean... how bad could it be. You like guys. I like guys... I've never had a problem. What could be worse than that? Unless you're in love with something really weird... and even then... who cares! No one cares out here, Braith." He started to try and remove the blanket from in between them. When he'd pulled it free he unceremoniously dumped it on the floor and hugged Braith, putting his chin on his brother's chest. "I'm not going to judge you. I've slept with a ton of different species..."

Braith could feel things happening, things he wish he had control over, but it was all chemical, physiological, and psychological. It was a mixture of everything and all things converging on him all at once. "Some care. Some still care what doesn't fit into their..." Braith felt his brother resting his chin on his chest. "Lucius, don't," mumbled Braith. His brother's chin was resting on his chest, but it was causing Braith a pleasurable displeasure.

"Yeah, but what do you care about what they think about you? Why should you care? Is it mom and dad? Are you afraid that they aren't going to like it?" Lucius asked. He scooted up the bed and lay his head on the pillow so he was face to face with Braith. It was sort of like looking in the mirror, except he had darker hair... and sadder eyes... Lucius frowned. "I hate to say this, but they sent you out here too. I mean... what did they expect? It's not like there's a lot of men from Angel I out here to pick from." There was a little strand of Braith's hair that was getting ready to fall into his eyes. Lucius reached out and tucked it back behind Braith's ear.

"They didn't exactly send me," he said shyly. "They wanted me to and I agreed. You needed someone to make sure you stayed out of trouble. So, I..." Braith took a shallow breath that rippled thrice with his inhale and his body trembled with the slightest of a tremor when Lucius moved his bangs and tucked them behind his ear. Braith looked at Lucius. The look was different. It was one that was foreign, one that Braith had fought so desperately over the years to conceal behind a mask. He was gazing.

Lucius started to feel a little weird. His brother was looking at him weirdly. There was something in his gaze that was almost... hungry. Lucius was more than familiar with that look. Lucius didn't move away, but he did chuckle. "Great job you did doing that... I got in all sorts of trouble." It was funny for a moment and then he thought again about that night that Braith had caught him with the Bajoran and everything had changed. His jaw went a little slack as his brain started to connect the dots. He squeezed Braith tighter, suddenly, staring back at him, his mouth slightly open.

It was simple science. Fundamental physics. Braith was in motion, his head inching slowly closer and closer to Lucius. An object in motion stays in motions, and in this case it was almost as though Lucius had some sort of magnetic pull that was just pulling Braith in towards his mouth. There was no excuse that could be made for what was about to happen. The crises could not be averted any longer. Apollo was a sun god and his twin sister Artemis was a moon goddess, the flipside of one another, but if you timed it right, you could catch them gazing at one another in the early morning sky. "I'm sorry," said Braith softly, just moments before he felt his lips gently press against his brother's. His mind went blank. Animal instincts kicked in and he was on autopilot for the brief few seconds.

For a brief moment, Lucius didn't know what to do. It seemed that time slowed until it had almost stopped. Everything moved as if it was a dream. His brother's lips were soft, more than kissable. A strong desire rose in Lucius that seemed to come from his toes and rush directly to his brain. When time started up again, Lucius put both hands on either side of Braith's face and kissed him back fiercely. It was, he realized, something he'd wanted to do since the time that he knew what a kiss was for and what it could signify. He didn't care that this was his brother, what harm would it do. Braith had always been everything to Lucius, this was just the cherry on top.

So they had kissed. They were brothers and they had kissed. When Lucius leaned back, he had to admit that he was a little out of breath, totally amazed, and not altogether upset about it. So what if they were brothers. It didn't matter to Lucius. He actually thought it was sort of hot, although he was a little angry at Braith for not telling him sooner. If he had known it might have saved him a world of trouble and drama. Of course, Lucius felt relaxed, but it was immedately obvious that Braith was not on equal footing with his feelings. Only a few moments after their lips parted and Braith had stared at his brother for a moment, the younger of the two twins made a pained noise and bolted from the room.

"Damnit..." Lucius said softly. He scooted to the edge of the bunk and sat there a few moments running his hands over his face and feeling like it might just peel off if he kept rubbing. He was beyond frustrated and a little angry. He began to wonder if the reason that Braith had been so angry at him for sleeping around at the Academy was because he was harboring these sorts of feelings for Lucius. It worried him, not that he wasn't flattered or willing, but that Braith would hide this from him all this time. Why? Shame? Embarrassment? Surely they didn't have anything left to be embarrassed about in front of each other, but apparently they did. Lucius stood and straightened his hair and uniform and then left their quarters as well to see if perhaps he could find his brother. There were only two places that he thought Braith would retreat to, Med Bay... or the Mess Hall.

Mess Hall. Braith's place of refuge and penance was that of the Mess Hall. It was honestly one of the very few places anyone could go. There was no escaping anyone on such a small starship, but at least here in the Mess Hall, he could blend in. It also helped that the place was rather desolate at this time of night, only a few people stopping in for a quick late night breakfast or snack as they worked that awkward shift. Braith sat at a table in the darkest furthest corner that he could fine and rested his head upon the table. He knew that Lucius would eventually find him, but at least for several moments he could pretend that he was cloaked and that Lucius would never find him unless Braith wanted to be seen. Right now, Braith never wanted to be seen nor unheard from again.

I should not have done that. I should not have allowed that to happen, Braith thought to himself as he buried his head into the pocket he made with his arms and elbows. He was too far away to hear the door slide open, but he could just smell his brother's scent, that rich and deep peppery musk scent of sweat and some sort of spray fragrance. Braith knew it was unavoidable. He looked up and saw his brother standing there. "Can I offer you a trip to sickbay for a memory wipe?" said Braith feeling defeated.

"No... I don't want to forget. Are you feeling like maybe you do?" Lucius sat down across the table from Braith. "At least this place is pretty empty at this hour..." he looked around at the completely vacant Mess Hall. "Why are you running away?" Lucius turned his gaze back to his brother. "You don't have to run away from me."

Braith just looked at his brother with a face that was contorted with an expression that was easily summed up as his 'what the hell, Lucius?' face and he sighed shortly thereafter. "I've always been running away. From you, from this, from everything" confessed Braith. "How in the stars do you think I have managed to survive this long? I run and I don't stop and I don't look back. I was terrified of being on the same ship as you, and then you put us in a cabin together?!" Braith shook his head. "It wasn't that I didn't like sharing a room with you again, I just was worried something like this would happen and it did."

The younger twin looked apologetically at his brother. "You don't know everything I've gone through to try and rid myself of this... this... affliction."

"So now I'm an affliction?" Lucius put one hand on the table and tapped the surface with his fingers, something he only did when he was either impatient or nervous. "Why didn't you tell me?" He was being surprisingly calm and didn't seem to be upset at all. On the contrary, he seemed more concerned about Braith.

Rolling his eyes, Braith pressed on. "No you are not an affliction. This is. I am. It's not... I don't know," he said dismissively. "When would you have liked me to have told you? When we were 15? 18? Yesterday?" Braith shrugged and recoiled into himself. "I'm sorry. I must have missed the sexual education class that talked about what to do when you cannot look away at your brother changing or when you cannot sleep at night and end up writing poems about your brother."

"You wrote poems about me?" Lucius looked a little pained. There was a whole world of Braith that he wasn't even aware of. It made him feel like maybe he'd been a bad brother all these years. If only he had seen what was happening to Braith. "Well... I just... I wish we could have had this conversation sooner. Maybe you wouldn't have had to suffer so long. You've felt this way since we were 15?" He was looking at Braith with his eyebrows raised.

"Maybe. Maybe longer. I am not really sure I can tell you when it started, just that it did and for as long as you've been interested in being with other people, I've only ever been interested in being with you," said Braith. It was more than he had ever admitted to before. "I didn't know what it meant. I still do not really know what it means. I thought I was broken, sick, and needed help. So, I tried it. I tried everything from counseling sessions to taking extreme measures... remember junior year winter break when I didn't come home and I told everyone I was going on a trip to Andoria?" Braith scoffed. "Well, I've never been to Andoria, but I was held several weeks in a Federation Psychiatric Ward because apparently if you try to electrocute yourself, people think you are self harming."

Lucius' mouth dropped open. "Okay... now I'm starting to get mad. Why the hells didn't you tell me any of this? Who are you? I don't know what I would have done, but I would have been there for you. No matter what. Remember that? Yeah we were five... but still. I never lied to you, Braith... but you've lied to me." He reached across the table, offering his brother his hand. "I can't even say I'm sorry that I wasn't there... I didn't even know. If I'd known you felt that way... I would have never with the Bajoran..." His eyebrows were still furrowed. It was very hard to tell what he was feeling.

"Lucius, this is not about you," said Braith mustering up some strength in his tone of voice. "I did not mean to lie to you, but I was telling sweet white lies to myself for years. That it was just a phase, that it would pass, that I could fix myself," explained Braith. "What would you have really done? I could not tell you. I could not risk losing you, Lucius. If I had told you... what if that pushed you so far away that I never saw you ever again? You deserve to have the Bajoran. You deserve to have anyone and everyone you want. You can't just not be with someone because your brother doesn't approve."

"Well yeah... but it is about me Braith and about you. We are the same." He let that sit between them for a moment, hoping that Braith would understand what he was getting at. "It wasn't that you didn't approve... it was considerably more serious than your lack of approval..." he said softly. "And you did cut me out of your life. For a long time. I didn't see you for almost an entire year... and it's been two now... it really hurt me that you couldn't even be around me anymore. I felt like part of me had died." Lucius took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Well we can't go backward... can't fix anything that's already over... so how do we move forward?"

Braith winced and shook his head. "Forward? What forward. We're brother, Lucius," said Braith. "It's probably best we change living arrangement. I'll try to get myself moved into a new cabin for the time being. Then, I will find the right assignment to transfer to. I've already been looking around and there's a space station that is currently without a Head Nurse," Braith added. "There's no point in you going anywhere because you are the Chief Engineer. They need you here."

Lucius stared at him. "So you're just going to go off and do it to me again?" He looked pained. He pulled his hand back, that Braith never took, and leaned back in his chair, running a hand through his hair. "Wow... how do you do that? How do you say you love someone so much and just... abandon them?" Lucius put his head in his hands, covering his face for a moment.

"Because I do love you," replied Braith. "I love you so much that I need you to be safe. I need you to be happy, and I cannot do that for you. Neither safety nor happiness," stated his brother. "I am your brother. How do we have a future to go forward with that's anything more or different than what we are biologically... blood. We have the same mother and same father. It's too much, Lucius. It is far far far too much for anyone to handle. I promised our family that I would keep you safe, and I plan to do that even if it means saving you from myself."

Lucius threw his hands up in the air, his eyes red. "What the hell are you on about? How the hell am I supposed to be happy without you? Do you think I've been happy?!? Do I look happy, Braith!? You're not happy! I'm not happy! How is what you've been doing working at all?!" He was demanding suddenly and a little explosive, gesturing wildly with his hands. He pointed a finger at Braith. "Abandonment is not love, Braith and that's what this is. You can't wait to get away from me again! I don't know what I did! I've waited like four years to be able to be with you again and you can't stand the sight of me! Because of this? It's ridiculous!"

Braith blushed and looked away from his brother and then looked back up over at his brother. "Shh," he said to Lucius. "You are making a scene... don't. Don't make a scene here in front of the crew. People will talk and I don't want them thinking you have some sort of anger problem and have you removed from your position," commented Braith. "If you really want to talk about this, we can, but really? What future could we have? I want to cuddle with you."

"If you leave me here by myself I will most definitely cause a scene... And people will definitely talk. They'll have to take me off this ship in a straight jacket. Do you hear me? People are always talking about me and they haven't even seen anger management issues." He stood. "Shut up and get your ass back to our quarters. Right now!"

"Oh," replied Braith with a smirk. "Is that an order, Sir?" teased Braith. "I'm not sure you are in the right state of mind to be giving orders. I might just have to give you a physical and make sure you really are you. For ship's safety and all that," added the nurse.

"You're in serious trouble and yes it's an order. Don't mess with me Braith. Get up and go to our rooms," Lucius did not look like he was playing. He looked angry, tired and sad all at one time. "I swear... if you don't do it right now I'm going to flip my shit..."

"Whatever you want, Sir," replied Braith getting up from his seat and looking at Lucius. "Ensign Braith reporting to quarters as ordered, Lieutenant," added Braith as he headed for the nearest exit.

Lucius stomped along behind him, muttering angrily to himself.

Leigh hobbled painfully into sickbay as she made her way over to the bed--her entire body ached. "Let's try to get this over with, doctor--there's alot that I need to do," she grunted before leaning on a biobed.

Alara was right behind her and headed straight for the replicator. She punched in a few orders which she knew would take a few minutes before she headed back to Leigh. Picking up a few of the tools and a hand scanner, she monitored the overhead readouts for the biobed. "Lay down please, and I'll have you fixed up in no time." Though she told Leigh to lay down, she didn't wait before she had a neuro scanner on her forehead and had tools running across her.

"Hey, Doc," Colt said. "I think I cracked a rib when the big ugly hit me...oh, sorry Skipper. I can wait till you're done."

"Excellent timing! Do you mind scanning yourself for me?" Alara requested of Colt. "There's a spare tricorder right next to you on that biobed tray."

Colt raised an eyebrow.

"I see how it is," he said half grinning, half grimacing. "The high and mighty officers get actual medical treatment, while those of us that work for a living get self-serve medicine."

He got the scanner and ran it over himself.

"Wow," he said. "Looks like I cracked two ribs, one on the right when I got hit, and one on the left I guess from when I hit the ground. The ribs around the cracked one on the right are bruised. Ow. Okay, I can barely get the scanner on target and hold it steady. The angle is hurting my ribs. There's no way I'm going to be able to use a protoplaser on myself. You're going to have to do that for me. How's the Skipper doing?"

Alara paused a moment before replying, focusing more on what the five tools in her two hands were doing more than what Colt was saying. "I um... Commander, you have a few more injuries than I let on on the bridge... You have a concussion, four cracked ribs, one broken rib, internal hemorrhaging, whiplash, and enough internal bruising to last a lifetime. I should have you patched up quick enough, but I'm prescribing rest and relaxation after."

"Gotcha beat, chief," she smiled and winked at Xan. She closed her eyes as the darkness made her head hurt less.

Colt chuckled, then winced as his chuckling put pressure on his ribs.

"Ow," he said. "Well, I'm harder to break than you are. If I was a full human, I'd probably have a punctured lung and maybe a broken arm. Hells, I thought the Jem'Hadar and the Klingons hit hard! This Gluak guy has them beat by a landslide!"

"I'm glad you're alright, Chief," she said sincerely as her mid turned to the Gluak. She hoped like hell this would be the last anyone had to deal with them...but space was huge and in the grand scheme of things, there was very little modern species knew.

"I'll live," Colt said. "If you could do me the favor of not dying, as well, I'd appreciate it."

Leigh began to feel some relief as Dr. Samar ran a bone knitter over her ribs. "Oh, it will take more than this to get rid of me. I'll have you cooking food for the crew in no time," she joked.

"I'm a 'Senior Chief' not a 'Senior Chef'," Colt replied. "Though I can find my way around a kitchen if you can find me both a kitchen and some real ingredients. I grew up on a farm, remember, in an agricultural community. Until I joined Starfleet, I hardly ever ate anything replicated."

"There you are. You're the ship's chef," Leigh chuckled and immediately coughed due to the pain it caused.

"Watch it... I almost had that rib fixed and you exacerbated it. The osteo-regenerator can only do so much when you're giggling like a school girl, you know." Alara was normally all sunshine and merriment but her dour demeanor and lack of bedside manor right now, on top of the fact that she was currently manipulating two scanners in her left hand and three tools in her right while staring up at the biobed monitors like a hawk spoke to the credibility of the seriousness of the internal injuries. "The next time you get kidnapped, try and get kidnapped by tribbles or someone civilized. Or just don't get kidnapped, how about that?"

"Listen to the good doctor, Skipper," Colt said mischievously. "No getting kidnapped and, whatever you do, DON'T LAUGH!"

Leigh bit her lip to keep from laughing to let Doctor Samar work. With all that's happened, Leigh needed this distraction. She let out a long breath, feeling relief as her ribs continued to be mended. "Yes, why can't I get kidnapped by a handsome half naked guy with a loin cloth, who swings through the trees? Definitely on my bucket list."

"I don't look too bad half-naked, or so I'm told," Colt said, shamelessly. "Shall I pencil you in for a kidnapping?"

"Next time we put in for shore leave, I know a nice place..." Alara mumbled as she finished up with Leigh's ribs and checked on the concussion. "And this is done as well..." Popping the neuro-probe off as well, she finished up by running a dermal regenerator over the last of the cuts and bruises on Leigh's face.

"Oh good lord," she commented, chuckling, trying her best not to come up with that image. "Please hurry, doctor."

"Yeah, better hurry, Doc," Colt said. "Before the Skipper gives in to my not inconsiderable charms...ow...okay, maybe you could hurry because I'm in pain and I'd really like to not be?"

"And here I thought you were enjoying your time here..." Alara finished up and clicked off the last of her tools. "Ok, I'm done for now, but I want to see you back in twelve hours. And take it easy. I'll know if you strain anything in any way."

"Yes ma'am," Leigh said with a grin. She grunted sitting up--her body sore as she pushed off of the bed. "Take it easy, Senior Chief," she grinned before turning to head out of sickbay.

"Later, Skipper," Colt replied. "Now, Doc, is it my turn yet?"

Lieutenant Commander Arturo S'Rohass shifted uncomfortably in his seat in the passenger's section of the runabout USS Zambezi. He was trying to distract himself by re-reading Scaramouche, but his eyes kept drifting to the cockpit. He glanced over at his lover and fellow passenger, Lieutenant Xiulan Song.

"Maybe I should just poke my head into the cockpit," Arturo said. "Just to make sure everything is alright. I, of course, have absolute confidence in our pilot, and am not in the least bit anxious about being a passenger while someone else serves as pilot! Not in the least! I just..."

The Linguist at his side was working on a PaDD, feeling the bumpy surface to read an article about encrypted coding linguistics as her pale green eyes stared into nothingness; well, she would have been reading, but all his shifting about was distracting her! "You're just bored," Xiulan remarked. "Take a nap if you're that desperate, but if you keep distracting me I'll start reading aloud and I can guarantee that you won't last five minutes before you're trying to rip off your ears."

Arturo sighed.

"You are of course correct, Graceful Orchid," he said, with the hint of a smile in his voice. 'Graceful Orchid' was the Federation Standard translation of her name. It had become a term of affection between them, which Arturo had strict instructions to only use when they were alone. Xiulan was tough, hard-drinking, foul-mouthed, and unafraid to speak her mind, convention be damned, and Arturo loved her for all of those aspects about her. But he had also experienced her softer side, the one she didn't show many people. He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, a smile on his face.

With a lopsided grin, Xiulan reached a hand out to find her furry boyfriend, her fingers finding their way to one of his ears to give it an affectionate scratch; then she returned her attention to her article, the sound of his restful breathing serenading her as the shuttle sped along towards the Valiant.

A while later, the pilot's voice came over the intercom.

"Commander S'Rohass," she said. "We've arrived at the rendezvous point. Shall I hail the Valiant?"

"Yes, please, Ensign Whitman," Arturo replied. "I'll be there in a moment."

Arturo rose from his chair and walked into the cockpit in time to hear Whitman calling the Valiant.

"This is the runabout USS Zambezi hailing the USS Valiant," she said. "Please respond."

After a moment, a man's voice replied. "This is the USS Valiant. Go ahead, Runabout Zambezi."

"I have aboard Lieutenant Commander Arturo S'Rohass and Lieutenant Xiulan Song," Whitman said. "Standby for Commander S'Rohass."

"This is S'Rohass," Arturo said, taking his cue from the pilot. "The presence of Lieutenant Commander Cross is urgently required back at Starfleet Headquarters. I have been sent to replace him. Lieutenant Song has been sent to be your linguist and communications officer. Permission to beam aboard and report in?"

Another moment of silence followed, along with an audible beep that meant the line had been transferred. The solemn image of Commander Leigh Jacobs appeared on the screen. "Commander, I'm Commander Jacobs, Commanding Officer of the Valiant. Commander Cross was killed in the line of duty during our recent mission." She paused again, figuring out how to proceed respectfully. "There is no body to transport back to Earth. You're cleared to transport aboard the Valiant, Commander. I take it Lieutenant Song is with you as well?"

"Commander Jacobs, I am very sorry for your loss," Arturo replied. "Lieutenant Song is here with me. We will beam aboard immediately. If there are any remains of Commander Cross, please have them transported over to the Zambezi. Ensign Whitman will escort them home."

Without waiting for a response, Arturo went back to the passenger section to update Xiulan.

"My love," he said. "It appears that Commander Cross has fallen in the line of duty. We have been cleared to beam aboard immediately."

"I'd say 'his loss is your gain,' but you were already here to replace him," Xiulan remarked as she put her PADD in her jacket then rose from her chair, stretching a bit to work out the kinks in her back from the uncomfortable ride. "Alright, I'm ready," she said as she joined Arturo at his side, placing her hand on his elbow; Xiulan was very rigid about public displays of affection while in uniform, which they were at the moment, and usually wouldn't let Arturo hold her hand even to lead her around, but holding onto his arm just above the elbow was a fair compromise.

Despite the bad news, Arturo smiled. It had been two years now that the two of them had been together, and he still got a thrill every time she touched him. Arturo led Xiulan over to the transporter pad, stopping to grab their duffel bags and, of course, Gerri, the fire lizard.

"We are ready when you are Ensign Whitman," Arturo said. "Thank you for the ride. Have a save journey home. Be mindful of pirates, buccaneers, and various other brigands on your way!"

Whitman chuckled. Lieutenant Commander Arturo S'Rohass was an odd being.

"Safe journey, sir," she said. "To you as well Lieutenant Song. Energizing."

Moments later, the pair materialized aboard the Valiant. Arturo took in his surroundings with a smile on his face. He'd met Xiulan while serving on a Defiant Class ship. Maybe this ship would be lucky for him as well. There was an engineering specialist second class at the transporter console.

"Permission to come aboard, Petty Officer?" Arturo said, in keeping with custom.

"Permission granted, Commander," the ES2 replied. He met Arturo and Xiulan at the foot of the stairs and handed Arturo a card. "These are your quarters. Commander Jacobs requests that after you've dropped your belongings off there, you report to her Ready Room."

"Of course," Arturo replied. He turned to Xiulan. "Shall we?"

"Yeah, let's do this," Xiulan answered with a grin. Arturo led her to their belongings which had been beamed over with them; Xiulan was just as excited as Arturo seemed to be about being here, and even though the cabins on a Defiant class were so small they could only bring a duffel each for their personal belongings, Xiulan still brought her pet lizard, who was quite irate being carried in his travel crate. As Arturo led Xiulan along, she was quite focused on the journey, committing to memory the path they had taken and the number of steps to get from the transporter to the lift and then to their quarters; though Xiulan's blindness had been corrected with ocular implants, damage to the visual center of her brain limited the input she could interpret to heat signatures and a few other non-visual signals. After a few trips through these halls, she would have the path memorized from the pattern of conduits in the walls. Upon arriving at their shared quarters, they were not surprised to find that it was small, but it was what they were used to from the Beifong, so it suited them just fine, and Xiulan quickly deposited her duffel on the floor and Gerri (her winged fire krayt) on the bed, taking care to make sure he had food and water until she could return later to set up his enclosure. Then, it was off to the Captain's Ready Room to report in!

Arturo had a few belongings with him, a few of his favorite outfits, some blades and sticks, PaDDs with reading material. While he preferred hard copy to digital literature, most of the time it was just easier to fill a PaDD with plenty of his favorite stories, and some that he'd wanted to read but hadn't yet. Having more material that he could read in a year or more contained in one PaDD was too convenient an option to pass up, especially now that they were assigned to a Defiant Class ship again.

Arturo offered Xiulan his arm again and led her to the bridge and the Captain's Ready Room. He hit the door chime and waited for the Captain's response.

"Enter," Leigh called out as she stood, grimacing as she did so from her body being sore.

Arturo entered the Captain's Ready Room with Xiulan on his arm. Not exactly 'on his arm' as much as using him as a guide, but it was close enough for Arturo. He recognized Commander Jacobs from the image in her file.

"Commander Jacobs," he said in a very formal tone. "It is I, Arturo S'Rohass! Daring pilot, adventurer, slayer of bandits and road agents, defender of the downtrodden, and your new Executive Officer and Chief Flight Control Officer! With me is Lieutenant Xiulan Song, Communications Officer and Linguist Extraordinaire!"

Arturo reached into one of the side pouches on his uniform pants and pulled out a PaDD. He pressed a button. Their orders were uploaded to the console on Leigh's desk. Arturo waited for Leigh to respond...and for Xiulan to swat him on the head, or just dig her nails into his arm because he introduced her. He hoped she would see his doing so as him being a gentleman, but she might take offense, thinking his introduction as a 'public display of affection while in uniform'. Most of the time Arturo was very good at avoiding such things, but sometimes the lines blurred.

Xiulan did not hesitate to give him an elbow to the ribs. "You'll have to excuse him, Commander, when he doesn't get to kill bandits in the holodeck, he gets a bit excitable," Xiulan said in a dry tone, making it very clear who wore the pants in this relationship.

"Ow!" Arturo said. "I shudder to think how you would have reacted if I had declared myself to be a rescuer of princesses and introduced you as a princess I had recently rescued!"

Leigh blinked a few times at the diminutive Caitian and the woman. It was obvious to her that they were in a relationship, from the way they spoke to one another. "Welcome aboard the Valiant, Commander and Lieutenant. Have a seat," she gestured to the seats in front of her desk. She sat down as she glanced over their bios. "Hopefully your trip was less eventful than ours so far."

"Speaking of which," Arturo replied, placing one of Xiulan's hands on the back of one of the chairs so she could seat herself, then taking a seat for himself. "Would you mind filling us in on what happened?"

"The Tholians accused us of destroying one of their colonies near the border," Leigh explained. "We convinced them that we weren't involved and were allowed to help investigate who attacked the colony. We were soon engaged by a vessel belonging to a new species calling themselves the Gluak where I was abducted. The Away Team sent to investigate the colony also engaged a single Gluak after it supposedly awoken from stasis inside of a crashed Gluak vessel that had been underneath the colony. Reports are that the Tholians engaged them long ago and were able to defeat them but at a large cost of life. The Gluak also claim to be one of the supposed species that defeated the Iconians."

"As I understand it, a lot of hands went into that accomplishment, no single race could make that claim," Xiulan remarked, her pale gaze only vaguely aimed in the Commander's direction. "Sorry, I know Iconian history isn't widely known, but I've done a lot of cryptography for Starfleet Intelligence out of DS11, a certain report about an investigation came across my desk," she explained with a shrug, but that was beside the point. "But if it's true that they were present at the fall of the Iconians, that would make them ancient! Even with stasis, how is it possible that they're still around?"

"I understand that the Gluak on the planet was in stasis and could be ancient," Arturo said. "But could the ones you encountered in space have perhaps been the current generation of Gluak? The galaxy is a very large place and the major races of the Alpha and Beta quadrants have only explored a mere fraction of it. The Gluak could have been out there somewhere in the black, doing...whatever it is that Gluak do. If that's the case, something happened to make them come forward at this time. If we could find out what brought them out, that could be very helpful."

"Right now, we know very little past what our sensors tell us," Leigh explained. "Which is mostly biologic and technology information. Most of their bodies contain a hard exoskeleton making them nearly impervious to our phasers save for a soft area on their abdomen?"

Bugs? Cool! Xiulan said nothing, instead she took her Braille PaDD from her jacket and began to take notes; this species seemed interesting and deserved some much needed research!

"Did they kill Commander Cross?" Arturo asked. If the Gluak actually killed a Starfleet officer, or were directly responsible for his death, that would truly strain any attempt to come to terms with them. If they were indirectly responsible for Commander Cross' death that, too, would be difficult, but less so.

"No. Commander Cross was killed while the Away Team was evacuating the surface when the ground gave out under him when the small Gluak ship began to lift off," Leigh replied.

"Again, Commander," Arturo said. "I am very sorry for your loss."

Arturo didn't bring up the Halsey Incident, as it was known, or his time with the Nyberite Alliance. Those things were all in his file. If the captain wished to ask him about them, he would answer truthfully. He'd eventually been cleared of all charges, his conviction had been voided, and he'd been reinstated. Those were the most important aspects of the story, weren't they?

Maybe. And yet, I still have to fight the urge to defend myself, sometimes even preemptively. It's as though I am afraid that at any moment, someone from JAG is going to suddenly appear and announce that due to some ridiculous piece of new evidence, I am to be put through a humiliating trial again.

"These Gluak sound like interesting characters," Xiulan remarked as she wrapped up her notes. "I can take a look through some of the stuff I've worked on, see if I can dig up anything on them, and I'll monitor comm chatter for the sector, see if we can find anymore activity on them."

"Thank you, lieutenant. Please do so, and work with Lieutenant Lougheed, our Intelligence officer." Leigh then looked at Arturo. "And relax, Commander. Nobody is going to place you back into prison. I know all too well what a pain bureaucratic pencil pushers at Starfleet Command can be."

"It is as though you read my mind, Captain," Arturo said. "Thank you for your confidence. I will not let you down!"

"I apologize but I am part Betazoid and your thoughts were hard to ignore, Commander," Leigh explained. "And I'm glad to hear that. If you don't have anymore questions, you're dismissed and I'll give you a day to settle in and get acquainted with the ship and crew if you wish."

"Oh, before we go, I need to ask-" Xiulan quickly interjected. "Where will I be serving primarily? When I served on the Beifong, I mostly worked on the Bridge, but I was also the acting XO at the time, so if you have a different location you prefer I work, I need to have it updated with a Tactile Interface; you may have noticed I have ocular implants, but my medical file will explain why I still read with my fingers."

"You'll be on the Bridge," Leigh stated, "manning the science station as all other stations are manned at this time. I will have have Lieutenant Birev get the station setup for you to use."

"Yes ma'am, thank you," Xiulan replied, and having already been dismissed she rose to leave, waiting for Arturo so he could show her the way out.

"Thank you again, Commander," Arturo said. He held out his arm and brought Xiulan's hand up so she could take his elbow without having to grope for it blindly. He was pretty sure she could only see him as a blob of heat of a roughly humanoid shape. With Xiulan in tow, he exited the Captain's Ready Room.

**Bridge; USS Valiant**

Leigh was still in pain but feeling better thanks to Dr. Samar's medical attention, though she was beginning to annoy Leigh with trying to get her to Sickbay. On screen, she watched the Away Team Shuttle break into low orbit, heading for the Valiant in a hurry. "Ma'am, we're getting a polaric energy buildup on the surface...it seems that a ship is trying to escape into orbit.

"Hail the shuttle," Leigh commented.

The Ops officer nodded when the hailing frequencies were open. "Commander Jacobs to Away Team. What is your status? We're reading a possible ship coming up from the surface behind you."

"This is Lieutenant Birev," the voice on the comm edged on angry. "We're returning to orbit with all due haste. We were attacked on the surface, and... Commander Cross was lost."

Leigh was silent--stunned for a moment at hearing that Commander Cross had been killed on the Valiant's first mission. "Acknowledged, Lieutenant. Proceed to land in the launch bay. Who attacked you?"

"Lieutenant Lucius here, Captain. The crater left by the attack had a hatch in the middle of it. We encountered something that the Tholian's called a Gulak or Gulick... it was rather aggressive. We didn't have a chance to talk. We sealed the hatch and headed back to the shuttle. The ground collapsed behind us... I'm not sure if it was the polaric build up or if it was a sinkhole... we have all the readings and can analyze them when we return to the ship. Commander Cross was lost in the sinkhole."

"Understood," Leigh replied as anger within her began to rise. The sensors had tracked the object being powered by polaric energy just as the Gluak vessel had been. Normally, Starfleet directive would state to destroy as a last resort, especially when dealing with a first contact situation. However, Leigh had seen--and felt first hand how brutal these Gluak were. Now they had killed her XO and seemed to be attempting to flee. "Lieutenant Me'Shlaht, lock weapons and destroy the ship following the Away Team Shuttle."

"With pleasure," Me'Shlaht purred as she locked the targeting sensors on the enemy vessel. First they'd kidnapped the captain and attacked the Valiant. Now they had killed the executive officer. She had no qualms returning the favor. Once her target locks were confirmed, she wasted no time in firing weapons to destroy the incoming Gluak ship.

Leigh nodded, satisfied at seeing the Gluak ship being destroyed. "We're being hailed by the Tholian Dreadnought," stated the Operations Officer.

"On screen," Leigh replied.

A static filled screen showing the image of the Tholian Commander Zor. "We appreciate your aid with the Gluak. Leave our space immediately."

Before Leigh could reply, the screen went back to the image of Vestixx Two and the damaged Tholian vessel. Letting out a painful sigh, she grunted as she stood. "Lougheed, you have the bridge until the Away Team comes aboard. I'll be in Sickbay. Set a course for Federation Space. Maximum Warp." Leigh still had a lot of questions about the Gluak and she doubted that Zor would talk--perhaps the Away Team knew more. She hoped this would be the last time they dealt with the Gluak.

"Aye ma'am," Lougheed said, still maintaining the forward station. A few moments later the shuttle was secured. "Setting course bearing 165 mark 32. Maximum warp," he said out loud, even though the Captain had left and he was now in command of the bridge. Once the course was set and engaged he turned the helm over to the relief pilot and moved to the centre seat. He pulled out a PaDD and began writing down everything about the exchange with the Gluak. Pulling all the sensor data they had recorded, as well as the shuttles sensor logs. He made a mental note to speak with the surviving members of the away team in short order.

Alara wasn't entirely happy with the outcome of this little fiasco, but it was what it was. At least finally being in the thick of it, she understood why Commanding Officers made the choices they made. Following after Leigh, she already had her treatment plan in mind for making sure the Captain didn't hurt herself further.

Lucius had to admit that he was very, very happy to be back on the Valiant. When he was off the shuttle he waited until everyone else had exited. He planned on running the system check on the shuttle himself when everyone was gone. He knew he would have to report in and potentially write a report as well, but he needed something immediate and familiar to ease his mind.

Braith had exited the shuttle saying nothing to his brother or anyone else. He gave Lucius a small nudge and squeezed his shoulder momentarily, but soon departed from the sign of comradery. He took a distance stance and waited for the others to exit out.

"If anyone needs me, I'll be in Sickbay," Colt said, wincing. "I heard something crack when that thing hit me. I'll be around for debrief later."

Colt went to get out of his suit and get himself checked out Doctor Samar.

Shath was the last out of the shuttle, sitting in the pilot chair completing the postflight in methodical order. He eventually picked up his helmet, offered a sullen nod to Lucius as he climbed out of the shuttle, and then headed out of the shuttlebay.

Lucius let out the breath of air that he didn't even realize he'd been holding as Shath walked away. He then ducked back into the shuttle to perform all of the postflight system checks.

Lieutenant JG Lucius, Chief Engineer aboard the USS Valiant, made his way to the Captain's Ready Room. He had yet to participate in a briefing, but he had a feeling that there were some things that the Captain might want to know ahead of time. Things that were bothering him. Things he had not been entirely truthful about, at least when it came to talking to his brother. It made him question his abilities and his brother's opinions made him question everything. There really was only one person that could, at this point, put his mind at ease. He knew that the Captain wasn't a counselor, nor did she have time to spare to be used in such a fashion, but the information that he had was more then what a counselor could council him on. Standing on the Bridge, he hovered his finger over the buzzer to the Captain's Ready Room for only a moment before he pressed it firmly.

Leigh sat behind her desk, staring at a blank monitor--the death of Commander Cross still weighing on her as well as her own experience with the Gluak. The chime woke her from her thoughts. "Enter."

Lucius stepped through the door and let it whoosh shut behind him. "Sir, I'd like to have a word with you about the away mission. If you can spare a moment." He tucked his hands politely behind his back.

Leigh nodded. "I can. Enter, Lieutenant, and have a seat," she gestured to one of the chairs in front of her desk.

Lucius made his way across the room to the desk and sat in one of the chairs, crossing and uncrossing his long legs in front of him. "So... uh... how to start..." There was a pause while he gathered his thoughts. "So... that away mission did not go as we had planned. I'm afraid that my brother, Nurse Braith, is very upset that we left the Commander's body. I told him that we didn't really have a choice, but I'm afraid he's probably going to include it in his report." He sighed and rubbed his own head. "I told him that I had checked for the Commander's comm badge, but I didn't." He stopped and shook his head.

"Sometimes we aren't afforded the luxuries of following protocol in a combat situation, Lieutenant," Leigh began. "Your brother needs to learn that out here, it's dangerous. It's not a safe classroom at the Academy or a holodeck program. It doesn't mean Cross' life was any less meaningful--he knew the risks that came with the uniform."

Lucius nodded. "I tried to explain that to him. I mean, I know... I'm sure you've seen my records and reports. When I was aboard the U.S.S. Meteor we were attacked by a rogue group of pirates and had a warp breach. I know it's not easy and loss of life is going to happen, but I feel like I didn't do my job, not looking for the Commander."

"You're not to blame, Lieutenant," Leigh comforted. "You did the right thing by getting the Away Team off the planet. If you hadn't you all would have been lost."

Lucius shook his head. "But what about the inquiry? They're going to ask if we checked for lifesigns after the Commander fell and I'm going to have to tell them the truth. I know the circumstances demanded that we go and not look back. I guess maybe I just let Braith make me feel guilty and wrong for not looking for him." He put a hand down on the desk and tapped the surface with his fingers. "I know better... he doesn't. I'm sorry to bring my personal problems to you Captain. I just needed to hear it from someone of authority I guess."

Leigh sat back in her chair. "I'm not worried about your brother and nor should you. He's simply doing what he believes is right. However, his report must still go through Dr. Samar before going to Starfleet Command as he is not the ranking medical officer aboard this ship and I would expect him to follow the chain of command. Failing to do so will come back and as humans tend to say, bite him in the ass. Also, my door is always open. If you need my advice on anything or need to talk, feel free to come to me. On a ship as small as the Valiant, we all have to trust one another completely."

Lucius nodded. "I agree and I'll make sure he goes through the proper channels. Thank you for listening and thank you for your insight. It's much appreciated. I feel better about things and at the inquiry I'll be honest. I shouldn't let him get to me like this." He ran a hand through his hair and chuckled awkwardly.

Leigh grinned. "It's normal--he's your brother and you only want the best for him. Do you still wish to be assigned quarters together? If not, I can have Lieutenant Birev change assignments."

Lucius stared at the Captain, blinking slowly. "What? No! I mean... no, we're fine. Problem with being a twin." He chuckled, a little less awkwardly then before. "It's just I feel this incessant need to... I don't know, defend him? Explain him?" He shrugged. "I think it's because we've spent so much time apart. I don't really know what to expect from him anymore. It's just an adjustment period..."

"I see... well, I think the best thing to do is to let him defend himself or else he will never truly learn and will always be leaning on you for support. Like you, he's a Starfleet Officer and a grown man--sometimes you have to let the ones you love make their own decisions for better or worse," Leigh explained.

Lucius nodded. He had jerkface reactions and phrases going off in his head, but he managed to keep his mouth polite. He couldn't help it, it was nothing against the Captain, but anytime there was space for sarcasm his brain filled in the blanks. "You're right and you've given me good advice. I just have to remember that he's not me, even though we are twins. Sometimes I forget that he doesn't think the same way I do... so he seems to make no sense," he chuckled again, this time sort of dryly. "I had also forgotten that he could be such a rules monger... Not that I don't believe in rules or chain of command, but sometimes situations call for stepping out of that realm. To be honest, I think that this might have been his first away mission loss."

Leigh nodded thoughtfully. "The first is always the hardest. It reminds us that we're all mortal." She thought back to her first experience with death was hearing the news of her family's death at the hands of the Dominion--deaths that drove her into Starfleet.

Lucius nodded yet again. He seemed to think for a moment. "Thank you Captain. I don't want to discourage him either, ya know? He does have a point. I mean both sides are valid, but he doesn't have the experience to know when really hard decisions have to be made. It's not like any of us liked it. Really... It just is what it is. It's about making sure everyone that's left lives."

"The hardest job in Starfleet is to command others," she commented. "If your brother wishes to discuss the issue, he is welcome to visit me. I promise not to throw him out the nearest airlock," she joked, attempting to lighten the mood.

Lucius laughed honestly. "If you don't throw him out, I might," he joked back with a grin.

Leigh chuckled at the comment. She sensed a lot of worry leave the CEO--she could only hope the next mission wouldn't be so bad.

Evan was seated at a table in the wardroom, a PADD in front of him and a large coffee. He'd asked the members of the away team to meet with him to fill him in on what had happened on the surface. He had hoped having them meet in a group and in the wardroom would ensure that the meeting didn't feel like an interrogation.

Colt entered the Ward Room and took a seat. He felt much better now that Doctor Samar had repaired his bruised and cracked ribs and he'd had a chance to rest.

"Lieutenant," he said. "How's tricks?"

"Been better, been worse." The Lieutenant replied gesturing for the Senior Chief to take a seat.

Ensign Braith was the medical officer who had been there to witness everything. He had already began work on a report for the Captain personally since the Executive Officer had been killed during the away mission. He also was finishing up a report for the Chief Medical Officer because she damn well would want to know what happened especially because there were other members of the crew injured, a fatalitiy, and no body in the morgue. However, his reports were not going to stop there. He had full intention on making a personal log for his own keeping and filing a formal complaint to Starfleet though he did not imagine anyone would have much interest in the thoughts and opinions of a young ensign.

Nurse Braith walked into the Wardroom where the Chief Intelligence Officer had called for a meeting of the surviving members of the away team. Already, he found the room occupied by Lieutenant Lougheed and Chief Xan. The Nurse took a seat and looked at the men. "Lieutenant," he said to the officer and "Chief," he said to the Senior Chief Petty Officer.

"Ensign," Colt responded.

The Lieutenant nodded and again offered the new arrival a seat.

Lieutenant JG Lucius made his way to the Wardroom as well. He nodded to everyone already in the room and took a seat. He carried a PaDD with him and set it on the table when he sat down. He took a deep breath and waited.

Sienna entered and took her seat, with a PaDD containing readings from her Tricorder that she took of the area, the dead Gluak, and his blood sample. She was a bit nervous as she had never really liked Intel Officers or 'Spooks' as she often called them.

"So yeah..." Lucius said awkwardly, leaning back in his chair a little and drumming his fingers on the edge of the table. "That sucked."

Braith turned and looked at his brother. Wow, what an icebreaker, thought Braith, but he knew his brother could not help it. "I second that," said the Nurse shaking his head. He looked at the man who had called for the meeting. "There are injuries and a fatality, and that is not counting the loss of life of a Tholian or whatever a Gluak is, probably a sentient life form which we slaughtered," said Braith. "In self defense of course," he added. "However, yes. I agree with the Chief Engineer. That away mission sucked."

"I think a more accurate assessment of what happened is that the Tholians withheld information," Colt said. "Which left us unable to properly prepare for the mission. Even though no plan survives contact with 'the enemy', if we knew we were heading into what, for us, might be a first contact situation, we could have prepared for that. We'll need to find out more about the Gluak before our next encounter. That means both sweet talking the Tholians into giving up more of their information, and I don't envy the person who has to do that, and seeing what we can find out from anyone we encounter on colonies near the border. I doubt the Gluak honored the current Federation/Tholian border. Maybe some of the peoples in this area of space have information on them. Even if it's just in there history books, or even folklore and legend, it's more than we have now."

Sienna spoke up next. The readings I took of it," she said, inputting her information into the table's computer and a holographic image of the deceased Gluak appeared above the table. "It's one of the most durable species on a scale with Species 8472 in my opinion--frightening but fascinating at the same time."

"I'd like to know more about this Gluak, they briefly captured the Captain during the engagement and we luckily recovered her without much incident. We were able to destroy their ships but the readings we have on them are quite unusual. Any additional information that can be provided about them will be helpful," the Spook said. "I've already sent word to SFI to tap assets within Tholian space to try to get additional information."

Lucius nodded. "We'd like to know more about the Gluak too. It jumped the Commander without provocation... other then us loosening the hatch. The Tholian was very cryptic about it." He frowned. "It killed the Tholian as well. We tried to seal the hatch, but considering that the Gluak ship chased us off the surface I'm not sure the hatch really sealed at all."

"Was there any physical altercation or interaction? I know it's probably in your report but in what manner did the Commander–pass away," Lougheed said trying to be sensitive.

"It wasn't from the Gluak attack," Lucius admitted. "On our way back to the shuttle the ground gave out from under us. The Commander fell into the sinkhole."

Braith cleared his throat. "Yeah, the ground kind of opened up and swallowed the First Officer whole. We made no attempts to contact him, scan for life signs, or recover the body if possible," commented Braith. "I know that it was necessary for us all to escape that planet and the Commander would not have wanted us to risk our lives, but I don't feel good about not trying anything and not recovering his body," said the nurse. "Also, Tholians... they aren't members of the Federation. They have a tendency to be xenophobic and hostile. Yet we had no security detail assigned to this away team?"

Lougheed was making notes. "Was there any evidence that the sink hole may have been caused by anything, these Gluak? or the Tholians? or anything like that?"

"The sinkhole was caused when the buried Gluak vessel broke through the surface and launched," Colt said. "Ensign Braith, I get that you're upset, sir, but there was nothing we could do for Commander Cross at the time. But I have a friend who got out of the Marines and became a Foreign Service Officer. I'll get in touch with her and ask her to look into the Tholians to allow a personnel recovery team to go to the planet and try to find and bring home the commander's remains."

Lougheed made more notes. "Is there anything else of note in regard to the Gluak?" he asked, the loss of the Commander had been significant, but the threat these Gluak may pose was the priority for the Intelligence officer.

Lucius shook his head. "They're rather insect-like and phasers aren't super effective. Seems like they had a hard outer shell, I mean I'm not a scientist... but the Gluak shrugged off the first round of phaser fire."

Sienna chipped in. "From what I've gathered with my readings, their ships also run on polaric energy somehow. We noted a rapid decay of polaric particles at the crater before a Gluak came through a hatch. It seemed to recognize the Tholians and immediately attacked the closest Tholian first with enough force to crack its caprice shell."

Lucius was nodding while Sienna spoke. "It definitely had it out for the Tholian. Like there were team members that were closer to it when it emerged and it still took an almost personal interest in the Tholian."

"I can't say that I'm shocked their people have it out for the Tholians, we found they didn't appear to be their main focus up here as well. Although they did abduct the Captain," Lougheed remarked.

"We weren't sure what happened up here. They abducted the Captain?" Lucius asked, staring at Evan.

"Briefly, she was recovered. I will be meeting with her shortly. Is there anything else that you feel is pertinent to my report?" the Spook asked.

Lucius rubbed his face and shook his head. "I don't have anything else..." He looked around at the other people at the table.

"I've submitted all of my information sir," Sienna stated.

"Nothing else from me, sir," Colt said.

"Nor I at this time" added Braith.

"Very well. Thank you all for this. Hopefully not all our missions are this eventful," Lougheed said.

OOC: This begins our next mission so let's get last mission posts wrapped up soon! :)

The past few days had been quiet and Leigh had mostly recovered from her ordeal with the Gluak--she was still a little sore. She sat in the Captain's chair, looking over a status report on a PaDD given to her by a crewman. She signed off on the report and handed it back to the crewman and left the bridge.

Suddenly a sensor alert caught her attention as she looked at the helm station. "Commander S'Rohass, what is it?"

"Some sort of spatial anomaly has appeared," Arturo replied. "I am attempting to adjust course now."

Without warning, power throughout the ship fluctuated and began to shudder violently as the Valiant dropped out of warp, throwing Leigh to the deck hard. 'That's it, I'm getting seat belts installed,' she thought as she pushed herself up to get back into the chair. "Report!"

"I don't know what's happening Captain! I'm working on it!" Lucius was standing at a console on the bridge. "We're offline... like... completely! Main power is down and we've dropped out of warp! Nothing is responding! I'm going to Engineering right now." He really didn't wait for her to give him permission to leave. He bolted away from his console and toward the turbolift.

"I'm trying to reroute from auxiliary power," Shath said, his eyes on his task and not on the rest of the bridge, so he missed Lucius's exit. "We've got auxiliary batteries functional, but I wouldn't recommend extreme maneuvers or getting into fights in the immediate future -" he looked up to see the engineer had left, let out a breath, and moved back to the sensor readout. He compared their bearing to the last starchart update from the subspace buoy they'd last pinged at warp, and frowned. "Well, sir. We're not far from the Janos system, drifting at minimal impulse towards the third planet, based upon orbital trajectory."

"You do not need to concern yourself with extreme maneuvers, Lieutenant," Arturo said. "Helm controls responsive, but sluggish. Even I won't be able to do much fancy flying while we're in this condition. We are already in the gravitational pull of Janos III. I have so far been unable to break free with the limited impulse propulsion currently available. I will attempt to break free by combining our chemical maneuvering thrusters with the impulse power available."

Arturo's fingers flew over his console. A noticeable shudder went through the ship's frame as the Valiant struggled to break free of Janos III's gravitational pull. After a short while, Arturo shut down the thrusters and let the ship continue to drift towards Janos III.

"Forgive me, Captain," Arturo said solemnly. "I am unable to break us free. If I continue in the attempt, I risk burning out the maneuvering thrusters, in which case I will be unable to perform a controlled crash landing when we arrive at our destination. Our best course of action, in my opinion, is for me to try and guide us into orbit around Janos III using our now fluctuating and very limited impulse power. If that proves to be impossible, I shall attempt the aforementioned controlled landing, or at least a controlled crash landing."

"Captain, Janos III is class-M inhabited with a pre-warp civilization." Lougheed reported, "Even entering orbit we risk being seen if someone has a telescope pointed the wrong way."

Leigh sighed. "Do they have any orbital satellites?"

"Not on record and nothing that registered on sensors before we lost them. We're limited to passive sensors only without main power." Lougheed reported.

Leigh shook her head. "Damn." She turned to S'Rohass. "Commander, try to use the thrusters to slow our decent and do your best to put us down in a remote part of the planet." Leigh saw the the clouds below them as the Valiant continued to fall out of orbit as the bow dipped forwards. 'Oh shit,' she thought. "We don't have a choice! Blue Alert!"

Arturo's fingers flew over his console and the ship shuddered as the maneuvering thrusters fought with Janos III's gravitational field and atmospheric forces. There was a look of fierce concentration on Arturo's face as he guided the Valiant through the upper layers of the planet's atmosphere. The hull began to heat up and the environmental controls strained to keep up with the change in temperature. Inertial dampeners likewise struggled to compensate for the Gs the Valiant was pulling. Finally, the ship broke through into the lower atmosphere.

The Defiant Class was quite maneuverable in space. It was not, however, designed for either atmospheric maneuvering or planetfall in general. It was a struggle for Arturo to keep the ship from falling out of the sky like a rock. He needed somewhere to set the Valiant down where he had enough room to bleed off some speed. He glanced at the topographic map of the planet that his console was displaying and saw what he was relatively certain was a large body of water. There appeared to be some sort of lagoon or marsh area with lots of vegetation. Arturo had a very bad idea.

"I would like to point out at this time that the Defiant Class starship is not designed to make planetfall," Arturo said. "So everyone should brace for impact..."

Behind and to the executive officer's left, Shath started quietly, "Transferring all the power we have left to structural integrity..." The ship's recorder caught his words, but not the world-weary tone of an operations officer trying hard to keep his ship together with a scant few ergs of power left in the limited auxiliary systems aboard her.

Arturo guided the Valiant down until it was skimming the water. The speed they were traveling and the angle they approached from caused the ship to skip like a stone across the surface of the water. Skip. Skip. Skip. Each time the ship hit the surface, it's momentum was reduced. The skips came closer together and the Valiant's 'skips' were shorter and lower.

"Now for the hard part," Arturo said. He called up his intended destination: the mouth of the lagoon he'd been aiming for. "Despite appearances to the contrary I believe we will fit through that opening."

"Yeah with maybe a meter or two to spare," Lougheed said as his station burst into a shower sparks, the Lieutenant managing to avoid it by throwing himself to the deck.

The Chief Engineer's voice came over the comms. "Captain! All I can do is reroute to shields and integrity!" Lucius was very grateful to have a competent officer like Shath on the bridge who had done most of the work for him. After his scramble to try and get the engines back online he settled on transferring power and found that most of it had already been done. For one second he breathed a sigh of relief and then started to work on pulling even more power by sacrificing other ship's functions. Essentially cannibalizing anything they weren't currently using and dumping it into shields and integrity fields.

It was not everyday that the starship's paneling illuminated, casting a blue glow on the deck. Ensign Braith was heading towards sickbay when he was projected off his feet and onto the deck. His landing was not too hard but it definitely was not gentle either. He thought the best course of action was to stay down and hold onto something until the starship came to a stop.

"Great Bird of the Galaxy," Arturo said softly. "Grant us your guiding hand as we attempt this absolutely insane landing. Lend us your wings, that we do not fall down and go boom."

As if the ancient deity heard his request, the Valiant slipped through the entrance to the lagoon. It skimmed the surface of the water before coming to a halt on the beach. It was a bumpy ride, but it was over. Arturo grinned.

"We have arrived safely at our destination," Arturo said. "On behalf of Rohass Starlines, allow me to thank you for traveling with us. We hope to see you again soon."

Shath hauled himself off the deck and slumped into his chair, checking readouts. He could already feel a contusion forming on his right antennae, and the pain was making him wince in the eye below it, but he could deal with the injuries after determining how they were. "Structural integrity is holding at 79%. Minor hull breaches, but they appear to be connected to internal compartments so we can seal them despite their location under us. So from an extremely technical defintion, the Valiant remains spaceworthy. All in all, I think this falls under the 'any landing you can walk away from' category I was told was a good landing. Though I think I speak for all of us when I say I would very much prefer a controlled descent next time."

Leigh breathed a sigh of relief as she slowly stood. Seeing the surrounding trees, sand, and water of the lagoon was an odd sight to see aboard the bridge of a starship. "First, I want to find out what the hell type of anomaly we hit and second, let's get to work on repairs. Until we get sensors online, I want Security patrols outside the ship to make sure we don't have any curious visitors."

Lucius picked himself up off the floor and started to put out fires with whatever crew members were not injured. Anytime a starship hit the ground there were fires. Fortunately, it wasn't so bad. Most of his people were just banged around and bruised. Medical attention for anyone hurt was next.

"Senior," Arturo said to Colt. "Form a detail and do a walk through of the ship, every inch of the interior. Make sure all officers and crew are accounted for."

"Aye, aye, Commander," Colt replied, leaving the bridge to carry out his orders. He'd head to Sickbay for a trauma bag and put together a detail once he was there.

"Bridge to Engineering," Arturo said. "What's your status?"

"Minor damage..." Lucius responded from Engineering. "Had a couple of fires. Injuries are minor."

Whatever had knocked out the power to the Valiant had disabled Xiulan's ocular implants as well, so she had been utterly blind throughout the rough ride and all she could do was to hold onto her console for dear life. Once they had come to a stop, she began to take stock of herself and their situation; she seemed unharmed and she could feel her eyes turning back on, but she would be sightless for a while yet, and thankfully her console had been upgraded with a tactile interface, so she was still capable of functioning. "Communications are down, we're unable to call for help," Xiulan reported, sounding a bit shaken but no worse for the wear. "Comm-badges still work, obviously, but their range will be limited outside the ship. I'll see what I can do to get the short-range array back online so we don't lose contact with our patrols outside, but long-range and subspace communications are out of the question for now."

"Another thing on a long list of things we'll need to deal with," Arturo said. "Lieutenant's Birev, Lucius, and Song please confer and formulate a plan to get us operational again and be prepared to present it to the Captain and myself within the hour. Ensign Nora do your best to figure out what that anomaly was. Confer with Lieutenants Birev, Lucius, and Song as you see fit. Lieutenant Lougheed, take a small team and discretely, I say again: discreetly, reconnoiter the area. Lieutenant M'Shlat, have your people secure a perimeter around the Valiant. If you have any questions, ask them. Otherwise, let's get to work."

"Can we meet in Engineering?" Lucius asked over the comm. "I'm kinda busy..." The main engines were still offline. Lucius and the Engineering team were working on getting the auxiliary power up to snuff. Now that they could concentrate on repairs they could take the power they'd put into the shields and integrity fields and use it elsewhere to hopefully get the ship up and running again. If they couldn't get it going soon they were going to need deuterium.

"Yeah, I'll meet you there," Xiulan said, and as she rose from the chair at her station, she reached into her belt for her cane, which she usually only needed in new places, which the Valiant most certainly was but with her eyes still non-functional she couldn't see the heat signatures of the EPS conduits in the walls to guide her or see people coming and going. But Xiulan never let a thing like not being able to see stop her, and she snapped the cane to its full length and effortlessly made her way to the lift.

"Once we get power on line we should look into launch an emergency beacon, or at least get the shuttle up and broadcast a distress call. Even if we get repairs made our chances of taking off and getting out of here will be slim without some external support." Lougheed said after getting back to his feet.

"One problem at a time," Leigh said. "Priority is getting power restored and then the engines, and then we see if we can take off of this damn planet." Luckily it seemed that Janos Three had Earth-like gravity, yet a Defiant Class would still require all available power to escape the planet's gravitational pull and at the moment, that was impossible for the Valiant to accomplish.

"Alright everyone," Arturo said. "Let's get to work. Report back in an hour."

Valywen blinked several times as she slowly stepped away from her telescope. 'Had anyone else seen it?' the tall, slender, fair-skinned young woman thought to herself. She felt her heart racing--she had spotted an object fall from the stars! 'It had to come from the stars! Where else could it had come from?!' The thoughts raced through her head. At first she had thought it a meteor yet, she watched it change course during the fall, and even seemed to slow it's descent! 'Aliens?! Here?!' "Yes, yes, yes!" she exclaimed excitedly and yet a part of her was fearful. What if they were violent aliens? What if they decided to attack?

Valywen paced about her room. She was already the subject of many controversies among her people--often ridiculed and made the butt of jokes while others, often elders saw her more of a threat. If she could prove to her people that they weren't the center of the universe and even more that they were not alone in the cosmos, then people's views of her would change! Her people were making great strides in technology, and were even on the breakthrough of creating flying machines and yet, their views were guided by archaic religious views when it came to studying the stars. She grabbed her tan leather backpack that she took with her when she took her many hikes out of the town, slinging it onto one shoulder as she exited her home.

People in the town went on their daily tasks, often ignoring Velywen as she passed--some scowling at her. As she reached the edge of the town, the voice of a child called out. "Hey, Valy-witch! My mom said you should be thrown off Jakon's Cliff for your nonsense!" The kid then threw a small nearby rock that struck Valywen in the arm. Normally Valywen would ignore such insults but the kid had gone out of his way to make her life miserable. She immediately grabbed a similar sized rock and threw it at the kid striking him in the head. "Ow!" the kid screamed, covering his head where the rock hit with his hand.

"Tell your mother if she could get off her knees long enough to stop pleasing the priest, she might actually learn something!" Valywen retorted before turning and exit the town in the direction of where she saw the alien ship crash.

Evan tapped the door chime of the COs small office. Having met with the away team he now wanted to debrief the Captain, getting the call to enter he stepped into the cabin. "Captain, how are you?"

Leigh stood. "I've felt better but Doctor Samar assures me that I'll live," Leigh grinned as she gestured to the seat in front of her desk. "Have a seat, lieutenant."

He nodded, "I know you've likely reported to Command already but I'd like to get any insights you can provide on these Gluak before I submit my final report to SFI. I've already met with the away team and complied our sensor findings. Is there anything else of note?"

"I'm not sure how much I can tell you, lieutenant. I wasn't able to see much of their ship while I was their guest...and I know that they hit hard as hell and seem to be very violent," Leigh paused for a moment before she continued. "The captain of the vessel claimed to have been one of the species who aided in defeating the Iconians."

"It would make them ancient by comparison to modern humanoid species." He remarked, "From the physical description it almost sounds like they could be related to Tholians. Exoskeletons aren't exactly a common trait for humanoids. The ships were odd, they were odd, this whole thing was odd."

"True," Leigh agreed. "We need to get access to their computer systems or data in order to try to understand their technology and if they are indeed 150,000 years old. It would be nice if the Tholians could give us some answers but something tells me we won't be successful."

"SFI is tapping some assets in the region to see what they can gather. The Director is not happy, these Gluak weren't even on our radar. Apparently the CinC is also, not impressed." Lougheed said. "But those are issues above our pay-grade so to speak." He added making a few more notes on the padd before setting it down on the edge of her desk. "How's the recovery?"

"A bit sore but it's coming along well," Leigh said, recalling how hard the Gluak commander struck. She swore at times she could still feel the impact of his hand across her face. "Doctor Samar says I should make a full recovery in about a week or so."

"That's good, hopefully our next mission is slow. Any word from Command on a new XO." He asked. It was a shitty part of the job but they'd both been in this position before.

"There is supposed to be a Lieutenant Commander Arturo S'Rohass arriving in a few hours," Leigh explained. "Apparently he was slated to take Commander Cross' position before the incident and was already on his way to rendezvous with the Valiant. I also wanted to commend you on your excellent work during the engagement with the Gluak." She enjoyed spending time away from reports and getting to know her crew. It also took her mind off of her time aboard the Gluak Vessel.

"Thank you Captain, my piloting might be a touchy rusty but I managed to keep us in one piece." He said with a smirk, "But really, you shouldn't be just gallivanting off the bridge like that. Rather irresponsible." He said jokingly.

"Yes, I know. Next time I'll have to be sure to leave a note at least," she smiled at Lougheed. "Let me know if you find out anything more on the Gluak."


"I will, thank you for your time Captain." He said picking up the PADD and leaving the Captain's readyroom.

Leigh Jacobs looked down at the hull plating beneath her feet as she placed her hands on her hips. A warm breeze blew in off of the water. She took a few steps across the outer hull of the dorsal bow section of the valiant and looked out over the top of the trees, spotting what looked like mountains in the far distance. The sun was warm and despite their current situation, a welcome relief on her face.

She let out a long sigh as she looked up at the clouds, wondering what she had done to cause such bad luck. First they dealt with a hostile first contact species and now they were stranded on a planet with a pre-warp civilization population. Even if they managed to get power fully restored, there was the questionable ability of the Valiant getting spaceborne. The Defiant Class was designed to land in emergencies only and while this qualified as one, they had to get off the planet without anyone seeing a spaceship take off and fly into orbit.

She turned and began to walk towards the aft section of the ship, which looked out over the ocean. She was impressed with Commander S'Rohass' flying ability--he had done an excellent job of setting the Valiant down without much damage. She was sure that Admiral Robertson would love this report and likely try to use it to get her removed as CO and likely assigned as the Commanding Officer of some obscure deep space listening post for the remainder of her career.

She reached the end of the aft section and looked down at the water below--it appeared to be at least 12 feet deep. A grin came across her face-- 'fuck Admiral Robertson' as she pushed off the edge of the ship, with her arms out as for a brief moment, she seemed to float just as gravity took hold. She threw her legs backwards into a back flip as a second later, she contacted the water feet first. The force of the landing sent her to the bottom of the ocean floor as she pushed off to head back to the surface. She surfaced a moment later to see a few of the security guards swimming out to her. "She waved at them, laughing, "I'm alright! Go back to shore!" She swam and made her way to the beach, being slowed by her soaked clothes. "The water's fine," she commented to the surprised crewmen on the beach, with a smile.