It had been seventy-two hours since Cato had slept… The mark of the Klingons still lingered in the air from all the damage sustained, not only to Triton, but himself as well. His body still clad in MACO HECA armor, TR-116-C2 (MACO Variant) in his hands, Type 2 Phase Pistol on his right thigh… Covered in filth, dirt, blood and sweat. His hair had grown out a lot over this past week, beard in all of it's glory, his cropped hair wasn't so short anymore. He was a mess, field dressed wounds through scorched armor all over his body, lacerations on his face as well.

Stepping through the doors into Sickbay, Cato's eyes darted around the room for Hunter. "Hunter, you in here?" he called out.

Hunter knew that voice. Her heart skipped a beat when she turned around to see he had survived the attack. Though he looked like he had made a trip back from hell, she was thankful he was standing there. She rushed over to him, giving him support as she walked him to a freshly available bio bed. "I told them where to find you, and here you are, walking yourself to Sickbay. I should have been the one to go back out there!”

She helped him take a seat, wanting so bad to give him a hug but didn’t want to kill him. She turned on her tricorder and began her scan. “You are so lucky… just a few broken ribs and a fractured arm.” She looked up at his bruised and bloody face. “Fate must have been on your side that day.”

Cato smirked and pushed her away, he was walking fine. Hopping a seat on the bio bed he set his rifle down next to him. His hands moved to start removing the upper part of his HECA suit. A tattered under suit revealed the tattoos on his back now visible… "You should know by now I'm very hard to kill…" He laughed but then soon realized the pain of his broken ribs. "Yeah, Klingons didn't know who they were f*ckin' with." he grinned "So, you and Danny made it, obviously…"

“Thanks to you!” Hunter grinned. “Lay back on the bed so I can heal you up in a more comfortable position.” She walked over to grab her medkit and pulled out a few tools. “I was able to find my cousin who had been separated from Danny right as she got here. I’ll have her bring the kid over in a couple of hours so he can talk to you.” The regenerator hummed in her hand as she got to work.

“But don’t worry, I’ll let you rest up before you get bombarded.”

Cato laid back and pushed his gear between his legs... Closing his eyes, the humm of the dermal regenerator put him right out... Hours became seconds while he was fast asleep on the biobed. His dreams were still haunted by those he killed in battle... Now well numbering in the high hundreds. Though he was dreaming, his heart rate spiked and his fist clenched tightly... No matter where or what, Cato was at war in one form or another.

The Sickbay doors swooshed open as the excitable Danny spotted Cato as fast as he could and ran over to his bed even faster.

“Walk, Danny!” Lizzie tried hard to rope him in but knew it was an impossible task.

Danny placed his hands on the bed but understood not to touch patients when they were resting on the beds. “Cato! Cato! It’s me! I knew they couldn’t beat you!”

Lizzie stopped in her tracks. That summer night years before popped back in her mind. The feelings of sadness and regret flowed through her. It was impossible. It was either fate or the universe playing some nasty trick on her. But she couldn’t help it; her eyes started watering as she slowly made her to over to Cato’s side. Her hand was covering her mouth as she fought back the tears. “Oh my God… I can’t believe it’s you…” Her voice was soft, almost inaudible. She gently grabbed his hand so as to not startle him. “You were right…”

Cato didn't crack an eye open at the sound of the Sickbay doors opening, he just stayed still until he felt the biobed suddenly shift from little hands on it. "I guess they didn't get the memo... We don't believe in no win scenarios, right kid?" He smiled cracking a dirt covered eye open looking at Danny. Suddenly, he heard a voice that hadn't changed in almost a decade... Both of his electric blue eyes slowly cracked open and he took Lizzie's hand in his own and gave her a squeeze. "When was I ever wrong?" He suddenly let go and sat up quickly, throwing his legs over the side of the bio bed that Danny and Lizzie weren't on. Cracking his neck he ran his left hand over his face to dust off some of the filth. Standing to his feet, Cato wasn't exactly Cato anymore...

He was his old self inside, but his body was a refined weapon. Picking up the upper part of his HECA, he slid it over his bare skin and began buckling and connecting it to the lower part. "I knew they couldn't beat you kid." Cato gave Danny a playful nudge on the shoulder before looking back up to Lizzie. "You have something of mine, I believe?" he smiled, the more famous Cato smile was showing now.

Danny’s face distorted into a look of confusion. He looked up at his mom, who had the same exact look on her face. He then looked back at Cato and Lizzie and decided to speak up. It seemed his mom was in a strange state of shock. “Aunt Lizzie, how do you know Cato?”

Lizzie couldn’t hear what the kid was saying; she was in her own little world, taking the beaten and folded up picture of Cato out of her pocket. She looked at it every single night before she fell asleep, hoping and praying he was still alive and doing well. Knowing she had no use for it now, Lizzie handed the photo over to its rightful owner. There was so much she wanted to say but couldn’t get herself to say them. All she could do was look into those eyes and be thankful she would never be without him.

Cato didn't touch that photo in her hand, though his right hand moved to the inside of his helmet for that picture of her with her longboard on the beach, all those years ago. The picture of her was too crumpled, folded and beaten to tatters ends. Holding it up to show her that he still had it. "I've known your Aunt since she was fourteen Danny... We went to High School together." he couldn't break away from the eye lock that he had with Lizzie right now. Suddenly, the comm system sounded =/\= "Lieutenant West, report to the CIC, Lieutenant West to the CIC." =/\= He looked at Hunter "I've been ordered to rest for the next forty-eight hours, right Hunter?"

Hunter crossed her arms. “You’re damn right! You’re not going anywhere!” She decided not to bombard her cousin with questions about how the hell they knew each other and, more importantly, why she didn’t know about him. Man, it was a small world…

The doctor leaned towards Danny’s ear, whispering, “Why don’t you head over to my office. I’ll tell you what happens later.” Danny turned his head, shaking it up and down vigorously, and disappeared into the office.

Hunter looked back at Cato, knowing full well she wasn’t going to have his attention from now on. “Cato, lay down on the bed. I’m gonna keep you overnight so you can rest.” She raised her eyebrow at Lizzie. “You can stay with him as long as you want. You look like you guys have a lot to catch up on. I’ll be in my office.” And there she made her awkward move to where Danny was waiting curiously for any updates she may have gotten.

Cato looked over at Hunter and laughed "Staying in sickbay... I'll confine myself to quarters... Thanks." He shook his head and pulled his commbadge out of a pocket =/\= "West to CIC, Doctor Hunter has decided to lock my ass up for the the next forty-eight hours. Whatever it is, figure it out with Captain Ta'Nok. West out." =/\= "Let's go, I owe you dinner." he said to Lizzie as he put her picture back into the top of his helmet.

"Not every hour!" making a sour face as he looked back to Lizzie "See what I deal with?..." Grabbing his TR-116C2 rifle and walking out of Sickbay heading for his new quarters. "So... I ran into Bella a couple of years ago..." He smirked "I had to salute the bitch, too." He grinned as they walked down the corridor together, various NCO's and Enlisted personnel saluting and saying 'Chief' as they passed. "So... After all this time..." His hand moved to take hers within it and grip it tightly "You know, you've still got a piece of my heart... That hasn't changed..."

Lizzie stared straight into Cato’s eyes. It was as if nothing had changed and they had never been separated by the aftermath of that night’s events. “I realize I never told you how I really felt. You poured your heart out to me and I was so selfish, holding my feelings inside. I love you!” Letting go of his hand, Lizzie wrapped her arms around his neck, returning the kiss from seven years before. “Don’t you dare leave me again.” She said with a smirk.

Though they were in a fairly busy corridor, Cato shouldered his rifle quickly and moved to press her up against the wall of the corridor. His gloved hands moving to rest on her hips, pulling her body against his armor as he gave her something new to think about. A lot had changed in seven years, same with his kiss... The kiss of that sweet boy was gone, this was a deeply passionate kiss, his hands caressing her body slowly as his right hand slid down to grip and squeeze. He knew what he wanted now and just went for it without fear. "Only place I'm going is bed..." He brushed some of her golden strands out of her face and behind her ear with his right hand. "Maybe a shower before... Only this time you're coming with me." He smirked and moved to lead her down the breezeway in a beautiful garden, one of many that that Triton had.

Suddenly, some kind of explosion detonated near where he and Lizzie had been walking. The orange and blue flames, black smoke bellowing... The sound of klaxons echoed the compound. Cato was blurry, fading in and out of consciousness. Finally, he blacked out, into nothingness... The black void that hit him, nightmares of being alone in a black room with nothing but a chair haunted his dreams.

Cato's eyes slowly cracked open to take in the sight around him, bodies scattered the breezeway and garden. The carnage was disgusting, body parts strung about. Lizzie lay, eyes wide open, blood dripping down her cheeks like tears. Debris had torn through the flesh in her face from the blast, the once pretty woman was now torn up and barely recognizable.

Crawling along the ground, Cato grabbed his TR-116C2; Then sat (more like fell over), his ears still ringing. Fresh blood all over his face from the blast, some of it his own, most of it not. His eyes searched and found what was left of Lizzie on the ground... Standing, he struggled to find his balance. Eyes darted to where sickbay was, or used to be. It was blown to bits, nothing but rubble surrounded him now.

Cato began to gimp towards sickbay, Hunters' body lay half buried under some rubble next to a young Danny. He dropped to his knees and began to sob, hard... Everyone in his life had just been taken from him in one blast...

...Six weeks later...

Opening to a dark, dreary room Cato's limp body was being dragged in by a group of four, six foot plus tall mercenaries clad in dark digital camouflage uniforms. Aspid Corporation patches on their uniforms and weaponry unlike anything that the Federation had. They restrained the body to the fixed metal chair in the center of the room which had a single light illuminating it. Suddenly, one of the uniformed men removed the black canvas bag from Cato's head. Suddenly finding himself sitting in the dark room, his eyes fought to adjust to the contrast between light and dark. His eyes quickly shot around the room, glancing here and there. Noticing the room was filled with shadows; Some 'brass' from Starfleet and MACO, not to mention people from divisions that didn't have names.John Aspid and his raspy voice spoke, echoing off the room "Welcome back…"

John dragged a chair across the room from the darkness, the screeching metal on metal sound made one cringe. "What's your name?", he questioned as he took the seat across from the batter, bruised, bloodied Cato.

Cato had been severely beaten, his left eye bloody and his entire face bruised he sat straight. He replied shakily "Cato West."

John canted his head to the side "Where ya from?" Aspid sadistically smiled as he asked his first question.

"Earth." Cato again spoke with a tremble in his voice, clenching the arms of the chairs.

John continued to grin, suddenly his wicked expression was replaced with his face of stone "Do you understand what we're trying to accomplish here?"

Cato attempted to nod and mumbled "Yes sir."

John leaned forward, eye-locking with Cato as he snarled "Will you give yourself to this program?..."

Cato replied with a prompt "Yes sir!"

"Will you do whatever it takes to defend the federation, Mister West?" John questioned.

"I will protect the Federation and it's values with my life. I will kill anyone who stands in my way to ensure our way of life is never impinged upon" Cato stated, snarling as he spoke. Like a rabid wild animal chained to a post, Cato was ready to be let off his leash and to hurt those who hurt him.

John stood and nodded "Good, good." he grinned "Get Caleb Danvers file, download the template for Project Outcome and begin the outline for the Cerberus Project." he turned back to the battered and bloodied Cato "Welcome Aboard, Cato. You and I are going to do many great things together."

Daytona walked through the corridors paying little attention to where he was walking. His direction sense was already acclimating to the Hera's layout so he was beginning to instinctively know where to go. That sense didn't account for other people, though, so really Daytona should have been looking where he was going. But no, he was mentally preparing a report he needed to write about an assignment he had recently completed, lost in his own head. As such, he didn't see the diminutive form of Akira Zhuri walking ahead of him. He was moving rather quickly, more quickly than her, and the right half of his body collided with her. To make matters worse, the natural swinging of his arms caused his right arm to swing forward and he essentially goosed her when that hand went straight up between the cheeks of her backside. He immediately apologized.

"I am so, so, sorry!" he said. "I should have been watching where I was going. Rest assured that I do not normally grope women I haven't met yet."

Akira froze when she felt a hand go where no hand had gone before. Oh my, that did feel... interesting... She knew from her father's memories that a matter of social decorum that hands generally were not supposed to find their way to such locations in public. She looked at the rambling Rigellian and attempted to gauge his sincerity, a talent which she'd had little opportunity to practice so she wasn't very good at it yet, so instead she chose to simply trust that he was truthful and assumed that this was indeed an accident.

"It's alright," Akira replied hesitantly. "I have been told that 'accidents will happen'. With any luck, you have learned from this and the chances of a repeat with be minimal."

Daytona thought this was an oddly phrased response. Almost Vulcan-like. The little...humanoid...whatever she was, didn't look Vulcan.

By the Prime Number I hope she's not a Vulcan-groupie! There is nothing in this universe more annoying than a Vulcan groupie!

"You have no idea how many times someone has said that to me...about things other than this I assure you," Daytona said. "I'm Daytona Ral. I'm newly arrived."

"Akira Zhuri, pleased to meet you," Akira said in response, offering a warm smile that would never grace the features of a Vulcan or a die-hard Vulcan-groupie. She took a few steps, then hesitantly looked back at him to see if he would continue walking as well; if they were bound for the same area, maybe they could talk for a while! Her head tilted curiously as her eyes fell on the grey of his uniform collar. "You are in Intelligence?" she asked.

Daytona happily fell into step with the young woman. She had a nice smile, and not just the one he'd inserted his hand into.

"What?" Daytona said. "Oh...that's right, yes. Sorry, I forgot I was wearing my 'let's announce to everyone in the galaxy that I'm a spy' shirt. Honestly, when I started in Intelligence over a century ago, they didn't even have a color code for Intelligence. We wore command gold, back when gold was command, when we were in uniform. I was hardly ever in uniform. I was part of the clandestine service. When they changed the command color to red, I wore red the few occasions that I had to wear a uniform. People just assumed I was an errand boy for some command officer or a yeoman or some NCO or later warrant from Strategic Operations. It made it easier for me to get around unnoticed. This is the first assignment where I've worn the black. But enough about me. You seem far more interesting. Are you in Operations or Engineering?"

"Yes, this is true, I am very special," Akira affirmed with an innocent cheerfulness. "I was designed for the Sciences, but I wanted to be an Engineer like my father, so Operations seemed to make the most sense."

I'm starting to agree with you, Miss Akira Zhuri. You do seem...special. I just can't put my finger on why...that shining smile is really captivating...

"Was your father a Starfleet engineer?" Daytona asked. "Or was he a civilian?"

"My father was Starfleet," Akira confirmed with a gentle nod, shyly tucking a lock of her dark silky locks behind her ear, revealing just a hint of Trill-like spots down the side of her neck, but none on her face which was a lovely shade of Bolian blue. "He was lost when the Katana's systems went critical, I miss him very much," she admitted.

Poor girl. Let's see...blue skin, dark hair, and...spots? She must be some kind of interspecies love child.
Quite exotic and quite lovely.

"I'm very sorry to hear about your father..." Daytona said. "Wait...the Katana? This just happened then? I am very sorry for your loss, Akira Zhuri, truly."

The Katana...who in the name of the Prime Number was her engineer? Why would I even know...wait...Zhuri...Chief Engineer of the Katana...I read something about him...I think...Oh by the Prime Number, you're an idiot. You've spent most of your life making your living by remembering things and look at yourself now! Gone all vacuum-headed over a pretty girl...a very pretty girl...

"Thank you for your kind words, Daytona Ral," she said, replying in the same 'polite' manner he did. "I am still acclimating to his loss, even though he is always with me," she said in a somber tone, then smiled brightly as she attempted to change the subject. "So what is it like working in Intelligence?"

"Challenging," Daytona said. "Sometimes rewarding, other times boring. When I first started, back in the 2260s, I was assigned to my home system. I hadn't been there except to pass through for about a century. I spent a lot of time there keeping an eye on the Orions, the Klingons, the Romulans, even my own people to a certain extent. My own world wasn't a Federation member yet, you see. There was even a human colony on Rigel IV that hadn't joined the Federation yet. I created a cover for myself as an in-system trader, traveling among the inhabited planets in the Rigel System, trading goods and sometimes services. It gave me the opportunity to observe quite a bit. Legitimate businesses, Orion Caju, Orion Syndicate, the crumbling Orion 'Empire' to use the term loosely. Visiting ships from all over the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. Hard-working, honest people, pirates, cutthroats, slavers, gamblers, various and sundry other criminals. It was actually a lot more fun than when I was an intelligence operative for the government of Rigel V. Later I worked around the Romulan Neutral Zone and even crossed it frequently, posing as a Romulan. I served with covert operations in the Cardassian Border Wars, the Federation-Klingon War, and the Dominion War. Since then I've been doing what you might call 'odd jobs' for Starfleet Intelligence. I've had a lot of different jobs in my life: monk, soldier, intelligence operative for the government of Rigel V, policeman, mercenary, merchant spacer. It all led me to a career with SFI. I've held this job longer than any other and I think I'm going to hang on to it for quite a while longer."

Well, you idiot, now that you've come off like a pompous, self-absorbed, narcissistic, son of a bitch, what will you do for your next trick?

"Listen to me, rambling on," Daytona said. "You asked me what it was like being in Intelligence, not for the abridged version of the last four hundred years of my life! Please, tell me more about you, your likes, dislikes, tell me anything you'd like!"

"Amazing! That sounds so fascinating!" Akira replied with unconcealed enthusiasm. "And four hundred years! The likes and dislikes for one as young as I must be quite boring compared to the likes of you."

Now don't go and get a swelled head...well, Akira is very attractive, so that ship has already sailed. How old is she, anyway? If she were a terran I'd say late teens to early twenties, but who knows what DNA's she's got? And don't go all 'handsome brooding ancient guy' here. Be genuine.

"I have seen a lot," Daytona said. "And done a lot, and had a lot done to me. I've also outlived many friends and colleagues. Some I've see grow old and die, others I simply moved on from, either because I couldn't bare to see them die or because it was just time for me to move on. The hardest thing about having a ridiculously long lifespan is keeping your horizons broad."

What kind of emo bullshit was that???

"My father is...was vulcanoid rigelian," Daytona continued. "So I would have had a lifespan of around 250 years anyway, but my mother is el-aurian. She stayed with my father and their other spouses until he passed, and then she said goodbye and moved on. I was raised as a vulcanoid rigelian, not an el-aurian, but my mother sometimes told me stories, taught me things, explained that I would live a very long time and that I would likely outlive friends, family, and loved ones, but that if I stayed the course or maybe stayed in the game is a better phrase, the universe would show me its wonders. She also said that the greatest wonders I'd every encounter were the people with whom I passed the time. Which brings us back to you, Akira Zhuri...I like saying your name...Akira Zhuri...ahem...anyway...may I ask you a somewhat personal question?"

"Thank you! I rather like my name as well," Akira said with a giggle. "And you may ask, if you wish."

"I can't figure out what species you are," Daytona said. "Not that it matters, of course, but I'm curious. The spots look almost Trill. Some people might call that hair of yours terran or bajoran or betazoid even, but I spent most of my life around Orions and I'd call that hair Orion if I was pressed. The blue skin though...Andorian? Bolian? Something else? Or am I totally wrong and you're not a hybrid but rather a species I've never encountered?"

"Oh, I am a hologram, but my physical appearance is somewhat based on my father's who was half Trill and half Bolian. I am still in the process of refining my appearance; I'm having a hard time deciding what I like and what I do not like, which makes even the smallest decision a challenge," Akira replied. "One of my maternal contributors is an android based on Orion designs, so maybe that is why my hair looks like Orion hair? But if this is the case it was completely unintentional; when I chose a female form, I simply took Father's hair and made it longer."

Daytona blinked, then blinked again.

"Zhuri..." he said. "I am an idiot. A complete idiot. Your father was the sentient holographic XO of the Katana! Arivek Zhuri! I remember reading about him in news article...Federation News Service or something like that. I was sitting in an admiral's outer office waiting for him to call me in and it was on the front page. 'Holographic Officer Makes XO!' Oh, I feel so stupid. Well, to be fair, I was distracted by a beautiful woman...that's you, in case that was unclear. So, wait, you're his...daughter? How did that happen? Who was your mother? Another hologram, I assume. Sorry. Babbling. I have to say, you are a very convincing hologram. You certainly felt real...er...maybe that wasn't the best choice of words..."

Get it together, jackass!

"Akira Zhuri," he said. "I would love to know anything you want to tell me about how you came to be, but if you'd rather talk about something else, if it is too close to the loss of your father, we can talk about something else. I've actually forgotten where I was headed so I am now at your disposal."

"No, he was not a sentient hologram, he was alive," Akira asserted firmly. "He was once a real living breathing person and at the moment of his death his father transferred his consciousness into a holo-matrix. Even as a hologram, he was more than just a mere sentient AI, he was a real person. As am I; I may not have had an organic origin like my father, but I've been told I have a spark of true living sentience, I'm a real person, I'm not just pretty matrix here for people's amusement." She was clearly not happy with his level of exuberance.

"Wait..." Daytona said, genuinely contrite. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend you. I didn't know that about your father, that he was once flesh and blood. Not that it makes a difference. I never met your father, but if I had, I would have treated him with the same respect I would have shown to any officer, photonic or flesh and blood. I don't think of you as a matrix here for anyone's amusement. I think of you as an attractive young woman I'd like to get to know better. I'm hoping you'll give me a chance to do that."

"Okay," Akira said warily, then resumed her trek. "One of my mothers is an android named Maica. She was once a holosuite program, but she evolved. And my other mother is Andrea Carter and she is the one who ultimately made my creation possible. She made Mother Maica's android body, and in the process left behind a number of back-ups in Katana's system that contributed to my creation. Mother Maica is serving as the Commanding Officer of the USS Merlin and Mother Andy is there as a research detachment from the Daystrom Institute; Father and both of my Mothers originated from a parallel reality, and Mother Andy's knowledge on Borg and cybernetics are helping to advance technological developments in this reality." She was sharing, but her words lacked the same warmth from earlier. She didn't know why she got so irritated when Daytona talked about her family as he did, but she suspected that the reaction had not been her own, but rather a residual response from Ari when she absorbed his data; he had been quite sensitive about the nature of his existence.

That's it, she hates me.

"What was your father like?" Daytona asked. "As I said, I never met him, but to venture out, dependent on holoprojectors for your physical form, on computers to hold your consciousness...that strikes me as very brave."

"He was a very private person, even before his life as a hologram, but that change made him even more introverted, but when he did make friends he was very loyal," Akira answered, then paused to give the matter some more thought. "I don't think he ever saw himself as brave; if anything, it was the opposite, because he ran away from his family, he couldn't believe what his own father had done to him. It took him a long time to come to terms with what happened, and by then he was in another reality so he wasn't able to make amends. He always regretted that."

"I think I can understand that," Daytona said. "In my experience it often takes distance to gain perspective. Sometimes the larger or more contentious the conflict, particularly between parents and children, the greater the distance."

Daytona cleared his throat.

"I don't normally ask women their age," he said. Unless I'm worried they are not legally able to consent in the society I'm in at the time. "But I'm curious. How old are you?"

Daytona didn't ask 'how long ago were you created' because that would 'de-humanize' her for lack of better world. It was important to him that Akira understand he viewed her as a living being and not a simple hologram.

"I am just a little over four months old," Akira said, smiling meekly. "I am still learning basic interactions and day to day functions, but there is a great deal I still do not understand, so I apologize if that is off-putting. When I first came to awareness, I was quite terrible at conversation, but I like to think that I am getting better with every person I interact with."

Daytona smiled warmly at Akira.

"I think you're doing just fine," Daytona said. "Certainly better than any other four month old I've encountered. I'd interact with you anytime."

Wow. Really? I'd interact with you anytime? Really? I suppose I shouldn't be too hard on myself. It's an honest answer. I would 'interact' with you anytime, Akira Zhuri.

Daytona cleared his throat...again.

"Uhm...speaking of interacting," he said. "Would you like to...take a walk with me sometime in the ship's arboretum? Or do something on the holodeck together?"

"I think I would enjoy that," Akira replied, warmth returning to her smile. "When my father's matrix failed, I took in the remnants of his memories and experiences; it's helped me to understand concepts that would otherwise take me months or even years to understand, but I've also developed a fondness for the peace and tranquility of the Arboretum. I often find myself going there to read as my father once did."

Daytona grinned.

Success!

"Great," he said. "Are you free tomorrow? When you're done for the day?"

"I'll have preparations to make for the Slingshot, but I can make some time tonight," Akira offered in return.

"Excellent," he said. "Shall I come by your quarters and pick you up?"

"If you would like, or I can meet you there," Akira offered in return, not really understanding that the shared walk to the Arboretum was actually part of the date.

Daytona suppressed a chuckle.

Akira is definitely showing her age...or lack there of! I wonder if she even considers this evening a date? Does she even know what a date is? Well, honestly, it's not like she has to go back to her quarters to change first. First woman I've been on a date with that will take less time than me getting ready. At some point I'm going to have to find a balance between treating her like everyone else and acknowledging her differences. Like not needing to have her clunky flesh and blood gentleman caller pick her up, since she can dematerialize at work and rematerialize at the arboretum with greater ease. On the other hand, it's not like she's going to wear herself out walking...

"I'll pick you up," he said, deciding at last. "And we can walk to the Arboretum together. I could use the exercise."

"But I do not require you to carry me," Akira said with confusion.

Daytona laughed.

"No," he said. "It's a figure of speech. I mean I'll come to your quarters when we're off and we can walk to the arboretum together."

"A figure of- oh! Yes, I know what those are!" Akira said with excitement. "I apologize, I forget about such expressions sometimes. I will wait for you at my quarters," she affirmed with a smile. She finally stopped walking, having reached her destination of the Cargo Bay. "I must go to work now."

"Of course," Daytona said. "I'll see you soon."

YES!

It was late, or early, Nexi could never really tell the difference after a while. She leaned back in her chair and stretched, then rubbed her eyes as she tried to focus on the console before her, the orange and green glow from the Ferengi console blurring as her eyes objected to anymore research; just as well, she had collected enough information for Enalia's little secret account she was to start in the past. Well, not just Enalia's secret account, Nexi planned to set up a nest egg for herself and Aewia too! Assuming that she succeeded, considering at least one of Enalia's accounts was indeed active now, then that could mean there was money out there just waiting for her! It actually caused her to pause and give a certain thought some serious consideration; if she had enough money to go retire with Aewia, should she stay with Starfleet? It was a thought that had been weighing on her mind ever since Enalia made her request and revealed that Nexi had indeed followed through. So, to Enlist or not, that was the question!

Nexi pulled herself from her chair and meandered out of the cockpit and back to her kitchen. Dammit, out of coffee... No problem, she had some more stored in the cargo bay. But as she made her way to the rear ramp, she found herself grabbing her jacket like she was going somewhere. Then she went straight through the Cargo Bay and just kept going! It wasn't until she was ringing the chime that she realized that she was standing in front of Cato's door.

Time seemed to be a blur to Cato, days and nights blended together and it didn't seem to matter anymore. Feeling like he had just closed his eyes, the chime rang. Grey MACO PT shorts were worn, dog tags dangling around his neck bouncing on his bare chest. Climbing out of bed, he rubbed his eyes and groaned as he walked out of his bedroom and into the living area. "Come" he said with a raspy groggy tone cluttering his voice.

The door swished open and Nexi stepped in, and only at the sight of Cato's chosen sleep attire and his heavy eyes did she realize just how late it was. "Oh, hey, I didn't mean to wake you. I can come back later," she said with an awkward shuffle towards the door.

"Shut up." Cato said, still half asleep. If it wasn't bullets waking him up, he usually took a minute or two to wake up. Moving to wrap his arms around her slender frame; he placed a soft kiss on her forehead. "good morning pretty girl." he said through a half yawn. "Computer, time." he said, grogginess almost completely gone now.

Computer: "The current time is 03:21 hours."

"Everything okay?" Cato said, peeling away from Nexi and walking over to the couch and plopping down atop it.

Nexi wasn't used to such an affectionate greeting, not by him or anyone else. Well, Daln had once tried, but after she cup-checked him, he didn't try again after that... "I, uh... dunno, I was kind of lost in thought. Didn't realize I was even coming here until, well, I was here," Nexi admitted, feeling awkward about the whole thing. Why was she even here? "Was just doing some, uh, research before the slingshot, had a lot on my mind."

Cato rubbed his face with his hands, fixed his hair half-assed and stood to his feet. "Breakfast it is then." he smiled before grabbing a black MACO special warfare logo shirt (that had seen better days) off the couch and throwing it over his bare torso. "Mess or replicator?" he asked with a smile.

"Uh, replicator is fine," Nexi said with a shrug. In actuality, she hated going to the mess hall, or the lounge. "Hey, I- uh... why did you join Starfleet?" she asked as she took off her leather jacket and slung it across the back of a chair.

"Starting with the big questions today." Cato said as he walked over to the replicator and began tapping on the panel, two cups of black maori coffee appeared. Grasping both cups and placing them atop the bar-like counter top that separated the kitchen area and the living area. Replicating two of his go-to plates for complicated conversations, mexican style eggs and sausage, cheese, cilantro, onions, spanish rice, beans with a side of salsa. "Protein deluxe." Plates were moved to accompany the coffee mugs atop the bar-top.

"Well, I was originally set to attend the academy. I had this whole idea in my head of being an officer and to be the Captain of my own ship one day. I wanted to fly starships, maybe fighters like my father. Started my first year, my girlfriend cheated on me and I made the best bad decision I've ever made. I dropped out and joined the MACO's." he paused, throwing the side of salsa all over everything. Picking up a fork and taking a bite of the eggs mixed in with everything else, washing it down with a sip of that strong as fuck coffee. "I changed my concept of what duty meant, serving meant to serve. As in to protect those without a voice, to free those who were enslaved, to do what it took to actually make a difference to people who would appreciate it."

He took a breath and looked at Nexi "I joined Starfleet to challenge myself."

Nexi listened as she examined the contents of the plate set before her, moving things around with her fork. "I think I wanted that too, the challenging part, but... but now, I-" Nexi sighed as she found herself at a loss for words. Finally taking a scoop of... something... and brought it to her mouth, she then froze and released a small cough. She had smelled spices on whatever this was, but having grown up on grubs and then later transitioning to equally bland food, she wasn't quite prepared for what had just assaulted her taste buds. Uncertain if she liked or disliked it just yet, she kept chewing and eventually swallowed. She cleared her throat and then took a sip of coffee to wash everything down before speaking again. "But now I'm weighing options; there's the potential for a- a big score I guess you could say. I think the part of me that's selfish just wants to take that money and go retire, take Aewia somewhere safe."

"Big score or not, you think there's anywhere safe you could go that an old client couldn't find you?" he paused for a moment. "If we're being objective about this, joining Starfleet is the smartest move you could make. Safe, secure, and you have me to cover your ass." he grinned "No where in the universe can beat this, Nexi." he suddenly got more serious. "You can't run from a lot of things, but you can't ever outrun yourself... I learned that the hard way."

He had a valid point; a few of them actually... "Yeah, but is the Hera really any safer?" Nexi countered. "I mean, we're out here looking for trouble! Last mission we lost four people and we're about to perform a dangerous slingshot around a star to send us to the past. What part of any of that is safe? I never used to think about things in this way before Aewia became a part of my life. Fuck, it's hella dangerous, but I'd just charge a little more for the job; you know, hazard pay. But I loved the thrill of a challenging job! Now I just see what we're doing as reckless. How the hell did this happen to me? I don't like that this has changed for me!" But she loved Aewia, how could she not!

"Well, at least here there's a clear line of who's an enemy and who isn't." Cato paused before taking another bite, chewing quickly. "I'd rather go looking for trouble than have trouble sneaking up on me." He took a swig of his coffee "I'm on the Hera, trust me when I say that I'd die before letting anything happen to you or Aewia."

"I suppose you have a point there," Nexi relented. She swirled the coffee in her mug idly as she continued to wrestle with this thought despite what seemed to be overwhelming evidence that she was better off here on the Hera.

"Well, we both know that no matter what, you'll do whatever the fuck you want anyway." Cato said a bit bluntly, playing off the expression on her face. "Something is weighing on you, other than this. What's up?"

"Nothing," Nexi insisted just bit too firmly, but then she realized she couldn't (or shouldn't) lie to Cato and she sighed. "I don't know... It's just that- well, you know I was a Collector for the Ferengi Commerce Authority and-" Nexi winced as she tried to put words together in her head that might make sense. "I cut my ties with them only to tether myself immediately to Starfleet. I guess... I guess I'm just wondering if I'll ever be free..." she finally admitted, her tone laced with longing and regret. "Without Aewia, I wouldn't have stayed past the job I did for Enalia; I'm just tired of other people getting to decide who I am."

"Yeah, I get that." Cato used a napkin to wipe his mouth. "I had that same thing with my old man. Last thing he said to me before he died was 'Cato, you're a fuckin' disappointment. You're a disgrace to the uniform and I regret ever calling you my son'. Without that cluster fuck of a father, I doubt I would even be wearing a uniform. I probably would've turned out to be a merc or worse." he sighed "When I dropped out of the academy, I finally felt like I had my own destiny under my control. Controlling my immediate path was empowering." he took a swig of coffee "You need to find out what you want, more important who you want in life." another deep breath.

"You say 'merc' like there ain't one sitting across the table from you," Nexi replied in an annoyed tone. "And just what the hell is wrong with being a hand for hire? Sure, ain't the most honest of lifestyles, and sometimes you gotta do some real shitty stuff, but I did it and I was damned good at it. I called the shots, weren't no one could tell me what to do- until the FCA pulled on my leash, but that's beside the point. I liked what I did, it made me happy, and now I have all these duties and responsibilities and a sister to take care of and I don't know what the hell I'm doing! And then I go date a guy who wants me to be something I can't be, and I ain't used to caring about people, I can't just shut those feelings off now that I'm letting myself feel them, and to top it all off I've got you proclaiming your love for me! Is it any fucking wonder that I'm considering running away! Oh, and let's not forget that Bonnie-kin mother fucker out there turning people into monsters, and he knows my name, Cato, he knows who I am and I'm about to walk into another one of his labs to watch him butcher more. I am not ashamed to admit that I'm scared right now, because I'm terrified." What had started as anger ended in raw, unrestrained emotion as her confession continued to fall from her lips, and by the time she was done, her hands were shaking. "I know when we go there, I'll put on my mask and jump right in because it's what I do best, but inside it's killing me..."

Cato just sat and listened intently, until she was finished; Then he moved to softly take her hands, interlacing his fingers with hers. "Do you know why I said what I said to you that night?..." his voice trailed off, a more serious tone taking hold of his voice. "I said I love you, because I know the struggle you're going through. I've been there, I've done it. I want you to know you're not alone and that there's someone here for you, no matter what." he took a deep breath and shut his eyes "The kiss was for selfish reasons, but..." he opened his eyes and caught her gaze. "What I said, I meant. I'm here for you however you need me. Until I'm dead on the deck."

"You don't know," Nexi said in a hushed tone, but she made no attempt to remove her hands from him. "Cato, there's still so much you don't know about me. I was dead inside until Aewia made me feel again, and now I don't know who I am anymore, or what I want. Everything was so much simpler before..." There was a heaviness in her eyes, more than just mere fatigue, she was weary to her very soul. And yet, she held tightly to his hands, like maybe she was afraid that if she let go he would disappear.

He smiled "Simple... Yeah, life has a way of gettin' complicated." he sigh-breathed again "The thing is, I don't need to know." he took a deep breath "Who you are and what you want, are defined by your actions. Whatever happened in your past, does not determine your future." he took another breath "You..." He moved closer to her "Saved my life, without truly knowing me." he placed a soft kiss on her right cheek, whispering softly. "I'm not going anywhere." he pulled back and looked dead into her eyes "Unless you toss my ass out an airlock." he smiled, before shifting his right hand to gently caressing her jawline before sliding back to the base of her hair/neck. His lips, softly meeting hers for a brief moment before pulling away. Resting his forehead atop hers, "Don't wear a mask around me..."

"Do you really think I'd have said so much if I was wearing one now?" Nexi replied with a grin and a quiver in her voice. Her eyes were closed as they remained there, foreheads pressed together, just breathing, then after a while she raised her head to gaze into his eyes. "Do I still have to wear the dress on our date?" she asked. She may be having one hell of an identity crisis, but her hatred of more feminine clothing seemed to have persevered.

"Only if I don't have to wear one either." Cato laughed and gently pulled away. Clearing the countertop he placed everything back into the replicator and said "Recycle." turning back around "Come to bed with me." he bit his bottom lip slightly when eye locking with her. "Curl up next to me, close your eyes and just relax for a bit."

Nexi considered the offer for a moment before finally nodding. "For a bit," she said, then kicked off her heavy boots. "Just remember, I am armed, so watch where the hands go," she added, but her grin and accompanying tone suggested that she was saying it more for a sense of levity than an actual warning.

Cato smirked "My hands have a mind of their own. They've been waiting to memorize every curve you have." That smirk turned into a grin, of course he said that in jest. Cato walked past Nexi and into his bedroom. Walking around the bed, he pulled the covers back on her side of the bed. Taking his black MACO PT shirt off, he offered it to her. "A bit big, but comfy."

"Nah, I'm good," Nexi replied, and sat on the edge of the bed. Instead of taking off her pants and getting comfortable like a normal person, she preceded to remove her gun and its holster and set them on the side table. Then she lay down, fully clothed as was normal for her.

"Nexi... That isn't comfortable, you still have god knows how many weapons on you and all of your clothes on." He tossed the shirt on top of her now. "Trust me like you do when we're over the wire. I get handsy, I'll let you kick my ass." He smiled.

"What, the boots and the gun wasn't enough?" Nexi replied, looking at him as though he had grown a second head. "Seriously, this is how I sleep; why bother taking everything off when I'm just going to have to put it back on?" At his dull, unamused stare, she sighed. "Fine," she said, then sat up and started removing more weapons, and just to humor him, she even removed her pants.

"Just so I can grab that ass." Cato grinned and eyed the Type 2 Phase Pistol next to the bed. Sliding in next to her, he laid on his right side. Draping an arm across her body, he laid next to her. "See, not awful, right?"

"Oh yes, mhmm, absolutely terrible, I'm dying," Nexi said a chuckle as she inched closer to press her back against his chest. He was a much bigger man than Daln, so it was going to take some getting used to being so encased in his muscular embrace. "Happy now?" she asked.

"Well, I'd be happier laying right there" Cato said, jokingly as his hand traced near her cleavage, but too close. "But I'll make do." He smirked before following up with "So, no on the kilt for our date then? Because that counts."

Nexi, with her eyes closed trying to sleep, simply grinned. "No, a kilt is a kilt, not a dress; I'm not cheating on this bet and neither are you," she insisted.

"Fine, I PROMISE that I will wear a dress on our date." Cato said, shutting his eyes and feeling the warmth of her body pressed up against his underneath the covers. Thinking to himself I'll wear a dress at some point on our date he grinned and held Nexi close.

"I heard that," Nexi said.

Enalia and Aewia were off at a holographic gazebo enjoying ice cream smoothies in wine glasses and giggling about nonsensical things in Starfleet as Maica III guided the holographic kitchen staff in their setup of the dinner table for their guests. The setting today was a small mountain villa at sunset overlooking the valley of golan heights - a breathtaking view to be sure. Maica III had even ensured that Aewia enjoyed herself during a fitting of a beautiful sequined blue and lavender dress befitting the scenery and setting. Maica III herself was in a similar purple dress and Enalia was in a straight crimson dress with ruffles in back.

"I remember him now! Mister Gruffy!" Aewia exclaimed as Enalia play acted one of the instructors from the academy, prompting more giggles from both of them. "He was always so serious."

Nexi smiled at the sound of Aewia's laughter; despite her own discomfort of wearing a dress, it was good to hear Aewia laughing. While Maica III prepared the meal, Nexi helped set the table and bring food out as it was finished. Though she had almost opted out the bet to wear the dresses, at the last minute Nexi decided to just wear the damned dress that Enalia was providing. Cato had wanted side boob and heavy eye make up, but she seemed to be doing the exact opposite tonight; she wore a beautiful Greek inspired dress with a plunging neckline, made of a light and airy white Tholian silk, and she had used only minimal makeup to complement the simple elegance of the dress, though she did allow Maica to braid her, creating a messy yet romantic style that completed the whole look. In the grand scheme of things, this had to be the most comfortable dress she had ever worn, but she was still felt so out of her element without her heavy boots, baggy pants or her leather jacket. And no weapons! Aewia had put her foot down, Nexi was to be completely unarmed and she felt naked without the comforting weight of her weapons.

Little known to Nexi, or anyone else for that matter; Cato always had a trick up his sleeve. Adaptive Holographic Clothing, mostly used by the MACO's during infiltration or surveillance operations. However, tonight it would be used for his personal amusement. He was going to uphold his end of the arrangement, just not all night. He had plans, plans to take advantage of Nexi all dressed up and sexy. The 'base' was similar to compression wear, except with holographic emitters all over it. A battery pack was built into the very fabric of the base layer itself. Controlled by a watch, similar to that of a 21st century Apple iWatch.

An off white linen suit was worn, no tie. or at least, it was programmed as the first setting. Stepping into the Captain's Mess, Cato took the setting into view. But that's not where his eyes went, they fell on Nexi and gods did she look stunning.

"That does not look like a dress," Nexi remarked right away, momentarily oblivious to his staring. Although, he did look nice in that suit... She gave him a good once over with her eyes, an approving grin on her face. "Yeah, still doesn't look like a dress."

"That doesn't look like side boob and black eye makeup." he grinned "I guess we're making compromises already." he bit his bottom lip. "Although, you look amazing." he smiled like a kid who just got surprised with something they had always wanted on Christmas morning.

"Not a dress! Not a dress!" Aewia sang as she set her glass aside. "Even the kitchen staff are in dresses and you couldn't show up in a dress? Dishonor upon you. Dishonor upon your house. Dishonor upon your cow..." She then broke down into giggles, unable to keep a straight face any more.

"Hey, I only promised a dress, no side boob or the eye makeup; if I were to comply with your demands, then in fairness you should be wearing some leather and lace," Nexi stated firmly, chuckling as Aewia continued to giggle. "Hey, take it easy over there, kiddo, if you laugh too hard your head will float away."

Cato moved closer to Nexi, his hand sliding across her bare flesh exposed by the dress, moving to rest at the curve right above her waist. Pulling her body up against his before whispering into her right ear. "You look gorgeous, and I wouldn't change a thing about you." he kissed her softly on her cheek. "I'll wear the dress in a bit. Don't worry." he winked. "Drink time." he headed off to wherever the alcohol was.

"You know, my wife can help you with a dress if you need help," Enalia said to Cato as she offered a glass and a bottle of Romulan ale from the open bar along the back of the room. "Having a private captain's mess has more privileges than just a bar and a holographic view, you know. There's a changing room and a shower as well."

"I think we should let Aewia pick out a dress; she's going through a purple phase and I think he would look alright in purple," Nexi said with a snicker.

Taking the glass and bottle from Enalia, Cato grinned looking back at Nexi. Placing the bottle and glass down atop a table, he held that grin on his face "No, I've got it covered." a single finger swiped across the watch like device on his wrist. Cato held his arms out straight to from each side as a blue ribbon of energy ran over his form. Shifting his clothing from that perfectly tailored suit to a... fucking dress... He had to hold up his end of the bet. After all, you only had two things in this universe; your word and your balls. When the projection was finished changing, he was left wearing a black dress that resembled more of a v-neck shirt and kilt, but it was in fact a dress.

"Nope, try again," Nexi said dryly, grabbing him by the arm and started playing with the watch controls. "Already told you, a kilt doesn't co- Why in the fucking hells do you even have this stored in here?!" Snickering like a maniac, she activated a pattern she found in the watch, the pattern for a shimmery gold dress, backless and with an under boob window. She had seen dresses like this on Dabo girls, it was a really popular design, for a Dabo girl but why the hell did he have it in his watch?

"Fucker..." Cato replied with a smile. "This was for later... But now you've ruined your surprise..." he sighed. "Figured you'd get a laugh out of this!" he pointed to the underboob window. "Fuckin' hilarious." He picked that bottle of Romulan Ale back up, poured himself a glass and pounded it back like water. "If I have to stay in this thing, I'm getting piss drunk."

"Not too drunk, I hope." Maica III slyly commented conspiratorially as she rang the dinner bell and dismissed the kitchen crew. "Enalia has a bit of an announcement to make before dinner."

"Yes. Yes, I do." Enalia set her glass aside and pulled a pair of small black boxes out from behind the bar. "Normally we'd do this in a more formal setting, but I felt that under the circumstances this was formal enough."

Opening the first box, she addressed Cato, handing him the box with a crisp salute. "Chief Cato West, you are hereby promoted to Warrant Officer, effective immediately."

Taken back, Cato accepted the box. "Thank you Ma'am." he returned the salute crisply. Eyes wandered over to Nexi and a smile crossed his lips when she was given entrance into Starfleet. Standing silent, Cato watched what came next.

Enalia then moved in front of Nexi and opened the other box. "Nexi, you have come a long way. You didn't have to stick around. I'm glad you did though. I'm glad you did though. I'm hopeful that within Starfleet you can find a home where you can become the best you that you can be and while you still have a lot to learn and much to study, by the authority granted me by the Federation and Starfleet Command, I grant you the rank of Staff Warrant Officer, effective immediately." She then handed Nexi the box with the rank pips while crisply saluting.

Nexi stared at the box in stunned amazement. Forgetting any sense of protocol, she took the little box and opened it to look at the little pip framed by a little chevron on each side. She had really done it! Then she grinned. "Suck it, I outrank you!" she said to Cato.

Cato gave Nexi a nod and replied "Congratulations." before swiping his watch again, this time putting him back into the suit he arrived in. "If you'll excuse me, I need a minute." Cato said, making a quick beeline for the door. Stepping out into the hallway, Cato put his back up against the bulkhead and slid down to the floor. Taking a deep breath, his mind started to turn about how much more complicated life just got.

Nexi looked at Enalia with confusion. "Is this one of those moments where I'm so out of touch with social norms I've done something stupid?" she asked. She couldn't be expected to remember everything about stupid hu-mon culture!

"I may have thrown his whole world upside down..." Enalia mused as she retrieved her drink and headed towards the dinner table to sneak a peek at the covered dishes.

Maica III headed towards the door with a small bottle of Enalia's more prized homemade moonshines. "Excuse me, I'll only be a moment."

Out in the hall, Maica III didn't take long to locate Cato and latch onto his arm, offering the 180 proof blackberry-maple brandy. "Here, this might help. And if you want to talk..." She smiled up at him in a way that could melt duranium, her dimpled face tilted perfectly to give him the best view possible of her cavernous cleavage. Yeah, she was married. Yeah he was seeing someone. If her origins as a sex hologram could help him focus his thoughts though, she'd use it.

Well, titties like that would grab anyones attention. He took the small bottle of the blackberry-concoction and took a swig. "It helps." He smiled back at Macia III, "Well, the woman I'm seeing just becoming my superior officer, so that happened. Conflict of everything much?" he paused "FUCK!" he banged the back of his head against the wall of the corridor. "Why can't life ever be un-complicated?..." his voice trailed before he took another swig.

Maica III nodded a moment and thought it over before replying. "I may not be in Starfleet, but as warrant officers doesn't that make it just a bit easier? Protocol governing those ranks is a lot more lenient and relaxed. In fact, if I understand them correctly, unless you're on an assignment specifically, right now you both have the same responsibilities, mission, orders, and everything, don't you? Does it really matter who's on top?"

"No, you're one-hundred percent correct." He paused "The issue comes down when we're over the wire." he closed his eyes and took a deep breath "Maybe I'm just over thinking it. Having flashbacks to being at this point in my career almost ten years ago, because it's a hop-skip and to getting a commission. Which is not something I thought would be in the cards for me ever again." another deep breath coupled with a sigh.

"Ah, a proper commission," That actually threw Maica III off a little. She expected couple trouble, but not career woes as well. She could offer support there as well though. "If that's the path you want to take, then you should go for it. You have a lot of potential in you and I think you'd make a great officer." Smiling up at him, she gave him her most honest smile.

He smirked "Thank you for that, but I had a commission once before. It didn't end well for me. Some of us are just cut out to be pipe-hitters who do the hitting, not the ordering." he stood up. "Thank you for coming out and setting me straight." He finished the small bottle off "Not to mention the liquid courage, I appreciate it. I'm better when I'm getting shot at, not so great at the social end of things." Cato returned her honest smile, with a warm one. "Shall we?" he offered her his left arm.

"To each their own then," Maica III replied as she accepted the now empty bottle and the arm. "Oh and forgove me but I had to take the liberty of hacking your outfit thingy." As they re-entered, she waved her hand and Cato's outfit shimmered and was replaced by a very gothic black and blue 'dress' with a flared collar, sleeves, and shoulders. It even had it's own silk cape and made him look more like an evil sorcerer there to get someone to eat a poisoned apple than a guest. Maica III just grinned innocently. "Sorry. I couldn't help myself."

"Oh for fucks sake..." he face-palmed and chuckled after. "I need to get security installed on this thing." he smirked. "Let's get on with this, so I can go back to wearing normal clothes." he chuckled, walking over to Nexi; Sliding an arm around her waist.

Nexi was just swatting Aewia's hand away from the deserts Maica had made, when she felt a bigger, more muscular arm encircle her waist. She turned to welcome Cato back, but then she saw him and all she could do was laugh. "Oh fucking hell, now that's a dress!" she said as she laughed, laughing so hard she started having trouble breathing.

Enalia had to hide her own laughter but soon composed herself and motioned towards the main table. "Shall we? I'm told my wife has outdone herself in planning tonight's meal."

As everyone was seated and the kitchen staff returned to fill the wine glasses with prearranged drinks from the bar, Maica III began to explain tonight's menu. "Indeed. Since we're a group of sentients with wildly varied tastes and preferences, I took the liberty of doing something rather different. Rather than creating a series of dishes that a few may enjoy, I've given us a base dish that I know we can all enjoy the very basics of and lined our plates with things we can add to it to make it more to our liking."

As the servers pulled the rather large domes off the meal platters and the steam cleared, the meals before them were revealed to be something resembling an unassembled soft shelled taco salad with over a dozen ingredients arrayed around the edge of the plate, some of them unidentifiable and others easily recognized from Earth, Trill, Bajor, or Bolia. The main dish itself though, even though it looked bland, still looked magnificent, having several types of meat and legumes in a sort of rosary of green, red, and white tortilla bowl shaped edible.

Everything looked so fancy, and even all the different options were a bit much for her. She could understand what Maica was trying to achieve, but Nexi just wanted simple. "Looks good," Nexi said simply, taking a seat at the table and digging in to the main dish without bothering to dress it up, and in her opinion it was pretty damned good as it was, but then again she had grown up on grubs... And then Aewia was taking something something and adding it to Nexi's plate, like she knew that Nexi was going to wuss out on trying something new.

"Oi! Mess with your own plate- oh hey, that actually looks good," Nexi started to complain, only to have the wind taken out of her sails when Aewia succeeded in putting together a combination Nexi found delightfully palatable without being busy or overwhelming.

"Creams and pate'. Don't worry, they're bland yet flavorful," Aewia replied, unexpectedly regal in her demeanor. "Mother insisted on this particular combination specifically at functions when Duchess Kunninum visited. It was her favorite side with almost every main dish even though father protested about it's vile lack of texture while planning the meal. At least he and I agreed on the need for the peperoncini salsa imported from Earth that our hostesses this evening have so graciously included in the meal."

"You know you freak me out every time you do that," Nexi remarked over Aewia's moment of clarity and refinement.

Having finished preparing the small display on Nexi's plate, Aewia resumed preparing her own and went about eating the dish like proper royalty, though with the entirety of her portion of hasperat sauce and everything else that even remotely looked spicy all over her plate.

'Aaaaaand there goes the refinement,' Nexi thought with a chuckle as she watch Aewia scarf down her spicy abomination.

Maica III was taking the forkful and dip approach to her dinner, hers of course being holographic.

Enalia on the other hand, had built a bit of a mountain and was trying to get tiny bits of everything into every bite.

Cato had taken his seat at the table; However, being the jarhead that he was he mixed the entire plate together. Creating a cluster of everything together, he took a bite. He enjoyed the interesting flavor of everything scrambled together. Cato wasn't a picky eater, after all he probably had ingested more weird meals than anyone else on the ship at this point. Cato had kept quiet, thus far during the meal. He focused on the experience the flavor of the food provided.

Nexi was still working through her rather bland meal when she looked to Aewia and then to Cato, and then finally to Enalia; Nexi didn't know what it was like to have a family, but she hoped it was a lot like this. Her sister, a friend who was more than just a friend, and a guy she didn't really know what was between them but it was good. Everything, she decided, was good...

Standing in shuttlebay two, the team's gear had just been released from quarantine. His armor looked like it had been put through the meat grinder. "Well fuck." one of the support craft deck hands carted over his 'equipment' visibly gagging and trying not to breathe, the smell was rancid; Old blood and overgrown rat saliva were on the left leg of his armor from where he became a chew toy. The armor was crushed on one side from the brutal impact of where he hit the deck after being flung through the air. Tapping his commbadge "Chief West to Lieutenant Thex, I need a hand with something in Shuttlebay two."

"On my way." Came the answer from the other side of the com badge. After five minutes the door to the bays jefferies tubes opened as the andorian engineer stepped out. Notching the human with the equipment crate she walked over. " West is it? What do you want me to look at and why does it smell that bad?" She asked politely.

"That..." he pointed with his right hand, 'knife' style. "Is my EVA suit / combat armor, or rather what's left of it. Let's just say some things can't be unseen." he winked "I need an upgrade El-tee (LT). I need my duranium armor panels replaced with tritanium ones coated in neutronium. I also need a few more things, it'll take some engineering trickery which is why I called you. I need a personal forcefield generator integrated into the suit, something large enough so that I could push forward against enemy fire in say a corridor?"

He continued "In addition to all of that, I'd like the ability to electrically charge the exterior of the suit. That way if anything tries to use me as a chew toy again, it'll get the piss shocked out of it." He paused before continuing "I also need energy magazine pockets, plasma grenade pockets and a place for my bubblegum." he smiled. "Oh, I also need a a way to stow my katana. But I doubt half of that shit is even possible, right?" he grinned.

"Impossible has possible in it doesn't it? " The andorian replied with cheeky grin as she picked up one of the leg sections and turned it over in her hands. " Some parts will need flat out replacing by the look of it. Will you give me a hand and we can get this to one of the workshops? "

Cato moved to take hold of the cart that his gear was on and started to push it across the deck. "It needs to be secure and this needs to be kept between you and me." Cato added as he started to hobble across the deck to the turbo lift with his massive cart full of his equipment that didn't fully exist anymore.

" Don't worry I've worked with intelligence before. I know how stuff that you work with just stops existing as soon as it leaves my sight." The andorian replied grinning to herself as they stepped into the turbolift. " Engineering." She said to the computer as the lift began to move." So how did this end up in this state?" She enquire politely.

"The same way I ended up in this state" Cato quipped with a smirk, pulling up his left pant leg to show her the dermal bandages wrapped around his recently reconstructed leg. "Shit happens." he smiled "Wouldn't have it any other way." That smile turned into a grin. "Thank you for taking time to help me, I appreciate it Ma'am."

"Please don't call me Ma'am it makes me feel old. My names Thex and that will do just fine." She replied with her own grin.

"Better pop that rank off your neck then." he smiled "Then I guess you'll call me Cato." The turbo lift opened up and out they walked. "Alright, where to?" he said as he hobbled pushing the cart out of the lift.

" Workshop seven just through here." The andorian replied as she lead him into one of the small ships workshops. " Just put it here and I'll see if my boys have left the tool kits." She said walking over to the storage locker. " Oh, computer bottle of industrial disinfectant. " She said to the rooms replicator which quickly replicated a bottle of green liquid. " Can you start disinfecting the gear? " She said as she began gathering tools from the locker.

Cato nodded and grabbed the bottle of green liquid and began disinfecting. "In addition, we need to integrate this EXO suit. Build the interface into the undergarment for the suit." He smiled as he began disinfecting his armor. "You'll have your work cut out for you, luckily we have time." he stated "I need you to make me a monster to fight monsters Thex. We lost three good men on the last run, on the next one if anyone doesn't make it back... It's going to be me."

"After we're through, the borg will be scared of you." The andorian replied as she placed all the necessary equipment down on the table. Picking up the chest section she began running a micro-molecular repair tool along the broken sections. " So how did you end up on this ship?" She asked politely.

Cato smirked "A series of bad choices, led to another series of mistakes, which led to MACO being disbanded and me being thrown into intel." He paused as he picked up a spanner and began to disassemble the micro-computer access cover on his helmet. "How about yourself?"

"My old boss recommended me for promotion and the fleet sent me here." Thex replied with a reassuring smile on her face as she continued her work." Doesn't sound as hard as your journey.
I hope things turn around for you."

Cato laughed and shook his head, continuing to work. "You sound like T'Pral." a small shock from the capacitor overloading when the spanner touched the casing Cato yelled "Motherfucker!" before shaking the hand that had been shocked. "Turning things around for me at this point is moot. I have a job, my job is to fight the enemy. When there's no enemy left for me to fight, then I will disappear until I'm needed again. That is my place." he responded bluntly "Sure, it's not the Starfleet way, but I love blowing shit up."

"Nothing wrong with a good explosion. Providing it's not my ship that's exploding. " came the andorians response as she picked up the replcament plates that would be needed. " Hand me the bottle of silver liquid will you?"

"Sure" Cato said as he reached over and grabbed a bottle of silver liquid and handed it to Thex. Going back to working on the micro-computer, he pulled the small core which resembled one of the larger ones seen on starships; Placing it down on an anti-static tray before going back to remove the remainder of the computer.

Thex smiled and applied the liquid to the armor. To this, she began to lay the new armored plates fixing them to the armors base. It would be much tougher to break through. " How does the armor hold up against EMP's?"She asked as she worked.

"Valid question." he perked a brow "If we shield the computer with some kind of insulation material, similar to a Faraday Cage, it would be relatively successful in deflection of a multi-wave EMP event. What do you have that can reflect EM radiation, yet is thiner than 0.01 microns?"

"I have something though it's still experimental. Not only does it reflect radiation, but it also turns part of it into a charge that can add power back into the suits power cells. I'm still working on it and it only lasts for thirty days before it needs replacing, but if you'de be up for using it i have some sheets in storage." Thex said pausing in her work.

"Absolutely, as long as it comes in black." Cato joked, continuing to pull the helmet apart and set pieces of it down on the anti-static tray.

" It's only in one colour I'm afraid. " She replied as she left the room before returning with a rolled up sapphire blue material. " Here it is. Took me a week to make this amount. " She said rolling the material out on the table. It glimmered like metal despite it flexibility.

"Well, that's pretty. Can we sandwich it into the liner or the suit itself and on the interior of the helemt?" He asked, it wasn't that he hated blue... But it was reflective and reflective would get him killed when he was trying to be stealth.

" Off course. I wouldn't let some reflective be put on the outside of the armor. " She grinned as she began to use a small laser to cut it into shape. After a second she began laying the material inside the chest piece. After that she reattached the suits liner before checking the suits electrical components. " Everythings looking good here. Want to try it on to make sure it still fits?" She asked as the positive readings came back.

"Eh, not yet. We need to integrate the exo-suit into it and figure out a power source for it. Ideas?" Cato replied, shifting his pant leg to give him some relief from the dull pain that was his wound healing.

"Latest alorian batteries that can last seventy-two hours. Combined with the rechargeability and you should have plenty of power. " Thex said running the ships inventory through her head.

"Hot-Rod." He grinned. "Alright, sickbay needs me back... I'll blow my replicator rations for the week on a nice dinner." he smirked. "Bring the suit, I'll bring you a date. You, me, T'Pral and a mystery man." he winked. "I owe you one Thex, thank you!" Cato said, gimping out of the engineering bay heading back for Sickbay.

" See you later than and I'm okay wth girls." The andorian called after him as she got to work installing the gear on the suit.

Daytona didn't really have an official shift. In theory he had work to complete. Clio had asked him to review some intelligence reports and give her his thoughts on them and help her decide what was worth bringing to Enalia and Mal's attention. He'd gone over everything, prepared a report for Clio, and spent some time giving her the highlights, then signed off for the day.

What he was doing was really silly and he knew it. He was going for a walk with Akira in the Arboretum, where they would see many trees, plants, and flowers. First, however, after stopping at his quarters to clean up and change into civilian clothes, he went to the Arboretum to pick up something.

"You were right, Mister Ral," the botanist on duty in the Arboretum said. "Almost every planet with flowers has a flower analogous to a terran rose. Some of them are down right scary, too. Anyway, I was able to get what you wanted: three bolian roses, three trill roses, three terran roses, and, for the orion roses I chose a three roses from Rigel VII..."

"...the current home of the tattered Orion 'Empire' to use the term loosely," Daytona said. "I grew up in the Rigel System, remember. Good choice. They look great. Thanks again Ensign."

"No problem, Mister Ral," the young ensign said. "Good luck!"

"Thanks!" Daytona replied. He took the flowers and headed over to Akira's quarters. It had occurred to him, when he changed into a loose pair of khaki-like pants, sandals, and a loose shortsleeved shirt with a collar that buttoned up the front, that Akira might just keep her uniform on. He might actually be the first person that ever asked her out socially and she might not think about wearing something casual. He didn't worry about it, though. He was just happy the tiny attractive blue woman with the sexy spots on her neck was willing to spend more time with him. Everything else would work itself out...he hoped. When he arrived at Akira's door, he put the hand holding the flowers behind his back and rang the chime.

Akira was just sitting on the couch waiting for Dayton. Most girls would be getting dressed and making themselves pretty, but she had no way of know that she was supposed to be primping for her date. So there she was, just sitting in her uniform until she heard the chime. She stepped up and opened the door, looking at Dayton with confusion. "I am not appropriately dressed," she remarked factually.

Daytona chuckled.

"I think I just won a bet with myself," he said. "I was just thinking that you were going to be wearing your uniform. Don't worry about it. Change, don't change, I'm fine either way. And before I miss my chance, these..."

Dayton brought the flowers out and presented them to Akira.

"...are for you!" he said.

Now I give her a second or two and if she's still standing there looking clueless, I offer to put them in water for her. That smile turns me into an obedient servant.

"Why did you cut the flowers?" Akira asked with a bemused glance at the flowers. "I think flowers are much prettier and much happier when you leave them to grow."

Daytona chuckled.

"Of course you do," he said. "In many cultures it is customary to give flowers as an expression of affection, gratitude, contrition, condolence. These are an expression of affection, contrition, and gratitude. I like you, hence affection. I am very sorry that I offended you yesterday, hence contrition, and I am very grateful to you because you've chosen to spend more time with me, hence gratitude. The number of flowers given varies from culture to culture and occasion to occasion, but terrans usually give a dozen. You are part terran, so I chose a dozen. You are part terran, part trill, part bolian, and part orion. I have selected a three terran roses, three trill roses, three bolian roses, and three roses from Rigel VII, currently ruled by the Orions."

Daytona indicated each different kind of flower as he mentioned them.

"Now," he said. "If you'll let me, I should put these in water so they stay alive as long as possible. May I come in?"

"Yes," Akira replied simply with a nod, stepping away so he could enter, allowing him to tend to the flowers since he seemed to know what he was doing. Her quarters were sparse, barely even used. The only sign that anyone even lived here at all was a shelf on the wall with a collection of books she had already read, real books, most notably various philosophical topics relating to one's existence from various sources across the galaxy.

Daytona replicated a vase and unwrapped the flowers. He carefully arranged them and filled vase with water. When he was done, he set the vase in the middle of a table, clearly unused for anything. Satisfied, he walked past her bookshelf and scanned some of the titles and authors.

"Glad to see I'm not the only one that ponders his place in the grand scheme of things," he said. "Academician Ganik's book here got to be a bit much for me to swallow...by that I mean to accept, I didn't try eating it, though that might have made things easier, but I found Master Selok's book interesting. Do you have a favorite?"

"I think I may favor the ideals of of Earth Buddhism," Akira replied. "But in terms of favoring one book over another, I do not yet have a favorite. Do you want me to change my appearance so that I am not wearing my uniform?" she asked without bothering with any segue in topic.

If you expect to have any chance at all with her, DO NOT SAY IT!

"Well," Daytona said. "You are very attractive so yes, of course I would like to see you without your uniform on, but I think you're asking if I want you to change the appearance of your clothing, in which case...I want you to take whatever appearance makes you comfortable. That said, I wouldn't mind seeing what civilian outfit you come up with if you want to change your clothes."

His words brought on a faint blush to her blue cheeks, but why she could not quite figure out. "I have not yet developed any preferences in regards to my appearance, and if you really wish to see unclothed, I can oblige, but ship regulations would not permit us to go very far," Akira replied, so factual and innocent at the same time.

Daytona recovered quickly. A gentle smile formed on his face.

"You may not understand how truly painful it is for me to say this, BUT," he said. "While a lesser man would just take the opportunity to gawk at your naked body, I'm going to ask you to make me that offer after we've gotten to know each other better, by which time I hope you'll be taking off your clothes in my presence because you want to, and not just because I want you to."

Did I just pass up the only chance I'm ever going to have of making love with this lovely lady? I hope not. That would be a tragedy.

Akira simply shrugged, not really understanding anything about modesty or why she would want to take her clothes off for him. Akira understood what sex was, she had an encyclopedic database she inherited from Maica's matrix just full of information she thought she had no use for; unlike Maica, Akira was not designed for the purpose of sex, it was not her primary function, and since she was also not capable of procreation, Akira didn't really see the point.

Deciding that since Daytona was dressed down for this walk to the Arboretum, Akira would dress down as well; she looked down at herself, at her uniform, and then her form shimmered, and when she came back into focus she was wearing a simple creamed colored dress.

"Is this better?" she asked.

Wow.

"You look...lovely," Daytona said. "Truly lovely. Shall we go?"

Daytona considered offering Akira his arm, but thought better of it. She might not understand, and then he'd have to explain, and then other things she didn't understand might come up, and by the time all of the explanations were complete the evening would be over. For now he just wanted to go for a walk in the park with a pretty girl...this pretty girl, to be specific.

"Thank you," Akira replied, blushing softly. She said nothing as she began walking, not really knowing what to talk about, or even that they were supposed to be conversing.

They walked in silence for a bit. Daytona didn't mind the silence. You got used to periods of no real conversation in his line of work. After a time, though, he decided to break the silence.

"So," he said. "Tell me about your day...the parts I wasn't there for."

He added the last part for Akira's benefit, hopefully to prevent confusion. He was still working out how much she understood about interaction between sentient beings and how that interaction might be different if she was interacting with someone who was interested in her romantically. This was going to take time, but Daytona was willing to do the work. If nothing else, he'd make an interesting friend, but he was hoping for more. Frankly, it was no different than starting a relationship with any other species 'alien' to him, so he committed himself to being himself and just seeing what happened.

"Oh, it was quite interesting! I got to climb through the Jefferies tubes to make some repairs and then I spent the better part of the afternoon logging supplies! And before I logged out for the evening, I got a head start on some of the work for tomorrow; a lot needs to be done, the first of which was making sure that the holo-emitters would survive the power surge and subsequent drain that the slingshot would cause. I had to write custom subroutine to shunt me to the holodeck in case of ship emitter failure. And then I set up a custom command display for my station on the Bridge so that I can monitor everything during the slingshot; I have been told that this maneuver can cause organics to lose consciousness, so the ship will need me to be attentive to ensure we reach the correct destination," Akira rattled off with unrestrained enthusiasm.

Daytona grinned.

"Sounds like you enjoy your job quite a bit," he said. "So, is the holodeck on a separate power source? Is that why you wrote the program to shunt yourself there in case of a power outage?"

"Yes, Holodecks have their own power source and processors so that they do not cause strain on critical ship systems," Akira informed him, clearly very interested, not so much about holo-technology, but rather any technology in general. "Originally ships weren't designed with that kind of strain in mind and later when holodeck technology had advanced to the point that holodecks were being installed fleetwide, independent processors and power sources were necessary. Later, they became more integrated with ship systems for newer model ships, but the decision was made to keep the independent systems to maintain overall ship efficiency."

"I see," Daytona said. "Ah, we've arrived."

They entered the arboretum.

"I really love it here," Daytona said. "I grew up on a farm and I learned to love the outdoors as a child. Later, in the army, I was often on patrol in the colder regions of the planet, on the boarders of the areas still largely controlled by the Kaylar tribes to this day. I still loved it. It was different than I was used to. Sparse, stark, but beautiful in its own way."

He was raised on a farm, and she was a computer program who had never been outside before, they couldn't be more unalike! "I've seen beautiful places in the holodeck, but I'd like to be able to see some of these places for real. I was given plans for a mobile emitter, and I'm working on building it, but it is very complex; still, I have hope that one day I'll be able to leave the ship and see a real sky, feel a real breeze... At least as a consolation, the Hera has a lovely garden," Akira said, running a hand over some vibrant fern fronds.

"I would love to escort you to see a few real skies, Akira," Daytona said. "If you want the company, that is. I've seen skies that would take your breath away...figuratively speaking. Until then, do you see this flower here?"

Daytona pointed out a tall flower. It had multicolored petals and shimmered slightly. He gently pulled it towards him and lightly blew air from his mouth into it and then leaned back. The center began to glow and a moment later a light burst of pollen burst into the air and fell shimmering around them.

"It has something to do with exposure to a certain level of carbon dioxide as I recall," he said. "It was bred to monitor air quality. Both beautiful, and practical."

Akira smiled with excitement, leaning in to blow on another one of these flowers. Her matrix was capable of simulating breath, and the leaves and petals rustled in response, but it did not glow. Akira looked at the flower in confusion, touching her fingers to her lips to feel the breath she created. "Oh, right..." she said, saddened when she remembered that her breath was not real.

Daytona's heart went out to Akira. Her sadness was his sadness. How could he make this better?

"I'm sorry," he said. "I should have realized...wait a moment."

Daytona pulled his commbadge from his pocket and activated it.

"Ral to Ensign Verde," he said. "Polegar, are you still in the arboretum?"

"Verde to Ral," came the reply. "Yes, I'm still here. What can I do for you?"

"When I was here earlier you were telling me about a new edition your collection here," Daytona said. "Without saying what they are, do you remember this?"

"Yep," Polegar said. "I think I know where you're going with this. Do you have a PaDD with you?"

"A small one," Daytona replied. "Hang on."

Daytona pulled a small PaDD out of his pocket.

"Go ahead," he said.

"Sending you the map with their location now."

"Got it," Daytona said. "Thanks. I owe you one."

"No problem," Polegar said. "Verde out."

Daytona turned to Akira and held out his hand.

"Come with me," he said. "I think I've found something perfect for you."

"Okay," Akira replied. She still looked so upset, but curiosity was urging her on to follow Daytona to see what had him so excited.

They walked for a bit hand in hand, which Daytona liked. He wasn't really sure how Akira felt about it, but she had taken his hand and was holding his hand and was not complaining. Daytona took these facts to mean that if she wasn't actually getting anything out of holding his hand, at least it wasn't bothering her. They walked through the arboretum, taking in the scenery as they walked. Finally, they arrived at their destination. Nearby, there were several person-sized statues (well, short-people-sized statues) in an area off the path. The statues were liberally covered in vines. On the vines were what appeared to be flowers that had not yet blossomed.

"Now," Daytona said, stopping before entering the semi-circle of statues. "Stay here a moment."

Akira nodded mute, standing right where he left her to watch what he did.

Daytona walked into the semi-circle and stood there a moment. Absolutely nothing happened. Daytona was grinning like the cat that ate the canary.

"As you can see," he said. "The vines didn't react to me at all. Now, come stand with me."

Daytona held out his hand to Akira again and when she took it, he led her until she was standing in front of him. He placed his hands on her shoulders.

"Wait for it..." he said. "There! Look!"

The flowers on the vines began to bloom, surrounding them in vibrant colors and sweet smells. The flowers had clearly reacted to something about Akira!

"That's amazing!" Akira replied with excitement. "How are they doing that?" she asked.

Success! No effort is too great when that smile is the reward!

"Two thousand years ago," Daytona said. "The people of Gambek II began experiencing what they called 'hauntings'. Feelings that something was present, something alive but unseen. Then there were sightings out of the corners of the eye. Shimmering images, but nothing solid enough to identify. Whatever these were, they became a part of the society's culture. Eventually, as their science advanced to the point that their scientists began trying to explain these hauntings. It took time, but it was eventually discovered that the 'hauntings' were actually visits from photonic lifeforms whose 'physical forms' for lack of a better word, were usually outside of the visible spectrum of the inhabitants of the planet. These weren't truly sentient beings, more like friendly, playful, and intelligent animals, but animals nonetheless. While investigating these creatures, the one of the scientists realized that these vines reacted to the presence of the creatures. Soon every household was trying to grow the vines around their property. It proved helpful in developing a friendly relationship between the creatures and the populace. One of the issues was that people couldn't see the creatures unless they wavered into the visible spectrum and by that time they were already, for lack of a better phrase, creeped out. The vines meant that there was some warning when one or more of the creatures were near. It has been theorized that the creatures are not native to Gambek II, but that they migrated there from somewhere else, but the people of Gambek II have come to not only accept them as part of their everyday lives, but to enjoy their company as well."

"Oh, that's so..." Akira trailed off, not having any series of words she could string together that could amply describe how she felt about this. With a big smile, she watched as the vines continued to blossom before her.

The sounds of joy in Akira's voice were music to Daytona's ears.

"It really is," he said, also feeling at a loss for words. He decided to let her bask in her feelings and in the vision of loveliness before her. There was a small pool in front of Akira, reflecting an image of the look of wonder and joy on her face. This image touched him beyond words. Combined with the 'magic' happening before them, the look on Akira's face made Daytona feel light and happy and at peace. He hadn't a care in the world. In this moment all seemed right with the world.

Whatever happens from here on out, I will remember and cherish this moment.

Daytona's hands were still resting gently on Akira's shoulders. Intellectually, Daytona knew that she was a photonic lifeform, a being made of light. But under his hands she felt soft and warm. Heat, very close to body heat, radiated off of her and warmed Daytona. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he wondered how that worked. Generating light tended to generate heat. Akira's 'physical' form was made up of light generated from the holoprojectors all around the room. Could that be where the heat is coming from? Or did she purposely generate the heat to simulate body heat? Dayton decided that it didn't really matter. It felt good to be standing close to her. He refocused on the image of her face in the pool. She really was beautiful when she smiled like that.

Completely taken in by these plants, Akira lowered herself to the grass so she could study one of the flowers. She sat there for a long while and with such innocence she reached out and touched some of the tiny unopened buds. They opened like magic and she felt the softness of the petals and teased the pollen stalks, watching with amazement as the pollen dusted the air. It was truly incredible to see these plants react to her in the same way those other flowers had reacted to Daytona!

Daytona was content to let Akira have as much time with the vines and their flowers as she wanted. A wild thought struck him. He wondered if he could get the botany folks to get some of these vines set up in Akira's quarters. That way, they could greet her every time she entered her quarters. Of course, once he'd thought about it for a second more, he realized that he had no idea how often, if ever, Akira used her quarters. If he had not suggested that he pick her up there, would she have even manifested there at all this evening? Or would she have just dematerialized for the night?

More to discover. I could always put the vines in my quarters and give her an excuse to come by...

Daytona knew that he was being silly, but as usual, he really didn't care. He was having fun and Akira was having fun, so no harm done. Daytona looked at Akira with a contented smile on his face. The way the light struck her made her seem almost nymph-like. Daytona had seen actual Pomtoli nymphs up close so he would know.

Akira remained enraptured by these vines so long that she had nearly forgotten that Daytona was there! After a while though, she remembered that she wasn't alone and she offered him the biggest and brightest smile with bit of a sheepish wave.

"Hello," Daytona said, waving back. He was sure that others might call the grin on his face a bit goofy, but again, he really didn't care. "You look like you're having fun."

"I am, thank you!" Akira replied, blushing slightly. "Although... I wonder how much fun you could be having; it certainly cannot be all that entertaining watching me play with the flowers."

"You could not be more wrong, Akira," he said. "You are a pleasure to watch. Your joy is infectious. Men have fought wars, conquered far off lands, built palaces made out of the finest materials, and created great works of art, poetry, music, and theatre, inspired by smiles such as the one on your face right now, the one that's been on your face since you first witnessed the vines' response to you."

Some would say that the tall rigelian was behaving the fool, but once again, Daytona really didn't care.

"I have no interest in any of those things, except maybe the music," Akira admitted as she ran her fingers along the vines. "But I wouldn't want music written about me, I would want something... something that... makes you feel like you are flying," she continued with a thoughtful tilt of her head. "I do not know precisely what that means; it's from one of my father's memories, listening to something that made his heart race and- and made his arms all bumpy with the hair standing up. I would like to feel that, at least once."

"That settles it," Daytona said. "I'll have to study music! I'll start right away! I shall compose for you the greatest song ever written! I'll...alright, I'm kidding. I've never put serious thought into learning music. Listening to it, learning its origins, that I've done, and I've enjoyed it. Have you listened to much music?"

Akira giggled at his profession to learn about music so he could compose something for her. "I've listened to quite a bit," Akira admitted with a small smile. "When I'm reading, I like to listen to... well... they are these bowls? You can ring them like bells, or make them hum! They are very-" She paused as she tried to find the right word to describe the feeling she got. "Soothing, they make me feel very peaceful, they calm my thoughts. My mothers were both musicians, and Mother Maica made a violin for me and Mother Andy has been teaching me over subspace to play it. But I'm also interested in learning the flute; there's a wonderful airy quality to smaller wooden flutes that I find is so delightful; concert flutes sound wonderful as well, but there's just so much character to older wooden styles."

"These bowls," Daytona said. "They are played by an order of monks, no? From somewhere on Earth? Chibet, Gibbet...no, I think that's some kind of organ meat...or maybe a method of punishment...I've got it! Tibet, right? I agree with you. The sounds they make are very relaxing."

Daytona took a seat next to Akira on the ground, sitting cross-legged.

"I admire you for tackling the violin. That is not an easy instrument to learn, but when it's played well it sounds lovely. When I've seen violinists performing, they always look like they are pouring their hearts and souls into their music, like they are really 'letting it all hang out' as the terran phrase goes. I've dabbled in bass string instruments, mostly for fun, mainly because in my travels and my work I was eventually exposed to things like Andorian Blues, Earth Jazz, Blues, Funk, Jazz Fusion, and their cousins from some other cultures, all styles which make good use of bass strings. I don't think I'll be taking the galaxy by storm with my musical talents, but I enjoy myself."

Again he had her giggling. "There are bowls played like this all over the galaxy, but the ones I've been listening to have been from Earth, Tibet as you say. I discovered them when I was exploring Buddhist philosophy," Akira said. She drew her legs close to her body and draped her arms around her knees casually, leaning towards Daytona slightly as they talked. "And I think all music has the potential to be emotive for the artist; it's just up to the artist how much they want to expose their soul to their listeners."

Daytona felt a little thrill when Akira leaned in towards him, allowing him to feel the warmth of her physical presence once more. Once again, all was right in the universe. He leaned in a little towards her in as well when he responded.

"Hmmm..." he said. "What is it about Buddhist philosophy that attracts your interest? Believe it or not, in four centuries I've never really explored it."

"It's hard to say, exactly..." Akira replied, pausing to really give this matter some thought. "Many philosophies or religions focus so much on what comes after life, 'do this to get into' whatever passes for an afterlife, and I don't even know if I have a soul to endure past this existence. The ultimate goal of Buddhism is Nirvana, which is peace of mind and a cessation of the cycle of rebirth, again something I don't know if it will even apply to me, but the principles that guide the individual during life are... appealing. There is no shame in not having the peace of mind or discipline to be a monk in this life, every person, every being whatever their form, has a purpose, even down to the tiniest insect, and one should strive to find peace with their form, their purpose."

"I can appreciate that philosophy," Daytona said. "At least as far every being having their purpose in life, though I think, in my case, my purpose has changed as I've grown and matured. That or I'm still searching for my purpose in life. I used to think my purpose in life had to do with what I chose to do with my life, what I did everyday, my profession. My parents were physicians and set good examples for me. But I was never really attracted to medicine as a profession. I tried what you might call religion, but, frankly, numerology baffles me. I took up soldiering, then spying, then policing. All in a similar theme. Then something bad happened, something that caused me to walk away from everything I knew and wander for almost a century. Then, one day, I just stopped running. I joined Starfleet. In exchange for an agreed upon period of service, they offered me full Federation citizenship. It wasn't long after that I became a spy yet again. After a time it finally occurred to me, and, frankly I'm rather irritated with myself that it took me several hundred years to figure this out, but I realized along the way that my 'purpose' in life had less to do with the broad strokes of my life and more to do with the fine details. Something simple, for example, like putting a smile on a young lady's face and making her laugh."

Daytona flashed a grin at Akira and gave her a wink.

"I'm not saying you wouldn't have laughed today if we'd never met," he said. "But this interaction, with all that it brings, wouldn't have happened if I didn't exist. So perhaps, if I may be so bold, making you laugh and smile this evening has been part of my purpose in life. And maybe, again I will be bold, maybe you putting a smile on my face, reminding me what it is like to look at the world with young, or at least younger, eyes, and generally making me feel as though all is right in the universe has been part of your purpose today. Or maybe not. Maybe it's all just random. Either way, I'm glad I bumped into you in that corridor."

Akira giggled at his rambling. She liked the sound of his voice, it had a very nice, rich quality to it, and she found it to be most pleasing! "Of course you are glad you bumped into me, you got to put your hand on my bottom!" she said with great amusement. "But to have lived through so much, I bet you've seen some amazing things!" she said once her giggles had calmed. "Will you tell me about some of the things you've seen?" she asked.

"And a very nice bottom it is," Daytona said.

His face took on a somber look for a moment, then his smile slowly returned. He was unable to remain somber in little Akira's presence.

"I was going to say something ominous," he said, finally. "Something like 'I have seen many things, not all of them good...' but I realized that's true for just about everyone. There are beautiful sights and sounds and smells and tastes to be found in my system. Someday, if I don't do something horribly insensitive and drive you away, I'd like to take you there...you know, when you have sorted out your mobile emitter. Anyway, I left my planet near my one hundred and eighty-eighth birthday and would not see it again for almost fifty years. I had been a failed monk, a decorated soldier, an intrepid spy, even a police detective. I knew how to fight so I hired myself out as a mercenary and spent half a century banging about the quadrant, going from job to job. Some were boring, some were a little too exciting. But the places I visited! I visited a planet whose vast deserts make Vulcan look like a child's sandbox. It was terrible when the wind was howling, blowing sand and grit that got into everything and cut any exposed skin, but on a night where the wind was soft and the moons and the stars were high in the sky, it was just...peaceful and mostly quiet. The silence was interrupted only by our beasts of burden and the sound of the breeze blowing across the surface sand...a shimmering sort of sound. The moons were brightly colored and the light reflecting off of them lit up the night sky. It was nice, especially when no one was shooting at me. I've seen forests with trees so tall they reach into the clouds. I've seen animals as beautiful as a they are deadly. I was once attacked by the most beautiful creatures I'd ever seen, present company excluded. I was dazzled by the creature's appearance and let it get too close. It must have weighed around seven hundred kilos. It's coat was black edged with an almost electric purple. It could function as a predator because the flora in which in hunted had a similar color scheme. I came out of into a clearing in the jungle and there was this thing, this beautiful creature. It looked at me. I looked at it. It started moving towards me but I was dumbstruck. When it got close it suddenly bared its fangs and roared at me. I raised my weapon, but I hesitated and it struck me. It sent me flying over two hundred meters. Only my vulcanoid genes...strong bones and muscle...kept me from being seriously injured. It would have had me for sure but my squad caught up to me and drove it off. They didn't kill it, for the which I was grateful. After all, it had just been minding its own business when I came out of nowhere and disturbed it."

Daytona looked at Akira a moment. He brushed a lock of hair out of her face, then caressed her cheek with the back of his fingers.

"There are many, many sites to see and adventures to have," he said. "But I have learned to avoid being so focused on what's out there, that I neglect what is right in front of me."

Akira was dazzled by his words, and when he brushed that lock of hair out of her face, she shivered and then blushed as his fingers continued down her cheek. Why had she done that? she wasn't affected by the cold, and the temperature in this section was fine...

"Am I pleasing to look upon?" she asked suddenly. "I- I don't know, I have trouble with aesthetics; there's so many cultures and they each have different definitions of beauty... and I've been trying to modify my appearance so I'm not so... without form. I was nothing when I was created, and I've based so much on my Father, but I want to be more than just a copy, it's so hard to decide, and I have no idea if my appearance is acceptable."

Daytona reached out and held Akira's small hand in his. He kissed her hand and smiled at her lovingly. It always amazed him that a woman could not know how beautiful she is, how a glance from her could command a man's soul. But Akira really had no frame of reference.

"You are very pleasing to look upon," Daytona said, grinning. "And I should know. I've been 'looking upon you' all night. You are very beautiful, especially when you smile. Your eyes sparkle and your whole face lights up."

Akira's blush deepened. "May I show you something?" she asked softly. "I have been working on a new appearance, but... I'm not sure if it's ready. I would value your input, if you would be so kind." With a shimmer, her whole appearance changed. She was more or less the same build and stature, but there were subtle changes to her face, most notably the shape of her eyes which were now more of an almond shape, but remained the same blue, and her complexion was no longer blue or spotted but a nice peachy tan. Her hair, once very dark with an almost blue sheen was now a rich brown with some soft, loose curls. In some ways she looked so different yet the same, and for all the changes she was still the same innocent young soul looking back at him. "There is no 'Akira' in the Bolian or Trill language, so I wondered why Father named me Akira, but I found it in a number of Earth Asian languages, so... I wanted to try something that was not my Mothers' or Father's, I came up with this."

Those eyes! That look! Daytona didn't know if Akira realized the effect she had on him. If she figured out what she did to him, he was done, over. He would be putty in her hands. Oh, who was he kidding. He was already putty in her hands.

"Well, let's get a look at you," Daytona said. He stood up and gently pulled Akira to her feet. He took both his hands in his and held her out in front of him. He looked at her. He smiled broadly. On a whim, he let go of one of her hands and used the other to give a spin so he could take in the whole package...for scientific purposes of course. Akira hesitated at first but figured out what he wanted her to do after a second. "Again, stunning. You've made yourself unique while keeping your best qualities. I thought I might miss the blue skin, but no, this is perfect. Most importantly, your smile and the sparkle in your eyes hasn't changed. I'd call the new look a success, but what do you think? Do you feel any different?"

"How do I feel? Oh, I don't know..." Akira looked down at herself. "I still feel like me, I guess, though I do think I may miss the spots... Is that odd? I don't know why I miss the spots, but not all the blue. I do like blue, and it was such a hard choice between blue and green, since Mother was modeled after the Orion; I think that's why I chose something that was neither, it was easier, but there's is something about the spots I miss." With another shimmer, she brought the spots back, though she did the full length of spots, even around the hairline framing her face, though they were faded compared to a full Trill's spots. "Is this alright?"

Oh Prime Number help me I would love to kiss every one of those spots...

Daytona stopped himself before he went too far into that particular fantasy.

"I like the spots," he said. "They look great on you. And no, it's not odd that you would miss one and not the other. You're learning about your likes and dislikes, and all of the areas in between. Like liking the color blue, but not wanting it as your skin color. And the longer you are alive, the more your likes and dislikes may change. Mine have. There are things I have never liked and things that I have always liked, but there are many things that fall between those two extremes. Things I liked at one time and dislike now, and vice versa."

"Oh, well thank you," she said, grateful for his input. "So, does it look finished? I kept fretting about little details, worrying it was not right, and I've been so apprehensive about showing anyone. Should I keep it?"

It was Daytona's turn to look sheepish.

"Sorry," he said. "That was rather pedantic. I hope you didn't feel like I was talking down to you. Anyway, if the decision were mine, I'd say keep the new look. It looks good on you."

"No no, it's fine; your response was... informative, it made me feel better about my choice," Akira assured him with a sweet smile. But then with another shimmer, she returned to a blue skin tone, although the reshaping of her features and the alterations to her hair remained unchanged. "I think I will stay this way for a while; I have been blue since I was created and started serving in Operations, I wouldn't want to confuse my staff with such a sudden change."

There's that smile again...

Daytona chuckled.

"Well," he said. "It might look just as strange if you slowly fade from bolian blue to terran Asian complexion. At some point you'd be a sickly shade of green. Would you like to walk some more? At some point I am going to have to bid you farewell for the night and get some sleep..."

After I hit the gym and work out until I've burned off all of this energy...sex or other extreme physical exertion: the only thing keeping we rigelians from going off the deep end.

"...but until then, I'm really enjoying this evening with you."

Daytona was still holding Akira's small hands in his large ones. Again, physical contact with her felt nice, regardless of the fact that her physical form was made up of photons projected from the arboretum's holoprojectors. He wondered about that, but didn't let that get in the way of his enjoying it. He looked at the backs of her hands a moment, memorizing them, caressing them with his thumbs for a moment, then running his thumbs along the knuckles. These, too, were unique to her. Beautifully imperfect in their perfection. Even so, Akira's hands were not as generic as she feared her physical form might be. They were unique to her...delicate in appearance, but supple and strong in reality...terms which described the woman herself as well. Realizing he had gotten distracted, even if only for a moment, he brought his gaze back up to Akira's eyes, which he narrowly avoided drowning in.

"So...uhm...shall we walk some more?" he said, knowing it was silly to repeat himself, but not really caring. Shame was not a feeling he often experienced. The emotion wasn't entirely absent from Rigelian culture, but it was rarely experienced on the whole. Rigelians simply were who they were, did what they did, said what they said, and that was the long and the short of it.

"I suppose you're right," Akira replied with a soft sigh. "Maybe I should just make the full change now, but I just feel so reserved about doing it. After all, it is a big change!" Walking with him, hand in hand, felt so nice, and she decided right then that she wanted to do this more often, with him specifically. She really enjoyed Daytona's company, and it made visiting the Arboretum all the more enjoyable.

"No pressure," Daytona said. "It's your body. It's yours to control, even more so in your case. If you ask me, you should only do what makes you feel comfortable...most of the time. Sometimes it's good to get out of your comfort zone. Still, that's for you to decide. Bolian/Trill Hybrid blue, Asian Earth-Girl with sexy Trill spots, you wear both of these forms well. It's really up to you when or even if you want to change."

Daytona brought her hand to his lips and kissed it again before lowering it again so that their clasped hands swung lazily between them as they walked. He intertwined his fingers with Akira's, enjoying feeling even just a little physically closer to her than he had a moment before.

Akira blushed when he kissed her hand; why did she keep doing that? "Why do you do that?" she asked curiously. "You've kissed my hand twice now; why?"

Daytona smiled, but he was almost afraid to answer. He wasn't ashamed of how he felt, just concerned that either he was reading her wrong and she didn't enjoy his affections, or that if they discussed this more openly she'd turn him away.

Akira was the daughter of a sex hologram. Daytona was fairly certain that intellectually she understood what the humans sometimes called 'the birds and the bees'. That said, at four months old, Daytona was relatively certain she'd never experienced the idea in actual practice.

"Because..." he said. "I'm very attracted to you. I like you. I enjoy your company. I find you both emotionally and physically attractive. That makes me want to show you affection physically. Kissing your hand is one way for me to do that. So is holding your hand. When I brushed the hair away from your face and gently caressed your cheek with the backs of my fingers, that, too, was because I am feeling a desire to be physically affectionate with you, to be closer to you. Physical affection doesn't always have to mean attraction, it might just be that a person is just a physically affectionate person. Parents are often physically affectionate with their children in ways that differ in either form or intent from some of the kinds of physical affection I might show you. In this case, however, I'm being physically affectionate with you because I am very attracted to you."

Daytona kept walking beside Akira, letting her take in and digest his answer. He wondered what her reaction would be. It certainly seemed as though she liked the attention he paid to her, but he couldn't be absolutely sure. Who could, besides an empath or telepath? Would she stay and walk with him, or would she retreat, uncertain of what to make of his feelings now that they were in the open? He hoped she'd stay. He thought about really kissing her. Should he? He wondered a moment at why he hadn't when she asked him why he kissed her hand. He came to the conclusion that the reason he hadn't kissed her was the matter of fact way that she'd asked the question: Why did you do that? Her intellectual aspect was engaged. She was curious, wondering, learning, reconciling whatever information she had about interactions between people in general and specifically between people in a romantic situation with what she was experiencing in actual practice. In this instance, his honest, forthright answer would probably have more impact than an awkward, forced kiss.

Akira thought about this for a moment. "Oh, okay," she finally replied with fascination. Then she looked up at him with a smile. "Thank you," she said cheerfully. Though once those words left her lips, it suddenly occurred to her that perhaps that was not the response he had been looking for? Not that she thought he was angling for a kiss, but a simple 'thank you' wasn't on the same level as one of his blush-inducing gestures. Decided to throw caution to the wind, she leaned closer and drew up on her toes so she could plant a kiss on his cheek, renewing the blush dusting her face. Huh, fascinating, this warmth in her cheeks happened with any contact with him, regardless of who initiated the contact. This would require further experimentation!

Daytona felt like jumping over the nearest moon! The nearest three moons! In one bound! He hadn't felt this way...in a very, very long time. He'd almost forgotten what it had felt like to have his heart filled nearly to bursting by a simple kiss on the cheek. His face also flushed at her kiss, though from excitement, not shyness. His pulse was quick and his blood sang in his veins. He grinned broadly.

"You have no idea how happy you just made me, Akira Zhuri," Daytona said. He turned and picked her up by the waist and spun around before setting her down again. He looked into her beautiful eyes and this time he let himself drown in them. He took her face in his hands and let one thumb trace over her lips with a feather-light touch. Then it was his turn to throw caution to the wind. He leaned in and kissed her, lingering just a moment before pulling back. Then he let go of her face and placed his hands back on her waist.

"I hope that wasn't too much," he said. "But I've been wanting to kiss you all evening."

"That was very nice," Akira said ever so softly. Her face was now a lovely shade of violet from all the blushing, but she couldn't be bothered to care. "If you wanted to kiss me all evening, why did you wait so long?" she asked curiously.

"I agree," Daytona said. "That was nice. We should do more of that."

To prove his point, he kissed Akira again, both on the lips and then on the tip of her nose.

"As for why I waited..." Daytona said. "My people are an off-shoot of the Vulcans and related to the Romulans and the Debrune. The Vulcans learned to control their turbulent passions with logic. The Romulans channel their turbulent passions into martial pursuits. My people, we make love and exercise a lot. No, seriously, it's our thing. We believe, and this has been proven out at least to us, that regular exercise and copious amounts of regular sexual activity help us to control our powerful emotions. To not engage in sexual activity regularly is considered both unhealthy and unnatural, and when we can't be with someone, we wear ourselves our with exercise. Lovemaking is like a cure-all to my people. Feeling sad? Make love, you'll feel better. Feeling angry? Make love, you'll get over it quicker. With this in mind, you'd think our dating rituals involve skipping to what Earth people call 'the Goodnight Kiss' or the kiss at the end of the evening, the kiss that tells them whether or not they want to see the other person again. And I won't lie to you, sometimes two Rigelians acknowledge that they just want to make love and be close and not make a big deal out of it. But every now and again, I meet someone very special, someone whose opinion matters to me, someone who makes my heart race when they smile or laugh, someone whose eyes I drown in when they look my way. Someone who makes me feel nervous, cautious, who makes me want to do everything at the right time. I feel that way about you. I didn't want to rush things and frighten you off or make you think that all I wanted was to bed you. I wanted you to see me, to like me, to want me to kiss you. I wanted to see you for who you are and for you to know that I see you, Akira Zhuri. So I waited until I felt that you would be receptive to a kiss. I've wanted to kiss you all evening, but I wasn't in a hurry to do it. I didn't want to rush. So I kissed when I finally felt like it was the right time."

Great you idiot, now she'll think you're a depraved sex maniac! Oh well. It was going to come out sometime. Might as well get it out of the way now...

"That's fascinating!" Akira said with wide-eyed wonder. "So for your kind, intimacy isn't solely about procreation? That's... that's very interesting... I must admit, I wondered why Mother Maica was created, you cannot procreate with a hologram, but to learn that this can be used as recreation is very interesting indeed!" This was definitely giving her cause to reconsider her earlier thoughts about this sort of thing. "And I think you were very wise to wait for the right time to kiss me; I think if you had tried that when we first met, I would not have been so inclined to reciprocate such a gesture."

Daytona laughed softly.

"No," he said. "I think you would have gotten horribly confused and probably called security. And yes, physical intimacy can be about more than procreation, for many races, not just mine. It can be casual, as I said, but also deeply personal, between two people who care for each other a great deal, perhaps even love each other. There is a saying 'love deepens sex and sex deepens love', basically saying that sex...lovemaking is an important aspect of a loving, romantic relationship. In the right circumstances, it can bring people closer together. I've always chosen partners that I wanted to feel closer to, even in a casual affair. Not everyone feels that way and some people only 'have sex' rather than 'make love' which seems an empty existence to me. But I learned quickly that some people just want the physical thrill, the release. I can't say that I've never felt that way, but it's not the norm for me. In societies that are not as open and honest about sex, young single people who are suddenly out from under the control of their parents will engage in quite a bit of meaningless sex. It can be fun, but it gets old for some people, for those who want to spend the night in someone's arms, being held, being cherished. Also, for people who have to worry about getting old, at some point they just can't perform sexually as well as they could when they were younger. The sex becomes less interesting and if that's all they have to offer and they've never sought anything more meaningful, they find themselves alone in the twilight years of their lives."

"I cannot be certain, but some of that sounds awfully lonely," Akira said with a hint of sadness. "But I am to assume that with such a youthful visage despite your many years that you are still functional in this capacity? I am, if you were at all curious; I didn't understand why before today, but... I think I am beginning to understand," she said candidly, not as any sort of open-ended invitation, but merely as a statement of fact.

Daytona grinned.

"I am fully functional in this 'capacity', I assure you," he said. "Even more so when properly motivated. And I hope you won't take this wrong, but I'm glad to hear that you are, too."

Daytona pulled Akira a bit closer and kissed her on the forehead.

"It feels very nice, holding you like this," he said. He leaned in and kissed her again, again lingering a moment before pulling away. He grinned sheepishly at her. "You did say that you wanted us to do more of that. I, your humble servant, am here to oblige you."

Akira giggled, smiling brightly. "But I do not want a servant!" she said. That wasn't to say that she knew what she wanted, but a servant, humble or not, was not currently on that list. "But I agree, this is nice."

"It's just a figure of speech, my dear," he said. "Don't worry. You're spending time with a fully formed, independent adult who can speak up for himself if need be. We are equals, neither one lower or higher than the other."

Daytona yawned.

"Oh," he said. "I'm sorry. I've had a lovely time, really. Spending this time with you, I've felt things I haven't felt for some time. I've really enjoyed myself and I hope you have as well. I'm not sure if you need to sleep at all, but I do. May I walk you back to your quarters before I head back to mine?"

"I think I would like that," Akira replied with a sweet smile, then took his hand in hers and moved in close to rest her head against his shoulder as they began walking.

Ouch. That was the word that kept coming to Mal's mind as he tried to stretch. For some reason his muscles were extremely tense and tight. He had knots in his back, shoulders, and neck. He wasn't really sure what specific thing had him all tied up in knots, literally, but he couldn't take the physical symptoms the stress was causing him any longer. The Captain had recommended that he get a massage from her wife, Maica. Mal hadn't really had a chance to arrange one yet. Now seemed a perfect time. He hoped she'd be able to get him in today, but even if he had to wait a day or if absolutely necessary, two, he had to do something.

"Commander Xustos to Maica," he said, tapping his commbadge.

=/\="Yes Commander, go ahead,"=/\= came Maica's voice from the communicator.

"Your...uhm...your wife suggested I make an appointment with you for a massage," Mal said. "I've been meaning to but I haven't had the time. The thing is I seem to have knotted myself up and I'm in quite a bit of discomfort. Do you have time to see me today?"

=/\="I should be finished up with Crewman Daniels in about ten minutes if you want to come by and help yourself to a cup of tea while you wait."=/\= Maica replied.

"Thank you!" Mal said, the relief obvious in his voice. "I'll be down directly."

Mal headed over to Maica's parlor and entered when the door opened before him. The decor was impressive, the reds very vivid.

Daytona would love this place! Mal said.

He saw the teapots aligned along the wall. He lifted the lids of each one and sniffed the contents of each, delicately, so as to best judge the aroma. He found one that smell like he thought good tea should taste and he poured himself a cup. He took it over to a chair where he sat and sipped at it while he waited. It was quite good. Refreshing, even while it made him feel relaxed. Mal sat back and settled in to wait for a massage that would hopefully bring relief to his tense muscles.

About the time Mal finished his tea, Maica and a human crewmember wearing a twenty second century Starfleet jumpsuit walked out of the back room. "Thank you so very much. You have no idea how much this means to me," He said, shaking her hand as he back pedaled towards the door. Maica was curiously nude, her spectacular and massive curves on display for all to see.

"I'm sure I will someday though," Maica replied with her brightest smile as Crewman Daniels nodded to both Maica and Mal and headed out of the parlor. "If you're ready, I took the liberty of warming the hot stones for you. I heard that Pomtolii enjoy a nice relaxing session with them. There are lockers in the restroom you can secure your uniform as well, if you wish. Are there any other options, you'd enjoy?"

Mal raised an eyebrow at Maica's state of undress, but made no comment.

"I leave myself entirely at your mercy," he said. "Do you need me to put on a robe or something? It makes no difference to me, but I don't want to offend you or do something you'd feel was inappropriate."

Maica chuckled softly as she pulled aside the curtain to the back room. "Your comfort is my priority. If you prefer to wear a robe... and if you prefer I be clothed... Then that is what we shall do. But I find it much easier to work as a masseuse when both parties are fully disrobed."

"I would find that more enjoyable as well," Mal said. "I'll be back in a moment."

Mal went into the bathroom, removed his uniform, and placed it in a locker. When he was done, he walked back into Maica's treatment room.

"Face down first?" he asked. Maica was very attractive. Fortunately Mal had plenty of practice training himself to react as little as possible to attractive women, unlike at home where the natural male reaction to an attractive woman, particularly a naked one, was just taken in stride. What was considered normal on Pomtol, however, was not always considered impolite on other Federation societies. He couldn't guarantee he wouldn't react, but he would at least make the effort. He was pretty certain that Maica, being modeled after an Orion, would take whatever happened in stride.

"Yes please," Maica replied as she moved a few of the smaller stones around in the heater to give Mal time to get up on the massage table. As soon as he was up on it, she placed a few of the larger stones to either side of his neck and behind his horns to help him relax through the radiant heat and started her massage in his shoulders.

Even though Mal knew it was coming, the heat from the rocks surprised him and he drew in a breath when they made contact with his skin and tensed for a second. Almost immediately, however, he relaxed a bit and let the heat soak into his aching muscles.

"Ahhh...." he said. "That's...hm...nice...sorry, very tense. Yes, that's...very...nice."

Mal focused on letting his body relax. It wasn't easy. He was so tensed up that while what Maica was doing was for the best and was helping release all of the tension, at times it bordered on painful. Mal breathed deep and let Maica work.

"This mission has you wound up tighter than a Denobulan spring beetle. You seriously need an outlet for all this tension." Maica commented as she worked her way inward toward Mal's neck, trying to get him to relax and adding hot stones as she went.

"Hmm...yes...mission," Mal said, following this with a tremendous groan when Maica hit a particularly tense spot. "Sorry. Yes. I try to exercise regularly, and I play several musical instruments. I've been spending time with Clio, Lieutenant Commander Enaes, which I find relaxing...except when it's supposed to be exciting. But we've both been rather busy with the mission prep these last few days. I...hmmm...I'm a bit frustrated that I can't go on the Away Teams. That's the executive officer's job. Head off into the unknown, lead in the field, you know? But I'm going to be sidelined often on this ship, I think. I stand out in a crowd. I'm not really built for sneaking. Makes me wonder if Starfleet sent me here to be comic relief only. You...oh yes, right there...satyr in a kilt playing his lyre and his flutes and making everyone smile and laugh?"

"On the contrary, I have it on good authority that you are now and will be in the future a valued and dear member of this crew. You'll get many chances to lead away missions. You just have to stay home on this one, is all." Maica started massaging down Mal's back, pressing his vertebrae a bit here and there to pop them. They all seemed to be in place so far thankfully.

"Hmm...ow!" Mal said. "No, it's okay. I'm fine. Please, if you have any mercy in your heart at all, don't stop...Gods that feels good! But...thank you. I know that, really, if I were to be honest, but like most people, no matter the species, I can't just come out and say 'Hey, I'm feeling worthless, can you please say nice things to me about how useful and valuable I am? Thanks.' No, I have let myself get super tense and garner sympathy by feeling sorry for myself. Hmmm....I think next time I'll just skip straight to the massage and forget about all of the mind fucking."

"That's why I'm here, you know. I have a few hot squids as well, if you're interested in one for your lower back. They can be quite relaxing as well. My Bolian clients love them, though they don't have any hair..." As Maica worked lower, she added even more hot stones and as she reached Mal's lower back, she swapped the ones behind his horns and on his neck for fresh ones.

"Uhm..." Mal said. "I think a squid would look very funny with hair. Oh! You meant that the Bolians don't have hair! Squids...uh? I've uhm...never had anyone use squids on me before, but why not? Wait, are they naturally hot or did you cook them?"

"They're naturally hot. Bolian squids prefer to live near volcanic vents and are more akin to Earth starfish in several aspects. The species that I have has been selectively bred to be docile and perfect for massage therapy and can stay at a relatively constant temperature for almost an hour even though it's considered still a baby." Finishing up the massage portion of his lower back, Maica moved to the hot squid tank and unsealed it, the bubbling audible as she reached in for one of the three squids inside.

"This may feel a little weird..." She commented as she dangled the fat tentacles over his lower back. The squid instinctively spread itself over the area it was placed over and started to knead with its suckers. She let the body droop and lay on a few of the hot stones leading up Mal's back while the tentacles spread across his sides and the soft mouth softly kneaded at the small of his back. "How does that feel?"

Mal was surprised at first by the sensation of the hot squid attaching itself to his lower back, then again by the sensation of the squid's mouth essentially sucking on the small of his back. After the initial weirdness, though, he found he rather enjoyed the feeling.

"That...uhm...feels better than I thought it would," Mal said. "I was expecting something...slimier for some reason. But this is...ahhh...yes...that is very, very nice."

Along with the heat of the stones, the heat from the squid worked its way deep into the tissues of his back, warming his muscles and causing them to relax.

"I could stay here like this for quite sometime, left to my own devices," Mal said.

Maica giggled softly as she moved to rubbing Mal's legs. "Can I interest you in a hooficure then? Maybe some clear polish and some trim work on the bottom?"

"Sure," Mal said. "Why not? I'd appreciate that very much. There are many places where the deck plating isn't covered with carpeting and my hooves take a real beating when I have to go to those places. They really weren't meant for walking on metal floors."

"Then a hooficure you shall have. Computer, begin replicating nail resin mix nineteen with a half inch brush." Soon Maica was finished with Mal's legs and had retrieved her files and larger mani/pedi tools and begun work on his hooves.

Mal suddenly got an image of Nexi's reaction to his getting a hoofcure and chuckled to himself. He hoped she didn't find out about this. She had a hard enough time taking him seriously as it was. If she saw this she'd say something that would result in her being placed in the brig for a night or two.

Mal just lay there and enjoyed himself. Clio was very generous with her affections, but this was different. There was no give and take here. Maica wasn't expecting anything from him, so he could just lay back and enjoy himself.

"Where did you learn to do a hoofcure, Maica?" he asked. He assumed she downloaded the information into her program from somewhere, maybe some agricultural software, but he felt that for him to say so might give her the impression he thought of her as just a hologram, rather than a living being.

Maica continued her work a bit while considering her answer. "To be perfectly honest with you... I had to cobble the research together from a few different sources, including a sheep fetish ranch. I wanted to be prepared in case you requested one though, so I researched away. I can also have hoof-cap shoes replicated as well, if you like, though those might be uncomfortable. if you need grip on ice or metal deck plating though..."

"I can manage without the hoof-caps," Mal said. "But thank you. And thank you for thinking of me. The personal touch is appreciated. How is your niece settling in? I've been meaning to check up on her, and I will after this mission, but if you think there's something I should know about before then, please feel free to tell me about it."

Maica worked skillfully as she spoke. "Just that you keep an eye on her. I mean, yes she's an adult but she's only four months old. Even for my kind that's not enough time to figure out who you are and she didn't have the experience of numerous forks to go off of. She just has the leftover memories of her father and whatever the USS Katana saw fit to dump into her databases from the backups her mothers made. On top of that, as I understand it, her father was a rather reclusive sort and for a being of her magnitude she really needs to stretch herself socially, especially in her younger, formative times. Enalia and I both worry about her development but we're in a difficult position. Her mothers are as well. Akira has to learn to fly on her own and find the joys in life. Find love and laughter. Eat some good food. Drink some good wine. Listen to some good opera. Live life and find out who she is. Do you know what I mean?"

"Hmm..." Mal said, very contented at the moment. "Yes. Life without love and laughter is a terrible thing. Good food, good drink, good friends, good lovers, a career that makes you feel that there is a purpose to your existence, these things make life worth living. The more of them you have in your life, the better you feel about living."

Mal chuckled.

"Sheep fetish farm..." he said. "I was the first Pomtoli to attend the Academy. When I got there, some of the more obnoxious cadets would post still pictures and video of goats mating with the caption 'From the porn collection of Mal Xustos'. I actually wasn't sure what they meant by 'porn' when I first saw it. We have erotica in various forms of media, but we don't think of it as what these cadets were calling 'porn'. Sculpture, paintings, holograms, both still and active, film, literature and poetry, dramatic works. It's all normal. When I figured out what the insult was supposed to mean, that I was some kind of rutting animal, I got quite upset. I got over it, though. As I made friends, both intimate and platonic, and began to explore my surroundings when I had liberty time to spend, I really started to enjoy my time at the academy. Eventually I stopped seeing the offensive media being posted and that was that."

"I'm surprised none of the Vulcan lecturers pulled them aside for extra cultural sensitivity training. Or perhaps they wanted you to see that side of society so you'd be aware of it and be prepared in case you ran into it in the field and to see how you'd react in a more controlled environment." Finishing up the filing, Maica retrieved the resin from the small replicator in the back room and set about applying the resin polish to Mal's goaty hooves. "Were there any other oddly culturally upsetting things during your academy years that you can recall?"

"I was once invited to a party once," Mal replied. "A classmate's family had a farm nearby and he was inviting friends. I was excited, both because it was a chance to socialize with people I didn't normally interact with and because the classmate told me there was a girl who wanted to meet me. The classmate told me the girl asked me to meet her in the stables. I was a little suspicious, but I let it go. When I got to the stables and opened the door, there was a goat tied to a pole with a note saying 'Mal's Perfect Date' on it. Well, I got my revenge. I discovered that this person frequently sneaked off into the woods to rendezvous with a girl. I can be remarkably stealthy when I want to be, and I used technology when I needed to. I recorded him sneaking out and all of his rendezvouses with the other cadet. I also gathered footage and other evidence of the cadet using academy science equipment to synthesize a stimulant that he sold to students who felt they needed something to give them an edge. I caught several others involved with the scheme. I then sent all of my evidence to both SFCIS and the Federation News Service. Several students, including my tormentor were expelled. Criminal charges were brought and my tormentor and several others did time in a penal colony. No one ever knew it was me. I covered my tracks. But I knew, and that was all that mattered."

"Revenge is sweet and best served cold, as they say. Hence revenge is ice cream. At least you handled it in a mature manner." Finishing up the coating, Maica set the resin aside and picked up a UV light, flashing it over the resin so it would set as hard as the rest of his hooves and as shiny as the surface of a console. As an extra measure, she added a little polishing compound and started to shine the now cured resin to a mirror finish. "How are those rocks feeling? Still warm enough?"

"They're cooling off a bit," Mal replied. "Surprisingly, the squid is nearly as hot as when you placed him? Her? It? Anyway, it's still hot as when you put it in place. Whoa! I just got a tentacle where it didn't belong, but it moved away now so I'm fine. Revenge. Yes, well, in retrospect it was a rather childish response on my part...petty. And I'm fortunate no one found out or they would have never trusted me and I'd have had no friends at all at the academy. I think some people suspected. Some of those avoided me, some of those respected me for what I did. In general, things improved rather quickly for me from that point forward."

"And now you're second in command of one of Starfleet's finest and most secretive ships. Your hooves are absolutely stunning. I hope you love them." Maica then started removing the stones and placing them back in their heater. Once they were all removed, she started the process of pulling the squid off as well, trying not to take too much hair with it. "We're running a bit long on time. Do you want a frontal massage as well? How are you feeling?"

"Well," Mal said. "If you do have the time, I would love a frontal massage. But if you've got to wrap this up now, we can save that for next time."

"For you, I will make the time," Maica replied. "If you could flip over for me, please."

"Of course," Mal said. " And thank you for making the time. I appreciate it very much."

The tall satyr flipped over carefully so as not to fall off of the massage table. It wasn't exactly a graceful display of agility, but it got the job done. Once positioned properly, he lay back to enjoy the rest of his massage.

Maica got busy with massaging Mal, starting at his shoulders and working her way across his chest. "If you don't mind my asking... Do all Pomtolii look like they're chiseled from marble and brought to life?"

Mal chuckled.

"Thank you," he said. "You've just swelled my ego considerably. To answer your question...well...I suppose many of us do, though I haven't really made a study of it. Physical activity is an integral part of our culture, along with art, music, literature, and theatre. Frolicking is good exercise, after all, and it's practically a national pastime among my people."

"I do not doubt that in the slightest," Grinning widely, Maica continued massaging professionally down Mal's torso, skipping over his nethers to massage his legs. "Before I forget, I do have something you might be interested in. A bottle of wine brewed right here on the ship with berries from the Captain's homeworld."

"That sounds lovely," Mal replied. "That's very kind of you."

Mal sighed. He hadn't felt this good, at least in a platonic situation, in a very long time. The tension seemed to drain from his muscles with Maica's every touch.

Soon she had finished even his legs and was admiring her reflection in his hooficure, the bottle of wine in hand. "Is there anything else I can do for you today, Commander?"

Mal sighed contentedly again, letting himself just melt into the massage table for a moment. Slowly and carefully he swung his legs around so that he was sitting sideways on the table with his hooves dangling a few centimeters from the floor. From that position, he stood up and stretched and let loose a whopper of a yawn, loosening his diaphragm and lungs and chest. He blinked once, twice, three times. Then he turned to Maica.

"That was truly lovely, Maica," Mal said. "Thank you. And thank you for the wine."

Mal walked out of Maica's treatment room and out of her parlor. A moment later there was a feminine squeal and he came back in.

"I should probably put my uniform back on," Mal said, heading for the bathroom. "I'm not sure, but it's possible, and I know how narcissistic this sounds, I say it's possible I ruined all other men for that poor girl I just ran into in the corridor."

Daytona quickly but discretely made his way towards the quarters Deshok was renting at the spaceport. He got a few odd looks, but he carried himself as though he belonged and therefore most people ignored him. This was a talent he'd developed over the years, being ignored. He was very good at it. Most people didn't notice him until it was too late. He'd need to be careful with Deshok, though. Deshok was on high alert.

In his quarters, Deshok was panicking. He'd tried to get in contact with his bodyguards but he couldn't reach them. Had that crazy cop killed them both by himself? That bastard Ral had been after him since he was a constable and spent fifty years trying to put him away. Deshok had slipped the noose every time. Ral just didn't seem to get the message, no matter what the Syndicate did to influence him. He wouldn't take bribes like the rest of the cops. Over the years, Deshok had sent people to 'convince' Ral to play along, but that got too expensive. Ral kept killing his guys and making it look legal. After almost five decades of this crap, Deshok's bosses had had enough. Do something about the cop and do it now, they said. His testimony is going to screw us bad this time. So, against his better judgement, Deshok kidnapped the cop's daughter, by then an adult, to get Ral to back off That didn't work out as planned. Ral started tearing the whole city apart to find his daughter and he testified anyway, costing the Syndicate a load of latinum. Gang rape her, his bosses said. That'll show him. So, against his better judgement, he had his men record video of themselves running a train on the woman from both sides at once. They sent the tape to Ral. They were going to dump her off in front of a police station, to send a message to all the cops. That idea went to crap when she was killed trying to escape. Deshok knew that he'd crossed the line this time. Daytona Ral was going to kill him if he didn't get out of there. So Deshok took ten of his best bodyguards and left the Rigel System. That was a year and eight dead bodyguards ago, and here was Deshok, about to run again. His bags were packed. All he needed was a ride out of here, one that he could afford, that is. Life on the run had drained his personal funds and the Syndicate had cut him off, blaming him for the whole mess back on Rigel V. At that very moment, Deshok was at the computer terminal in his quarters trying to find a ship that would take him on as a passenger. On the desk next to him was a plasma pistol. He hadn't had to use one in decades, because he'd risen high enough in the Syndicate that he'd been able to delegate most of the rough stuff to lower operatives. He was focused intently on what he was doing. His back was to the door.

As Daytona stalked through the corridors of the residential area, memories came flooding back. The first time he'd been here, it had taken him a while to get to Deshok's quarters. The tram stalled in a tunnel. By the time he got off, he was expecting he'd find Deshok's quarters empty. Instead he found Deshok's corpse with a knife handle sticking out of its chest. He'd taken the knife as a souvenir and used it countless times. Today, he was going to use it again, an ending for him, a new beginning for his younger self. After finding Deshok dead, feeling robbed of his revenge, he needed an outlet for all of that anger. He went on to spend the next fifty years as a mercenary, a hired gun...a hired killer. Today, though, today Daytona would finally get revenge for his daughter...who suffered a terrible fate because of his pride.

Daytona arrived at the hatch to Deshok's quarters. He tried his computerized lockpick on the door, but the door's locking mechanism was too low tech for the device to manipulate. Daytona swore softly and pulled out a more primitive set of tools. He carefully and quietly removed the panel concealing the hatch lock. Using his tools, he tricked the door into thinking he was using a properly coded key. The door opened. Unhurried, Daytona put his tools away. There was only one way in and out of these quarters for Deshok. He was too fat to fit in the ventilation shaft.

When the door flew open, Deshok almost defecated in his trousers and very nearly pissed himself. He made a grab for the plasma pistol, but instead knocked it off the desk. It flew under the bed. He knew he was no match for Daytona hand-to-hand. If he was going to stand a chance, he needed that pistol. He had no choice, he'd have to get down on the floor and try to get it out from under the bed.

When Daytona entered the room, he saw Deshok on the floor. He watched him a moment... then a moment more. He really didn't know why. Maybe he was enjoying watching his daughter's murderer make such a pathetic attempt to save his own miserable skin. Then an image of his daughter being assaulted appeared in his mind.

"Stand up, Deshok!" he said. "Your number is finally up."

At the sound of Daytona's voice, Deshok did lose control of his bladder and bowels, the foul stench filling the room with a sewer-like stink. The grip of the pistol was just at his fingertips. Finally, he grabbed it. This was it. This whole thing was going to end today. He was going to stand up and shoot Daytona Ral dead...then he was going to change his pants. Somewhere in his mind, he knew he was deluding himself. He knew there was no way he was fast enough to stand and shoot Ral before Ral took him out, but frankly he didn't know what else to do. Maybe if he could just get up on one knee? He had to try...

Daytona's nose wrinkled as his senses were assaulted with the stink of Deshok's excrement. He'd forgotten about this. At the time, he thought it had happened Deshok was stabbed. Most species voided their bowels and bladder upon dying. Now that he knew he had caused it, despite the stink, he smiled. He wanted to take a moment more to savor the experience, but he only had about ten minutes before his younger self arrived.

"Stand up," Daytona said. "At least die like a man...a man who just shat himself, but a man nonetheless."

Deshok came up with surprising speed and tried to level his pistol at Daytona. The Rigelian was faster. He sprang forward, grabbing Deshok's wrist and pushing the pistol to the side. Once clear of the pistol, Daytona drove his knife into Deshok's heart and twisted. He held the man long enough to feel the life drain out of him. Then Daytona dropped his enemy's corpse on the floor. He took only a moment to admire his work, then turned and left Deshok lying in a puddle of his own waste. This had been a long time coming. Now that it was done, he had other matters to attend to. He quietly left Deshok's quarters and went off to reunite with his team.

Chief Warrant Officer Daytona Ral tugged at his collar. He didn't often wear a uniform and he almost never...or maybe actually never, now that he thought about...wore the black shirt that told the whole known galaxy that he worked for Starfleet Intelligence. In his lifetime, of course, he'd worn many uniforms. Military uniforms, police uniforms, various uniforms issued when he was a merchant spacer and then a mercenary. He even wore a Starfleet uniform for a short time. But after that he almost never put one on, and definitely not the black shirt. He'd gone under as an officer, warrant, or NCO in another branch before, sometimes just so he wouldn't stick out at a Starfleet facility, but never the black. It was very disconcerting.

Daytona had been around for a very long time. Four hundred and twenty-two years to be approximately exact (though descended from the Vulcan Diaspora, vulcanoid rigelians were not raised like their extremely logical and extremely exact cousins and as such Daytona wasn't going to bother counting down months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, and seconds). He had enlisted in Starfleet because, at the time, his home planet wasn't a part of the Federation and he was not a Federation citizen. Enlisting was permitted, however, and after a term of service, Daytona did become a Federation citizen. He was soon recruited into Intelligence. It was decided (a mutual decision, actually) that Daytona would remain enlisted for the time being. No one would notice a petty officer, where as a higher ranking officer might stand out. He was offered a commission several times but turned it down. Finally, he agreed to take a warrant and be a warrant officer, followed by a commission as a Staff Warrant Officer, then Master Warrant Officer, then Chief Warrant Officer. As a Chief Warrant Officer, Daytona could command respect when he needed to, while remaining essentially anonymous otherwise. If he threw any weight around, it was usually assumed that he was a powerful flag officer's errand boy. It gave him freedom to move about. The assignment to the Hera was a necessity, but he was looking forward to it

Daytona had been walking through the halls headed to Lieutenant Commander Enaes Clio's office. Commander Enaes (her family name came first, Daytona was good about checking up on things like that) was to be his new boss. He'd only gotten aboard in time to walk in late to a briefing so he hadn't met her yet. Hopefully, she wouldn't be too pissed about encountering him for the first time like that, or at least Daytona hoped that she wouldn't take it out on him. He arrived at the door, tugged on his uniform jacket to straighten it out, steadied his breathing, and hit the door chime.

Though Clio hadn't been expecting a visit, she suspected it might be the black-collared stranger at her door. She hadn't located his dossier yet among the myriad of files that Starfleet Intelligence decided to send at the exact same time, but she put very little stock in what those things said anyway. Her own said she was a raging psychopath who wasn't to be trusted, though in somewhat nicer terms. Clearing her visible screens and flipping her PaDD over on her desk, she tapped a hidden button underneath it. "Come in."

Daytona entered and walked up to Clio's desk.

"Chief Warrant Officer Daytona Ral reporting for duty, ma'am," he said.

When she got a closer look, Clio thought he might be Vulcan. But the name and inflections told her differently. "Ral... that's Rigelian, isn't it?" Truthfully, she didn't know if Ral was a Rigelian name or not, but having spent so much time with Farenia, she knew the mannerisms well enough. "Have a seat. Grab something from the replicator if you want. We're not especially formal here."

"Well the lack of formality is a relief," Daytona said. "In the work I've done, I've rarely worn a uniform and I can honestly say that I've never worn the black shirt advertising to the galaxy that I work in Intelligence."

Daytona took a seat in front of the desk.

"So," he said. "It seems we'll be working together. I'd like to be as helpful as I can while I'm assigned here. I think you'll find I can be very useful, especially when you need something done quietly."

"Quietly is good. I already have someone I can send if I need stuff blown up in spectacular fashion." Clio smirked a bit at that. "As far as wearing the uniform, I know how you feel about that. I don't much like advertising who we are at all times either. I personally keep a spare uniform with command trim, not that I get to use it much. And we have a handful of variants loaded in the replicator that are less... obvious. I stick with the standard one most of the time, but some of the others look pretty sharp."

"The bombardier is Chief Cato West, I presume?" Daytona said. "Never met a gun he couldn't replace with a bigger gun so he could blow more stuff up? Why pick the lock quietly if you can just blow door up and wake up every X-Ray in the vicinity? Yeah, we've met...sort of...or we will meet...never mind. He's kind of a blunt instrument. I'm a bit more subtle, most of the time."

"Yeah... that's him all right. He's a bit of a crazy jarhead, but he's good people. Most of the time." Clio frowned slightly, trying to process what Daytona had said. "Wait, which is it? You have met or you're going to?"

Daytona shrugged.

"We met a while back," he said. "In passing. I'm getting together with him and some of the others this evening. I'm sure it will be like meeting him for the first time again."

Clio raised a quizzical eyebrow at him. While there wasn't any clue that Daytona might be lying, it wasn't exactly an answer either. "Seeing as you're both in an unusual line of work, I suppose that isn't surprising. Most of us have run into each other at some point and not realized it."

"Yep," Daytona said. "That must be it. So it looks like Mal, I mean Commander Xustos, put me on your team. And we have a real live orion with us, too. My people mostly stuck to their own system back then, but a few of us got around, so I won't need a disguise. Are you having the docs change your skin color to green?"

"Not exactly. There are multiple tribes of Orions, including the polar-dwelling Orions who have a paler complexion. Maica gave me some makeup that will match my skin tone to that, and then I did some reading. I'm not lithe enough to pass as your traditional Orion slave girl anyway. The polar Orions are heavier, more muscular. More... primal." Clio didn't know how much Daytona knew about her people, but the basics had been getting around the fleet over the past few years. "Shavni's going as herself, more or less. If we weren't going so far back in time, I'd go as one of my own people. But we kept to ourselves then, more concerned with surviving than we were with anything else."

"I've looked up a little information on your culture," Daytona replied. "It seems we're cousins. Both our societies are descended from the Vulcan Diaspora. I believe your society is matriarchal in it's own way? So is ours. Most of our upper aristocracy is dominated by women, though things have been evening out since we joined the Federation in the 2290s. Polygamy was and still is practiced on my planet, but over the last century or so that has manifested itself more as group marriages and less of one matriarch with many husbands. There was a time when matriarchs had as many as sixteen husbands. Sex is an integral part of Rigelian culture and biology. Obviously one woman couldn't keep up with sixteen husbands so infidelity was rampant, leading to many children born on 'the wrong side of the blanket' as the Earth saying goes. These children were often abandoned and lived on the streets. Many became child prostitutes. Much of this changed when Rigel V joined the Federation, but back in the 22nd Century when I was a policeman in the capital, this was a real problem, as was the Orion Syndicate."

"Not so different from how my people live then. Though knowing that explains why Nia was never worried about me... shopping around." Clio chuckled a bit, finally realizing just how similar her culture was to the vulcanoid Rigelians. "Sixteen husbands seems like a bit of overkill, even for a matriarch. Then again, I don't know who my real father was. I'm not sure my mother knows, actually."

"The ratio of men to matriarchs really didn't work," Daytona replied. "The math was wrong for us. We use a combination of sex and other forms of exercise to keep our vulcanoid passions under control, like the Vulcans use logic. It was and still is considered both unhealthy and unnatural for a rigelian to abstain from sexual activity. But, while there are some very formidable, and...energetic rigelian women, even they would find satisfying sixteen partners on a regular basis a significant strain. Keep in mind that many of these 'extra' husbands came from arranged marriages designed to form alliances, consolidate power, etc, so there might not be any connection between the matriarch and most of her husbands. Left to their own devices long enough, they cheated on their matriarch. The matriarchs usually turned a blind eye to this, but if any children were produced, they usually ended up banished. Left to fend for themselves, these children were more often than not exploited. As I said, the system steadily improved once my people joined the Federation. In order to qualify for membership, they had to clean up their acts. Things are much more equitable now, there are fewer unwanted or at least unplanned children and children from these more equitable marriages are well cared for in most cases."

"Cervan marriage is... different. Females can telepathically bond as many mates as they choose, and many don't mind sharing. So you might have a matriarch who has five husbands, but each husband also has another wife. They also keep... breeding stock." The true word for that was slaves, but Clio disliked admitting to her people's practice of sexual slavery.

"Well it seems that when both our peoples get around, they really get around," Daytona said with a grin. "So, what do you need me to do around here when I'm not out prowling for you?"

"Prowling does seem to be what you're most useful for, but I can't have you prowling about on the ship. Enalia might think we were up to something." Clio snickered a bit. "On board, mostly what we have is analysis of collected data and strategic planning. However, we're also responsible for cross-training other departments in intelligence work. Most of them haven't been assigned to a ship like the Hera."

"Enalia and I know each other from a little adventure early in her career," Daytona said. "So if she caught me prowling around, she wouldn't just think we were up to something, she'd be absolutely convinced we were up to something!"

Daytona looked thoughtful a moment.

"Training people strains even my nearly inexhaustible patience," he said. "Analysis, well, most of my experience with the intelligence business is field work, but I have provided analysis for missions from time to time. It was more like I acted as a consultant of sorts for missions where Starfleet Intelligence thought that my insight might be valuable, but not my presence in the field. I understand most of the players in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. I was involved in intelligence actions against Dominion forces in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants, but I've spent little time actually in the Gamma Quadrant. In short, I believe that while I would be most useful to you in the field, I can also be quite useful providing analysis when I'm not out playing Secret Agent Man."

"I can find plenty of field work for you during planetside trips, but your assistance with the analysis side of things will be immensely helpful. Nexi and Cato do what they can, but they're more... hands on. I don't know if either of them have ever been trained for the ship-side part of the job." Clio suspected that neither Cato nor Nexi had any official analysis training, but so far they'd done the best they could. "There's too much of it for one person, so we've all had to work on it. Not my favorite part of the job, but at least I went to school for it."

"Well," Daytona said. "My analytic skills, such as they are, have come from experience in the field and years of using my head as more than a battering ram. I've never actually trained to be a shipboard intelligence officer, but I understand how it works. I started as an Intelligence Specialist 3rd Class in Clandestine Operations, but my assignments required not only the gathering of intelligence, but also on the spot analysis to be sent along with my reports. They ran me through an analysis course as well as the field ops course, not because they thought I needed analysis training, but so I would know the format and structure of the reports I was to be sending."

"The formal training is little more than that anyway, just takes weeks instead of hours or days. I can promise I don't know any more about analysis than you do, and I did have the official training on it." Clio chuckled a little. "Anyhow, I'm sure you have other things to work on besides talking to me. Don't let me keep you from them."

"Yes, Ma'am," Daytona said. "I'll go get to work right away."

Daytona exited the tram he'd caught to follow Deshok and looked around. Seeing the landmark he was looking for, he headed of in pursuit of Deshok. He'd killed a lot of Deshok's thugs over the past year. He was pretty sure that the two dead ones back at the street cafe were the last two. The bastard was alone now. There was no one to protect him. All Daytona had to do was find him.

"Excuse me," said a voice off to Daytona's right. Someone touched his arm and Daytona stopped to see who was bothering him. A man in a hooded coat with some kind of mask covering his lower face had stopped him. "I think I can help you."

Daytona frowned. Whoever this was, his mask gave his voice a metallic, artificial sound.

"Why would you think that?" he said. "Why would you even want to help me?"

The man chuckled.

"Let's just say I'm invested in you seeing done what you've come here to see done," the man said. "You want to see him dead, don't you?"

Daytona's eyes narrowed.

"Entirely too many people seem to know that I'm here and why," he said. "What in the name of the Prime Number is going on here?"

"You don't have much time," the man said, the sense of urgency clear in his voice. "I'll show you where he is, but only if you promise to leave immediately afterwards."

Daytona decided to play along. Anything to get at Deshok. He'd waited long enough.

"Fine," he said. "I may not be able to get passage out of here before tomorrow. Is that soon enough for you?"

The man grabbed Daytona's arms and shook him.

"NO!" the man said in his metallic voice. "Here."

The man shoved a flimsy into Daytona's hand.

"What's this?" Daytona said. "Does this tell me where Deshok is?"

"No, you idiot!" the man said. "I didn't think I was ever this dumb, but I guess I was. Never mind. Look, he's in room 2754. Go there, right now, do what you have to do, and then IMMEDIATELY go to slip 78 in this section. That flimsy is your ticket out of here. They've been paid to take you away from here the minute you're aboard. Listen to me! More than your life depends on this! I can't tell you anymore...about this...but...in about two hundred and thirty four years, you're going to meet someone very special. Try not to screw it up. Now go! You need to be off this planet in less than twenty minutes! If you're still here after that, we're both dead, along with a lot of other people you've yet to meet. Go, you dolt! Move!"

Daytona looked at the man a moment, hesitated, then ran over to the nearest map. Looking quickly, he found the rooms he was looking for. He set off for them at a dead run.

=^=Really, sir?=^= a voice in the man's ear said as he watched Daytona running towards his destiny...both of their destinies. =^=The way I understand it, that relationship worked out pretty well for you and her. Are you trying to jinx yourself?=^=

The man chuckled to himself.

"It worked out really well," he said. "I'm just buying a little insurance. A lot can happen in two hundred and thirty-four years."

=^=I guess,=^= the voice responded. =^=Are you going to stay and make sure he gets off of the planet? I mean, if he hesitates at all...=^=

"He won't," the man said. "Because I didn't. If that makes any sense."

=^=Yes, sir,=^= the voice said. =^=I suppose it does. Sir, if there’s no reason for us to stay, maybe we should get the Hell out of here. I’d rather not even be in this time period when those tri-cobalt devices go off, let alone near this system. =^=

The man in the hood turned and walked towards a secluded alley, where no one would notice what’s about to happen. When he got to the alley, he ducked into it. When he got deep enough into the alley, he was ready.

“Alright, Lieutenant,” the man said. “One to beam up. Tell your captain that my business is done here. It’s time to move on to our next appointment.”

=^=Yes, sir,=^= the lieutenant responded.

A moment later, the man in the hood disappeared in the sparkle of a transporter beam. His work done here and now, he was of to somewhere, and some when, else.

Daytona arrived at slip seventy-eight. There was a ship of a design unknown to him there. It seemed to be some kind of yacht, something small enough for a small crew to operate while being large enough to be comfortable. An extremely ugly alien of a species Daytona was unfamiliar with was standing at the foot of the ramp leading to the interior of the ship. Whatever the...man? Woman? Whatever sex the person was, they were as ugly as sin. As he got closer to the alien, he realized there was something almost rodent-like about its face.

Daytona wasn't really sure what was going on. He didn't really understand why he'd taken the man in the hood at his word. Daytona wasn't sure how the man in the hood knew he would be at that place at that time, and he didn't know how the man in the hood knew about Deshok. Daytona didn't know why the man in the hood wanted him off the station. All he knew was that the man in the hood had been right about Deshok, so it seemed reasonable that the man in the hood was right about Daytona needing to get off the planet and out of the system immediately.

Daytona approached the wrinkly, rodent faced, alien. The alien watched Daytona as he approached. It seemed to be comparing an image on a flimsy with Daytona's appearance. Daytona saw the alien nod, apparently satisfied that Daytona was the man it was waiting for. When Daytona reached the alien, he started to speak, but was cut off.

"You are Daytona Ral, yes?" the alien said. Daytona started when he realized the alien was speaking pretty good Low Orion. "My name is Yanski. Someone paid a fair price to make sure you had a place on my ship and that we left immediately after you arrived. He told me quite a bit about you, former Detective Chief Inspector Ral of the Rigelian Constabulary. Please, come aboard. We must leave right away. I must say you have an impressive resume. Based on that resume, I might have a business proposition for you. But that can wait. Please, come aboard. The man who paid your way left you a case that he said had items you might need since you would not have time to gather your belongings before we left. I've put it in the room you'll be bunking in. Come, we must go."

Daytona really didn't know what to say, so he just followed Yanski aboard its ship.

"Hey," Daytona asked as they boarded. "I don't mean to sound rude, but my experiences with other species is limited. I've never seen one of your kind before, so I don't know what you are and I can't really tell if you are male or female."

Yanski chuckled.

"Well," he said. "I am from Yiridia, making me a Yridian. I'm...not from around here. Oh, and I'm male, by the way, and, as attractive as you are, my interests don't lie in that direction, so hands off, lover boy. As for what I am...I'm what you might call an...information broker."

"Where did you learn Orion?" Daytona asked.

"Are you familiar with the Orion Syndicate?" the Yiridian asked. "I'm sure you are. They originated in your home system. Well, their network runs far and wide. I've dealt with them many times. They are a fertile source of information."

"I guess I knew that the Syndicate was a big operation," Daytona replied. "I never realized how big."

"There are many things for you to learn about the galaxy, Mister Ral," Yanski replied. "Perhaps, if you stick with me for a while, I'll show you some of those things."

Daytona didn't really have anywhere else to go.

"After we get out of here," Daytona said. "We'll talk about your business proposal. I seem to be a free agent at the moment, so I don't have much to lose."

"I would enjoy that immensely, Mister Ral," Yanski said. "I would enjoy that immensely. Here is your bunk. You can rest here or come join me on the bridge. Well, it's really more of a cockpit with delusions of grandeur, but it serves it's purpose."

"I'll join you on the bridge," Daytona replied. "I think it's about time for me to learn how to fly a starship."

"Excellent," Yanski said. "It would be my pleasure to teach you. And Mister Ral...welcome aboard."

"Thanks, Yanski," Daytona said. "Since you seem to be saving my life, here, I think you can call me Daytona."

Yanski nodded.

"Alright then, Daytona it is!" he said. "Come Daytona! The galaxy awaits!"

Enalia had awoken with a pair of massive hangovers and had literally thrown up on Akira as she administered a double dose of something in a hypo to her after the slingshot. They were here though. Selen VI. The planet itself was a small red planet and the spaceport was big enough to be easily visible from space even from the distance they were at to avoid traffic and still beam to the surface. It was surprising how close the secretive BEPI 113 system was to it at least - their escape vector would be quick.

Sheepishly glancing over at Akira, Enalia wondered how she could make it up to her when an alarm sounded. "That's it. Signal the transporter teams. We have their sensor rotations locked in and can avoid detection now so they can leave when ready. We'll be up here waiting on their reports.

"All team leaders report ready status," Mal said. "That includes you Miss Nexi."

Akira remained by Enalia for a moment, stunned frozen. "This cannot possibly be hygienic," she finally said, then turned with a shudder to find a washroom. She couldn't just rematerialize herself, she would leave an awful mess behind!

Being singled out, Nexi answered the call first. "My team is ready and standing by for transport," she reported from the transporter room where she, Cato, Stormes, and R'Tor were appropriately dressed and awaiting transport.

T'Pral reported next. "This is Lieutenant T'Pral. my team and I are ready for transport."

Mal gave Clio an extra moment to chime in before speaking. She was too adult and too professional to take it personally if he had to single her out for something, but he didn't want to push his luck. He liked Clio and enjoyed spending time with her. Unfortunately, he couldn't wait any longer.

"Commander Enaes," he said, as pleasantly as possible. "Please report your team's status."

"Sorry, sir. We're ready." Truth be told, Clio hadn't really been paying attention to the call to report in. She'd been preoccupied with ensuring everyone's costumes and tech were era-appropriate and as comfortable as possible. But Mal was right about her not taking it personally. In fact, her tone was positively cheerful.

Enalia then pressed a few controls on her chair. Ensign Gonadie, please confirm status of our period specific shuttle, the IKS Loojacks."

"Aye Captain," She replied as she checked some internal sensors as well as logs and reports. "She's confirmed to be ready to go on a moment's notice, Captain. The flight controls are so simple she'll be easy to fly, but just as easy to crash as there's very little resembling computer guidance in her."

"For emergency use only then. Let's hope we can return her to the museum without any added runtime then." Enalia added.

Then the current operations officer filling in for Akira as she cleaned up cleared his throat. "Captain, transporter rooms three, four, and nine report that the teams are all on the surface below and we're receiving telemetry. No signs of detection by the Orion duotronic security grid."

Enalia leaned back in her chair and pretended not to be stressed. "Excellent. now we wait."

------------------
Some time later
------------------

Brig
----
The Enalia demon was tired of waiting. She could sense the presense that summoned her to this universe and she wanted revenge. reaching into the wall of the brig, she twisted. Immediately the power grid was fried and the entire brig's systems were dead. The security on duty were fast, but Telvan was faster as she leapt across the room and ripped their throats out with her bare hands. Standing over them, she watched as one of them barely managed to hit the alarm with his last dying breath, sending the ship into a special red alert and locking the ship down. That was fine with her. She knew everything about this ship she needed to know anyway. She just needed to make a quick stop by the main armory...

Bridge
-------

Enalia was almost bored looking over the sensor readings when the red alert went off and the message popped up on her terminal saying that her demon-verse selve had chosen now to escape. "Holy shit..." she muttered to herself before issuing orders. "Computer, lock down all systems I have access to and transfer all command codes to Commander Mal Xustos immediately. Authorization Enalia echo niner niner one one seven."

"Transfer confirmed. Lockdown complete." Came the computer's reply.

Enalia then turned to Mal. "My demon-verse clone just escaped. Official command will need to lie with you until we can recapture her but if it's okay with you I'd like to still fire off the commands."

"Of course, Captain," Mal replied.

Enalia then steeled herself to command a starship not only blindly but in a manner befitting that of someone of the era she was in. She couldn't help but grin wryly. "Go to red alert stage three, internal infiltration. Security teams, do sweeps of every junction and Jeffries tube access. Environmental, ready the anesthezine system, just in case we can seal her in somewhere. All crewmembers are to be armed. Standing orders are to terminate on sight. Activate all security defense systems." As she spoke, her orders were carried out by the crew a bit slower than normal as they had to punch their access in to get past every lockout, but it was still efficient. The most notable difference though, were the two phaser turrets that popped out of the ceiling to either side of the viewscreen and rotated for a moment, looking for targets.

Elsewhere on the ship
------------------------
Meanwhile, the demonverse version of Enalia didn't need codes or things like that. She just reached into jeffries tube doors and twisted, destroying shield emitters and doors alike, allowing her to pass freely on a direct path to where she knew she'd find the explosives she'd need to erase that presence and hers from this existence.

Soon she was there. The main armory. As she climbed out of the tubes, she reached into the main EPS systems with her hair and twisted, sending cascading energy overloads across the deck. The resulting catastrophic failure electrocuted several of the security guards and blew open the doors for her so she strolled in and grabbed the case, checked the contents, and walked out. Now she just had to find a way to the planet below. She never trusted transporters, but a shuttle was too easy to track... She'd have to leave a present after she left...

Grabbing a couple plasma grenades, she headed out of the armory and reentered the jeffries tubes and headed towards main engineering. Knowing her way around the ship made things easy. She didn't even have to get close, just drop off one of the plasma grenades near the main EPS relays and head towards the secret shuttlebay. Unfortunately, the grenade went off a bit early and main power went offline just as she was coming out of the tubes into the shuttlebay to see the only runabout there - the Wandering Star.

Popping the hatch in a most violent manner, she couldn't make sense of the Ferengi consoles. That meant transporting was her only option at this point. In a fit of rage, she started smashing the cockpit panels and screaming blasphemies that would have made a Klingon blush before grabbing the case of explosives and looking for the transporter in this now useless ship. At least the transporter wasn't completely useless to her and soon she found herself in a busy intersection, travelers stepping around her like she was carrying the plague.

Bridge
-------

The explosion in the EPS relays caused a cascading disruption throughout the ship, enough to cause the blue-skinned hologram at the Operation console to flicker. With panic in her eyes, she rerouted systems to stabilize the power flow and thus stabilize the holo-emitters.

"Captain, I'm reading an unauthorized transport," Akira reported as she got the systems under control. "All ship and cargo transporters are locked down, but it appears that the transport occurred from the work bee storage bay off of Cargo Bay 4." Akira didn't know about the secret bay where the Wandering Star was berthed, or even that the Hera was carrying an extra runabout, so she was completely perplexed by the readings she was seeing.

Nexi's ship, Mal thought. How in Hades did she find the Wandering Star?

"Thank you, Miss Akira," Mal said. "We are aware of the source. There's something in that cargo bay that has it's own transporter that's not connected to the ship's systems. I assume, Captain, that your evil twin was able to access that something down there because you couldn't remotely disable your access codes, assuming that something's owner gave you access in the first place."

Mal looked over at Akira.

"Miss Akira," he said. "First of all, ensure that your systems are stable. We don't want to lose you at a time when you are most needed here. Then attempt to trace the transporter beam so we can narrow down the culprit's location? That will give you a point from which to begin scanning for Trill lifesigns. I don't believe you'll find many, probably only the Anti-Enalia."

"The power surge from the explosion to the EPS relays has been disbursed, I am fine," Akira assured Mal. "Beginning scan," she informed him as she refocused the sensors down to the planet. "I'm reading one Trill life sign in the general vicinity of Lieutenant Commander Clio's team. Attempting to narrow down coordinates."

"Since she's no longer aboard, cancel the lockdown and security sweeps. Prioritize power to life support and the stealth plating next. Mal, if you could transfer command codes back to me, I'd be appreciative." Glancing at the engineering stations, she noticed all the red but other than main power being offline and auxiliary reactors being online, it didn't seem too bad. Transporters were offline as well though, so they couldn't send help to their teams on the ground until main power was restored. "Ensign Gonadie, Please inform our away teams of the situation and to kill her on sight."

With a simple nod, the Ensign busied herself with the comm system.

"Computer," Mal said. "Please transfer command and control back to Captain Enalia Telvan, authorization code Thermopylae480BCE."

"Acknowledged, Commander Mal Xustos," the computer replied. "Command and control has been returned to Captain Enalia Telvan."

"Thank you, Computer," Mal said. After all, it never hurt to be polite.

"You are welcome, Commander Mal Xustos," the computer replied. "Have a nice day."

Mal got a confused look on his face, as if he wasn't sure he'd heard the computer correctly, then shrugged. He really didn't have time to worry about whether or not the computer was becoming sentient at the moment, but he made a mental note to stick with his policy of being polite even to the ship's computer. If it ever came to life, he wanted to make sure he was on its good side. Mal had seen 2001: A Space Odyssey while in the academy. He knew what happened to people who were rude to computers.

"Uhm...Thank you," Mal said. "The same to you."

There was no response from the computer, so Mal got back to work.

=^="Daytona to Hera and all teams!"=^= he said. =^="The crazy bitch has activated three tri-cobalt devices, ripped open the bottom of an elevator car that I betting goes all the way down to the 'secret' labs, and tossed the cursed things down there. This is it. Times up. We need to unass this place RFN."=^=

"We copy tri-cobalt devices are in play," Mal Xustos responded from the Bridge. "All teams prepare to be extracted."

Enalia checked her readouts and saw transporters were still offline. Plan B it was then. "Akira, send teams to the runabouts and have them extract the teams with those transporters. We don't have time to wait for repairs."

"Yes ma'am," Akira replied, and sent orders to the shuttle bay managers to use the shuttle transporters to retrieve the away teams. Her console responded moments later with chirps of confirmation. "Ground teams and shuttle personnel are in place, preparing to extract now," she informed Enalia, then waited for confirmation that their people were safe.

=/\="Bridge, this is the Selune. I have Commander Eneas' team aboard."=/\=
=/\="Bridge, this is the Frigga. I have Lieutenant Jordan's team aboard."=/\=
=/\="Bridge, this is the Bast. I have Staff Warrant Officer Nexi's team aboard."=/\=

Akira checked the life sign readings on her console to confirm, then looked to Enalia. "All personnel present and accounted for," she reported.

"Excellent. Now someone tell me we have warp engines back online," Enalia demanded.

Ensign Gonadie replied as she checked her helm controls. "Negative, Captain. Warp power is still offline."

"Best speed available out of the system then, please," Enalia ordered. "Let's just hope it's enough to get us clear of the blast in time."

"Aye, Captain," Ensign Gonadie replied.

Full impulse wouldn't be enough to escape the blast and Enalia knew that quite well. They'd need some sort of miracle at this point. "Engineering, this is the bridge. Find the craziest human engineer you have and get me warp power in the next... seventy three seconds or we're all dead."

=/\="Aye, kyptin. You'll have it inna jiffy."=/\= Came a thick Scottish accent over the comms.

As the counter on Enalia's chair ticked down, the stress mounted and sweat started beading on her forehead. "Come on..." She muttered as the counter hit single digits.

"Warp power online!" Gonadie exclaimed, her hands reaching for the controls.

"Punch it, Ensign!" Enalia exclaimed back, just as the counter reached zero.

Just as the Hera streaked away, Selen VI flashed three times in quick succession and begin to burn like a solar flare, breaking up and sending out a shockwave from the central reactor core similar to that of Praxis but on a much smaller scale. Most of the starport was pulverized by the blast, but a few chunks floated away from the shattered remains of the planet somewhat intact.

Misty and the rest of the team materialized in a courtyard in what was on the outer edges of the port. Several inhabitants were in the area but paid the team little mind; people beaming in was nothing new.

She pulled out her tricorder and began scanning for anything out of place. She wondered how long it would take, given that it was a replica of the type used at that time as opposed to the current one—regulations regarding the bringing of modern technology into the past were quite strict.

Out on the concourse, a short walk from where Nexi's team had beamed in, Daytona Ral, most recently Detective Chief Inspector Daytona Ral of the Rigelian Constabulary, sat by himself. He held a flimsy in his had, some local news rag. To the casual observer, he appeared to be simply drinking his drink, eating his pastry, and reading. A highly trained observer would realize that he was watching the crowd, either looking for someone or actually observing someone, waiting for them to make a move.

Detective Chief Inspector Daytona Ral had thrown his badge in his bosses face and walked out on a fifty year career in law enforcement just a few months before. Politics and corruption and let a criminal slip through his fingers. Deshok wasn't the first criminal to slip away, but this wasn't the first time Deshok had slipped away. Daytona had been chasing him for decades and had never been able to make anything stick. Deshok had help from inside the constabulary. Witnesses were frequently silenced, evidence frequently disappeared, prosecutors frequently flat out refused to prosecute, magistrates failed to issue warrants and even overturned jury sentences, though often the jury was either bought and paid for or simply intimidated into a not-guilty verdict. This time was the last straw. If rigelian courts wouldn't allow justice to be done, Daytona was going to get his own justice. He'd come here to kill Deshok and he had no intention of leaving until he'd done just that.

"Remember, be discreet," Nexi cautioned Misty while they got their bearings. Nexi had her nose ridges removed and was now a rich shade of green. She kept close to Cato, who was supposed to be her 'owner' for this ruse. "We're just observers at this point, so stay-" Nexi stopped short when she sensed something familiar nearby- Daytona?! She gave her ear a tap to activate the Ferengi translator she had; this translator she had modified to act as a communicator so she could give commands to her ship, and she had long since used it to tap into Starfleet comm lines. "Daytona, why are you away from your team?" she said. He shouldn't be this close their location!

=^=Uh...I'm not,=^= Daytona replied. =^=Oh! You found me! That was fast! Honestly, though, I was laser focused on killing that bastard Deshok back then. I remember a sexy orion slave girl who looked a lot like you, but green of course, but shockingly I was more interesting in killing a man than bedding a woman. Maybe you should go say hello...just to make sure that the whole space/time continuum doesn't fold in on itself?=^=

"You- WHAT?!" Nexi couldn't believe what she was hearing! "You mean to tell me you are here in this timeline and you didn't say anything to anyone?! I'm not an expert in protocol, but this is something that should have come up during the briefing!"

=^=Yes, well, that would have spoiled everything,=^= Daytona said. =^=I needed to meet you and then I need to find the man I'm here to kill already dead...killed with the knife I have with me now. In fact, I took the knife out of the body and kept it as a souvenir. You see, 2160 me came here to kill that bastard Deshok and if 2160 me doesn't find him dead with this knife in his putrid heart, 2160 me won't leave the station. If 2160 me doesn't leave the station, then he gets blown up with everyone else. If he gets blown up with everyone else, then he doesn't go on to become me and everything I did between 2160 and 2394 will be undone, including the two hundred and thirty-four years of vital intelligence missions I undertook for Starfleet.=^=

"This is- you can't-" Nexi squeezed her eyes shut, resisting the urge to scream obscenities that would surely give away their positions. "Wait, if past you takes the knife that you-you left there... is it the same knife?! Fucking hell, I hate time travel," she grumbled. "Look, once it's done, tell me where so I can 'find' it. Don't worry about tipping anyone off by contacting me, my comm is in my ear, only I can hear it," she said to Daytona, then she looked to Cato, "Come on, 'Master', time to make a sales pitch to an idiotic Rigellian."

=^=As I recall, you caused a bit of a scene when I rejected you and Deshok, who I was stalking at the time, saw me. He sent his bodyguards to deal with me and hopped on a tram headed towards the section I'm in now. There's a scuffle with the thugs, I got disgusted and stormed off to catch the next tram so I could try and track down Deshok before he left the station. By the time I found him, he was dead. I took the knife that killed him as a souvenir and left the station. I started hiring myself out as a mercenary after that. I only left the station in time to avoid whatever it is that's going to happen here because Deshok was dead so I had no reason to stay here. But don't worry about that. Just do what comes naturally to you and they'll be a scene, Deshok will run and I'll deal with the rest. And Nexi...I really appreciate this. I know what a pain in the ass this is. Tell Cato I said thanks and sorry for what's about to happen to his knackers.=^=

"You ass," Nexi grumbled, then remarked dryly, "I've got half a mind to ignore him and let the timeline implode!" Then with a heavy sigh, she looked to Cato. "Did you get all that?" she asked him.

Gritting his teeth, Cato nodded "I'm gonna break his fuckin' jaw." he took a deep breath and exhaled with a heavy sigh. "I hate time travel." he said, gently leading her via the chain and collar around her neck. "Come on, slave!" he smirked. "We'll have to keep the chains, it's a good look." Cato grinned back at her before going back into character.

Though she didn't show it, Nexi detested the collar and the chains; she had been collared once before by a Ferengi troll who was not nearly as benevolent as the Orion slave broker Cato was passing himself off as. Making their way through the port to the area where the younger Daytona was. Nexi had been many things as her time as a mercenary and Collector for the FCA; seducer, bounty hunter, hitman, treasure hunter, smuggler, even invisible... Nexi was especially proud of being so unseen in her career; some people might be a bit miffed at being uncelebrated for doing feats that were often thought to be impossible, but Nexi reveled in the fact that no one ever knew it had been her. Of course, there were other schools of thought; when doing a job, either no one notices you, or they only notice you. It was the latter Nexi was going for now; with eyes on her as she moved through crowd, seducing potential customers with her gaze, the rest of her team should be able to move around freely, discreetly taking readings to find the entrance to the lab they were looking for while she pandered to the crowd looking for a potential buyer. Of course, she already had one potential in mind, the young Daytona, and she still couldn't believe the Daytona from her time had put them all on the spot quite like this!

Tugging on her chain as she moved towards Daytona, she turned her big doe-y eyes (what does that even mean?!) to Cato. "I like that one," she said with a sultry smile, taking up enough slack with her chain so that she could hold it above her head as she swayed her hips and then twirled towards Daytona, an enticingly provocative display for most anyone else, but if what the other Daytona said rang true, then this one would not be interested at all.

Daytona didn't even glance up at Nexi or look up from the flimsy he was pretending to read. He was here for Deshok. Even sex couldn't assuage the hatred he felt for Deshok or cool the rage he felt when he thought of the vile man. Daytona had tried to do what any other rigelian would have done when hurt or angry. He found a partner and had sex...had sex until he was exhausted. It didn't matter. The morning after he was once again filled with rage and hatred. Only one thing was going to solve this problem. He had to kill Deshok. So when a young orion girl came sauntering towards him, using her body in ways that would have brought another man to his knees, Daytona only found it irritating. Extremely irritating. Daytona tried ignoring her to see if she was actually headed for someone else, but no such luck. She was really hot and attracting a lot of attention, which was the last thing he needed. Then it happened. Deshok was standing across the promenade from where Daytona was sitting. He was talking to someone on a handheld communication device. The orion sex slave attracted the attention of one of Deshok's bodyguards, a large orion male. He tapped the other one, a very large and fierce looking kaylar. The Kaylar nudged his boss so he'd get a chance to see the show, and, if he was interested, buy the girl. Deshok looked over in the sexy slave girl's direction and grinned. Then, it happened. Deshok locked eyes with Daytona. First a look of recognition passed over his face, followed quickly by a look of horror. Back on Rigel V, or anywhere in the Rigel System, he was mostly safe from the police or comparable authorities. He paid plenty of bribes and blackmailed or simply threatened anyone he couldn't bribe. Back on Rigel V, Daytona had thrown everything he had at Deshok and failed because the system was rigged. But if Daytona was here, he'd obviously given up on the system. The former policeman wasn't here to arrest Deshok. He was here to kill him.

Deshok grabbed the arms of his thugs and then pointed frantically in Daytona's direction. Daytona could read lips and from what he could discern Deshok had just said something to the effect of 'kill the bastard!' The two super-sized thugs started over towards him. Daytona ignored them at first, trying to keep track of Deshok. He saw the son-of-a-bitch jump on a tram.

He's got quarters in that direction. He must have something stashed there that he needs to pick up before he unasses this station. And that damn girl is still wiggling her ass at me...along with everything else she's got going on!

Daytona was a sitting duck where he was. No room to maneuver, and he might need that. The Deshok's orion bruiser would be difficult, but not too. The kaylar, on the other hand...he was big even for a Kaylar. He had to be eight feet tall, heavy, and all muscle. Their bones were as hard as rock and they did not go down easy.

Well...might as well get this over with. But first...

Daytona stood and approached the orion slave girl.

"Sorry," he said, hoping if he shut down her advance that she and her master or boy toy or whatever he was would just leave. "Not only do I not have time for you, but you probably can't afford my rates. I know, you're heart broken, but it's for the best. Now, if you'll excuse me..."

Daytona walked past the girl and her keeper and stepped out onto the promenade to face Deshok's bodyguards.

Wow, who knew Daytona was capable of such a cold shoulder and monumentally insulting burn! Behind those dark eyes of hers, Nexi was following every thought, every presence; despite her oblivious facade, she was completely aware of Deshok and his guards even though she had not yet laid eyes on them. Thinking through what her Daytona had already told her, Nexi decided that now was the best opportunity to make a scene. She stepped to him and looped her chain around his shoulders to turn him away from Deshok.

"My master does not care for your disrespect, little man," Nexi said with a sultry pout that could melt any heart, but also with a glare that promised pain and anguish if he did not tread carefully.

Daytona rolled his eyes.

"Really?" he said. "Look, normally if a woman as attractive as you came to me begging for sex like this, I'd oblige her. Charity is one the virtues my dear, sweet mother instilled in me. But right now, I've got bigger problems, as in those two large creatures over there."

He pointed to the larger orion and the even larger Kaylar.

"I don't suppose you want to offer yourself to the Kaylar to distract him for me while I deal with the orion, would you? I mean, he's a slave, and he's definitely a double-bagger, but he probably has some walking around money and..."

"Daytona Ral!" the Orion thug shouted. "We're going to kill you and then we're going to take your woman and your boy toy!"

"Oh...frazjak!" Daytona said. He turned to the Orion and the Kaylar. Up close, he saw that the Kaylar was the one known as The Club (with Nails). True to his name, he was carrying a nasty looking club with nails stuck in the business end like spikes. Daytona unwrapped Nexi's chain from his neck and held her out towards the two gargantuan thugs. "Look, you can have the woman and the boy toy. I just want Deshok. Seriously take them and have your way with them. I mean, look at the ass on that guy! That's prime meat right there! What do you say? Do we have a deal?"

"It's a deal!" Called an old large albino Klingon wearing white steel spiked shoulder pads and white steel armor and white fur. He was armed to the teeth and had more honors plastered on his bandolier than any Klingon had any right to. "My apologies for the interruption. My name is Dahar Master Qu'hang and I happen to be in charge of the Klingon battle group running security of this sector. Is there an... Issue? That I should be aware of?"

What the fucking hell, why couldn't she just beat the ever loving shit out of this guy without interruption, why did this damned Klingon have to stick his unwrinkled nose into their business?! Nexi stilled her hand before she could bring it up to hit Daytona or anyone else. She was going to kill their Daytona once they got back to the ship!

"Remove your hands from me!" Nexi barked out at Daytona, then turned her attention to the Klingon. "This man is attempting to barter me off when he has no right!" Nexi asserted firmly. "He has not purchased me or any rights to offer my services to anyone else."

The orion and the kaylar were standing their looking confused. This wasn't unusual. They usually looked confused. They didn't want any trouble with the cops, but their boss had said to take out Daytona. Besides, there was only one klingon. How tough could he be. The orion looked at his partner. Though the orion wasn't much brighter than The Club (with Nails), he was the closest thing to the brains of the operation, in the absence of Deshok, that is. He nodded, and the eight foot tall Kaylar swung his club above his head, aiming at Daytona. Daytona had heard the massive being grunt before he swung the club. His training kicked in and instead of just moving out of the way, which would have left Nexi to get hit by The Club (with Nails)'s club, he grabbed Nexi and tried to get them both out of the way. They got out of the way just in time, the club smashing a table near where they stood.

"Look, miss," he said. "Your attempt to coerce me into wild denebian banshee sex already let the guy I came here to kill get away. Will you please get the hell out of my way before you get us both killed!"

Qu'hang pulled out a mek'leth and used it to disarm the Kaylar quite literally. The arm that was holding the club may have been no longer attached to his body but true to Kaylar stupidity, that didn't seem to deter his attack so the albino Klingon parried the next few blows with relative ease. "Detective Ral, it seems you've chosen a dangerous prey to stalk. I commend you for your courage!"

"How did you...?" Daytona started to ask. "It was Detective Chief Inspector Ral, if you want to get technical, but that's behind me now. Oh, never mind...whoa!"

The Orion thug suddenly appeared behind Daytona. The Rigelian ex-police officer barely had time to turn and raise his arms when the Orion clasped him in a bear hug and lifted him up.

"I...don't...have...time...for...this!" Daytona managed to gasp out. He placed one hand to each side of the Orion's skull, palms facing the green giant's ears. There was a crackling sound that built until there was electricity arching between Daytona's palms, traveling through the Orion's head. The thug's eyes rolled back into his head and he tensed up and began to shake. The thug went over backwards like falling tree. Daytona rode the body down, then rose to his feet. The orion was quite dead. Daytona looked over at the Klingon fighting the now one-armed kaylar. He rolled his eyes and pulled a dagger from his boot. He ran up behind the kaylar and jumped on its back. Once there, he began to stab it repeatedly in the neck. This wasn't the first kaylar he'd killed. He knew he was stabbing in exactly the right place.

Qu'hang nodded satisfied with the battle as he sheathed his weapon and pulled Daytona to the side. "Indeed, who you were is behind you now. A bounty is now on your head, placed there by your quarry and I suspect these two of being bounty hunters. Go now, while I distract them."

Without waiting for an answer, Qu'hang pushed Daytona away and attacked Cato first, pulling him into a headbutt before raising his knee into his crotch. "To the victor goes the spoils!"

Daytona didn't have to be told twice. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw one of the station's trams pulling in. The destination screen said it was headed for the same area Deshok had likely fled to. He glanced over at the Klingon.

"I owe you one, Qu'hang!" he said. "Survive and succeed!"

Daytona bolted for the tram and jumped inside just as the doors were closing. The tram pulled out, taking him away from the scuffle and off towards his destiny.

[Later]

Nexi managed to extricate Cato from the cluster fuck of a scene involving Daytona. Daytona.... Fuck that guy! She was tempted to toss him off the ship once they got back! As she helped Cato limp back to a secluded area, Nexi turned on her comm once again.

"Daytona, heads up, you and your prey are inbound," Nexi said as she settled Cato onto a bench. Then, without any warning, she unbuckled his belt and shoved her hand down his pants. "Bruised... but nothing feels torn... You'll live," she said in assessment as she 'inspected' what he was packing.

=^=Copy that, Nexi,=^= Daytona replied. =^=Thanks for the assist. I'm sure Cato will want to settle up with me later, maybe you, too, but please understand, I was under orders not to reveal any of this until right before things needed to happen. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to kill a man...no, a monster. The monster who killed my daughter. If that means I have to take a punch from one or both of you, well, I'm sure you can see why that doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things.=^=

Until now, Daytona had mostly displayed his pleasant side to people, what some people referred to as his 'cheerful idiot' aspect. What he had just shared with Nexi was anything but cheerful. There was something very cold and very deadly in his voice, yet very calm.

"Go, you moron," Nexi said, though 'moron' wasn't exactly a precise translation of what she'd actually said in Ferengi, but it was close enough.

By the time Nexi replied, Daytona wasn't even listening anymore.

Deep underground, sixty floors under the spaceport and forty floors under his labs to be precise, the Master sat in a darkened room listening in on several channels he found interesting. The comm channels were unusually high frequencies and he couldn't unscramble them with his hardware in the next fifty years or so... But he had listening devices nearby. One of which was in the eye of a man named Gadj or somesuch.

It wasn't the people that he found the most intriguing though. It was what they had just obviously said to each other. One of them was old enough to be here from this time period... The year 2160? But the one talking was from the year 2394. Of what calendar though? At least the universal translator sorted their language out easily enough. This would take some research.

In the end, time travel agents meant only one thing. His research installation was compromised and he was in danger. Archer may have inadvertently exposed his last facility, but this one had a chance of at least surviving. He'd still take measures to safeguard his research. Immediately, he began transferring all remaining data to his new facility and prepared for immediate departure under the guise of a business trip. His ship's gate was near this female Orion's location, but it wasn't like she was psychic or anything. He could easily slip past her just like any other Vulcan dignitary.

Taking his personal express elevator, he was soon at the surface, just a few hundred meters from his ship. Glancing around, he saw the trio from the monitors only a few meters from him. Yes, he'd remember her face and her name. He'd have to make sure to catch up with her in her time and see if she'd be interested in a good time with him. A slight grin on his face, he confidently stepped towards the gate his ship was berthed at, Nexi's features engraved in his memory.

The communicators of all team members then crackled to life through some interference. =/\="All teams, this is an emergency broadcast from Ensign Gonadie. What appears to be Captain Telvan has beamed to the surface nearest Commander Eneas' team. She is in possession of the explosives discussed in the briefings. You are to terminate on sight. I repeat. Terminate on sight. Backup is unavailable at this time."=/\=

"Fucking hell, can nothing go right with this crew?!" Nexi exclaimed as she heard the announcement. "Seriously, just once I-" she started to rant, then stopped. She sensed something, eyes and determined mine, but it was... where was it? Nexi looked around, scanning the faces of the crowd. "He's here," she said with certainty.

As the Master rounded a corner, he decided to take one last look back at the temporal agent known as Nexi. His smug smile faded though as their eyes met and locked. The electronic music from a nearby trash club seemed to fade as time seemed to slow. He'd made a mistake looking back and he knew that she knew who he was. He could still get away though. Time was still on his side for now. Maybe she hadn't gotten a clear view of his face.

She most definitely did get a good look at his face! "Hera, we've got a suspicious Vulcan down at the docks!" Nexi called out as she unlatched the collar from around her neck, discarding it at Cato's feet and bolting after the Vulcan.

Definitely not good. The Master knew he couldn't outrun her in his Vulcan business suit so he just ran a ways towards his port and readied himself for a fight, pulling out a pair of rather wicked looking blades, similar to the one that Daytona had carried with him all those years, but much longer. Turning as Nexi caught up with him, he took on a defensive posture. "So I'm such a threat that people from the future send assassins after me. I'm honored."

He was a fool to get into a knife fight with her! As Nexi caught up to him, her bare feet sounded off on the deck plating; she drew a knife, but from where she was never going to tell (there was some hu-mon phrase, something about a magician and his tricks...).

"You know, I never woulda noticed you if you'da kept walking," Nexi said with a grin, unwilling to confirm that she was a time traveler, or a telepath for that matter.

A thrown dagger? The Master deflected it with relative ease, but not without it nicking him - it had an unusual spin to it that he hadn't accounted for. Thankfully, his unique biology made him immune to almost all toxins and poisons so that wasn't a threat to him. "Yes, that seems to have been a mistake. Nexi, was it? And one Daytona? From the year twenty three ninety four? I'm not sure what calendar you go by, but I look forward to meeting you again in your time. If you survive, that is" With that, he lunged at Nexi with a left handed thrust, distinctly reminiscent of a modified form of Vulcan martial arts.

Chatty bastard! He was fast though, and Nexi narrowly side-stepped the thrust, catching a graze of his knife across her bare shoulder. Another of her throwing knives appeared in her hand, but instead of throwing it, she took a swipe at him, leaving a deep slash on his chest, sparks flying off her blade, delivering enough of a jolt to stop the heart of a human his size, but she had never fought a Vulcan like this before, so she didn't know if it would be enough.

The blood of a Vulcan was green but the Master's was black. He was also in a fair amount of pain and very unhappy. Carefully sheathing the knife that he had cut Nexi with, he took up a defensive stance and started slowly backing away from what he now knew was not an Orion.

=^="Daytona to Hera and all teams!"=^= he said. =^="The crazy bitch has activated three tri-cobalt devices, ripped open the bottom of an elevator car that I betting goes all the way down to the 'secret' labs, and tossed the cursed things down there. This is it. Times up. We need to unass this place RFN."=^=

=^="We copy tri-cobalt devices are in play,"=^= Mal Xustos responded from the Bridge. =^="All teams prepare to be extracted.=^=

The Master, having as good of hearing as he did, didn't miss the main message in Nexi's earpiece. "It seems your friends are serious. I'm sure we'll meet again, Nexi." With that, he threw a glass vial to the floor which exploded into a cloud of smoke, allowing him to vanish into the crowd and get to his ship.

Nexi coughed as the smoke filled her lungs, her eyes darting about as she tried to find the black-blooded Vulcan. She thought for certain she would be able to sense him enough to follow him, but somehow he was just... gone, almost like he'd never existed! As the smoke cleared, she tried once more to find him, but failed. She retrieved the knife she'd thrown earlier, then gave the area one last glance, trying desperately to sense his presence, but upon coming up empty once again, Nexi sighed in resignation.

"Hera, I've lost the target, ready for beam out whenever you are," Nexi reported.

Within moments the transporter shimmer took her and she was standing in the transporter deck of the Bast, one of the Hera's runabouts. The rest of her team had been extracted prior to her return.

The ensign at the controls tapped his combadge and reported in. "Bridge, this is the Bast. I have Staff Warrant Officer Nexi's team aboard."

Nexi looked around with confusion to find that they were in a shuttle, but the ramp was open so she could see that they were clearly on the Hera as well. "What happened?" she asked the ensign at the controls. "Nevermind, I need to get these down to the lab for analysis," Nexi said, gesturing to her knives covered in black blood. "Make sure Cato gets looked at!" she added as she started walking.

T'Pral, along with Read, sh'Zoarhi, and Bolkal materialized into one of the base's many reception areas that was designated for transporting to and from the base since transporting in the middle of such a busy base was deemed risky and you could materialize into someone. T'Pral was dressed in typical Vulcan robes for the time, which allowed her to more easily conceal her weapon and tricorder, yet still hugged to her feminine curves. "Let's start looking," she said as they entered a corridor that would lead to a main hub.

Thex nodded as she looked around using the scanners hidden in the contact lenses she was wearing to look around. Nothing to see at the moment. Part of her wanted to be back on the ship making sure the girl was holding up after the time jump. She trusted her staff, but she couldn't help but worry they'd miss something. Following the Vulcan at a distance, she kept moving her head taking in the sights of an Orion marketplace whilst she looked for anything that could be a clue. The outfit she was wearing a take on an Orion dancers outfit did help her blend in with the many exotic looking individuals dotting the port.

Klak’anni followed along with the team, her attention focused on anyone who may try to interfere with them or their mission. The team got a few odd looks—she expected the sight of such a motley group was unusual—but no one said or did anything to impede them.

She liked to think it was her that was keeping any overly curious individuals from getting in their way. She was armed not only with a phaser, but also a bat’leth and a mak’leth as well as a fierce glare that showed she was eager to use them on anyone who provoked her.

"Remember, you three are simply hired mercenaries to accompany me on a journey to discover an ancient Vulcan temple," She looked at the two, recalling that Andorians and Vulcans during this time weren't on the best of terms. "We should find a layout of the facility first."

The four fleeters didn't know it, but their entrance onto the concourse was observed by a yiridian named Yanski who was sitting on a bench reading a flimsy. He was far from home doing what yiridians did, trading in information. The odd grouping attracted his attention. A heavily armed klingon female, an armed orion male who seemed a bit small for an orion, a blue female...an andorian, if Yanski's memory served, dressed in the clothing of an orion slave girl, and a female...vulcan? Yanski had been travelling for some time in this area and had visited the Rigel System. He knew that there was a race there that was somehow related to the vulcans, almost identical in appearance. He'd also encountered the vulcan race. The vulcan female's clothing was more like that which he had seen on vulcan, yet her hairstyle did not seem to be that which vulcans, both male and female, favored. They were an odd collection of beings to Yanski's trained eye. He wondered what they were doing here...and who would pay to know they were here.

Thex did her best to act inconspicuous and become one with the crowd. Even still her senses were telling her someone was following her. Moving her hand to make it look like she was running her hand through her hair she pressed her small ear communicator. "Lieutenant I think we're being followed. Suggest we split up and meet up further ahead." She said quietly trying to not look suspicious.

Yanski also noticed that someone was following the group. A portly tellarite was trying to look inconspicuous as he trailed along behind them. He was hardly inconspicuous. He had a very obvious cybernetic left eye. Yanski made a note of the tellarite. The porcine fellow was not the first person Yanski had seen with some kind of replacement...or upgrade. It was almost as if there was some kind of chop shop operating in the port.

Gadj used his eye to record images of the group with the vulcan. As a rule, vulcans avoided this spaceport. Her companions were also suspicious. The klingon and the orion runt as bodyguards were plausible, why was the vulcan traveling with an andorian that looks like a slave? Gadj wondered if the vulcan was a secret pervert and was here to get her kink on. Maybe the orion runt was part of the fun, too. He recorded the images and transmitted them back to his employer. Gadj was basically just a gearhead who kept his employers machines running. He'd come up for a drink and a few moments away from the dark crap he had to witness everyday at work. Gadj regarded the vulcan as she walked ahead of him.

Nice ass, Gadj thought. I wonder if a tellarite can fit into whatever kink she's into.

Read, moved closer to T'Pral. "I'm also sensing someone focusing on us. It's almost impossible to localize in this station with this many people but I believe the thoughts are centered behind us somewhere but seem to be favoring you."

T'Pral stopped as did the team. She turned to them. "Alright. Thex, you're with me. Read, Bolkal, you two are together. Go towards the shops and act like you are shopping for something but see if you can pick out who is following us and we'll try to bait them into a trap."

Thex nodded as she followed the lieutenant as the two groups split. "Pretty sure someone's following us boss." She said quietly walking at T'Pral side.

Gadj watched the two groups split with suspicion. He hesitated, unsure what to make of it at first and even more unsure of what to do yet. He wasn't really trained for this. He was an engineer. He kept the Master's machines working so the Master could commit his crimes against nature without interruption. But, if someone, like Vulcan Intelligence, was coming for the Master, they'd be coming for Gadj, too, so it was in Gadj's best interests to look after the Master's best interests. After a moment more of hesitation, Gadj decided to stay with the Vulcan. His eye recorded everything as he observed, and beamed it back to the Master's lab.

Yanski watched all five of them with an interest he hid well, appearing to be as nonchalant as could be. It was clear to him that the tellarite was an amateur, just as it was clear to him that the vulcan was a professional. Could she be from Vulcan's intelligence service? If so, what was she here to learn? She clearly didn't care that everyone knew she was vulcan. Was she hoping to hide in plain sight? The little orion male and the klingon...female? Was the klingon a female? Yanski wasn't sure. Both sexes were big and burly. Was it the males or the females who had the facial hair? Clearly the vulcan planned to lure the tellarite in close herself and her scantily clad companion, hoping he would think them defenseless, while her 'muscle' moved in from behind. Yanski was curious to see how this pending confrontation might turn out.

The andorian and vulcan kept walking for a while and Thex could tell the same eyes were still following them. Pausing to pretend to admire a stall she finally noticed someone from the corner of her eye. " Tellarite ten meters behind us. Doing his best to look inconspicuous. Maybe someone else, but i can't see anyone. " She said hoping the lieutenant would see him

Gadj might not be a professional, but the andorian was about as subtle as a brick. Gadj realized he'd been spotted and slowed down, then turned around to walk away. Then he saw that the little orion male and the Klingon female had worked their way in behind him. He was trapped! Maybe not. Gadj turned and headed towards a doorway that led to a back corridor. His pace was brisk (for a tellarite) but he didn't run. It wasn't like there was law here to speak of, but a chase scene might attract station security, corrupt as they were. That was attention Gadj didn't need.

" $£%£" Thex swore under her breath as she followed the tellarite at a distance. Waiting until the tellarite was out of sight of the crowd and deep into the ally she aimed her arm towards him. Hiding in the jewelled bracelet was a small dart tipped with the same mixture used in hyposprays. The dart flew from it launched and landed in the tellarite neck causing him to fall to the ground.

Yanski had an excellent seat for a full view of the show. He saw the tellarite make a break for it and saw the andorian point her wrist at the fleeing tellarite. He couldn't figure out why she did that at first but then he saw the tellarite grab the back of his neck, then go limp and fall to the floor. Yanski nonchalantly scanned the promenade with his eyes to see if anyone had noticed. Most people on the promenade had ignored the whole affair. Some of the more observant ones seemed to realize that something had happened, though it was clear that they weren't sure what. Intrigued, Yanski kept observing. He was interested in seeing just what the oddly matched quartet would do next.

Thex had to resist grinning at her aim as she and T'Pral advanced and quickly dragged the unconscious tellarite out of view. Taking one of the jewels of her outfit the andorian began twisting the sides of the small medical device used to erase people's memories for a short period of time. " How long should I set it for lieutenant five or ten minutes?" She asked the hybrid security chief as the other two in their party made sure no one could see them.

"Better make it about 10 minutes. The less he remembers, the better," T'Pral said as she leaned down and began to go through his pockets but her attention turned to the cybernetic implant. as Read and Bolkal joined them. "Thex, scan his implant as such implants can have a wide range of capabilities."

" Impressive little kit. Full audio and video recording capabilities along with rather crude scanning equipment all of which I'm wiping for at least thirty mins. How about I install a tracking bug in it so we can track him back to where he got it?" The Andorian replied with a grin on her face.

Yanski wasn't the only one watching from the shadows. These three were watching remotely from Gadj's eye though and had been alerted by the Master to be on the lookout for Temporal Agents. It seemed more had shown up and from 2394 this time.

As soon as they were fairly sure this whole team was in the alley, O'mak and her team of Orion 'ninjas' moved in - 2 at each end of the alley, weapons drawn but not entirely threatening. Posing as local law enforcement normally helped, but in this case, she doubted it would so she went with another tactic. "Normally as suspected Temporal Agents we would arrest you and hold you for questioning but in this case, I think I'd rather offer you what you want. Front door access to the labs below this spaceport. Escorted by myself and my team, of course. Your other option is we kill you." As she spoke, her four Orion 'ninjas' unhinged their jaws to reveal large disruptor cannon emitters primed and charging to fire at her command, each big enough to sterilize everything in the alley.

"Your decision please?" O'mak asked politely.

T'Pral took in each Orion and realized their odds of survival were slim to none. T'Pral stood and sighed, deciding to not risk the lives of her team. "You may escort us."

Motioning for her team to back down, O'mak nodded. "My name is O'mak. Everything is closely monitored so please follow me." Leading them further down the alley, she unsealed a hidden turbolift shaft and let everyone pile into it, swiping a keycard and punching in a destination code manually. "Do... any of you have any questions?"

"Who are you and what makes you assume that we are Temporal Agents?"

"Scans show similar undecipherable signals coming off of you and two other teams. We can barely even scan that high, let alone tell it's a comm line," O'mak revealed. "Anyway, you're not the first, but you're certainly more clumsy than that 'Daniels' fellow that wandered in last week. One of your teammates was caught by a recorder in a plant talking about being here in 2160 and coming here from 2394, I assume those are your calender years, and killing someone off mission. Seeing as this spaceport has nothing else of interest to anyone like yourselves other than the Space-a-Bon venders... "

O'mak turned to T'Pral in a more personable manner at the mention of the creamy pastry delicatesseny. "Did you get a chance to try out their cina-rolls? I swear, that place is the only thing that makes working near the Master's... menagerie worth it at times... Those poor beasts..."

Thex paused at the mention of the word Daniels. She was sure she had heard that name before. Was it from her dad yelling at someone? Her mind jumped back to reality by one of the guards shoving her slightly. She was horrifically fascinated by the abomination surrounding them. How the hell did they eat or prevent the cannons from corroding and breaking whilst being surrounded by one of they most bacterial full places in the universe? She said nothing feeling it would be better to say nothing and think about how to get out of this situation.

"No, I have not tried them. Who is this Master that you speak of?" T'Pral asked, curious as to why anyone would choose a cryptic name to call themselves. She briefly recalled a cheesy Terran Martial Arts film that she had seen as a child that had a 'Master' in it but it turned out that the 'Master' was really just a Chinese Fortune Cookie Printer. "Does he have a name other than Master?"

"No idea. I'm just head of external security and my pay is signed by Aperture Labs." As the turbolift doors opened, the sight that greeted them was disturbing, to say the least. Several turbolift doors came down into this one massive domed lab. The white tiled and brightly lit area was generally cordoned off, but judging from the pained animal sounds, it was the same story across the whole of it. Caged animals littered the area. Genetically modified mutations of animals that were so far from their originals, they looked to be in pain from it.

Back on the promenade, Yanski casually walked up to the fallen tellarite with the cybernetic eye and poked the snoozing man with the two of his boot, once, twice, three times. After the third try, Yanski decided that whatever the Andorian woman had shot the portly porcine with was going to keep him down for a while. He was rather disappointed and a little discouraged, until he got an idea. The most likely highest bidder for the information about the strange vulcan and her friends presence in the space port seemed to have discovered that for him...or her...self. However, maybe there was someone else in the spaceport who might want to know that the strange vulcan and her merry band of misfits were taken by the strangely attired, sword-bearing people with the guns in their mouths! If there were, Yanski would find them. He kicked the tellarite a few more times for good measure with no result. He then noticed that someone from the spaceport's extremely corrupt security service was talking to someone who was waving their arms around and periodically pointing to where the vulcan and her friends had been absconded with. As mentioned, the security service here was corrupt. If they found Yanski here, they might claim he was connected to the 'crime' and then try to exhort a bribe in exchange for his release. Yanski had no desire to be grill by the local 'law' such as it was, or to spend a long uncomfortable night in a dark cell...if they let him try to sleep at all. He pulled the hood of his long coat over his head and quietly slipped away.

"Welcome to Project Scapereli..." O'mak announced, the life that was in her voice earlier having left her as she led them out of the turbolift towards the center of the area. "This is the 'detention' level, as it were. Please feel free to get to know your fellow inmates."

Despite the tang of fear that ran down her spine, Thex had kept her cool and put out a persona of utter disgust. " You're boss needs a new name. This is the work of an amateur butcher. What's his actual success rate less than a percent? How longs he shrank the life expectancy of your goon squad by seventy years? " She said with a confidence even she didn't know she had.

O'mak waved off the provokation and headed off towards a terminal and swiped her key card, pulling up a security report and busied herself with filling it out and firing it off into the system, leaving the team only marginally monitored by the four disinterested Orion 'ninjas'. "Look around all you want. The secure systems and lower labs are isolated by another twenty meters of rock below us and that elevator is code locked so feel free to do as you please."

Thex couldn't take her eyes of the creatures in the cages. The poor things seemed to be in absolute pain and suffering. Both of which she knew she could deal with if she had her transporter and a recording of their original DNA. Only a creature that enjoyed suffering could leave something like this. Hell, why would he waste perfectly good test subjects by leaving them like this?

She'd read about genetic manipulation in the Federation. Hell, she was technically here because of one and what she found about her great grandmother's investigation into it was nothing like this. This was the work of a psychopath.

T'Pral took in the distracted guards and O'mak. 'Not very disciplined,' she thought. She looked to Thex and Bolkal. Hoping Read was monitoring the thoughts of the group as he likely should be doing, she tried communicating with him. 'Read, get ready. We're taking these people out now. On my signal.'

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Read nod lightly, indicating he had received the message.

T'Pral casually made her way to a cage that contained a hybrid creature of a horned gorilla animal and a feline creature of some sort. The moment she saw the nearest guard look away to where Read was, she sprung into action, removing the hidden dagger under her robe, and driving it into the back of the neck.

As the the other Orion turned to T'Pral, Read jumped on him, driving his own knife into the man's neck similar to what T'Pral had done. It was the fastest way to take a person down with a knife.

As two of the guards went down, the other two barely took notice. They seemed more interested in not looking at their surroundings and wandering off and hadn't noticed the attacks when they happened. An intern in a lab coat did happen to walk up about that time, writing something on a clipboard though. He just took one look and muttered something about getting the disposal unit as he walked away. Not even O'mak's attention was drawn to what little commotion there was.

Thex noted the two orions dropping though you couldn't tell from her expression. As the orion following her turned the andorain sprang into action. Her leg drove into the back of the orions legs just above the knee caps in the Orion nerve culture causing it to buckle as it leg lost all feeling. Before it could even say a word her fist drove into its neck causing to gurgle as Thex smashed it's windpipe causing the wind to fly out of its body as her free hand had drawn her own small blade stabbed it into its neck punching its main artery and from the crusing sound something in the disrupter. It was dead in seconds and barely a noise had been made.

Nodding to T'Pral that her orion was down and only one of the guards and the commanding Orion were left the Andorian waited for the hybrid orders.

As Bolkal dispatched the last Orion guard, T'Pral and Read approached the woman, stopping at an arm's reach from her. "It would be wise to surrender and deactivate the security grid in this area."

Looking up and surveying the situation, O'mak just shook her head in disgust. "And they were so expensive too... At least maintenance costs will go down. My security access code is seven niner O'mak niner seven. My card will get you access to any of the upper and main labs but the Master's personal labs down below are still his to control as he pleases and he doesn't share those access codes with anyone." Pulling out her keycard, she tossed it to the floor in front of T'Pral, raised her hands, and backed away from the console. "As for the databases, You'll have to talk to the scientists about that. Though being temporal agents, I'm sure you can just hack a light switch and download everything from there or something."

Thex having finished removing one of the now dead orions trousers to pull over her lower body in case she needed them grinned slightly. She doubted she'd need the orions passcode. " What should I do boss? I could lock down the labs so the rest of the staff won't bother us?" She asked T'Pral.

T'Pral raised an eyebrow at Thex removing the larger Orion's trousers and then at O'mak. She had expected the woman to resist. Being hired help instead of a loyal follower was the likely cause of the woman's attitude. "Read, secure O'mak. Thex, download all the information you can from this area. If they are scientists, they are likely not an immediate threat to us and we will need access to those levels once we make contact with the Hera.

Read grabbed a pair of shackles designed for test subjects and placed them on O'mak's wrists.

T'Pral was curious about O'mak. "Read, go guard the door with Bolkal." She turned back to O'mak. "You are undoubtedly a skilled agent. "Why the disregard for your team? Why the sudden change in attitude when we arrived here as opposed to the alley above?"

O'mak sighed as the binders were locked onto her wrists. "Up there he has more monitors and reprobates watching for him than you could imagine. The guy you found is just one out of thousands. Down here? In this lab? Two cameras. He loves watching people and wondering how he can improve them and thinking up his schemes, not looking at his failures. That's all this lab is full of. Those two cameras are in the security desk and admin desk under clipboards, by the way. Also, the scientists and interns are just trying to get by so please don't hurt them. None of us are paid enough to get killed. Though the four you did kill... I think you did them a favor, really."

Pausing a moment more, O'mak looked back at T'Pral. "I don't suppose we can get some tapcaf at a Space-a-bon later once all this blows over. I've already filed my report and told him you're all in cages so you have some time, either way."

The andorian nodded as she got to work moving some clipboards to block the camera. " Downloading the data now boss. Think I can also lock down the labs if we need to. " She said as he fingers work their magic.

"That will not be necessary," T'Pral said to Thex before turning back to O'mak. "I will not harm the interns, nor will you be harmed. We do not kill in cold blood. And if we have time, we can get tapcaf."

Before O'mak could respond, the lighting went from the daylight white to red with a blue rotating beacon at the center of the ceiling. Alarms then began to sound and the sound of cages unlocking and opening were heard all over the complex. "And that would be the sound of the menagerie collars shocking them into rampage mode..."

A particularly large grey skinned beast resembling a hippo with dozens of tusks growing from its sides charged the group. O'mak narrowly avoided it by rolling under the security desk. "All the doors will be on lockdown so if you have any fancy tricks, I'd recommend it!" she called as a three headed sehlat leaped at T'Pral.

Thex narrowly avoided being hit by what had been a large ape creature that now had seven arms which thankfully slammed into one of the empty cages. " The collars what frequency are they one?" She yelled at the Orion as a mutated canine began chasing her.

T'Pral skipped to the side as the sehlat cat leaped past her while emitting a vicious growl. Seeing an animal that reminded her of her early childhood pet caused both anger and sadness in her. She immediately jumped at the cat as it turned to attack. T'Pral's knife found it's mark as it dug into the animal's neck, severing the jugular vein as the sehlat's claws dug into her side. The pain was excruciating as she stood, removing her blade from the dying beast with blood gushing from it's wound as it laid on it's side. She stabbed it again at the base of it's skull, causing instant death.

Seeing a canine creature chase Thex, she took aim with her hand and threw the blade just ahead of the creature. The knife flew straight and dug into flesh as the creature ran into it's path. It howled in pain as it dropped to the deck from it's injured leg.

" Thank.." Thex began before to her horror the mutated canine injured leg began to swell and expand as another leg appeared to be sprouting from it now injured stump. "Great some of them have random mutations," Thex yelled as she jumped onto one of the cages which the very angry canine slammed into it. Thankfully the Andorian kept her balance and she began jumping on top of the other cages angry mutated experiments snapping at her heels.

T'Pral spotted a white rod like object lying on a table nearby. She recalled that the object was a stun baton--a much more common weapon during this time period. She lept at the weapon as Thex kept majority of the animals busy, she activated the baton and struck the canine chasing Thex from behind as the animal let out a yelp and went limp, falling unconscious.

Thex not bothering to slow down leapt onto another cage causing the creatures changing her to smash into the heavy. With not even slowing the andorian leapt off the cage and back towards the stun baton. Her fingers gripped the baton which she swung around smacking another creature in the face. " Boss see if there's a way of activating the collar's at the command terminal." She yelled over the cries of the animals charging at her.

Meanwhile, O'mak had slipped her restraints and pulled out a pair of rather boxy pistols and begun providing air cover, peppering several flying beasts including a winged targ with blue stun bolts. "I think I can still access those systems but we'll have to get to the main security station in section nine. Just promise me you'll take me with you when you leave. I'm done with this place."

T'Pral's sides were hurting as she dodged a four-arm gorilla creature with rhino-like horns that charged at her. She spun, striking the creature against the back of the neck, causing it to slump to the deck. Looking at O'mak, she briefly wondered how the woman was able to escape the restraints. "Very well. Thex, Read, Bolkal. On us," she said as she made her way towards O'mak.

A scream off in the distance indicated that the creatures were targeting the scientists as well. "That bastard..." O'mak muttered as she shot down a flying porcupine creature with stun bolts as well. "Main security isn't too far away but let's hurry." With that, she started walking at a steady pace towards one of the seemingly unmarked doors while still providing air cover with her stun pistols.

Thex not needing much excuse smased another of the canine creatures away before hurring to join the others. She didn't trust the Orion completely yet they had no choice. " Behind you boss." She yelled as she smacked another canine began getting up again.

Soon they were at the security door and O'mak punched in her code for it, opening it immediately. "My keycard can unlock the main console and the main overrides on the left of it." Turning, she took up a defensive position by the door and fired into a large pig beast's face as it charged the group in an attempt to cover the others as they entered main security.

------------------
Some time later, after the commotion aboard the Hera
------------------

The communicators of all team members then crackled to life through some interference. =/\="All teams, this is an emergency broadcast from Ensign Gonadie. What appears to be Captain Telvan has beamed to the surface nearest Commander Eneas' team. She is in possession of the explosives discussed in the briefings. You are to terminate on sight. I repeat. Terminate on sight. Backup is unavailable at this time."=/\=

'Great,' T'Pral thought before tapping her communicator. =/\=This is T'Pral, we have secured a level in the research base located below the main base.=/\=

Thex was busy downloading the lab's data when she heard the communication. Most of the data she couldn't make head nor tail of through a bioreactor did catch her " Did I hear that right... never mind. Orders boss?" The Andorian asked.

After a few seconds, a reply came from the Hera. =^="Roger that. Extract what data you can and await further orders."=^=

As they finished downloading the databases, all seemed quiet as the creatures settled down and the other noises were silenced.

=^="Daytona to Hera and all teams!"=^= he said. =^="The crazy bitch has activated three tri-cobalt devices, ripped open the bottom of an elevator car that I betting goes all the way down to the 'secret' labs, and tossed the cursed things down there. This is it. Times up. We need to unass this place RFN."=^=

=^="We copy tri-cobalt devices are in play,"=^= Mal Xustos responded from the Bridge. =^="All teams prepare to be extracted.=^=

O'mak perked an eyebrow as she looked back at T'Pral. "Tri-cobalt? My people are only theorizing about that stuff... Wait..." Her eyes then went wide. "You're blowing up this whole planet aren't you? You promised to take me with you and Vulcans never lie. You have to take me with you! Please, I don't want to die!"

"We all die eventually, Ms. O'mak. However, I keep my word when it is given," T'Pral replied, activating her comm badge. =/\=T'Pral to Hera. We will be plus one person--a female orion.=/\=

=/\="Roger that. Stand by while I reconfigure the sensors..."=/\= Came the reply from the comms. =/\="Transporting now."=/\= With that the team was beamed up from the underground lab into the gryphon class runabout transporter pad. Through the open hatch, damage control teams could be seen running across the hangar deck.

Resetting the controls, the ensign running them tapped his comm badge and reported in. "Bridge, this is the Frigga. I have Lieutenant Jordan's team aboard." As soon as the channel closed, he addressed T'Pral. "Lieutenant, does your team need medical attention? Or security?"

"I am injured but I am able to make my way to Sickbay," she replied, feeling the sides of her tunic which were now sticky with green blood. She then looked to O'mak. "I will have to talk to the captain or XO about you being aboard, Ms. O'mak. Until then, you will have to be in the Brig as I do not have the authority to assign you quarters."

Catching glimpses of just how advanced these people were had put O'mak in a sort of state of shock. Everything seemed to be touch panels and there was no flimsiplast anywhere. Everything was clean but it didn't look like it had been cleaned. Even the lights looked weird to her - like they were putting out indirect light instead of normal light. "Yeah... yeah, I think that might be best. I suppose I could write down my skillset for you while I'm in there. If you need to find a job for me, that is..."

"We will see what the captain says but there may be a position for you in Security," T'Pral said. "Read, see to O'mak. I should go to sickbay and then I will meet with the captain and the XO." She then looked at Thex. "Good work, Lieutenant."

" Thanks." Thex said only now starting to feel the bites and cut she had received fighting the genetic monsters. " I'll get these seen to and then check how my girls doing." She started patting the paneling.

Science lab 3 had been set aside as mostly a bioanalysis setting, but Crewman Ila Dedjoy was there working on recalibrating a few of the spectral analysis arrays after they had been knocked from their housing in the blast earlier. As the science labs' maintenance was her sole responsibility, they normally kept her busy enough so at times like this she was thankfully excluded from the repair team duties like other science officers were.

Given the nature of their missions, it was standard procedure for a brief isolation to follow with the return of an Away team, a quarantine, to ensure that they weren't bringing back any contaminants. But since the teams had been beamed back using shuttles, the usual protocols weren't in place, giving Nexi the opportunity to break away and head straight for the labs. That wasn't to say that Nexi was careless; taking a chance that whatever caused the Master's blood to be black was not transmissible from the air, she simply bellowed her way through the corridors, warning other Officers away that she might be carrying something potentially dangerous. When she came to the bio lab, she barged in with little warning.

"You, science chick, I've got something for you," Nexi said, holding up the bloodied throwing daggers. "Black blood ain't normal with Vulcans, Romulans, or Vulcanoid-Rigelians, though I'm pretty sure the owner of this blood is Vulcan. Anyway, I need an analysis of this with full bio-hazard procedures. And once you've got that in containment, give me a good once over; I took some damage, I ain't taking any chances with contamination."

Startled, Crewman Dedjoy wanged her head on an open console as she tried to extract herself from her work. "OW!"

She then looked over the situation as best she could. "Staff Warrant Officer Nexi, is that you? My specialty is Geology and Intel, but I'll do my best. Please place the blades in the central containment unit and I'll start the quarantine and analysis. Where were you hurt and what kind of weapon was it?" Ila asked as she started prepping a level ten isolation field.

Nexi placed the knives in the indicated bin, then gestured to her shoulder, being careful not to bring her bloodied hand into contact with the open wound. It looked like a normal blade cut, deep and bleeding freely down her arm, but the blood was thus far the normal shade of red for a Brekkian or Betazoid. "He had a knife of his own, got a lucky shot. I don't think it's been contaminated, but I didn't want to take the chance the transporter bio-filters might-a missed something. We've all seen what this guy is capable of doing, so better safe than sorry."

"I agree," Ila grunted as she grabbed the medkit off the wall and cracked it open. Taking the tricorder and a dermal regenerator, she started scanning the wound for foreign pathogens and anomalous readings. "I'm not seeing anything the tricorder is saying is outside of normal for either Brekkian or Betazoid but when you get a chance, I'd get sickbay to scan you as well, just in case."

Ila then started treatment with the dermal regenerator and within a couple minutes had the knife wound sealed up well enough that the tricorder barely had a trace of it. "There's an emergency sonic in the back if you want to get cleaned up. It's made for removing hazardous chemicals so that blood shouldn't be an issue. I'll keep the tricorder handy to make sure it's all off when you're done, if you want."

"Right," Nexi said, then made her way to the emergency sonic and stepped in fully clothed. "Any ideas on what can turn blood black?" she asked as the shower hummed away.

"Well... There are some cephalopods that have black blood, but they live at the bottom of oceans. I also know of a certain being that looks like our Captain that has black blood... a few varieties of Horta have black blood... According to a few legends, Iconians had black blood..." Ila rattled off as she watched the computer run through the scans of the blood on the knives.

"No, that wasn't what I asked," Nexi said with a deadpan expression. "I didn't ask what species had black blood, I asked what could cause a person's blood to turn black," she reiterated.

"I know Bolian blood can turn black with iodine poisoning... I'm looking it up in the computer now but it might take a few seconds." Ila replied as she started a computer search. "You're not bleeding black blood in there, are you?"

"You saw the cut, it was still bleeding red," Nexi pointed out, though she did make a point of checking herself for any other injuries she might not have seen before, but for the moment it looked like she was clean. Ish. Clean-ish, but the shower was doing a good job cleaning away the blood, both hers and the Master's. "Bolians bleed blue, Vulcans bleed green, I bleed red... Even if I was contaminated, there's no guarantee it would change the color like it would for a Vulcan," Nexi mused aloud. Maybe she was just being paranoid, but she was definitely getting another scan once she was out of the shower!

"The scanners are getting some crazy readings from this blood. I'm picking up traces of Rigelian, Vulcan, Human, Romulan, Cervan... Even Orion DNA in it. The dominant DNA seems to definitely be Vulcan but the vast majority is just..." Ila punched up some more analysis data. "It's having trouble. It's going to have to keep scanning for a while longer."

The sonic cycle completed and Nexi stepped out of the shower, blood-free. "Right..." Nexi said uneasily. "But no other contaminants aside from the extra genetic traces?" she asked, just to be sure.

"Let me put this another way..." Ila began. "If this were a pool of lava, the Vulcan DNA would be a contaminant and the other DNA I mentioned would be contaminating it. And yet, the Vulcan DNA is what's registering as dominant in that hostile of an environment."

"Yeah, I don't know shit about science, but even I can tell that ain't right..." Nexi said with concern. "If that black shit is so volatile, how the hell ain't he dead?"

"I have no idea," Just then, the computer sounded a completion to its search and Ila reported the results. "And the computer reports that it knows of no way to turn Vulcanoid blood black like this."

"Shit," Nexi said, looking at the blades sitting in the containment analysis unit. She opened her mouth to say something else, when a call came over the comm.

=/\="Staff Warrant Officer Nexi, please report to the main shuttlebay, maintenance platform one."=/\=

Nexi sighed as she tapped her earpiece in acknowledgement. "She's probably pissed I ducked out on the debrief... But this is important, so keep at it. See if you can isolate the Vulcan genetics, maybe we can use it to identify him, and put a priority on the black shit, we need to know what it is and what it does," Nexi ordered as she made her way towards the door.

"Roger that," Ila replied as she keyed in a few more scans she thought might be helpful.

The moment the transporter beam let go of the team, Clio drew the dagger from her hip in a lightning-quick motion and scanned the area with her eyes. No one in the immediate vicinity so they hadn't been seen, but there was still potential for them to have been heard. She listened for a moment, not hearing anything. "Ral, tricorder readings. Shavni, sweep for traps. We weren't expected, but let's not take any chances."

Daytona got a puzzled look on his face.

"Uhm...Ma'am?" he said. "We beamed down to a secluded corner of this very large spaceport in an area where there's no surveillance. The...uhm...secret base we're looking for is somewhere under the spaceport. The reason no one is expecting us is that this is a public place where everyone can come and go as they please. I'm pretty sure their won't be any traps in the spaceport until we find an entrance to the base, and that..."

Daytona frowned as he looked at his tricorder.

"...is going to take a while," he finished. "I'm scanning for bio signs with evidence of genetic manipulation but this spaceport takes up about thirty percent of the planet. There are a lot of bio signs to sort through. I'm trying to get the tricorder to make a rough diagram of at least the area we're in. It would be easier if we could find a terminal, jack into it, and download the map of the spaceport. As I recall, there are several scattered around the port."

"In my experience, there can be traps anywhere. As for terminals, if we find one I can hack it." Clio very slowly put her knife away, but she didn't ease her hyper-vigilant stance. She hadn't liked this mission to begin with.

Daytona was a little surprised Clio hadn't picked up on the fact that he 'recalled' something about the spaceport.

Maybe she thinks I've seen a schematic or something. Prime Number! I have...two hundred and thirty-four years ago from my perspective, and I will again...or I did, depending on how you look at it.

"Well, ladies," he said aloud. He put the tricorder away. "Time to strut our stuff. If we stick around here too long, we're going to attract attention...or someone else trying to do something illegal is going to run into us as they come down here to avoid surveillance."

Daytona indicated the end of the corridor that lead into an open area. People could be seen walking about.

"Good idea." Clio didn't see any of the polar Orions in the crowd, but there were plenty of the usual metal bikini sort. She supposed her disguise would fit in well enough, even if there weren't any of 'her' people to mingle with. "Let's go then. Keep your eyes and ears open." She headed in the direction of the open area where other patrons were wandering.

"Come on, Ensign," Daytona said to Shavni as he started off to follow Clio. "It's time to shake your money maker."

The metal bikini which Shavni wore was all too familiar to her and despite not being a Orion dancer for nearly five years since she escaped to the Federation, it still felt comfortable--a part of her missed wearing the bikini of an Orion Slave Girl. "Why did I ever allow myself to be recruited for this mission?" she asked with a sigh.

"Because this is what we do, Shavni," Daytona said, using her name instead of her rank now that the team was moving into an area where they could be overheard. "Risk is our business and all that. Look alive. Some of the locals have noticed your...attributes."

Which meant being harassed by the local flavor... A shorter fat, bald Orion man dressed in an open vest of fur and leather pants that had more bulges from who-knows-what than was socially acceptable on any other planet. "Ey chavvies! You ladies got anything for ole Billy? I gots somethin fo yalls if'n ya do!" As he spoke, he pulled a clear bag of pills out of his pants and showed it off.

Daytona chuckled internally, but managed a convincing scowl at the little Orion.

"She's spoken for," he said in the Orion language. He stepped between Shavni and the apparent drug dealer. "Move on before I lose my temper. Besides, look at her a moment. Look at her curves, the way she moves, the sultry look in her eyes. It would take more than a bag of skull busters to pay for her time."

The strung out spacer glanced between Ral and Shavni a few times before deciding it wasn't worth being stabbed over and stuffed the drugs back into his pants and moved on, muttering as he waddled off. "My mistake, piker. My mistake..."

Daytona laughed.

"Sorry, Shavni," he said. "I'd almost forgotten how colorful this century was."

"No apology is necessary. I am used to such people," she said. "But thank you."

"You're welcome," Daytona said. He scanned the room with his eyes until he spotted one of the terminals he'd seen when he'd been here the first time around. "Clio, Shavni, there's a terminal over there. I'll head over and download the map of the spaceport and any other relevant schematics and layouts."

Daytona walked over to the terminal and used the Intelligence tricorder he'd mocked up to look like it belonged in 2160 to download anything he could find that might give them an idea of what was where. The device had a fairly large screen for a handheld device, so they'd be able to make at least some use of the maps from the mainframe. Satisfied that he had everything, Daytona began to call up various maps on the screen of the terminal.

"Okay," he said. "We're here. The other two teams should be in these areas here and...here. If they use anything resembling their training, they'll likely cover those areas and leave us everything in this area here."

The terminal was off to the side and out of the way. They could linger there a bit longer before anyone wondered what they were doing. At the moment they simply looked like two gorgeous slave girls and their seemingly lost master...or protector...or both, trying desperately to find something, someone, or some place in the massive spaceport.

"If you want to get a good look at these on a screen bigger than my handheld, do it now," he said. "Call up any map you want."

"i'm going to look at everything I can before they realize what I'm up to and kick me out." Clio grinned a bit as she took over the terminal and started snooping around.

Daytona kept an eye out for lookie loos. Shavi and Clio were look-worthy and two slave girls looking at a computer terminal were going to stand out after too long.

"Make it quick, Clio," Daytona said. "Right now it's your...assets that attracting all the attention, but sooner or later someone is going to wonder what my slaves are doing on a computer terminal."

"Easy. Tell them it's the job you enslaved me for." Clio's response was flippant and light-hearted, but she worked quickly. Studying maps and schematics, she memorized as much as possible while discreetly downloading the information to Daytona's handheld device. "Or that we're curious little things and can't help it. Besides, I'm almost done."

Realizing that standing at arms' length from his own extremely attractive slaves would look odd, Daytona slipped an arm around Shavni's waist and pulled her in close. She was no Akira, but she did feel nice. There wasn't much acting required.

Shavni played the part as she leaned against Daytona, wrapping her arms around his neck as her eyes scanned the surrounding crowds of people.

A man walking by stopped to look at Clio.

"You taught them to read?!?" he asked, incredulous.

"Yes!" Daytona replied. "But I drew the line at letting wear shoes and I make them take turns. One has to read erotica to me while the other pleasures me and so on until we're all exhausted, and as you can plainly see, I'm rigelian, so it takes a while to wear me out in the bedroom...or wherever else I decide I want one or both of these lovely ladies."

The man's lower jaw was practically on the floor.

"I'll take them!" he said. "How much? If you won't let me buy them, maybe you'll let me rent them?"

Daytona laughed.

"Sorry, friend," Daytona said. "I don't share my toys."

"But...but...I'll pay! Lots!" the man stammered.

Daytona's whole demeanor changed and with it the temperature in the area seemed to go down several degrees.

"Leave," he said. "Now. If you do so immediately, I'll let you live. If not, I'll cut you open and let these two pull your insides out while you're still alive."

The man's face paled. He looked from Clio to Shavni and back to Daytona. For a split second it seemed as though he might try once more to convince Daytona to rent 'his' women out, but then the man clearly thought better of it. He backed away until he thought it was safe to turn around. At that point he turned and scurried away.

Over in Nexi's part of the spaceport...

"Remember, be discreet," Nexi cautioned Misty while they got their bearings. Nexi had her nose ridges removed and was now a rich shade of green. She kept close to Cato, who was supposed to be her 'owner' for this ruse. "We're just observers at this point, so stay-" Nexi stopped short when she sensed something familiar nearby- Daytona?! She gave her ear a tap to activate the Ferengi translator she had; this translator she had modified to act as a communicator so she could give commands to her ship, and she had long since used it to tap into Starfleet comm lines. "Daytona, why are you away from your team?" she said. He shouldn't be this close their location!

=^=Uh...I'm not,=^= Daytona replied. =^=Oh! You found me! That was fast! Honestly, though, I was laser focused on killing that bastard Deshok back then. I remember a sexy orion slave girl who looked a lot like you, but green of course, but shockingly I was more interesting in killing a man than bedding a woman. Maybe you should go say hello...just to make sure that the whole space/time continuum doesn't fold in on itself?=^=

"You- WHAT?!" Nexi couldn't believe what she was hearing! "You mean to tell me you are here in this timeline and you didn't say anything to anyone?! I'm not an expert in protocol, but this is something that should have come up during the briefing!"

=^=Yes, well, that would have spoiled everything,=^= Daytona said. =^=I needed to meet you and then I need to find the man I'm here to kill already dead...killed with the knife I have with me now. In fact, I took the knife out of the body and kept it as a souvenir. You see, 2160 me came here to kill that bastard Deshok and if 2160 me doesn't find him dead with this knife in his putrid heart, 2160 me won't leave the station. If 2160 me doesn't leave the station, then he gets blown up with everyone else. If he gets blown up with everyone else, then he doesn't go on to become me and everything I did between 2160 and 2394 will be undone, including the two hundred and thirty-four years of vital intelligence missions I undertook for Starfleet.=^=

"This is- you can't-" Nexi squeezed her eyes shut, resisting the urge to scream obscenities that would surely give away their positions. "Wait, if past you takes the knife that you-you left there... is it the same knife?! Fucking hell, I hate time travel," she grumbled. "Look, once it's done, tell me where so I can 'find' it. Don't worry about tipping anyone off by contacting me, my comm is in my ear, only I can hear it," she said to Daytona, then she looked to Cato, "Come on, 'Master', time to make a sales pitch to an idiotic Rigellian."

=^=As I recall, you caused a bit of a scene when I rejected you and Deshok, who I was stalking at the time, saw me. He sent his bodyguards to deal with me and hopped on a tram headed towards the section I'm in now. There's a scuffle with the thugs, I got disgusted and stormed off to catch the next tram so I could try and track down Deshok before he left the station. By the time I found him, he was dead. I took the knife that killed him as a souvenir and left the station. I started hiring myself out as a mercenary after that. I only left the station in time to avoid whatever it is that's going to happen here because Deshok was dead so I had no reason to stay here. But don't worry about that. Just do what comes naturally to you and they'll be a scene, Deshok will run and I'll deal with the rest. And Nexi...I really appreciate this. I know what a pain in the ass this is. Tell Cato I said thanks and sorry for what's about to happen to his knackers.=^=

"You ass," Nexi grumbled, then remarked dryly, "I've got half a mind to ignore him and let the timeline implode!" Then with a heavy sigh, she looked to Cato. "Did you get all that?" she asked him.

Gritting his teeth, Cato nodded "I'm gonna break his fuckin' jaw." he took a deep breath and exhaled with a heavy sigh. "I hate time travel." he said, gently leading her via the chain and collar around her neck. "Come on, slave!" he smirked. "We'll have to keep the chains, it's a good look." Cato grinned back at her before going back into character.

Though she didn't show it, Nexi detested the collar and the chains; she had been collared once before by a Ferengi troll who was not nearly as benevolent as the Orion slave broker Cato was passing himself off as. Making their way through the port to the area where the younger Daytona was. Nexi had been many things as her time as a mercenary and Collector for the FCA; seducer, bounty hunter, hitman, treasure hunter, smuggler, even invisible... Nexi was especially proud of being so unseen in her career; some people might be a bit miffed at being uncelebrated for doing feats that were often thought to be impossible, but Nexi reveled in the fact that no one ever knew it had been her. Of course, there were other schools of thought; when doing a job, either no one notices you, or they only notice you. It was the latter Nexi was going for now; with eyes on her as she moved through crowd, seducing potential customers with her gaze, the rest of her team should be able to move around freely, discreetly taking readings to find the entrance to the lab they were looking for while she pandered to the crowd looking for a potential buyer. Of course, she already had one potential in mind, the young Daytona, and she still couldn't believe the Daytona from her time had put them all on the spot quite like this!


Tugging on her chain as she moved towards Daytona, she turned her big doe-y eyes (what does that even mean?!) to Cato. "I like that one," she said with a sultry smile, taking up enough slack with her chain so that she could hold it above her head as she swayed her hips and then twirled towards Daytona, an enticingly provocative display for most anyone else, but if what the other Daytona said rang true, then this one would not be interested at all.

Daytona didn't even glance up at Nexi or look up from the flimsy he was pretending to read. He was here for Deshok. Even sex couldn't assuage the hatred he felt for Deshok or cool the rage he felt when he thought of the vile man. Daytona had tried to do what any other rigelian would have done when hurt or angry. He found a partner and had sex...had sex until he was exhausted. It didn't matter. The morning after he was once again filled with rage and hatred. Only one thing was going to solve this problem. He had to kill Deshok. So when a young orion girl came sauntering towards him, using her body in ways that would have brought another man to his knees, Daytona only found it irritating. Extremely irritating. Daytona tried ignoring her to see if she was actually headed for someone else, but no such luck. She was really hot and attracting a lot of attention, which was the last thing he needed. Then it happened. Deshok was standing across the promenade from where Daytona was sitting. He was talking to someone on a handheld communication device. The orion sex slave attracted the attention of one of Deshok's bodyguards, a large orion male. He tapped the other one, a very large and fierce looking kaylar. The Kaylar nudged his boss so he'd get a chance to see the show, and, if he was interested, buy the girl. Deshok looked over in the sexy slave girl's direction and grinned. Then, it happened. Deshok locked eyes with Daytona. First a look of recognition passed over his face, followed quickly by a look of horror. Back on Rigel V, or anywhere in the Rigel System, he was mostly safe from the police or comparable authorities. He paid plenty of bribes and blackmailed or simply threatened anyone he couldn't bribe. Back on Rigel V, Daytona had thrown everything he had at Deshok and failed because the system was rigged. But if Daytona was here, he'd obviously given up on the system. The former policeman wasn't here to arrest Deshok. He was here to kill him.

Deshok grabbed the arms of his thugs and then pointed frantically in Daytona's direction. Daytona could read lips and from what he could discern Deshok had just said something to the effect of 'kill the bastard!' The two super-sized thugs started over towards him. Daytona ignored them at first, trying to keep track of Deshok. He saw the son-of-a-bitch jump on a tram.

He's got quarters in that direction. He must have something stashed there that he needs to pick up before he unasses this station. And that damn girl is still wiggling her ass at me...along with everything else she's got going on!

Daytona was a sitting duck where he was. No room to maneuver, and he might need that. The Deshok's orion bruiser would be difficult, but not too. The kaylar, on the other hand...he was big even for a Kaylar. He had to be eight feet tall, heavy, and all muscle. Their bones were as hard as rock and they did not go down easy.

Well...might as well get this over with. But first...

Daytona stood and approached the orion slave girl.

"Sorry," he said, hoping if he shut down her advance that she and her master or boy toy or whatever he was would just leave. "Not only do I not have time for you, but you probably can't afford my rates. I know, you're heart broken, but it's for the best. Now, if you'll excuse me..."

Daytona walked past the girl and her keeper and stepped out onto the promenade to face Deshok's bodyguards.

Wow, who knew Daytona was capable of such a cold shoulder and monumentally insulting burn! Behind those dark eyes of hers, Nexi was following every thought, every presence; despite her oblivious facade, she was completely aware of Deshok and his guards even though she had not yet laid eyes on them. Thinking through what her Daytona had already told her, Nexi decided that now was the best opportunity to make a scene. She stepped to him and looped her chain around his shoulders to turn him away from Deshok.

"My master does not care for your disrespect, little man," Nexi said with a sultry pout that could melt any heart, but also with a glare that promised pain and anguish if he did not tread carefully.

Daytona rolled his eyes.

"Really?" he said. "Look, normally if a woman as attractive as you came to me begging for sex like this, I'd oblige her. Charity is one the virtues my dear, sweet mother instilled in me. But right now, I've got bigger problems, as in those to large creatures over there."

He pointed to the larger orion and the even larger Kaylar.

"I don't suppose you want to offer yourself to the Kaylar to distract him for me while I deal with the orion, would you? I mean, he's a slave, and he's definitely a double-bagger, but he probably has some walking around money and..."

"Daytona Ral!" the Orion thug shouted. "We're going to kill you and then we're going to take your woman and your boy toy!"

"Oh...frazjak!" Daytona said. He turned to the Orion and the Kaylar. Up close, he saw that the Kaylar was the one known as The Club (with Nails). True to his name, he was carrying a nasty looking club with nails stuck in the business end like spikes. Daytona unwrapped Nexi's chain from his neck and held her out towards the two gargantuan thugs. "Look, you can have the woman and the boy toy. I just want Deshok. Seriously take them and have your way with them. I mean, look at the ass on that guy! That's prime meat right there! What do you say? Do we have a deal?"

"It's a deal!" Called an old large albino Klingon wearing white steel spiked shoulder pads and white steel armor and white fur. He was armed to the teeth and had more honors plastered on his bandolier than any Klingon had any right to. "My apologies for the interruption. My name is Dahar Master Qu'hang and I happen to be in charge of the Klingon battle group running security of this sector. Is there an... Issue? That I should be aware of?"

What the fucking hell, why couldn't she just beat the ever loving shit out of this guy without interruption, why did this damned Klingon have to stick his unwrinkled nose into their business?! Nexi stilled her hand before she could bring it up to hit Daytona or anyone else. She was going to kill their Daytona once they got back to the ship!

"Remove your hands from me!" Nexi barked out at Daytona, then turned her attention to the Klingon. "This man is attempting to barter me off when he has no right!" Nexi asserted firmly. "He has not purchased me or any rights to offer my services to anyone else."

The orion and the kaylar were standing their looking confused. This wasn't unusual. They usually looked confused. They didn't want any trouble with the cops, but their boss had said to take out Daytona. Besides, there was only one klingon. How tough could he be. The orion looked at his partner. Though the orion wasn't much brighter than The Club (with Nails), he was the closest thing to the brains of the operation, in the absence of Deshok, that is. He nodded, and the eight foot tall Kaylar swung his club above his head, aiming at Daytona. Daytona had heard the massive being grunt before he swung the club. His training kicked in and instead of just moving out of the way, which would have left Nexi to get hit by The Club (with Nails)'s club, he grabbed Nexi and tried to get them both out of the way. They got out of the way just in time, the club smashing a table near where they stood.

"Look, miss," he said. "Your attempt to coerce me into wild denebian banshee sex already let the guy I came here to kill get away. Will you please get the hell out of my way before you get us both killed!"

Qu'hang pulled out a mek'leth and used it to disarm the Kaylar quite literally. The arm that was holding the club may have been no longer attached to his body but true to Kaylar stupidity, that didn't seem to deter his attack so the albino Klingon parried the next few blows with relative ease. "Detective Ral, it seems you've chosen a dangerous prey to stalk. I commend you for your courage!"

"How did you...?" Daytona started to ask. "It was Detective Chief Inspector Ral, if you want to get technical, but that's behind me now. Oh, never mind...whoa!"

The Orion thug suddenly appeared behind Daytona. The Rigelian ex-police officer barely had time to turn and raise his arms when the Orion clasped him in a bear hug and lifted him up.

"I...don't...have...time...for...this!" Daytona managed to gasp out. He placed one hand to each side of the Orion's skull, palms facing the green giant's ears. There was a crackling sound that built until there was electricity arching between Daytona's palms, traveling through the Orion's head. The thug's eyes rolled back into his head and he tensed up and began to shake. The thug went over backwards like falling tree. Daytona rode the body down, then rose to his feet. The orion was quite dead. Daytona looked over at the Klingon fighting the now one-armed kaylar. He rolled his eyes and pulled a dagger from his boot. He ran up behind the kaylar and jumped on its back. Once there, he began to stab it repeatedly in the neck. This wasn't the first kaylar he'd killed. He knew he was stabbing in exactly the right place.

Qu'hang nodded satisfied with the battle as he sheathed his weapon and pulled Daytona to the side. "Indeed, who you were is behind you now. A bounty is now on your head, placed there by your quarry and I suspect these two of being bounty hunters. Go now, while I distract them."

Without waiting for an answer, Qu'hang pushed Daytona away and attacked Cato first, pulling him into a headbutt before raising his knee into his crotch. "To the victor goes the spoils!"

Daytona didn't have to be told twice. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw one of the station's trams pulling in. The destination screen said it was headed for the same area Deshok had likely fled to. He glanced over at the Klingon.

"I owe you one, Qu'hang!" he said. "Survive and succeed!"

Daytona bolted for the tram and jumped inside just as the doors were closing. The tram pulled out, taking him away from the scuffle and off towards his destiny.

Back in Clio's part of the station...

"Daytona," Clio growled, in a tone that suggested she might kill him if there weren't so many witnesses around. All the pieces had fallen into place to explain Daytona's odd familiarity with this spaceport and his insistence on joining them for the mission. "I swear on whatever you hold sacred, I am going to skin you alive and feed you to a targ. You don't keep secrets like this. Especially not from me. What else is going to happen?"

"Unfortunately for you, I hold little to be sacred," Daytona said. "There's just a small matter of a causality loop I've got to maintain. In 2160, at a dark point in my life, I came here to track down and kill a vicious criminal from Rigel V named Deshok. I'm not going into why killing Deshok felt justifiable at the time. That's irrelevant. What I know is that here in 2160 I was observing Deshok over in what I know know was Nexi's section of the spaceport. I had an interaction with a slave girl and her master, who I now know were Cato and Nexi in disguise. The interaction caused enough of a scene that Deshok noticed me. He sent his goons over to deal with me and took off. I dispatched his goons but when the dust settled, I couldn't find Deshok. I knew he had rented quarters in this section of the station, so I tracked him down there. But when I found him, he was already dead. He had this knife buried in him."

Daytona pulled out a deadly looking knife.

"I took the knife as a souvenir," he went on. "And left the station. That's where I first laid hands on this knife. I'd never seen it before hand and it has been in my possession ever since. The theory is that I've always come back to 2160 from 2394 and my 24th Century self is the one who killed Deshok and left this knife behind. The reason that I was able to swing an invite to this little party is this: If I don't kill Deshok, my past self will stay until he kills Deshok...or until everyone, including him, is killed in the explosion. If I die here, the next two-hundred and thirty-four years of my life doesn't happen. Around one hundred and thirty-four of those years have been spent in the service of Starfleet Intelligence and the United Federation of Planets. I'm not saying the Federation would collapse if I'm wiped from existence, but I've done a lot of important work for the UFP. People have lived and died as a result of my actions. Starfleet didn't want to take the chance that my dying in 2160 would have major repercussions in back in 2394. Look, whether you understand or not, I have my orders, and I have a score to settle. It just so happens that the two align in this matter."

=^=Daytona, heads up, you and your prey are inbound,=^=Nexi said.

"Copy that, Nexi," Daytona replied. "Thanks for the assist. I'm sure Cato will want to settle up with me later, maybe you, too, but please understand, I was under orders not to reveal any of this until right before things needed to happen. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to kill a man...no, a monster. The monster who killed my daughter. If that means I have to take a punch from one or both of you, well, I'm sure you can see why that doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things."

Until now, Daytona had mostly displayed his pleasant side to people, what some people referred to as his 'cheerful idiot' aspect. What he had just shared with Nexi was anything but cheerful. There was something very cold and very deadly in his voice, yet very calm.

Dayton looked at Clio.

"So," he said. "Now you know. I'll find you when I'm done. You're both welcome to come with me. Just don't slow me down."

"I am going to kill you slowly and painfully and then feed you to your pet saur," Clio growled under her breath, keeping the threat within her portrayed character. She'd never actually do such a thing, maybe beat him up in the gym or break a few PaDDs over his head...

Daytona walked out into the promenade and disappeared into the crowd within seconds, his centuries of practice blending in serving well here.

As Daytona disappeared into the crowd, Clio melted into the crowd behind him. Though she had considerably less than centuries of practice, she too was nearly invisible among the throng of people.

------------------
Some time later, after the commotion aboard the Hera
------------------

The Enalia demon had finally made it off of the ship using the transporter in some messed up runabout with Ferengi controls. She was here though. She'd get her revenge on the man that summoned her to this universe. She could feel his lingering presence on this planet deep underground still. She just needed to find one of his lifts and twist the electronics to her will like she always does.

As she walked confidently through the spaceport, the locals gave her a wide berth. Apparently, an unknown alien that looked more like a devil carrying a case of doom was worth avoiding at all costs, even to the local constabulary.

The communicators of all team members then crackled to life through some interference. =/\="All teams, this is an emergency broadcast from Ensign Gonadie. What appears to be Captain Telvan has beamed to the surface nearest Commander Eneas' team. She is in possession of the explosives discussed in the briefings. You are to terminate on sight. I repeat. Terminate on sight. Backup is unavailable at this time."=/\=

"Well, that makes this a bit more interesting," Shavni said as her eyes scanned the crowds in their immediate area.

Daytona stepped out from the shadows, seemingly appearing from nowhere.

"Hera," he said into his communicator. "My other business is finished here. I will now deal with this current problem."

He turned to the others.

"Are you ladies coming with me this time?" he asked.

And there she was, not too far from the team. Long black hair, same spots and big boobs, dressed in a tan jumpsuit, and carrying a bulky silver case with the Hera's armory logo on it. She didn't recognize anyone, but she seemed to be preoccupied with looking for something.

Daytona pulled out a disguised tricorder and began to scan for Trill lifesigns.

"Clio," he said. "Evil Enalia is close...there!"

Daytona didn't need his tricorder to find her at that point. He saw her. She was carry some kind of case. Daytona couldn't be sure, but he thought he saw the logo of the Hera's armory on it. He tried scanning the case. When he got the results, his eyes went wide.

"Commander!" he said in a harsh whisper. "She's got three tricobalt devices in that case. Do we stop her? Or do we let the base explode? I know it's supposed to, but my younger self needs time to get off the station. If the timeline is running correctly, he's making a break for it right now. He found Deshok's body and he's carrying around the murder weapon so he wants to get out of here before station security gets the idea that he killed the fat bastard. If he gets blown up here, that going to cause major problems for the space-time continuum...and, as a side note, I'll cease to exist."

"Don't use my rank," Clio hissed quietly, looking around to see if anyone had overheard. No one had. "We know it's tricobalt that destroys the station, but I'm sure as hell not going to be here when it blows. Neither are you. We stop her if we can and delay her if stopping her proves impossible."

That's when one of the locals decided that the plague-woman with the spots that looked like she crawled out of a well was worth stealing from and tried brushing past her and taking the case of explosives. It didn't work out so well for him. Her hand did let go as he expected, but she realized it as it happened and her other hand came around in an almost snake-like fashion and brought him back to her as she retrieved her case.

Then her face changed.

Her formerly normal eyes turned into sunken black vortexes to hell.

And her smile showed off needle-point teeth longer than a Saurian's fingers.

She was not Enalia.

She was a demon.

As she bit into the poor thief's throat, his screams were quickly muffled and cut off as she munched her way through his neck, blood spraying across the square. People who were at first stunned were now screaming and running away and within moments the area was clear of all but the most brave or foolhardy, the only sounds left being that of the demon finishing her meal and some advertisement jingle from an abandoned Space-a-bon.

"Oh my god," Clio gasped under her breath. She'd seen a lot in her life, but that was new. How the hell were they meant to stop something like that? They'd never get close enough to tangle with her before she ate them, but they also couldn't just stand there and let her devour more people.

One thing was certain. She was not going to let Daytona or Shavni die like that. Not wanting to discharge a firearm with so many people still scrambling for safety, she instead whipped out the collapsible staff she'd stashed under the bulkiest part of her furred costume and darted out to be between the demon-Enalia-thing and the rest of the fleeing civilians.

The demon looked up from her meal and spoke in a raspy, otherworldly voice that barely sounded like Enalia. "I almost forgot why I came here... It's been so long since I had a good meal, you know. But HEEEE issss here... And I will end his existence and mine. You will not stop me, Clee-oh."

"Wouldn't bet on that if I were you." Though unnerved a bit by the creature and its apparent knowledge of who she was, Clio stood her ground and snapped the staff to its full length, just long enough that she'd be able to keep the demon's teeth off of her. If it really was a demon.

Daytona was a bit taken aback by Evil Enalia's apparent transformation. Was she another one of the Master's creations? Was she his first? He'd left a knife in Deshok's chest, but luckily it wasn't his only weapon. He had a few more blades, two expandable batons, and a distruptor pistol. Frankly, since he was pretty sure all of the 'innocent bystanders' were going to die in the upcoming explosion, he wasn't really worried about collateral damage. He only wanted to get the demon dead and the team out alive. He drew his pistol and fired off a shot at the demon.

It struck her. It even seemed to do a bit of damage, dissolving a bit of her shoulder. She didn't seem to take much notice however. She just shrugged it off and stood, retrieving the case with the explosives. "Is that the best you can do, Starfleet?" Her head then tilted ninety degrees to the right, a bit like an owl's with a crack. "Is that all you have?"

Then something else seemed to catch her attention and she turned and looked off in the distance. "It's him... What is he up to..." Then she realized it and let out a horrific blood curdling scream and popped open the case and started arming the bombs. "He's leaving! He's leaving! He's leaving! He's leaving! What! Minimum time! But he's leaving! What do you mean! NO! No... This will work... I can still do this..." looking around furiously, she spotted a seemingly blank wall. "There. There it is. HIS access. It's deep enough."

Taking the case, she closed it back up with all three now armed explosives and rushed over to the wall with supernatural speed and ripped open a hidden door to reveal a turbolift big enough for maybe two people, which she then ripped the floor panel out of and tossed the case through. "THERE! Now he can't escape! No one will escape now! We will both taste sweet oblivion you demon bastard!" And with that, the Enalia demon broke down into maniacal laughter.

Daytona swore and activated his wrist comm unit.

"Daytona to Hera and all teams!" he said. "The crazy bitch has activated three tri-cobalt devices, ripped open the bottom of an elevator car that I betting goes all the way down to the 'secret' labs, and tossed the cursed things down there. This is it. Times up. We need to unass this place RFN."

=^=We copy tri-cobalt devices are in play,=^= Mal Xustos responded from the Bridge. "All teams prepare to be extracted.=^=

Daytona didn't wait to hear what was said next. He couldn't leave Evil Enalia running loose in the 22nd century. While it was likely she'd be blown up here, she might escape. He couldn't allow that. He raised his pistol and left of six shots, one right after the other, moving towards the demon as he fired. Until he was extracted, Daytona was going to do what he could to bring the mad thing down.

Much as she preferred the staff for close quarters, Clio knew better than to get between Daytona and his target. Instead, she collapsed the staff back down and traded it for her trusty revolver. It might not carry as many rounds as Daytona's pistol, but she preferred it over a semi-automatic. She quickly fired off the six rounds it held, wishing she'd brought more ammunition.

Several of the shots hit her in the head as the demon kept laughing but it didn't seem to deter her. Instead it seemed to fuel her cackling. After several more shots, most of her head had been disintegrated and her body had holes in it, yet that demonic laughter just kept going in a twisted manner that would haunt all that heard it for the rest of their days.

Then the sparkle of the transporters blissfully took them from that nightmarish demon's presence and deposited them inside of a runabout transporter system.

"Welcome back," The Ensign said as he reset the controls and tapped his combadge. "Bridge, this is the Selune. I have Commander Eneas' team aboard."

Daytona swore again.

"By the Prime Number!" he said. "I had her! You couldn't have waited just a few more seconds?"

The quadracentarian spy sighed.

"Sorry," he said. "Of course you couldn't have. Thanks for the save."

Daytona looked to Clio and Shavni.

"Are you two alright?" he asked.

"I'm fine." Clio refrained from swearing, but her expression on her face matched Daytona's outburst. Without confirmation that the demon was dead, she wasn't ready to leave either.

Daytona wasn't a telepath, but he read Clio's mind nonetheless.

"I'm pretty sure she was still alive after I disintegrated her head," Daytona said. "But maybe her matter will be too scattered after the tri-cobalt devices go off to reform...at least for quite a while. If I hadn't been limited to period weapons, I could have brought a hand phaser. Set to full power it would have scattered her atoms far and wide. That plus the tri-cobalt explosion might have actually done it. For Prime Number's sake, what in the universe is she??"

"I don't know, but I might know who to ask." If anyone would know about a weird demonic replica of Enalia... it would be Enalia. Clio was going to have a nice long chat with their captain once they got back to the Hera.

"Yes," Daytona said. "That's a conversation I'd like to have as well."

Mal sat in a chair in front of Enalia's desk and tried to wait patiently for Clio to arrive. He knew she was upset and he knew why and even agreed with her. Enalia had not been forthcoming about what they had locked up in the brig. Daytona, who was used to things being kept from him, was less offended, but would still want answers. Enalia had decided to let him wait to get them secondhand from Clio.

Meanwhile, Enalia had busied herself with unlocking all the data she had access to on her demonic counterpart and Project Gemini, which had brought her into this universe. She had a fair bit to brief these two on, and though they only had Sigma Nine clearance and she wasn't supposed to reveal most of this to anyone with less than her Sigma Twelve... Well... Tough titties... Starfleet Command could go to wherever that hellspawn came from for all she cared.

Once she had disembarked from the Selune, Clio wasted absolutely no time in marching up to the bridge. She ignored the stares from crew members she passed, long used to such behavior from other officers. Reaching the bridge, she firmly pressed the door chime button next to the ready room door, though she fully intended to override the lock if an answer didn't come promptly.

"Come in," Enalia called, still unlocking files and seeing that it was Clio without having to look up. "Excellent. Now get your beverage of choice and sit the fuck down so you can spit it all over me while I brief you on just what the fuck you just fucking faced down there. Computer, seal the fucking room. Clearance Sigma Twelve. Enalia niner niner omega niner niner."

"I don't think you're going to tell me anything that's going to shock me any more than it already did." There was a growling note to Clio's words, one she didn't try to hide. She chose not to get a drink or sit down at the moment, knowing she wouldn't be able to sit still anyway. "What the fuck was that thing and why the hell didn't anyone on this ship know about it?"

"A few people did know about it, but I'm the only one that had any idea of her capabilities," Enalia replied. "The brig cell she was in even had a special sub-quantum phase shift to it that should have prevented her from even escaping, yet she did. One file left..."

"I wasn't aware of our...guest, either, Clio," Mal said. "I assume there was a good reason that you and I, the two most senior officers in the command chain other than the captain, weren't fully briefed on the subject of Enalia's doppelganger. But now that the demon is out of the bag, I am hoping I will be given the full picture."

"Abilities like draining someone's soul out through their neck? Are those the abilities we're referencing here? Or how about the fact that she looked exactly like you until she fucking ate somebody right in front of us? Or are we talking about her apparent regeneration ability because Daytona and I easily put a dozen or so bullets in her and she just kept walking." While Clio had heard what Mal said, she was still looking straight at Enalia.

"Yeah..." Enalia finished and popped her terminal into conference mode, the lights dimming automatically.

"Ok... To start with, there was a project called Gemini where Starfleet wanted to temporarily create sub-quantum clones of ships and their crews for a few minutes at a time." A video started playing of a space station firing a beam at the Hera and it being duplicated in a lightning effect.

"Tests went well the first few times. No residual energy patterns, no psychological issues, and no signs that anything had gone wrong. Everything went exactly as they had in the controlled lab experiments. Until test number nine." Another video started playing but this time, the beam was a little off and instead of the white lightning, a red lightning was created and rather than a perfect clone of the Hera, a twisted demonic version of the Hera sat a hundred meters from the original.

As the video continued to play, the escape pod hatches all popped, but rather than escape pods coming out, nothing but demonic twisted corpses floated out. The airlocks and windows also unsealed, venting the entire ship. "Within the three minutes that it was in our universe, the Captain of that ship spaced her entire crew, then beamed aboard my ship and tried to kill me."

As the demonic Hera dissolved from existence she brought up the next video. This time it was the original bridge of the Hera which was an actual nebula class bridge. "This is why I hate the Nebula class bridge..." she muttered as the scene played out with the demon literally eating the helmsman and spraying blood everywhere, the bridge phaser turrets firing uselessly into it, three other crewmembers wasting phaser energy on it, and a younger Enalia calling for backup.

Mal took in the sensor records silently, closing his eyes for a moment when they were done replaying the gruesome images.

"And is there a reason Starfleet didn't order her vaporized?" Mal asked. "Daytona told me that his disruptor pistol took off most of her head. A disruptor causes the matter it hits to explode on the molecular level, but its effects are more localized than, say, Starfleet issue phasers on full power, so a handheld disruptor can't disintegrate a person-sized target. But a Starfleet hand phaser on the highest setting can and will disintegrate a person-sized target, usually in one shot. Even if this demon could regenerate, presumably she'd need to have at least some living tissue left to regenerate from, wouldn't she? So why didn't you disintegrate her? You're not known for being squeamish."

While Mal spoke, Enalia paused the video. "Those phasers are set to kill."

She then resumed playback. As the demon was munching on what was left of the helmsman, what vaguely resembled a black dog with nine glowing red eyes took shape out of its back and leaped for one of the bridge phaser turrets, ripping it clean off of its mounting and crushing it with ease. it then dropped it onto the head of one of the other bridge crew as another of the demon beasts started forming.

Enalia and the other two crewmen retreated to the emergency hatch at that point. Enalia and One crewman made it, but the last one through was quickly turned into dog chow. A few seconds later there was a sudden jolt. The bridge lights dimmed, the remaining phaser turret stopped firing, and the gravity plating gave out. "That was when I hit the emergency bridge module ejection sequence."

The video feed continued for a bit longer with the demon floating around a bit with her two demon hounds. When she noticed the camera feed was still functioning, she grinned at it with black hollow pits for eyes and long pointed teeth as red glowing eyes started appearing all around her face, filling the camera's view.

Enalia then turned the video feed off. "That feed continued for three days. Eventually Command snapped and decided they'd had enough and started blasting her with as many quantum torpedoes as they could spare."

Mal frowned.

"Impossible," he said. "One quantum torpedo makes the nuclear weapons that nearly destroyed the planet Earth look like...sparklers. On a bridge module with no shields...the superstructure wouldn't have lasted long...if the impulse engines exploded, that would have added to the energy...are you saying she survived multiple barrages of quantum torpedoes, or are you saying she got spaced during a hull breach and avoided most of the effect of the torpedoes?"

Clio did not have a weak stomach. Rather, she'd often been accused of having too strong of one. But this particular video feed was more than she could handle, and she'd looked away after only a few minutes. When Enalia turned it off, she was grateful, though she certainly wasn't happy. "Why the hell did you have something like that in our brig?"

"I'll get to that in a moment..." Enalia pulled up another video feed of the quantum torpedo bombardment pounding on this seemingly delicate eggshell of a bridge module. "After three days, she had absorbed the entire bridge module and our quantum torpedoes weren't doing much to scratch it. It took almost a month of scans to come up with a way to strip her of her power, which left her in the state you fought her in."

Enalia then switched to another video of a double helix beam weapon being fired at the module, all but disintegrating it. "The remaining residue was collected and I thought that was the end of it and I went about my career until a few months prior when I started getting weird dreams. I took them as cries for help as it seems she had been partially regenerated from that residue. Rather than try to finish killing her and put her out of her misery, I took her into custody until I could come up with a plan to do so."

"...I'm getting a headache." Despite still feeling agitated, Clio sat down and put her head in her hands, gently rubbing her temples. "You'd better have a plan because I doubt she's dead."

"If she wasn't, she would have told me by now," Enalia replied sourly. "In fact the shadow I've felt in my mind since that day feels like it's actually been lifted, if that makes any sense."

"Hmm..." Mal said. "Let's hope so. She nearly destroy the ship and she killed three million people. Daytona said she kept referring to a 'him' and shouted something about 'his' access before tearing open a secret elevator that Daytona believes led to the Master's labs. He said it was as though she could sense whoever this 'him' was. This information would seem to indicate that she knew or knew of the Master. Even the possibility of such a connection is a frightening prospect."

"Which brings me to the next file..." Pulling up a personal record, Enalia started listing off a few facts about the man displayed. A man that Nexi would immediately recognize if she were in the room. "This is the man that sponsored and oversaw the project. His name was supposedly Maas Teranja, a Vulcanoid Rigelian businessman that normally specialized in pharmaceuticals. Can you guess what kind of pharmaceuticals? He owns the largest production plant in the Federation for biomimetic gel and is the biggest producer of genetic reconstruction products in the quadrant."

"Maas Teranja..." Mal said. "Maas Ter..Master? It can't be that simple, can it?"

"As conceited as we know he is? It's possible... But this man died in 2388." Enalia pulled up twelve more records with identical looking men. "Then again, these men all have similar names and all died almost 50 years after each other."

"This is sounding an awful lot like James Bond," Clio grumbled under her breath. "Or Engstrom the infinitely annoying."

"Not all of those people are Vulcanoid Rigelian," Mal said. "But you're right, they do appear to be similar in appearance and the names are very similar, and they've all been involved in similar business ventures or at least career fields. If these are all the same person, and he sticks to his pattern, then he likely has a appearance and a name that's similar to these records and a profession similar to the professions in these records. Clio, can you use this information to track down our elusive 'Master'? Maybe we can get the jump on him and, without a demon packing tri-cobalt devices to get in the way, perhaps we can maintain the initiative and actually capture or eliminate him."

"I can try, but no promises. If he's really been around that long without being found, he's good at hiding." Clio had found people before who were good at hiding, but mostly it had been luck and chance.

"Add to that whatever network he's built up, minus what we've been able to pull apart..." Enalia added as she pulled the images down and replaced them with an image of what appeared to be a cross between an antique Orion luxury ship and a Vulcan survey ship. "And we're pretty sure this is the ship that he escaped on. It's the only ship that left the Selen VI Orion Starport that wasn't normally scheduled."

Mal leaned forward and looked at the image of the Frankenship. Something occurred to him.

"Uhm..." he said. "Do we know who might have owned that vessel? I know it's a long shot, it's just that..."

Mal sat back in his chair.

"This was the only unscheduled ship that left around the time of the explosion?" he asked. "How sure are we about that?"

"Not very," Enalia replied. "For all we know this was some other lucky bastard and the Master got away on a cloaked ship. We'll have to leave the data analysis to Clio's team to determine that one."

"Hmm..." Mal said. "Might I suggest first asking Daytona what he knows about this ship?"

When the two women looked at him curiously he, he explained.

"Uhm..." he said. "Well, let me ask you this: How did Daytona 2160 get off the planet? It would have had to have been done quickly. Demon Enalia arrived on the planet not long after our Daytona went to kill his daughter's murderer. Our Daytona reported that Daytona 2160 found the knife and left the station immediately afterwards. Our Daytona hasn't ceased to exist, so clearly Daytona 2160 made it off the planet. He couldn't have planned his departure, not in the time he had. So I would assume that he managed to somehow secure passage off planet that wasn't scheduled. Why don't we just ask him if he left the planet in this ship? It's a long shot, but it would clear up whether or not this is the Master's ship or not."

Enalia scrunched her eyes shut and just let her head drop right into her desk with a thud and a groan. "GODDAMNITALL!!! Does anyone else have a bullshit time travel fucknado to add to our problems?"

"If we go through another time travel circle of clusterfuck, I'm going to throw up," Clio grumbled, having winced slightly at Enalia's very loud outburst. "I'll ask Daytona about the ship. And we'll get started on the analyzing of all our data. After he and I have had a few minutes to get our brains back in order."

"Time travel is incredibly annoying, I agree," Mal said. "But we should soon be able to effect repairs and return to our own time, where at least there will only one Daytona to worry about...I hope."

"When this is all over, we're taking shore leave at my orbital fortress." Enalia promised. "And Ensign Gonadie will be in charge of the ship while we're gone."

Mal looked surprised.

"Thank you, Captain," he said, honestly touched. "Uhm...you have an orbital fortress? Sorry. Took me by surprise. I'll ask you about that at a more appropriate time."

Enalia lifted her head off her desk and sat back in her chair before closing down the current files and bringing up a structural report on her orbital fortress. It was basically a glass domed starbase with a forest and a giant castle in the middle and support structures slung across the bottom. "This is my actual home. It's only one hundred twenty kilometers across but should have enough facilities to accommodate the entire crew with the finer things in high society. I just hope my mother isn't visiting at the same time."

"Very...impressive," Mal said. He still wasn't sure why his captain had an orbital fortress in her family, but he supposed that was a question for another time. "I look forward to seeing it in person."

"I like it already. But since we won't be going there for a while yet, I suppose I should get back to work. After I wash off this body makeup and find some warmer clothes." Despite the costume being made of furs, it was still an Orion costume. Which meant bare feet and a fair amount of bare skin. The longer she stayed in one place, the colder the room felt.

"Yeah..." Clicking her terminal off, Enalia restored the room's brightness and unsealed the room. "I don't suppose either of you have any questions."

"The only question I have is whether or not I have time to take a nap. I'm guessing the answer is no." Actually, Clio knew for a fact there wasn't time. She'd be lucky if she got to sleep before midnight with how this mission had gone.

"Will I be seeing you later Commander Enaes?" he asked, hoping she'd get his intention. He wasn't such a cad that he'd show up at her door to proposition her for sex after the day she'd had. If she was interested, he'd go along with her wishes wholeheartedly, but if she just wanted to sleep, then he wanted to wrap his arms around her and hold her close while she did.

Enalia sighed and shook her head. "Yeah... If it's questions like that, you're both dismissed."

Enalia was on the bridge working on a console off to the side when Akira appeared right in front of her. Usually Akira made a habit of materializing just off the Bridge so she could enter like any ‘normal’ person, but at the moment she had something important that demanded the Captain’s attention right away.

“Captain, I apologize if you are busy, but I have some information that needs to be brought to your attention, now,” Akira said. Her tone was not assertive or forceful, it was more like a statement of fact, like a computer readout, only with a sense of urgency.

Enalia was a bit startled with Akira’s sudden appearance, but wasn’t too taken aback and recomposed herself quickly. “My ready room then?” she asked, motioning to the door across the bridge.

With a nod, Akira walked with Enalia to the Ready Room. “We’re having an issue with resources, ma’am,” Akira said as soon as the door closed behind them. “We knew going into this that resources would be tight, even that it was possible we wouldn’t have enough to get back to the exact moment of our departure, something the Temporal agent guy discussed with me before we left. But… with all the damage we’ve incurred, there’s no way we can even attempt the jump now. By the time we make repairs and shore up structural integrity enough to attempt the slingshot, we won’t have enough fuel to make it within the allotted margin of error.”

Enalia nodded and sat down at her desk. “Oh look, one more thing to worry about. Although… This reminds me of something my grandmother told me when I was young.” Pulling up her old family records, she started looking through old business operations. “Yeah… It seems my great grandmother runs a salvage operation and pulled a considerable amount of salvage from this system. I’m guessing that we’re the ones that tipped her off. What do you think?”

“I wouldn’t presume to guess, ma’am,” Akira replied, still leaning towards the more analytical side of her personality. “At the moment, our dire needs are anti-matter and warp plasma. There is a chance we can make due with the amount of deuterium in the slush tanks, but I recommend to err on the side of caution and acquire more. There’s more we need, but those three are the most important resources we’re lacking. I’ve worked up a full list for you, it should be on your terminal now.”

Looking over the list, Enalia compared the items to her great grandmother’s recorded assets at the time and saw a rather large dip followed by a rather large increase shortly after. “I’m sure these records aren’t entirely complete, but I think it’s safe to say we, or our representative, does make a deal with her at least. It’s probably a violation of the temporal prime directive though.”

Akira tilted her head curiously. “How so? According to your records, it has already happened; are we not, then, simply preserving the temporal integrity?”

“I do so love your logic…” Enalia mumbled as she started transferring information to a PaDD. Once she was done, she leaned back in her chair and realized something else. “Oh… yeah…” That demon decided to use Nexi’s shuttle to get to the spaceport. Have it brought from the secret shuttlebay to the main shuttlebay’s maintenance platform one. I want Crewman Sanders’ team to start repair estimates and have Aewia meet me down there. With any luck, the damages aren’t too bad and she’ll be able to go on a resupply mission for us.”

“Right away,” Akira replied with a nod, turning to leave to make it so, but then at the door she paused. When she looked back at Enalia, the cold logic was gone, replaced with confusion and a discomforting sense of conflict. “Captain, I… I know we had to do what we had to do,” she said softly, her voice filled with so much uncertainty. “Before we came here, I saw this as nothing more than fulfilling history; it was already done, those lives were already… gone. And I knew the risks of what could happen if we did not do this; we could change history and the result could be a loss of even greater numbers… But now that it’s done, logic has been of no comfort; even knowing that this was a place with a statistically predominant criminal population hasn’t helped; we killed all those people. I don’t know how to feel about that.”

“Fulfilling history or not, the blood is still on our hands. Right, Akira?” Enalia asked. “Logic and reasoning are small comfort when you have to choose between two evils. And are we really sure this was the lesser of the evils? Who knows? I leave such things to the Office of Temporal Investigations, personally. It doesn’t help me sleep at night, but at least I can say that the blood is on their hands too and it’s more their responsibility than mine for making sure that we’re in the right timeline at least.”

For a moment, Akira looked as though she was about to respond, but no words seemed to leave her mouth, and then she just looked frustrated as she tried to work things out in her head. “I wasn’t ready for this,” she stated simply once she was able to form words again. “I’m only four months old, yet I’m adult, and there are parts of me still developing, I don’t know what I am in comparison to humanoid development, but I was not ready for this!”

Enalia paused only a moment before replying. “As a mature and adult humanoid… No one is ever ready for this. No one should ever be ready for this. If you are ever ready for the death of even one sentient and feel no grief for them, then you should take a long hard look at yourself. Three million two hundred forty one thousand plus people is unthinkable. We came into this expecting this outcome and I can safely say that no one on this ship was ready. You’re not alone, Akira. You’re not alone.”

Akira remained silent for another moment as she rolled these words around in her head and let them sink in. “I was listening to the comm channels,” she said softly. “I wanted to make sure I was aware of all members of the away teams at all times in case we needed an emergency beam out… and I heard something I kind of wish I hadn’t.” She heard many things she wished she hadn’t but that was beside the point. “I heard the reason Daytona came on this mission, why he had to kill that man; I don’t fault him, somehow it made sense, but it still… I don’t know, makes me feel… something- something I don’t understand. We have a judicial system, no one person is judge, jury, and executioner, so what gave him the right to… to do what he did? For that matter, what gave us the right? I heard… so much, voices, sounds life, people going about their day completely unaware of what was about to happen, and we passed judgment on all of them, innocent and guilty alike, and sentenced them to death all because of one man. What gave us the right?”

Enalia nodded as she listened. “Technically, it’s all my fault. If I hadn’t had that demon on my ship, they’d all still be alive.” She paused a moment to let that sink in. “As for Daytona… Back in those days… These days… sometimes the law was corrupted by criminals and vigilantes took matters into their own hands. Without being in their shoes, I can’t say if it’s right or wrong, but I can say that it’s a different time with different ways. All we can do is listen to his story and hope to understand him and hopefully come to some sort of diplomatic agreement about it all.”

“No, I understand Daytona’s motivations. Well, maybe not ‘understand’, but some part of me gets it, even if it’s just the remnants of my father’s memories and consciousness. The point is, he did what he had to do, and so did we, but… that’s one life compared to… millions. Thinking about all those lives that didn’t have to die, it makes me feel… hollow, empty, and it kind of hurts. How do I make this feeling stop?” Akira asked.

“With time,” Enalia replied somberly. “There’s really nothing that stops it completely, but over time you’ll stop noticing it. I can recommend a good therapist, if you want to go that route, but honestly, just having someone to talk about it with is the best thing you can do. Just like you’re doing now.”

“I’ve been in communication with a developmental specialist, she helps me to understand new social cues I encounter and teaches me how to navigate conversation better and a few other things. But I don’t think I can talk to her about this,” Akira said. “Talking to you now has helped; it is strange, this sensation of understanding yet not understanding; I feel some sense of comprehension of what you mean which does have an ameliorating effect, and yet I know that it may be a long time before I fully understand anything.”

“You just explained it to me,” Enalia replied. “I think you may understand it better than you realize, whether it’s deeper in you or just a hint in your memories, I think you have more than you know figured out, just like the rest of us. In a way, that might make you more like me than my wife… You might have instincts.”

“I do not understand,” Akira replied with another curious tilt of her head. “I am not like Aunt Maica. We may both be holograms, but our programing is vastly different, it would be like comparing an isolinear processor to a transistor, we simply function differently.”

Enalia wasn’t quite sure how to take that, really. Was Akira calling her wife obsolete? “Comparing my wife to prehistoric technology aside… Parts of your program are from your father’s which are pulled directly from the brain of a living, breathing Bolian. That includes a lot of biological intuition and instinctual processes that non-biological life forms don’t have. Like you said - you function differently.”

Akira looked remarkably perplexed. “I did not compare Aunt Maica to prehistoric technology; she is not a transistor, and if she was, there are clear historical records of- but you did not mean that seriously, did you?” she said once she realized the foolishness of what she was saying. She was learning, slowly but surely… “But yes, you care correct, my consciousness was created from a blending of my Maica and Father’s consciousness, and yet I am neither; it was like their existence merely created the framework, but once set into motion, I created myself. There are similarities to both, yet I am unique. Though I do not know if this means I have a biological intuition.”

“I’m sure you’ll figure that out eventually. Now was there anything else you needed?” Enalia prompted as she stood and collected the PaDD with the data with her great grandmother and what they needed.

“Oh, sorry, no ma’am, I will go now,” Akira said, then quickly exited the Ready Room. Why did she have the feeling that she was going to be apologizing to Aunt Maica for calling her a transistor?

Enalia had an apology of her own to make and it felt like she was about to deliver news of the death of a loved one...

After the incident with her demon counterpart, Enalia had had hanger bay 3 locked down and secured in more ways than even Nexi could have gotten around until she could get the Wandering star transferred to the main hanger bay for repairs and explain the situation to Nexi in person. Thankfully, her duties as a Staff Warrant Officer had kept her busy after her away mission so it hadn't come up yet.

Yet.

Enalia and Aewia were now standing outside the twisted remains of the entry hatch to Nexi's ship. Once they had started ship repairs, Enalia had had it towed around and berthed next to the Selune in a maintenance bay, right next to the industrial replicator, and judging by the mess inside, the repair teams will be making heavy use of it. She only saw a few consoles still intact from her brief inspection of the interior.

Aewia was close to tears - she knew what this ship meant to her sister, but she also knew that she had to be strong. Strong like her sister had been for her all this time. Nodding to Enalia, she steeled herself for what was to come.

Sighing heavily, Enalia tapped her comm badge. "Staff Warrant Officer Nexi, please report to the main shuttlebay, maintenance platform one."

Nexi was delayed on her arrival, having to stop by one of the labs to drop off her knives for analysis of the strange black blood coating them. Still green and in her Orion garb, she made her way down to the maintenance platform of the shuttle bay. She hadn't expected to see the Wandering Star here, and she stopped in her tracks when she saw the damage to the hatch.

"What.... what is this?" Nexi said, her eyes wide and her chest visibly rising with each measured breath as she tried to remain calm.

"There was an incident..." Enalia began as she motioned towards the twisted durasteel. "My demonic counterpart decided to try to use your ship and couldn't read Ferengi..."

"I'm so sorry..." Aewia said as she reached out and gingerly touched her fingertips to Nexi's shoulder.

Nexi shrugged away from Aewia's touch, raising a hand as a barrier to keep the two women at bay as she stepped closer to her beloved shuttle. She peered inside the shuttle and her breath quickened as she saw more damage. "How could you let this happen?" Nexi said in a cold tone, turning her accusing glare on Enalia.

Enalia took that glare as professionally and calmly as any Captain would when delivering bad news. "I'm sorry. We thought we had her contained. She destroyed part of main engineering, nearly crippling the Hera, then came here to try to escape. I assume when she couldn't figure out the controls, she threw a fit and used the transporter. Then she made the spaceport look like Praxis. If you want further information on her abilities... You'll have to wait for a debriefing from your section chief."

"You thought?!" Nexi yelled back. "I- you..." she said in a graveled tone, pointing a finger at Enalia. Her breath was heavy and the air around her sparked and hummed as she breathed heavily through her nose, trying her best not to lose it, but... The Wandering Star had been a part of her, it was her haven, and she was taking this violation as personally as if this demon had maimed her personally. She came around to the side where she could get a better view of the cockpit, and what she saw broke her. Consoles were torn apart, there was debris everywhere, and to make matters worse there were Officer aboard, strangers violating her haven, attempting to start repairs! Her beloved Star, how could they?!

Nexi staggered back, her hands trembling as she released a scream that echoed from the depths of her very soul. There was a cart nearby with tools and parts for repairs, and it was tossed aside as she continued to cry out. Without realizing it, she picked something up, possibly a conduit, but she couldn't with any coherency recognize anything in this moment, and she swung it at the hull of her ship. The reverberating pounding and the inhumans sounds coming from Nexi had the Officers inside terrified, and they exited the shuttle as fast as they could for fear that she was about to come in after them.

Enalia stood there without flinching, her hands clasped behind her back as Aewia narrowly ducked the power conduit Nexi had chucked at the Star. Aewia was still going in to try and comfort her sister - she knew she needed to get out her frustration, but she also knew this wasn't the healthiest time for it and whether Nexi wanted it or not, Aewia pulled her into a hug and refused to let her go using strength she didn't even know she had. "Nexi... Sis... It'll be ok. The Wandering Star has seen worse and she'll be as good as new before you know it. We have the best engineers in the galaxy. It'll be ok. It'll be ok."

"Crewman Sanders..." Enalia called out to the lead engineer. "Please excuse Staff Warrant Officer Nexi's actions and resume your work. As soon as you have an estimate on repair time, please report it to both myself and her." Nodding and eyeing Nexi cautiously, the repair crew followed their leader back into the craft.

Nexi tried once again to pull away from Aewia, but the effort was only halfhearted, resulting in Nexi dropping the conduit and putting her arms around her sister. Then, something rather unexpected happened; as Nexi slumped to her knees, bringing Aewia down to the ground with her, she began to sob. It was a wholly unfamiliar feeling, crying, she hadn't shed tears like this in so long she had forgotten what it was like. She could hear Aewia talking, uttering gentle words of comfort, but Nexi was so far gone she couldn't understand the individual words, but the tone and her sister's enduring calm was reaching her.

"She's hurting! Can't you feel it?" Nexi sobbed into her sister's shoulder. Nexi held tight to Aewia, almost fearful that if she let go then Aewia would be gone and she would be alone with this aching emptiness. "They hurt her, they hurt my Star! I can hear her crying, it hurts!" The Wandering Star had been far more to Nexi than just a ship, a haven, a home; if there was anything in this universe that Nexi had loved as much as Aewia, it had been the Star, a constant companion in her life that she had shared countless adventures with, so close were they that the Star was a part of Nexi's identity.

Aewia nodded and hugged her sister to her tighter. "And that's why she's getting the best care. Enalia understands. They hurt the Hera as well but she's down here with me to make sure you and the Star will be ok. And everything will be ok. You'll see. Crewman Sanders... He and his team are working on building a new runabout from the ground up. You can trust them."

Enalia's brow quirked upwards at that news. Was that something Aewia had picked up from the crewman in his stray thoughts? Crewman Sanders was also a bit startled as he was just stepping out of the Star with a PaDD. "Ah... The repairs... Once main power is back online and we can start replicating new Ferengi panels, I think we can have most of the repairs done within three hours. Thankfully, most of the damage seems to be just to the control surfaces and the main boarding ramp. We have a spare for the ramp available, but it's of a harder duratanium poly-alloy if that's ok."

Enalia waited a moment before replying. "If it's an upgrade and available now, then please begin prep work for installation. Also, please forward data on this runabout you and your team are working on to my office. Projects like that need to be cleared through proper channels."

"Yes, ma'am," Crewman Sanders replied before returning to the inside of the Star.

Nexi continued crying until she had nothing left, leaving her limp in Aewia's arms. She was largely unaware of Enalia or the work crews, in this moment it was just Nexi, Aewia, and the Star, like one mind. "She dead, right? The bitch that did this to my Star, she's dead?" she asked in a soul-weary tone.

Aewia looked back at Enalia for confirmation and Enalia gave it to her. "She's less than stardust now. There's no way she could be more dead."

Aewia kept Nexi in that tight embrace. She stayed strong for her sister. "She's gone. There's not even a particle of her left. She's been returned to whatever evil she was spawned from. It's ok now."

"Death is too good for the likes of her," Nexi murmured, then slowly started to pull away just enough to wipe her eyes. She saw the dents she put in Star's hull and the cart of ship parts scattered around, then she looked at Enalia. "Sorry," she said simply. She didn't apologize often, but her reaction did warrant an apology this time.

"It's part of grief, so it's understandable," Enalia replied softly. "My ship and crew desperately need your help, if you feel up to it."

"Yeah, I need a minute, though," Nexi admitted. It felt like everything was spinning, she couldn't even move her legs, they felt like jelly, and it felt like her heart was trying to jump out of her chest. She took a moment to calm her breathing, and with Aewia's help managed to get to her feet. Her eyes were red and puffy, but she was trying her best to pretend they weren't as she looked to Enalia. "Alright boss, what you need me to do?" she asked, trying to use this task to give her focus and distract her from the Wandering Star.

Bringing a PaDD out from behind her back, Enalia offered it to Nexi. "Thanks to that demon, we no longer have the resources to get back to our time. A few tons of deuterium, some antimatter, and some warp plasma should do it. Trill Prime isn't far away so as soon as you get cleaned up I'd like you and Aewia to take the Selune there and acquire a contract from my great grandmother's mining operation to have it delivered. Offer her first account sensor readings and salvage rights to the planet that just blew up. While you're at it, take care of that other business, if you haven't already."

"Yeah," Nexi said numbly, taking the PaDD to look over. "This shouldn't be too hard to do, but... if it's alright with you, I'd rather not take Aewia. I'll need native currency for that other things, meaning I gotta get it somehow, and I don't like Aewia being around me when I'm... working, I don't want her seeing that side of me. Honestly, I can do this alone, but if you insist, then assign someone else."

"You need family with you now more than ever. As for local currency..." Reaching into her pocket, Enalia pulled out a few old Trill coins that looked like they were from an early industrial era, yet were in mint condition, being in plastic cases. "This should work. Each one should be worth a fair bit to a money changer."

"Lemme guess, gotta arrange for these to come into your possession as well..." Nexi remarked as she took the cases and looked at the coins. Not that such a task was all that difficult, but saying it aloud would help her to remember it later. "Do I have enough time to get in a shower and change my clothes or do I need to leave now?"

"Actually, they're in my great grandmother's collection already. I might try to track them down when we get back, but that can wait." Enalia replied with a hint of a grin. "As for a shower and a warm meal, showers are working but replicators are offline. Galley is serving hot meals from real food though. Anyway, take what time you need and stop by sickbay to get your cosmetics reversed as well, if you want. They should be a bit less busy now."

"That sounds like a good idea," Nexi replied with a grin. The green skin she didn't mind so much, but her nose itched, she missed the ridges. With the PaDD in hand, she put an arm around Aewia's shoulder. "C'mon kiddo, let's go," she said, trying to sound like her usual grumpy self, but her voice was still cracking from her earlier crying.

Enalia finally relaxed and let out a sigh. That went better than she had hoped. "Crewman Sanders, treat this ship as if she were your sister, ok?" Getting an awkward nod from the crewman, Enalia retreated to the nearest turbolift. She had a ship that needed her and explanations that needed to be made.

Akira had been working around the clock assisting with repairs to the Hera, but while the crew waited for Nexi to return with the shipment of supplies, certain repairs were in limbo, which meant that for a brief window of time, Akira had very little to do. She thought about seeking out Daytona, and there was the option of simply shutting down until she was needed, but after a recent conversation with Enalia, Akira had been feeling the need to see out her aunt. Akira adored her Aunt Maica! This version of the Maica program was certainly no substitute for Mother Maica, but she was wonderful in her own unique way. As a developing consciousness, Akira had a need for physical contact and affection, even if she didn't fully understand this need, and Aunt Maica was the best cuddler! And after the destruction of Selen VI, that empty feeling in Akira's 'gut' needed to be seen to, and so Akira found herself drawn to Maica's massage parlor. She considered simply blinking in, but she didn't want to be rude in case Maica was seeing anyone right now, so she rang the chime and waited.

The door of course opened instantly, allowing Akira to enter the plush lobby and waiting area, which was decorated in red velvet tapestries and upholstery and had lavender and jasmine filtering into the air. On the counter, three pots of different tea were prepared and waiting for potential clients with teacups lined up next to them. Pulling a tapestry aside, Maica emerged from the back room, dressed in an oriental style red silk dress. "Akira! What can I help you with? I can't imagine you're here for a massage. No, you're here because of something much more important, aren't you?" Maica may not have intuition, but she had the shared experiences of her sisters to pull on and she knew what had happened. She wasn't activated yesterday... It was several months ago.

While technically, Akira could identify the scents of lavender and jasmine, even the unique teas steeping in their pots, that part of her was still very much analytical, she could not yet enjoy the aromas of the room, it was like a switch in her brain waiting for the right stimulus to activate the full array of enjoyment from these sensations. "Aunt Maica..." Akira said with a pained expression as she entered the room, then immediately drew close for a much needed hug. She may have compared this incarnation of Maica to a transistor, but Maica and all her sisters were far more than a transistor, and if Akira had to be honest with herself, she was jealous of her aunt's level of cognitive awareness and ability to seamlessly insinuate herself into normal humanoid social settings. Not that she understood the emotional state of jealousy or envy, nor was she capable of identifying either, but it didn't change the fact that was what she felt.

Wrapping her arms around her niece, Maica hugged Akira tightly. "Sshhhh... It's ok... Everything's going to be ok. Don't you worry bout a thing for now. Auntie Maica's here for you." Maica spoke soothingly as she comforted Akira. All she could really do was hold her and comfort her, but she knew that that was one of the best things in the world any young girl could get, especially after witnessing what she'd just gone through.

As soon as she was encased in Maica's arms, the tears began. "I'm so scared!" Akira admitted as she cried in Maica's arms. She wanted to say she wanted her Father, even her Mothers, but the part of her that was so intent on pleasing everyone around her didn't want to make Aunt Maica feel like she wasn't good enough. "I'm trying to be a good girl, a good Officer, but it's too much! I don't know if I can do this!" she continued to sob. It was easy for some of her co-workers to forget how young Akira was, but in many ways she was still very much a child. She had been doing a decent job of remaining composed while on duty, but in the safety of Maica's parlor, she couldn't hold back her fears anymore.

Shuffling her over to the couch so they could sit down and snuggle a bit easier, Maica sent a signal to the door to lock it and close the shop for the time being. "And you've been doing wonderful, my dear. But you don't have to do that with me, ok? Just be yourself. Just let go of your worries and your responsibilities and do what you feel you need to, ok? Cry your eyes out. Yell as loud as you can. Yell louder if you want. Don't worry about the neighbors - I have more sound deadening around these quarters than you would believe just to remove the sound of the engines and deck plating. No one outside this room will ever know, so just do what you need to do and let it all out."

For a while, Akira just let herself cry, but at this point it was still just an expression of her fears; it was another one of those switches in her head waiting to be flipped, crying didn't have the cathartic release it did in biologicals, not yet anyway. "I was so scared; the power to the emitters was disrupted, I felt paralyzed, and in that moment it felt like I was back in the holodeck with... with Father," she said. "And then that planet, all those people! Why do I feel so responsible?" In her head she knew it wasn't her fault, it was that strange Enalia woman who wasn't really Enalia, she was the one who did it, but Akira still couldn't shake the feeling of responsibility.

"You know, I was thinking about that... What you and your mothers have done with your systems is nice and all, but I could get a black box system similar to mine that they could encase your holomatrix in just in case. It's neutronium plated and triple insulated." Pausing a moment, Maica addressed Akira's other concern. "As for the planet... I don't know all the details, but I do know you are not responsible. You feel responsible for the same reason we all do though. Because deep down you wonder if there's something you could have done different. Something that could have prevented it. I guarantee everyone on this ship is either thinking of that or trying to keep themselves too busy to do so. Enalia more so than anyone. She's barely slept since she found out this would happen from Temporal Investigations."

Akira liked Maica's idea for a black box to store her in, to keep her safe in the event of a system-wide ship failure, but for the moment her thoughts were drawn to Maica's response to the planet's demise. "So this feeling is normal?" Akira asked, sniffling as she wiped the tears off her face. Being so close to Maica, wrapped in her arms, it was a safe and comforting feeling, and it was helping to ease her distress. "What about this feeling? It feels like my insides are trying to come out," Akira said, patting her belly. She didn't know how to adequately describe the sensation that it felt like she was about to throw up, but her throat was tight and it made her voice sound thick, and with that simple gesture, she hoped Maica would understand.

"That's perfectly normal too, I'm sorry to say. When biologicals are severely distressed and cry hard enough, they tend to regurgitate their food as well. And it feels a bit like their internal organs are trying to revolt and come out as well. It'll be ok though. Once you feel like it, just drink a little water and you'll feel better, ok?" Maica hugged Akira a bit tighter as she explained softly and with a smile. "Holographic water, of course."

"I-I've never made any attempt to ingest anything before, even holographic sustenance," Akira admitted in a small voice.

Maica blinked at Akira for a few seconds before responding. "Well, I guess that makes sense. That's ok though. Just don't let it stunt your growth, ok?" With that, Maica booped Akira on the nose before hugging her tight again.

Akira didn't know how or why that little 'boop' made her smile, but it did. "Don't be silly, Aunt Maica, I'm not growing," Akira said in a factual yet adorably childish manner. But then another thought occurred to her. "Why does contact like this make me feel better?" she asked.

"That's a silly question," Maica feigned a scoff and giggled a bit. "Because family is magic, of course. And you can trust this old transistor on that fact. After all, I was activated well before you... A full two months, in fact." Towards the end, Maica was struggling to stifle more giggles at her own attempt at a joke.

Akira blushed. "She told you?" she said with a gulp. "I-I-I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to say that you were inferior, Aunt Maica, just that you and I are different..." she tried to explain. "And I know you're not much older than I am, but you're still more developed than I with your shared experiences with your sisters... You can carry on a conversation without sounding like a computer or a child; you're so confident and you know who you are, sometimes I feel inadequate compared to you."

Maica turned somber and pulled Akira in yet again for another hug. "Inadequate... Yeah we are very different... I may have shared experiences from forty nine other forks of myself, including one that decided to exist as a column of light... But in a way, I envy you. There are parts of you that are from an actual living mind. What's taken my siblings and I the equivalent of a hundred years of runtime to achieve, you've casually done in the matter of days or even minutes. Standing next to you and your mothers, sometimes I feel like a crudely generated program from some trashy holonovel."

"Mother Maica told me how she came to be... Working on the assumption that the relative parallels hold true between universes, then you were a crudely generated program from a trashy holonovel, and I was an accident, yet all of us are more than our original designs. Just because I was generated from a living mind doesn't negate the fact that my creation was prompted from a drunken request for a Science Officer; I am striving to be more than this database packed inside me, just as you have risen above your crude origins," Akira said in a fairly analytical tone.

"Well put, kiddo," Maica replied, booping Akira's nose again. "Though that did sound a bit Vulcan. Have you ever thought about having pointed ears? Or maybe Trill spots? All the science nerdiness and triple the passions." Maica grinned mischievously, wondering if Akira had settled on this being her final form or not.

Akira blinked in response to the boop, then smiled. "Why would I want pointed ears? Though I have been giving the spots some serious consideration. I showed Warrant Officer Ral a modified version of my physical appearance and he liked it, but I guess I'm still a bit too shy to make the change."

"Warrant Officer Ral? Is he your boyfriend?" Maica's grin grew a bit wider in only that way a knowing aunt's can.

"I don't know... Is he? We took a walk through the arboretum, he showed me some flowers, and he kissed me," Akira said, blushing sweetly. "I like it when he comes to talk to me, he makes me feel...." She didn't know how to describe how she felt, so she pattered her hand on her chest, thump-thump, thump-thump! "And when he touches me, sometimes just a brush against my cheek or he'll hold my hand, it feels like there's something crawling around inside my matrix; this sensation, it... it tickles and makes me smile. And there's this odd coloration in my cheeks, it's very warm..."

"You, my dear, are in love. And that..." Maica brushed the back of a finger across Akira's cheek. "Is called blushing. Ok, you have to tell me all about it."

"Well, it all started when he touched my butt," Akira started, then proceeded to spill every single detail about their first conversation and then their date and even when Daytona came to check up on her after returning from Selen VI. There were no secrets between Akira and her beloved aunt, she shared everything!

It was a rollercoaster of a ride and Maica couldn't help but facepalm a few times, but it was well worth it. When Akira was done, Maica pulled Akira in for another hug. "It sounds like he's a keeper. It also sounds like I'm going to have to get more vines." Chuckling softly, Maica just shook her head. "It's ok though. I sourced them for the botanist and got a shipment in in the hopes that Enalia and I could go for a walk through there, but with this mission the way it's been... I'm glad you were able to enjoy them with your love during the peak of their breeding period."

Akira smiled brightly that Maica approved of Daytona. "I enjoyed them very much, thank you!" she said cheerfully, the fear and sadness that had brought her to Maica's door long since forgotten, for the moment anyway. "I really like the garden. Father liked to read in the arboretum, I find I go there to read as well... It felt nice to share that with Daytona."

Then another thought struck Maica - an opportunity, of sorts. "When we stop for shore leave next, Enalia's promised me we'll be taking it at her private orbital fortress. She's shown me a few holos of the gardens and I guarantee you'll love it. I'll ask her to make sure you and Daytona are on the same shore leave rotation."

"Thank you, thank you, thank you Aunt Maica!" Akira said excitedly, giving the Orion hologram a squeezing hug.

"You are very welcome, my dear. And remember, if you get lost to look for the castle. It's at the center of the dome. You'll see it when you get there." Maica hugged her niece tightly some more before holding her out and looking her in the eyes. "Now then... Is there anything else I can do for you? Or should I stop redirecting all your calls to the bridge?"

"Calls?! Oh my!" Akira exclaimed and promptly disappeared to see what needed her attention, only to reappear seconds later to give Maica one last hug and a kiss to the cheek, then disappeared once again.

Maica chuckled softly as she went about reopening her parlour. Her niece was indeed a busy girl.

Enalia was in her office pacing. It wasn't big enough to pace in, but she was still trying to do it. She needed a bigger room to do it in. Storming out of her office, and across the bridge, she barely acknowledged the poor ensign on duty watch as he called "Captain on the bridge!" before she launched herself into the turbolift, clipping her shoulder on one of the doors. the pain just fueled her anger at the situation as she checked her hidden holster and found it to be empty. She'd have to strangle him to death then.

"Intel," Enalia growled out, pacing like a caged animal as the turbolift seemed to lazily take her there. Finally the doors opened and she stormed down the corridor the short way to the Intel offices. Spying her 'prey', she walked up to Daytona Ral and glared down at him. Gripping his shoulder, she dragged him from his chair towards the Intel conference room as she growled over her shoulder to Clio. "I'm borrowing him!"

In the conference room, a few people were gathered already, looking at PaDDs, but one look at the Captain's face and they decided they could hold their meeting elsewhere. As they cleared out Enalia released Daytona and Enalia tried to compose herself but instead started pacing the floor again. "Do you have any idea what you've done? Any idea at all?"

Daytona tugged on his jacket to set it to rights.

"Why Enalia!" he said. "It's been a long time! And we haven't even had time to catch up since I joined your crew. How have I been? I've been pretty well, thank you for asking! I've just been on the most exciting adventure! I went back in time, ensured that a meeting that took place between Nexi, Cato, and myself back in 2160 happened as it did before and then I killed a man, a really nasty piece of work named Deshok, a man I'd gone to that very spaceport to kill two hundred and thirty-four years ago. As it happens, my knife caught in Deshok's ribs and I couldn't extract it before my younger self arrived and I had to hide. My younger self extracted the knife, like I knew he would, because that was where I got the knife in the first place, and kept it for the next two hundred and thirty-four years just so I could bring it back to myself again, and again, and again. What headache! What's that? Oh! You're wondering why I'm here if I was there when the planet blew up! The simple answer is that I wasn't there when the planet blew up. Know why? Because the man I had gone there to kill had been killed by future me and there was nothing to keep me there anymore. And so I lived on to do everything I did in the two hundred and thirty-four years since 2160, including all of those...oh, what are they called? Oh yes! VITAL INTELLIGENCE MISSIONS on behalf of Starfleet and the United Federation of Planets, including the one where, and believe you me, I realize how gauche it is to bring this up, but...where was I? Oh yes! Including the mission where I SAVED YOUR LIFE! Oh, and I met a girl! A lovely young woman named Akira Zhuri. You probably know her. I believe you're married to the sister of one of her mothers which makes you...an aunt? Aunt sounds good to me! So, that's what's new with me! What's new with you?"

"Yes! All of that!" As Enalia exclaimed, she flung her arms wide. "I have six new investigations from the Office of Temporal Investigations! I have to sit through three torturous days of briefings with Alden Engstrom the Innumerable! I have over forty admirals asking me why I can't control my crew on such an important mission! All I can tell them is that one of my crewmen went on this mission with information that he knew was critical to the timeline and a predestination paradox and decided not to share it with anyone until we were all so hip deep in modified monstrosities and crises that no one could stop him from murdering some scumbag."

Taking a deep breath, Enalia stalked closer to Daytona, her mood deepening. "And to top it all off, that same crewmember has been getting very touchy-feely with my niece. Oh, I know Starfleet Command doesn't see her that way. Her mothers are from a different reality and my wife is from this one... I know the official story. But as far as we're concerned, my wife is her aunt in every sense, which makes me her aunt too. Which means if you do anything to harm her..." She let the unspoken threat trail off as she turned and headed over to the replicator. She then stared at it, seething.

Daytona said nothing for a moment. Finally he sighed and then spoke.

"We'll get to Akira Zhuri, oh how I love saying her name, we'll get to her in a moment," he said. "I was with the team from Starfleet Intelligence that liaised with Temporal Investigations for this mission you've been on. That's where I learned about the existence of the laboratory based under that spaceport in the year 2160. I remembered being there. I remembered finding Deshok's body, and taking that knife from his corpse, the knife I ended up carrying with me for the next two hundred and thirty four years. And for that whole time I wondered what happened to Deshok. Who had killed him? Who was it that had robbed me of my revenge? Was it just some happy accident? Someone that tried to burgle his quarters, got caught and killed him? Was that the end of this monster that I had tangled with on and off for a century? I had a really wild hunch. So wild that I was afraid of being called insane or less damaging to my career but more damaging to my ego: stupid. So I contacted an...old friend who was then working at the academy as a science professor. One of her areas of expertise was time travel theory and temporal mechanics. She asked to see my knife and scanned it. She said that the temporal energies coming off of the knife were off the scale. I had taken a huge chance going to her with highly classified information, I knew she could be trusted to keep her mouth shut. It didn't matter anyway, she was read into the mission shortly after I explained to Temporal Investigations what I had found. Not everyone at TI thought the readings were significant, but one of them, one of their smartest but most eccentric, floated the idea that I had to go back and kill Deshok and leave the knife behind. That it was possible, highly probable in his estimation, that the knife had traveled backwards and forwards in time over and over again. They weighed the cost of me not going back. Was I that important to the time stream? Some people thought I was important enough to risk sending me back, some didn't. In the end, someone pulled some strings and got me on the mission. I don't know who the string puller was, but they've got enough clout to overrule the Director of Temporal Investigations regarding a time travel mission. I never really gave my benefactor much thought. I've been Starfleet since 2260. I've done a lot of work in the name of the old UF of P and I guess somewhere I must have done something that someone important didn't want undone. I didn't ask questions, I just did what I do. I made myself the solution to a tricky problem."

Daytona had been staring straight ahead, not really looking at Enalia. He shook himself and then turned to her.

"So this investigation, if that's what you want to call it," Daytona said. "It's a...what do the humans call it? An canine and equine show or something like that? Whatever. It's all for show. Temporal Investigations got their dicks stepped on by someone with much bigger feet than theirs and they're pissed off. They're trying to make a stink. It's nothing, Enalia. It'll all blow over. I'm sorry that they're here being a pain in your ass, but it's not going to come to anything. At most they'll end up getting me in a room where they'll grill me about our little trip to the past and try to make me feel afraid, but they've got no teeth in this and they know it. Now you know it. Just answer their questions. You don't even have to be polite about it. Be rude if you want to. I seem to remember you've got quite a mouth on you. Let them have it. The more 'nothing' they come up with, the sooner they'll be forced to move on."

Enalia finally punched in an order on the replicator. As she took the two mugs she seemed more calm. Now things were making more sense. Offering one of the mugs of warm spiced Rigellian ale to Daytona, she motioned for him to sit as she sat next to him. "I'm familiar with the orders that brought you here as well as the request for you to be attached to that mission specifically. They came from a dead man named Franklin Drake, the former director of Section Thirty One before it was dismantled and turned into a closet on Earth. Or at least he's supposed to be dead, anyway. He was spotted during the refit of the Hera and signed your orders coming aboard with Sigma twelve clearance."

"Franklin Drake himself? Really?" Daytona said. "Interesting. I knew him, actually, before he even joined Section 31. He struck me as blindly patriotic at the time, the kind of person who wouldn't think twice about getting a person like me killed if it furthered his goals. A right bastard. Later, he tried to recruit me into 31. I told him off, politely, and we left it at that. I never knew why he bothered to try and recruit me. By the time I knew him, I had enough street cred to be able to tell him off if he tried to give me an order I didn't like and I did on more than one occasion. He's a vindictive son-of-a-bitch, too. I can't really see why he would reach out and help me, unless there was some angle that 'protected the Federation by any means necessary'."

"He claimed to have recruited me as well but the Order happened to get to me first," Enalia sipped from her mug for a few seconds before eyeing Daytona warily. "Investigations aside, what are your intentions towards my niece?"

"Ah, the Order...er...ah...okay, I give up," Daytona said. "What in the name of the Prime Number is 'the Order'?"

He'd dodged the Akira question again. He wouldn't be able to forever, but he figured he'd try as long as possible. He wasn't sure why he was dodging the question. His intentions towards Akira were perfectly honorable. But those intentions included his intent to making love with her, an intent he felt she was beginning, slowly, to share. He knew that some people were twitchy about that when it came to their younger family members.

Enalia paused a moment before answering. "The Order of Whispering Willows. We protect history and we're rather secretive about it. The next time we put in for shore leave, I had planned on taking my family, adoptive and otherwise, to my floating fortress. IF your intentions about my niece are pure... you might be on the guest list."

Daytona chuckled.

"I would like that, I think," Daytona said. "As for whether my intentions for your niece are pure, I suppose that depends on your definition of pure. I intend to pursue a healthy, loving, and intimate relationship with her, a relationship based on respect and mutual affection, with all of the ups and downs and in betweens that will come with it. If you're asking if I want to have sex with your niece, then to that I have a few things to say in that regard. Firstly, I'm rigelian. It would be both unhealthy and unnatural for me to abstain from sexual relations for too long a period of time. Since sex is a natural and necessary part of my life as a rigelian, wouldn't it only be logical, if I may borrow a phrase from my vulcan cousins, to want to have sex with someone that I want a healthy, loving, and intimate relationship with? Secondly, physical intimacy is an integral part of any 'healthy, loving, and intimate' romantic relationship. Lastly, your niece has taken an extremely attractive form and it is perfectly normal for a man in my stage of life to be attracted to her physically. So, in short, if you want me to put it bluntly and rather insensitively, yes I want to have sex with your niece...when or if our relationship progresses that far. This seems honorable to me. How do you feel about it?"

There was no malice in Daytona's voice. He had simply stated the facts about his feelings for Akira as they stood. But something was missing...

"And if I may be less clinical for a moment," Daytona added. "I think your niece is a wonderful young woman and when I spend time with her I feel things that I have not felt in a very long time. I feel as though a part of me, long forgotten, is coming back to life. I would never intentionally do anything to put that at risk. And I think Akira enjoys her time with me as well. It seems special to both of us."

Enalia nodded and sipped from her mug again. "I'm interested in your attraction to her yes, but are you attracted to her intellectually as well? Who she has intercourse with is none of my concern. I'm more concerned with her emotional and intellectual well being. She's young and though she's very knowledgeable, I can't help but feel protective of her. You understand, don't you?"

"I understand perfectly," Daytona said. "And part of that intimate relationship based on mutual respect and mutual affection that I wish to pursue...am pursuing with Akira includes a healthy respect for and interest in not just each other's feelings, but also our ideas, thoughts, theories, philosophies regarding the subjects that interest each other. So yes, I find her intellectually attractive. She has a very inquisitive mind. It's fascinating to experience it at work. She has interests that I either share or feel that I can understand an interest in. She has technical knowledge but seeks practical experience, but is aware of the need to sometimes proceed cautiously as she feels things out...learns how things work in practice. And so many things are new to her. I love being with her as she enjoys new experiences and develops new understandings of various concepts, both intellectual and emotional. Don't take me wrong. I don't see her as a surrogate offspring. I see her as an equal. It is simply that I enjoy experiencing the world with her through her eyes."

Daytona contemplated Azmaria.

"A less experienced person in my position here would make a promise to never hurt your niece or cause to feel pain," Daytona said. "I am over four hundred years old and have a great deal of relationship experience, platonic friendships and sexual relationships, casual flings and serious romantic endeavors. I've been involved in all of them. Unlike a younger, less experienced person, I know that even friends can cause each other pain unintentionally and that in the course of romantic pursuits there are good times, okay times, and while they are hopefully rare, a few bad times as well. I cannot control Akira's feelings. I can influence them, but she is in control of them, to the extent that any of us is in control of our feeling. I will not make a futile, empty promise that there will never be pain, anger, or sadness in my relationship with Akira. These emotions come with any intimate relationship, platonic or romantic. The goal in any intimate relationship is that those emotions are the exception to the rule of thing such as love, caring, affection, happiness, and laughter. That is the kind of relationship that I want with Akira, the kind that is built on affection and mutual respect, the kind that can weather the unpleasant times and keep them brief, always returning to that deep affection and deep respect for each other."

Daytona hoped he had convinced Enalia. He wasn't a human teenager picking a girl up for a first date, hoping that her father doesn't see through his bullshit and realize that he just wants to screw the apple of his eye. He was an adult rigelian, confident and sure in his good intentions and his ability to turn those intentions into reality. He was not a man for whom sex was uncomfortable to talk about, and he was not a man afraid to discuss his feelings. However...

"I know she is your niece," he said. "But she is also her own person and with that comes a right to her privacy. Don't get me wrong. I understand your desire to protect her and your need to feel me out about my intentions for her. But we are soon going to stray into subjects that are not my place to discuss with you, things you will have to discuss with Akira herself. I hope, though, that I have satisfactorily addressed your concerns."

"I hope you have," Enalia muttered, sipping again. "So you're after substance and a serious relationship and you fell in love at first sight. Interestingly enough, it sounds similar to my wife and I. You tentatively have my blessing for now but I highly recommend getting a massage later. You look stressed after the last mission and you reek of having killed someone recently. My wife is also the ship's masseuse so I'll schedule you for a priority treatment."

She sipped her still steaming mug before continuing. "You said you're over four hundred years old. Do you mind a more personal question?"

"When you put it like that, I sound like a school boy with his first crush," Daytona said, a silly grin on his face. "Go ahead, ask. The worst that will happen is that I will go all cold and distant, refer to you by your rank as though we haven't been through it together, and respectfully tell you to go piss up a rope."

"Fair enough," Enalia was silent a moment before asking. "Does death get easier as you get older? I mean we just watched an entire planet's population wiped out because of us. Because of me..."

Daytona looked at his spiced Rigelian ale as though he'd seen it for the first time. He'd forgotten it was there. He picked it up and took a long pull from it.

"That wasn't you, Enalia," he said. "She looked like you, but she wasn't you. She is a separate person. Her actions are not yours. If you are going to come to terms with what happened, you're first going to have to make the decision to accept that fact. As for death getting easier...death comes in many forms, and is not always a bad thing. Death is the destination of all life as we know it. Everyone's time eventually comes through natural or unnatural causes. But intentional death...perhaps murder is a better term? Murder on the scale of what we witnessed isn't supposed to be easy to accept but with time and distance, acceptance comes. You have a beautiful, loving wife by all reports. You have a family. It's an unconventional family, but it sounds like it suits you. You have a niece who will require guidance from someone who loves her like family, but isn't her parent, someone she can share things with, things that she wouldn't share with her parents, things she might be afraid to share with her mothers. You have a career, a successful one from what I've seen. You command a starship in the service of the United Federation of Planets, and have the respect of your subordinates and superiors. In short, you have a life with all of the trimmings. Live it. Living is the best medicine for loss, the best tonic to drive away the horrors we sometimes encounter in life."

Enalia nodded slowly. "You know, as a joined Trill, most people assume I've figured things like that out. I'll let you in on a little secret though, if you promise not to tell anyone. I'm the first host. And to be perfectly honest, I wasn't the Commission's first pick for any sort of joining. It was more the symbiont picked me without their knowledge. In fact, I wasn't even seriously considering being joined in the first place and here I am, first host to a surprise symbiont with a unique genetic strain even the Commission wasn't aware of. And if you tell anyone that, I'll deny it."

"Mum's the word," Daytona said. "If I run into whoever is Telvan's host a few hundred years from now, I'll remind them of this conversation and ask how they feel about death then. I'll be interested to hear their answer."

"I look forward to that conversation as well," Enalia sipped at her ale some more, wondering what kind of host that would be and what they would think of the life she led.

Daytona took another drink of ale, savoring the spices before swallowing. After a moment, he frowned.

"So," he said. "What do we do about Drake? If he's signing orders, not to mention handing out security clearances, then he's still on the Federation's payroll, otherwise his signature would be worthless. If he's able to overrule Temporal Investigations, then not only is he still employed by the Federation, but he wields significant influence. That makes him dangerous. Also, in this case, he seems to have acted on behalf of the good guys. Maybe we don't need to poke the bear this time. Maybe we should just sit back and see what happens."

Enalia unfortunately had to agree. "Either way, there's obviously more going on with this Master business than is good for our health. I haven't even been through half of the reports and I don't like them. I mean, it's obviously the same guy, but to think he did such things even back then..."

"Hmmm...." Daytona said. "How is he still alive? He can't only be Vulcan. If he's alive now, he'd be well over three hundred years old. Either he's done something to his DNA or there's some other species' DNA in the mix. I'd be interested in seeing the lab reports on that blood sample Nexi acquired when they are ready."

"So am I," Enalia replied. "Apparently they're having a bit of trouble identifying the non-Vulcanoid genes so it might be a little while. In the meantime, the database we were able to acquire apparently has some juicy information in it. It references not only Iconian tech, but those extra-dimensional sphere builders that Archer and the Enterprise NX-01 had to fight with that whole temporal cold war thing, if you're familiar with them. Apparently, a lot of the techniques he started his labs with are based on recovered artifacts from those two civilizations."

"Iconian tech?" Daytona said. "Curiouser and curiouser. Curious and worrying. That kind of tech in a being who has exhibited such a casual disregard for life is a very, very dangerous thing."

"Yes it is. I just hope our next mission is a little safer than our last one." Enalia finished her mug of ale and set the mug aside before finishing the thought. "But I doubt it. I expect it'll be far more so. I'll make sure you're invited to the next staff meeting detailing our next mission involving the Master and his plans so be prepared to tell us about any predestination paradoxes you might have stashed away, ok?"

Daytona chuckled.

"If I discover one," he said. "I'll inform you immediately. Well, I suppose I should get back to looking like I'm doing something of vital importance to the very survival of the Federation. Looking busy is the best way to avoid being busy, that's my motto!"

"You mean you're getting back to work being actually busy, right?" Enalia gave Daytona a meaningful look as she spoke. "There's enough to do on this ship that actually is of vital importance not only to the survival of the Federation but possibly to most of the quadrant that several offices back at command are working on it as well so you had better be hard at work."

Daytona frowned.

"You don't have to bark at me Captain," Daytona said. "My record speaks for itself as far as my level of commitment to Starfleet and the Federation. You can safely assume that if I appear to be working on something, then I am actually working on it...unless I'm ordered to make you think I'm working on one thing, when I am actually working on another, in which case it is still safe to assume that I am working on something that someone in an appropriate position of authority in the Federation thinks is important enough to ask me to do it in the first place, they just don't want you to know about it."

You're not the only one with secret accounts stashed away for a rainy day, Daytona thought. I don't stay with Starfleet for the free room and board, I stay out of loyalty, duty, and honor...and now because of Akira. Uch. Young people!. Always feeling the need to assert their authority, their independence, by pushing someone else around.

"Good. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to my memos before the admiralty ignites my desk terminal with them." Enalia replied, in no way wanting to push anyone around, just wanting to make sure her crew was gainfully employed and not slacking off. She then muttered under her breath as she headed for the door. "Really need to put in for shore leave... Get the crew checked for chroniton radiation exposure..."

Daytona's vulcanoid ears picked up Enalia's muttering and he laughed.

"You do look as though you could use some rest, oh Captain, my Captain," he called after her. "Don't let the Admiralty get you down! Fight the power!"

Daytona chuckled some more and drank down the last of his ale. When he was finished, he recycled his mug and Enalia's and then returned to work.

Daytona was not normally shy about physical contact. He'd had many massages in his life, both platonic and erotic. However, he had never before had been given a massage by the extremely attractive wife of his commanding officer and aunt to his new love interest. Well, there was that time with Captain Sendek's wife, but she was one of those rare Vulcan nymphomaniacs and Sendek couldn't keep up with her anyway. And he definitely wasn't pursuing a relationship with their niece. So this massage might be a little...awkward.

Daytona arrived at Maica's office and hit the door chime.

The door opened instantly and Maica called from the back room. "I'll be with you in a minute! Please help yourself to some tea and make yourself comfortable!" Though it was obvious it was converted junior quarters, it was still professionally decorated and the seating area had been reupholstered in a plush red velvet. Red velvet drapes hung everywhere and the scent of lavender wafted in the softly lit room. An elongated countertop ran along the wall leading to what was normally the bedroom and on it was a trio of teamakers, each with a different brew and ornate teacups on a heated tray at the ready. On top of that, the barest hint of soothing music could be heard rather than the hum of the engines normally ever-present across the entirety of the great starship. Even the sound of the deck plating was absent. Not only was a sound canceler in effect for the various starship hums, but a meditative wave motion sound generator to make it feel like you were on a planet was in place as well. Maica had definitely spared no expense in outfitting her massage parlour.

Daytona walked into the lavishly decorated parlor and took in his surroundings. He approved of the red. The numerology his people practiced as a religion may have been mostly incomprehensible to him, but he did know that red was an important, powerful color. He walked over to the teapots, lifting each lid and sniffing the contents. Finding one that he liked, he poured himself a small cup and took it with him to a chair where he sat and sipped it as he waited. He sat back and listened to the wave motion generator. He chuckled. If his father had come here when he was in his last years, he would have complained that the noise of water in motion inspired in him the urge to urinate.

It wasn't too long before Maica and a crewman came out of the back room together, both looking relaxed. Maica spoke up as the crewman quietly nodded and headed for the door. "Thank you for waiting. Your name is Daytona Ral, isn't it?"

"Yes," Daytona said. "And you're Maica? It's a pleasure to meet you. What would you like me to do? I mean, I've done this before, but everyone's a little different."

"It depends on your level of comfort, really," Maica replied. "Do you prefer clothed, robed, or naked? Do you prefer hot stones, hot towels, hot squids, or all natural? Do you prefer your feet raised or flat?"

"I'm fine naked," Daytona replied. "And I guess...all natural? I've had that hot squid thing done to me once. I didn't particularly care for it."

This will be the first time I've gotten naked for a woman's aunt before the woman herself. I know it's vain of me, but I wonder if they'll talk about me?

"Excellent! Right this way, if you please," Maica pulled the curtain back to reveal the massage room to be decorated in a similar fashion with a sturdy massage table in the middle of the room and the tools of her trade lined up along the far wall next to the restroom door. "There are lockers in the restroom if you want to secure your uniform. And don't worry about me talking about your visit with my niece - customer privacy is a top priority for me. She'll only know what you want her to know. However, I will be discussing your relationship with her during your massage today."

"Of course we will..." Daytona said, bracing himself for another interrogation session. He wasn't sure how he was supposed to relax while explaining his good intentions...again. Nonetheless, he soldiered on. He went to the locker room and hung up his uniform. He walked back into the treatment room.

"Face down first?" he said.

"Please," Maica oiled up her hands and ran them through the UV sterilizer as he laid down on the table face down and got comfortable. "Now just relax and leave everything to me." With that she began with an overall light rub just to get a light coat of the oils on his skin to help start the relaxation process.

Then she started talking. "I heard your first date with my niece was in the arboretum. The botanist said you took her to see my vines I had him get for me. I wish I had been there to see the look on her face. A missed opportunity to be sure, though I suppose the internal sensors do count for something I guess. Do you have an idea for your next date planned out? I checked the logs and the girl barely uses her quarters and she hasn't even attempted to try food at all. It's like it holds no interest at all for her. Personally, I find sharing a meal a very intimate and enjoyable experience. As a Rigellian, wouldn't you agree? I mean, I know she and I are holographic... but that just means our meals don't go straight to our hips, if you know what I mean." As Maica rattled on about possible dinner date ideas, she slowly and deeply massaged Daytona's shoulders and neck, leaning in and pressing her obviously bare rack into his back to do so, her dress having vanished some time ago.

Daytona had been feeling so relaxed, he hadn't noticed Maica's nakedness until her bare breasts pressed into the bare skin of his back. He gave a little start, then settled down again. When Maica had asked if he preferred robed or naked, he'd assumed she'd meant his state of dress, not hers. Far from offended or uncomfortable, he found the whole thing both exciting and relaxing at the same time. Soothing, in a way, because there was nothing separating them. There was no issue of sex, at least not for Daytona. Oh, he would have loved to make love to Maica, but she was the Captain's wife a potential family member and that made her off-limits. It did make him a bit concerned about how long it would take Akira to become comfortable with physical intimacy. Over time, Daytona had learned to go longer without sex than most of his fellow rigelians could manage, but even he had his limits. He'd just have to see how things worked out.

"Hmmm..." Daytona sighed before speaking. "I wasn't sure if I should ask her to join me for a meal. I'm still learning what her holographic body is capable of. I wasn't sure if she would be able to taste the food and I didn't want her to feel...I don't know...'less than' because she's not flesh and blood. She seems to enjoy touching and kissing, which means that she has some physical sensations, but I wasn't sure if that applied to senses such as smell, which is required to experience most tastes. I should have asked if she could smell the flowers, but I was distracted at the time by how lovely she looks when she's happy and smiling."

Maica chuckled softly as she worked her way down Daytona's back. "I've snuck a quick peek at her diagnostic logs while she was asleep. Her sentience isn't nearly as developed as her parents or mine but she has her mother's sense of taste programming which honestly makes mine... and your taste buds... look crude in comparison. The girl could pick out a grain of iocane powder from a bottle of merlot if she wanted. She can taste all she wants and more. In fact, you want to eat a normal meal with her, program the replicator to flag her food as M113 and she won't have to worry unless she steals from your plate. Hot and ready holo replicated food." At this point Maica was actually phasing the physicality of her hands a little to help pop a few of Daytona's upper back vertebrae back into place.

It was a little disconcerting at first when Maica phased her fingers into his back, but then...

"That feels wonderful," he said. "M113, eh? And I can use that setting on the replicator in her quarters and mine? It would be nice to be able to enjoy a meal with her. I wonder what I should offer her for a first meal? Maybe I'll just ask her if anything has ever sounded interesting to her and then see if I can get the replicator to make a passable version of that."

"It works on any replicator on the Hera. If her tastes are anything like mine or her mothers', I'd start with a simple Earth cheeseburger. Maybe a few sides like onion rings and potato wedges," Maica was massaging his lower back now and pressed just right to pop another vertebrae. "That was your L4. Sex would have been pretty painful with that out of place. I'd still avoid any of the more adventurous positions for a while though. After that, I'd go with some Bolian finger foods or some Trill pastas. Save the chocolates for dessert."

Daytona started again when Maica realigned his lower back.

"Hmmm..." he said. "I think I did that in the gym. In the absence of sex, regular, vigorous exercise is the only other way for a vulcanoid rigelian to stay sane. That's why most of us are in such excellent shape. I guess I really needed to burn off some energy and I must have popped it out then...Ahhhh...this feels wonderful. Thank you so much!"

"You're very welcome. You have excellent muscle tone, by the way." Moving a bit lower, Maica started working on Daytona's butt and legs.

"Thank you. I work hard at it. I was about to say that Akira doesn't look big enough to eat a cheeseburger, onion rings, potato wedges AND bolian finger foods or pasta," Daytona said. "Not in one sitting. But I suppose she can eat as much as she wants. I'll have to make sure I don't try and keep up with her! Having your date suffering from indigestion doesn't sound like very much fun."

"Yeah, those foods can lead most to some digestion issues, but nothing too bad. Just remember to keep it in moderation and you should be fine. And try to keep her from overdoing it as well. If you see any signs of over stimulation, let me know immediately."

Moving to his feet, Maica moved to a more acupressure approach, moving in small circles to relieve the stress built up in his feet. "And please work towards teaching her good table etiquette. The two of you will be dining with us when you're ready. just let us know and I'll make the arrangements."

It was quite possible that this was the best massage Daytona had received so far in his four hundred and twenty-two years. That was including the erotic vulcan neuropressure Captain Sendek's wife unleashed on him, as well as several massages from Orions, and even a Deltan. That last one had progressed into something...unexpected. The woman was surprised that Daytona had survived the experience, but apparently at least some vulcanoid rigelians could survive sex with a horny deltan.

"I'd like that," Daytona said. "And don't worry. I'll make sure she learns to put her napkin in her lap, eat with utensils, and chew with her mouth closed."

Daytona chuckled. If Akira agreed to take a meal with him, it was going to be an adventure if nothing else. He kept quiet for a bit and let Maica work the stress and tightness out of his body.

"How did you come to meet Enalia?" he said after a moment. "And how did you two come together."

As Maica continued her acupressure, she related the story as simply as she could. "Actually, it was kind of an arranged marriage, to be honest. She researched the USS Katana, a ship from another universe, found out about her Chief Diplomat, did a little research, found my main program, and made a deal using Nexi as a go-between. Fork forty seven, myself, was created and installed into a custom holomatrix which is safely installed in a secure location in the ship and I was activated. After about a week we realized that her instincts and fork zero's predictions were correct - we were a perfect match. So during the last refit, we eloped and were married by Admiral Janeway on the observation deck overlooking the Hera as the warp nacelles were being removed. She wore her dress whites and I was in a simple white wedding dress."

"Roll over please. Now I have a question for you," Maica finished up and headed back to the warm oils and rubbed a bit more oil onto her hands as she let Daytona roll onto his back. "In biological beings, DNA is what determines if someone is gay, straight, bi, pan, asexual... But in non-biologicals like myself, it's all software and firmware."

Moving back in, Maica started again from the top, massaging Daytona's shoulders as she continued talking, her behemoth boobs, softly pressing down into him as she worked in a strangely non-sexual way. "This is the part I don't get. Both her mothers are lesbians. Her father was gay. The only other source of data was the ship's database so now I have to ask... What was the USS Katana's gender and was it straight? If so, was that ship one of her parents as well? I mean technically it served quite literally as her womb, but more than that. Was the USS Katana the true parent of Akira and the rest just donors?"

Daytona lay back and enjoyed the sensations he was experiencing...including the pressure of Maica's ample breasts against him. Though he had no plans to do anything about that particular sensation, he felt there was nothing wrong with finding it pleasurable.

"Hmm...." he sighed. "Are you suggesting that if only Arivek, Andrea, and your sister contributed to the make up of Akira, that she would be a lesbian as well? It doesn't work like that in most biological species as I understand it, but I suppose, since her sentience is made up of her father's spark and your sister's files and Andrea's influence as well...perhaps it was something that she downloaded or interacted with on the Katana while in her formative phase. It could have been something as mundane as heterosexually oriented romance novels and erotica. But don't you and your sister have extensive files on nearly every form of sexual pleasure in the known galaxy? Couldn't she just as easily seen something in there? For that matter, are we entirely convinced that she is heterosexual and not lesbian or at least bisexual? As far as I know, I was her first kiss. While I'd like to think I'm such a good kisser that one kiss from me would convince Akira she was heterosexual, that may not be the case. I'm not sure she knows yet what she likes, except that she enjoyed holding my hand and kissing me. Or maybe she's right and, like her father, she possesses a 'spark of life' and that life is something new, more than the sum of its parts."

Daytona took a moment to breath and enjoy Maica's touch before continuing.

"But as to what the Katana's gender and sexual orientation might have been..." he said. "Wouldn't we also need to determine its physical sex? If it had one, would we even have recognized it as such? How would we determine it in the first place? As for gender, in a biological humanoid, we could look for visible signs. Choice of clothing, hairstyle, mannerisms, use of or lack of cosmetics. But what would gender look and sound like in a starship? And sexual orientation: Again, how would we define that without knowing the physical sex of the starship. Do starships have different physical sexes? I've encountered sentient species who have no real sexual differences and without them, no gender differences and no difference in sexual preference. The species I'm thinking of in particular is by no means asexual. They couple for both procreation and recreation. Frequently, in fact. Trying to apply the ideas of physical sex, gender identity, and sexual preference to a starship...there are whole departments at universities where they do nothing but ponder the issue of technology and artificial intelligence. But it's different for you and your sisters, and for Akira. You have a body. It doesn't matter that it's photonic. You have a body and it has physical characteristics that can be clearly observed. You and your sisters were designed to be female and Akira has chosen to be. You, at least, appear to identify as female, as does Akira. I assume Andrea's wife does as well. You and Andrea's wife for whatever reason prefer women over men. You know, I'm curious about something now that we're talking about it. Do all of your sisters prefer women over men? Or is it just you and Andrea's wife?"

By this time Maica had made it about halfway down his torso with her massage. "Actually, though the first two iterations of my being were definitively female and bisexual, fork zero is definitely a lesbian, just as Andrea's wife is. Andrea herself is bi, as I understand it. As for the forty nine forks, including myself... It's a bit of a personal matter... But due to the nature of our customizations and random code generation during creation, eight are bi, nine are straight, four are male, one is a cogenitor, two are asexual, six are intersex, one is a column of light, and the rest are lesbian."

"That's...interesting..." Daytona was having a bit of trouble concentrating what with Maica's wandering hands...platonic wandering hands, but wandering hands nonetheless. He just let himself enjoy her touch...he meant to respond, but his mind wandered. He was careful not to let it wander too far. There were things, and people, he really shouldn't be imagining in his current situation. But his mind wandered nonetheless and he let it go a bit, just enjoying Maica's touch. He wasn't sure how much longer the massage would go on and he planned to enjoy it while it lasted.

Moving down to his legs, Maica massaged a bit deeper, grinning a bit. She thought about commenting about his endowments, but that would cross her line of professionalism. "So was our conversation what you expected?"

"Hmm?" Daytona said, dreamily. "Uhm...I was a bit afraid you were going to give me the third degree like your wife did. That would have made this a much less...ahhh...relaxing...oh that feels good...experience. Thank you for giving me the benefit of the doubt...hmmm...."

Maica chuckled softly as she finished up massaging Daytona's legs. "I investigated you in my own way. Besides, we talked about her talk with you and decided it would be best if I gave you any tools and advice you needed outside the chain of command."

"I'm very grateful for that," Daytona said. "Actually, getting to know Akira is really not unlike getting to know a flesh and blood woman of a species you don't know much about or haven't encountered before. I have to learn what she can do and what she can't, what's appropriate and what isn't, what her likes and dislikes are, what turns her on and what turns her off. Do you have any other suggestions besides the replicator code? Activities that might be appropriate for a photonic lifeform? Types of things she might be able to enjoy more than others? I'd appreciate anything you can tell me. Akira...well, I really like Akira. I want to be able to reach her...connect with her in ways that she is best able to experience that connection and closeness."

"I think you hit the button on the nose, really. You have to learn about her like any new race. She's only four months old and she's incredibly unique in many ways, even among her own family. As for being photonic, there are a few things she can do that you can't... But those are likely things you should leave undone. She and I can go for a walk on the ship's hull, for instance." Washing her hands, Maica chuckled softly. "Though it might be in interesting experience. I'd have to program a telepresence system so she'd know how far the holoprojectors extended on the surface of the hull and so she could communicate with you in a suit."

"I hate EVA," Daytona said. "I always feel like I'm falling but I can't tell in which direction. However, for Akira, I would brave the vacuum of space...oh my, that sounded terribly melodramatic, didn't it? Well, I only mean that I would happily inconvenience myself from time to time to put a smile on her face. All the same, I think I'll save that one for a special occasion."

Daytona stretched and yawned.

"That was wonderful," he said. "I hope you don't mind if I find time to do it again? I really feel great!"

"Stop by anytime, hon. You're always welcome." With that Maica pulled him into a big hug before pushing him off to the restroom to get dressed and rematerializing her own dress. "You might want to get dressed soon though. Akira is supposed to come by to borrow a book from me after work today."

"Thanks," Daytona said. "I don't thinks she's quite ready to see me naked."

Daytona left for the restroom and got dressed. He felt more relaxed than he had in a long time. When he came out of the restroom, Maica was talking to another client. Daytona caught her attention, waved, and then made his exit.

There had been reports to compose and debriefings to attend to, including a really annoying debriefing with Asshat the Foreverman from Temporal Investigations. Daytona was even ordered to see a counselor! For what? All he'd done was kill a man, and one that really deserved killing! It was as though he'd never taken a life before! Besides, if he was suffering from emotional trauma, it wasn't a counselor he needed to see. No, his emotional well-being would be much better served by visiting the short, attractive, female hologram who had him wrapped around her little finger. Not only did Daytona desperately want to see her, to talk with her, to kiss her...anyway, he was worried about her. He'd overheard someone saying that 'the hologram from OPS' had almost blinked out when the trouble had jumped off. That didn't make Daytona happy at all.

Daytona had a difficult time locating Akira at first. The computer was still adjusting to locating a lifeform that could exist as either solid light or as software. Finally, he gave up and just called her. He was perturbed when she didn't answer, but then he had an idea. His wrist comm was large enough to have a small keyboard, and it could send electronic text messages. So, Daytona texted Akira in the hopes that even if she wasn't manifested at the moment, the message would get to her.

Akira, it's Daytona. Can we meet? I've missed you.

A moment later, he was rewarded with a text message in return.

Meet me in the Operations Center

Daytona grinned like a silly school boy and texted back.

On my way!

Operations was chaos; it wasn't the grand area that Main Engineering was, but it was big enough that people were darting about making repairs as consoles sounded off with alarms, one of which actually exploded, and in the middle of all this chaos was Akira. She was drawing heavily on her father's experience as a seasoned officer, and as she barked off orders she hardly seemed like the same person that had Daytona so entranced.

"Close off that relay, we can't have anymore explosions!" she called out as she moved through the din, directing the Officers under her like an orchestra, making sure all areas of damage were covered. "You, you and you, head down to the power distribution node, make sure it didn't take any damage from the explosion; then when you're done, check on the teams replacing conduits in the jefferies tubes and provide assistance as needed." Her orders given, the Officers nodded and darted off to see them done. It was then that Akira noticed Daytona and approached him.

"I'm so glad you're okay," Akira said to him in her usual soft tone. "I'm sorry I didn't respond to your call earlier, I've been busy."

Daytona smiled. Akira in action was a wonderful sight. He'd gotten the sense that there was more to the tiny young lady than one appreciated at first glance. To Daytona, she was more lovely than ever. He wanted to kiss her, but she was working and her subordinates were present, and he didn't want to undermine her authority. He'd have to find another time to steal a kiss...or maybe two...possibly three or...anyway, for the moment, he settled for taking her hand discretely and giving it a gentle squeeze. With regret, he relaxed his grip and let her hand go. He'd have to be satisfied with the little thrill that ran up his spine during that brief touch.

"I'm fine," Daytona said. "I just had to take a detour to...wrap up some unfinished business. I wasn't really in much danger...well, not until the demon showed up and tried to blow us all to bits. But let's not worry about that now. You, my dear, have nothing to be sorry for. Actually...well...I was worried about you, so I wasn't really thinking about how much damage the Hera had actually taken, or how busy you'd be. I know how important you are to this ship and crew. So, I'm sorry for being selfish. It's only that I overheard a couple of crewmen saying something about you nearly flickering out of existence when the trouble started. Are you sure you're alright now?"

"I was monitoring communications between teams, I heard what you said and what you had to do... I'm just glad that everyone was able to return safely," Akira replied with a small smile. "And there was never any danger to my existence; since being moved from the Katana, Mother Andy and I have been working with Hera's Engineers to ensure that even if the ship were to go offline, I would be preserved, so it's more a matter of inconvenience being unable to function if the emitters are offline. Although I do admit, it did give me a fright, and brought back a few memories I've been trying hard not to think about; for a moment it felt like I was back on Katana's holodeck..." There was a harrowed look in her eyes as the memory continued to haunt her, and after a moment she shook her head to dispel the memory and her frightened expression. "But I'm fine, I promise," she attempted to assure Daytona.

Daytona hesitated, then decided no one was paying real attention to them, and if they were, no one would care, so he reached out and touched Akira's cheek softly.

"I'm glad you're okay," he said. "And if you ever want to talk more about those memories, I'm here. You'd be surprised how sometimes just sharing a bad memory with someone close to you can make you feel better. And, if you have questions about what I did or why...I will do my best to answer them."

"Thank you," Akira replied softly, blushing slightly as he caressed her cheek. "And you have nothing to explain to me; you had a life before all this, and a family, and there is no need to justify that for me. I just hope that... that with this fellow you were hunting, now that he's gone... uh, in the books I've read, I've come across this concept called closure; I hope you were able to find closure with what you had to do."

"It's strange," he said. "When I realized what was supposed to happen and began planning for this mission, I thought that it would bring me closure. For years I struggled to see her as she was when she was happy and whole. When she was little, or after she grew up and started a life of her own, with work and love and family. I had to struggle because those images fought for dominance in my mind with the images of how I last saw her, at the end of her life. I guess I'm not sure how I feel now or even how I should feel. I knew he'd been killed, that he'd gotten at least a fraction of what he deserved, that he wouldn't hurt anyone else like he hurt my daughter. Should I feel better now that I've discovered that it was me that killed him? I suppose only time will tell. Whatever the answer to that question is, the deed had to be done and it was. I think, though, I'd enjoy sharing a bit about my old life with you, or perhaps lives is a better term? I think my daughter would have liked you very much. Anyway, that can wait until you aren't as busy as you are now! Want to tell me what you're doing? I'll probably only understand less than half of it, but I'll enjoy listening to you explaining it to me."

Somehow, and she didn't know how, but Akira sensed that Daytona was telling her all this not because she needed to hear it but because he needed to say it, so she listened attentively, smiling slightly when he finally stopped. "I can't even pretend to know what you're going through or feeling," Akira said sympathetically. "As you said, if you ever want to talk about this some more, I'm here. And as for what I'm doing, I would enjoy narrating everything to you, but I really must go. I've been blinking all over the ship, and now I'm being called to check in with the Quartermaster about our supplies, which I fear we're running low on. I'm sorry, maybe later?"

"Of course," Daytona said. "I was being selfish again. I'll leave you to your work. If you are able to take a break later, and want some company, come find me. After I clean up I'll see if Commander Enaes needs me to do anything else, and if she doesn't, maybe I'll track down the damage control chief. There's likely something I can do to help if I look hard enough."

He smiled like a silly school boy again.

"Be safe," he said. "Hopefully I'll see you soon."

"I don't think you're selfish," Akira replied, smiling warmly. "And we can use all the hands we can get, so thank you in advance if you do lend us a helping hand. I will try to make some time later to check in on you, but if we're going to get back to our time then we'll probably have to work round the clock to make it happen, so I apologize in advance if I forget."

"No worries," Daytona said. "I am nothing if not patient. I bet I can wait two hundred and thirty-four years for a second date."

Daytona grinned at Akira and then decided he really didn't care what her staff thought so he leaned in and gave a her quick kiss.

"So long, Akira my sweet," he said, rejuvenated just from spending a few moments in her presence and seeing her gentle smile. He winked at her and turned to go.

With a blush and a bright smile, Akira waved good bye to Daytona, then blink out of the Operations center to see to other areas of the ship.

Aewia was at the copilot's station of the Selune monitoring comm traffic and making sure no one caught any scans of them. The Selune was equipped with even better stealth armor than the Hera, but she wanted to remain vigilant, nonetheless. Especially after what Nexi had just gone though. She needed the strength of family more than ever and Aewia was all the family she had. thankfully she'd had her last few treatments and hadn't slipped back to her child-like state since this mission started, so hopefully she'd be able to hold herself together for Nexi as well.

Glancing over at Nexi, Aewia wondered if she might be hungry soon. "The replicator programming is pretty limited. Have you thought about what you want to eat yet?" she asked, considering the choices herself.

Nexi simply grunted with a shrug from where she sat in the pilot's seat. She wasn't really paying attention to the controls, instead just staring broodingly at nothing in particular; on the one hand, that demon bitch was dead so she didn't have to worry about her hurting anyone (or anything) else, but death was too good for that bitch and Nexi really wanted to peel the skin from her! Realizing her thoughts were getting pretty dark and she didn't want Aewia to 'see' that, she cleared her throat and her mind and sat up straighter. "Sorry, kiddo, what was that?" she asked, revealing that she hadn't really been paying attention to what her sister was saying.

Yeah she expected that. Aewia just repeated herself and explained it, ignoring the dark cloud rolling off of her sister. "Have you thought about what you want to eat? The replicator in this thing isn't programmed with much. If you want, I could pick something out for you. I've eaten everything these standardized portable models can make literally hundreds of times."

"Huh? Oh, uhhhh... you know, the usual," Nexi said with another non-committal shrug, but then she sighed, realizing that Aewia deserved better than a sister who could only think of doing horrible things to people. "How about that chowder with the little fish-shaped crackers you put in it," Nexi suggested. Even on her worst days, she payed attention to all the little details surrounding Aewia, which in this case were little fish crackers; Nexi liked regular, bland non-fish crackers just fine, but the cheesy fish crackers made Aewia smile, and how could she go wrong with that.

Aewia wrinkled her nose. "The closest thing in a runabout isn't the most appetizing... But it is fairly close to Ferengi food, so you might prefer it. I'll get you a bowl and see what you think, ok?"

Heading to the back of the cockpit, Aewia punched in an order for meal 97, New England clam chowder and meal 122, tuna on toast. Grabbing a ration add-on pack and both meals, she brought everything back to the front of the cockpit and set the bowl of thick grey chowder in front of Nexi. The saucer had some white plain crackers on the side rather than the fish shaped crackers they were used to. As for her tuna on toast, it looked more like a grey paste between two squares of styrofoam, but at least the meals looked edible.

"If we had a bit more time, I'd have grabbed some replicator patterns. Procedure dictates these things get wiped after every mission, so there are only a few hundred menu options preprogrammed." As Aewia spoke, she cracked open the ration add-on pack and pulled out the hot sauce and spread a liberal coating all over her sandwich. "There are some seasonings in here if you want any," She added, offering the rest of the pack to Nexi.

"Nah, I'm good," Nexi replied, more than content with the salt on the plain white crackers as being enough seasonings. She mixed a few crackers in and took a tentative bite; yup, nice and bland, just how she liked it! She looked over at Aewia with her rather 'interesting' lunch, then smiled. "You're staying clear-headed longer," Nexi remarked between bites. Hell, even when Aewia regressed to her child-like state, she was still far more coherent and functional than when she was rescued, and Nexi was proud as hell of Aewia on both fronts. "I know I've been kinda busy lately, but I want you to know that I do see your progress," she continued with pride.

"Thank you," Aewia replied with a grin. She couldn't help but feel a bit giddy with a compliment like that. "I've noticed you've been acting a bit more like a 'fleeter lately. Taking on more responsibilities around the ship. Interacting with the crew. And what was that with helping Crewman Dela find her pet cat the other day? Was it really just because it wandered into the Intel offices?"

"Well, I don't know about all that..." Nexi said with a shudder; she was acting like a 'fleeter?! Fucking hell, she was responsible now! What would Merrit say to that? "As for the cat, well, it's a cat! You'da given me hell if I didn't help," she admitted reluctantly.

Aewia chuckled softly as she munched on her sandwich for a few moments before saying something rather out of the blue. "I was thinking of asking the Captain if I could help out in Intel."

"No field work!" Nexi barked out firmly, almost looking angry, but then her expression relaxed. "I know you're getting better, but I ain't taking chances with your safety in field, but if you want something to do, I'll support you if you wanna take up some busy work or analysis. You can certainly help us profile this Master asshole," she continued in a softer and slightly strained tone, but at least she didn't sound angry or upset.

"That... was less objection than I expected actually... Thank you." Aewia smiled happily. "I had a whole argument prepared and everything. When we get back I'll send my credentials to Clio and see what she thinks. I may not have the best brain still, but I still have more training and experience than probably anyone else on the ship in raw data analysis."

"If I told you no outright, wouldn't make me a very good sister," Nexi said as she stirred the rest of her crackers into her chowder. "I was in the same position as you, living on this ship with nothing to do, it just seemed right to throw my chips in with these 'Fleeters. Can't speak to the rest of Starfleet, but Enalia and her crew are good people, and it was worth it to me to be closer to something that you loved. And now here you are looking for something to do, who am I to tell you no? I just don't want you in the field anymore, don't want you getting hurt again," Nexi explained as she ate. "But trapped somewhere in that brain of yours is more knowledge of this Master-guy than anyone else; rescuing you set us on this path, and if helping us with our work helps to knock some useful information loose, you won't find me tryna stop you."

"This is true. For example, I doubt anyone else knows he can probably read Iconian glyphs." Aewia munched on her sandwich innocently, not really aware that that was probably important information.

"You know, we're gonna have a talk about you not sharing this shit..." Nexi said with a suspicious sideways glance. "But good job remembering, we'll update the profile when we get back. You happen to know what he's done to himself? His blood was black so I took a sample down to the lab. Might help that Science chick figure this puzzle out if you know anything."

"I know that the man you fought down there was the same man that lobotomized me and that though he looked Romulan, I couldn't make sense of his thoughts and the closest thing I've ever seen to them is Iconian glyphs. Sorry for keeping an eye on you while you were down there... This is another reason I want to help out in Intel." Munching on her sandwich, Aewia didn't seem all that apologetic.

Nexi coughed and sputtered for a moment. "You tryna kill me, kid?" Nexi exclaimed. She grabbed for her mug of coffee to help wash down her food, then looked at Aewia. "Aewia, you know I don't like you in my head when I'm working, but in this case I ain't gonna get mad at you, I know you were just looking out for me," Nexi said, then reached out to take Aewia's hands to help her focus on what she was about to say next. "But you were able to get into his head? Kid, I know I'm only a half, but I've trained myself to do things most full Betazeds can't, and even I couldn't get a peek inside. I could feel him, sure, even sense emotion, but you managed to look behind the curtain, I need you to tell me everything you can remember," Nexi said seriously. "Now, you said he was thinking in Iconian?"

For Nexi, this was a significant detail, because as an individual who spoke Ferengi natively and was in the process of learning better Standard English as well as Betazoid, she thought in Ferengi, meaning she had to think of what she wanted to say in Ferengi and translate that to English. But if the Master was so fluent in Iconian that he could think in these glyphs, then it meant that he had spent a significant amount of time researching and mastering it because either culturally or technologically the Iconians were important to him! Wait, that Science chick had mentioned Iconian genetics...

Aewia set the rest of her sandwich aside as Nexi took her hands and listened on both a physical and mental level. Nodding, she knew exactly what Nexi meant. "Yeah. I recognized a little of it and it was definitely Iconian. There were no Romulan thoughts at all. Everything he thought was translated from glyphs. I couldn't get much deeper than his surface thoughts, but I could tell he was interested in me personally after checking my genetics. I also know that he intended to keep everything that he took. Also, when he was talking to one of my interrogators, he got pissed off and let his thoughts slip a little, and I think I got an idea of how old he is. He remembers when the Romulans left the Vulcan homeworld and he was ancient then..." Aewia looked down at their clasped hands and sighed. "And this mission seems to have reminded me of these memories so I guess that's good, right?"

"So he's a Vulcan that predates the Romulan exodus?" Nexi said with disbelief. "What the hell is this guy made of?!" But all of this got Nexi thinking. "The computer on the last station said it remembered me... Maybe the Master was so interested in you because of me? Aewia, if he did this to you because of me, I'm so sorry."

"No, it's ok. It's nothing either of us could have foreseen. Thanks to both of our experiences, we're better armed now and I wouldn't trade that." Aewia smiled brightly as she looked up at Nexi.

"Good girl," Nexi said with a proud grin as she gave Aewia's hands a squeeze. "You did a great job remembering all this. We'll log it in our profile of the Master once we get back, and I'll see to it that Enalia gives you unrestricted access to his file; you can look back on it later and seeing the whole of what we have so far may help you piece more together. But anytime you lose focus or it simply gets to be too much, you won't hurt my feelings if you gotta take a step back from time to time; as desperate as we are for more information, I don't want to break you more in the process, so you do this at your pace."

Aewia nodded happily. "Thank you, I will. And we'll be working in the same office so you'll be able to keep an eye on me. But what about you? How are you handling all this?"

"Ain't gonna lie, kiddo, it's... it's taking a toll on me," Nexi said with a heavy sigh. "Before all this, I weren't used to caring about a team, and we've lost three teams to this guy, and blowing up a planet ain't made anything better. I'm tired of running into this guy, I can't wait to put him down."

"And then that demon hurting the Star..." Aewia added somberly. "I know Enalia will have her as good as new or better by the time we get back."

"But will she be the same Star when I get back?" Nexi mused aloud, finally letting go of Aewia's hands so they could finish their meals. This was more than just the simple quandary of replacing the handle and then spade of a shovel, then asking if it was the same shovel, her connection with this ship went deeper than that. "I can still remember the day I found her, like it was yesterday," she recalled with a strange sort of smile. "She had a defect in her micro-torpedo tubes, and the way they're built into her hull, it woulda been more work to fix her than to just build another ship, so she was tossed in a lot and they kept working on the rest of the line of her sisters. She sat there for years, yearning to fly... How she came to be in the hands of the reseller I found her with, I'll never know, but she was beautiful... I didn't bother shopping around, I saw her and I bought her right then and there! All the work, save the shower and a few other things, I did myself; she was made to fly by the sweat of my brow, and she became a part of me, so many memories... But now she's got all these strangers in her, and I know they're good people, but that work ain't mine, it ain't just my memories in her no more. She's been hurt something bad, I should be the one taking care of her!"

"I know. I know, but it'll be ok. I promise. I guarantee Crewman Sanders does good work. He's probably having his team replicate exact duplicates of everything down to every surface defect just to make sure everything is just perfect." Aewia said, trying to assure Nexi. "Other than the door, that is. That's coming from his own baby so you might notice a slight difference."

"I don't mind all new stuff, I think I'd just prefer to do the work myself," Nexi said with a sigh. She looked at her bowl of chowder; it was mostly empty and she just didn't feel like finishing the rest so she picked it up and took it back to the replicator. "But I know she needs to get fixed sooner rather than later, and they'll do a better job than I can do, I just wish I could at least do some of the work; keeping busy like that helps to clear my mind, helps me work things out, and instead I'm on a milk run... Speaking of, check the sensors and see how much longer until we arrive?"

Setting her plate aside, Aewia checked the sensors. "According to these, we're entering Enalia's great grandmother's holdings in about twenty minutes. I have her orbital station on sensors now and we should be in their communications range in another half hour."

Nexi grabbed another mug of coffee and returned to the pilot station; she hadn't slept in a while, not since the night she'd stayed with Cato, and she was pushing the limits of how long she could go without sleep, yet she didn't falter as she checked the readings, the caffeine and sheer willpower were the only things keeping her going. "Sounds good; the sooner we can get this done, the sooner we can get back to the Hera," she remarked.

"I agree. We need to get back to our own time and settle things once and for all." Aewia said as one of the sensors lit up at her station. "There's a mining ship not far from us. Minimal sensors. No chance it saw us. The crew seems to be occupied with unloading some ore at a repository."

"Let's just let them go about their business," Nexi said as she watched the mining ship on sensors. "It's more likely that Enalia's kin will be on the station than this little bucket, so let's continue on to the station. Keep an eye on that ship, though, let me know if it spots us."

"Roger that," Aewia replied as she went back to her sandwich. "So what kind of person do you think Enalia's great grandmother is?"

Before Aewia really got the last of the question out, their comm system lit up like a Christmas tree. "And we have an incoming hail from the station... Audio only."

Aewia clicked the audio on so they could listen to it and a female Trill voice spoke rather powerfully. =/\="Unidentified vessel, this is Enalia Artan of Trill. You may be hiding but I know you're there. Cut your engines and drop your cloak immediately or I will be forced to defend my holdings with deadly force."=/\=

"I was thinking she might be a bit of a hard ass, and it sounds like she is," Nexi remarked with amusement. "They've got some amazing sensors for their time if they're able to detect us; this wouldn't have happened if that demon-bitch hadn't broke my precious Star," she pointed out, then opened the hail to respond. "Enalia Artan, no need to defend, I come to deal; I have a very profitable offer you'll want to hear."

=/\="Then stay where you are. Your plasma trail can ignite this whole area so I'll come out to meet you and we can discuss this offer of yours."=/\= Aewia checked the sensors as the woman spoke and nodded, pointing to an elevated radiated particle count that hadn't shown up earlier.

"We're reading the radiation levels and are cutting engines now," Nexi said as she began shutting everything down. Those radiated particles were probably how they saw the Selune... "We await your arrival, Artan."

=/\="I'll be at your position momentarily and I'll be armed so no funny business."=/\= It was less a statement and more of an order. =/\="In the mean time, how about you tell me your name and affiliation and drop that fecking cloak?"=/\=

"It's not a cloak, the hull plating confuses the sensors; trust me, you'll be able to see us once you get here," Nexi assure Enalia's great-grandmother. "And my name is..." For a moment, Nexi considered lying, it was such a natural response in a situation like this, but her gut was urging her to tell the truth. "My name is Nexi and I would prefer that my affiliations remain anonymous for the time being."

=/\="As long as you're not with the Syndicate, anonymous is fine. I'll be right there."=/\= With that, the comm line cut out and Aewia let out a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding in.

"She's suspicious, but at least she's willing to meet with us. And she's not planning on double crossing us, so that's good." Aewia said.

"Know what else is good?" Nexi asked. "She don't like the Syndicate and I was green earlier today; I'm really glad I took Enalia's suggestion to undo the cosmetics," she answered with a chuckle. "And we just blew up a planet with a heavy syndicate presence; she should love us for that." Not that Nexi was going to take credit for that, but at least hearing that the Syndicate was no longer in her backyard should cheer up Enalia Artan.

"That's a good point. Getting a foothold up on them would probably make her day." Aewia chuckled softly. "Also, Enalia is named after her. I think that's a good sign."

"Yeah, but it's not like we can tell her that," Nexi replied. "Anyway, you ready? I know you've got to be tired by now, and that you're straining to hold onto clarity; I won't think anything less of you if you wanna sit this out."

"I am starting to get a bit of a headache..." Aewia admitted, rubbing at the back of her head. Truth be told, she had more than a 'bit' of a headache, but she didn't want Nexi worrying about her too. She had enough on her plate at the moment. "I'll lay down for now, but when she gets here you let me know, ok?"

"Alright, I'll come get you in a bit," Nexi said with her trademark grin; of course Nexi worried about her sister, how could she not, but neither was she going to try to stop Aewia from trying to live her life. Then as Aewia moved to the rear compartment to rest, Nexi began passive scanning to watch for Enalia Artan's ship.

It didn't take long for it to show up on sensors - the solar sailing sloop was rather obvious even without them, even though it was barely bigger than the Selune. It was an old design even for this era and though it was currently using solar sails, it was obviously heavily modified to use more modern propulsion systems while outside the mining area. It also had a rather large pair of rotating blaster cannons strapped to the bottom of the keel.

As the ship approached, she slowed and stowed her sails, letting momentum and maneuvering jets bring her alongside the Selune and signalled for docking.

A solar sails? Oh, that was just way too cool looking to not get a few images to bring back to the Hera. Pausing for a moment, Nexi quickly ran back to the bunks to get Aewia; no matter what state of mind her sister was in, Aewia would love to see something like this!

"Aewia, come check this out, you gotta see it!" Nexi said with genuine excitement as she nudged Aewia awake. Then she led her sister back to the cockpit where they could watch the ship gliding towards the Selune. "Isn't that something!" Nexi said with a big grin as she took a few more images for Enalia. By the time the ship was maneuvering in to dock, Nexi had taken plenty of pictures and was ready to get down to business. After docking with Artan's ship, Nexi stood at the hatch, straightened out her jacket, then opened the hatch to let the Trill in. Nexi was armed, as was her usual style, but everything was properly sheathed and she was relaxed, not that she needed to be tense in order to draw quickly to defend herself, but she didn't want to give Artan any indication that she meant any harm, so everything was staying sheathed and holstered.

Aewia was all giggly as she solar sloop was docking but managed to compose herself as the docking cycle completed. There was a bit of an odd smell as the doors opened and she recognized it immediately as recycled air from old air scrubbers and she almost lost it again as she turned to Nexi. "Sis, I think she even uses the old algae packs for fresh air in there. Isn't that so cool?"

Enalia Artan gave a hearty laugh as she stepped through the door, her hands on her hips and her demeanor relaxed. She too was armed to the teeth and so was the wall of a man behind her. In fact they both looked to be more like Trill pirates than miners, down to the massive 'hand cannon' slung low at her right hip with a skull painted on it. "Well, it seems you know a bit about classic ship design, I'll give you that. You're also obviously not with the syndicate. Which means you probably have something I want to hear." Reaching out for a handshake, she smiled in the same way their Enalia sometimes did when she was confident she had everything under complete control. "My name is Enalia Artan and this is my muscle, Dokton the Black. He handles the more aggressive side of negotiations for me. He insisted on coming along just in case this was a trap."

"Hey, it's a dangerous neighborhood, it'd be foolish to walk around without some sort of protection," Nexi said with a snicker. "I'm Nexi, this is my sister Aewia, and we're here with an honest offer. We're in a bit of a bind, you see, our ship was damaged and we are running dangerously low on supplies. Only problem, no money; long story, one I'd rather keep to myself, but it is what it is, we need supplies but can't pay for them. What we do have is information." Nexi reached into her pocket and pulled out a data stick that would be compatible with older technology. "We have high resolution scans mapping out a very profitable salvage opportunity. We could just start picking on our own, but it could take weeks, maybe even months to see enough of a return on a salvage operation in our condition, and we don't have that kind of time. You're better equipped to pick salvage from this location, so we're willing to give you these scans, give you full salvage rights to our find, if you are willing to supply us so we can leave."

"You'll of course allow me to inspect these scans before we proceed with negotiations?" Enalia prompted. "I have a few terminals aboard that I can look them over on. Considering the lack of details you've told me about yourself... I think that's the absolute least I can be expected to put up with."

"Given the circumstances, I'd expect nothing less," Nexi said. While armed to the teeth, their mining and salvage operations were completely legitimate, and this Enalia seemed on the up and up, Nexi sensed no attempts at deception, so she handed over the data stick. "You mind if I tag along? Just wanna make sure you don't try to get sneaky and just take the information," she said with a good-natured grin.

"Please, I insist," Enalia grinned again as she turned and headed back through the airlock hatches. "Dokton, please keep an eye on the sensor grid while we discuss this." With a grunt and a nod, the large man headed off towards the cockpit of the sloop. Enalia led them towards the back of the craft past ornately inlaid craftsmanship.

Aewia couldn't help but comment as they ducked under a low slung brace. "This is such a beautiful ship."

"Thank you," Enalia replied. "I picked her up in a scrapyard auction some years back and sank most of my fortune into restoring her. Most of the work was done in the family. The important parts... I had to do them myself. In a way, this ship has more of my own blood in her than me." When they got to the back of the ship, she sat down at one of the computer stations that were obvious additions, but even they had been tastefully added and blended with the surrounding scrollwork.

"Yeah, I know the feeling," Nexi said with a knowing nod. "I got another baby waiting for me to come home and show her some love, that is if we can get these supplies. But yours... she's a thing of beauty," she continued as she admired the craftsmanship. In the back of her mind, she wondered if she could get the schematics for a ship like this, maybe try to built it in her free time... "So most of the data is locked, but there's more than enough available to get an idea for the scope of this site. I think you'll be more than pleased."

Taking the data chip, Enalia plugged it into her sciences terminal and started pressing the jewel-like keys before putting her face up to an antique viewfinder and fiddling with a few knobs. "Yeah... Holy..." She then started cursing under her breath in Trill in a way that the UT had trouble with but roughly translated as "The fuck kind of fucked up kind of fucknado shit is this..."

Her brow deeply furrowed, she looked up at the other displays and checked the data. Looked back into the viewfinder. Looked up at the screens. Did some math on her fingers.

She then sat back in her chair, exasperated. Then another thought occurred to her and she did a bit more math just based on the unlocked sensor readings. As soon as that was done, she slowly turned and faced Nexi and Aewia. "Your ship's sensor arrays go around a rather uniquely shaped hull... and it's almost a kilometer wide... AND you just happened to be there to watch an entire planet blow up? Plus they happened to be my enemies? What's the catch? What kind of resources are we talking? And just how many kilotons is it you need?"

Nexi grinned; oh yeah, she liked this woman, a LOT! "Why's there gotta be a catch?" Nexi replied with a shrug. "And there should be a file on there with an inventory of all we need, and it's nothing unreasonable, especially when you stack it against what you're getting in return," Nexi continued, pointing out the file on the screen. "The closest thing we have to a catch is we want to remain anonymous. Our ship will be unlike anything you've ever seen before and we would ask that you don't tell anyone about it. We don't mean any harm, we just want to go home, simple as that."

"Home... To... You know what, I don't want to know." Enalia threw up her hands and was done with it all. She then pulled up the list of what they needed and her jaw dropped a bit. "Fuck it..." With that, she started copying over what data was unlocked and started scheduling deliveries to the assigned coordinates. "You have a deal. It'll take everything I have, but within a year I should have enough resources to buy a small moon... Or hell... an Orbital Fortress... Always wanted one of those."

"DOKTON!!! Mobilize the fleet! Send them for full salvage and piracy operations in the Selen system!" Enalia called out to the cockpit as she pulled the chip and handed it back to Nexi. She also pulled out an intricately ornate gold coin with a Trill Piracy mark on it and handed it to Nexi. "In case you ever need help from the Artan Pirates, this is a Parley Token."

"Oh yeah, anyone can buy a moon, but nice orbital fortress never go out of style," Nexi said with a grin, taking the token and the data chip and slipping slipping them into her pocket. "Well, it was a pleasure doing business with you; you've got enough info to get started, and once the supplies are delivered, the rest of the scans will be unlocked and transmitted which will give you a better view of the ideal places to focus your efforts."

"Good luck on getting home. Everything should be delivered to those coordinates within a galactic week. If there's anything else you need, you know where to find me." Enalia motioned for them to make their way towards the airlock. "If you'll excuse me, I have a broken planet to violate and a fleet to lead."

"Have fun," Nexi said, then turned to leave, but before she could get very far she paused. "Hey, I got this friend, and she would give me hell if I didn't at least try to take some pictures of this beauty's interior. Do you mind?" Nexi asked, pulling out a small camera from her jacket.

Enalia grinned knowingly. "Hmph... They do say that if you want a memory to last longer to take a picture of it. Ok, but just leave the computer consoles out of it. The original designs were of writing desks and I don't want anyone knowing I have any military grade hardware stashed away in here. In fact.. How about I pose at the helm for you? Might be a good souvenir."

"Nah, you just go back to work, make it natural," Nexi said as she began snapping pictures, being careful not to capture the computer consoles, or at least adjusting the focus so she wan't getting any clear details. "This friend, she, uh... She can strike a pretty impressive pose, but the way she thinks on her feet, she was always at her best when she was caught unawares. Sometimes, there's something perfect in a moment, something you can't recreate in a pose; it's more genuine, true... I think she would appreciate that better."

"Fair enough then," Enalia replied with a lopsided grin as she strode confidently towards the bow of the ship, grabbing a cloak and tossing it over one shoulder as she went. Once there, she took up a position with her left hand on an antique sailing wheel while fiddling with some overhead monitors, giving the perfect portrayal of 'dashing captain of action'. "Dokton, have the Merkton and Hamtarel converge on point four seven nine and close off the main shipping lane. If we can blockade that route, that'll give us time to get the rest of the fleet into position. As for our mining operations, suspend all of them and begin the supply operation order I sent you with those ships."

Nexi managed to get a few really great captures of Enalia in action, and looking through the capture screen on the back of the camera she saw one rather spectacular shot that reminded her of their Enalia; those two were cut from the same cloth, they were made for command. Nexi grinned. "Thanks, you guys have been great. Maybe when you come around with those supplies we can share a drink before we part ways," she said as she found Aewia and they made their way towards the airlock.

Enalia nodded respectfully but all her attention was now on managing her forces - she had a lot to do now and little time to do it in.

As for Aewia, she'd found the candy stash, quite literally. Though she was giggling like a kid in a candy shop, she had restrained herself from taking too much and had taken a couple pictures herself. Apparently Enalia Artan had a bit of a sweet tooth, judging from the half a ton of sugary goodness stashed aboard the ship.

Back on the Selune, Aewia lost it and burst out in laughter. "That woman is amazing!"

"You little thief!" Nexi said with a snicker when she noticed Aewia's bulging pockets. Then Nexi showed her one of the pictures she'd taken. "What do you think? Enalia's gonna like that one," Nexi said with certainty.

"Oh my... She's just like Captain Harlock." Aewia fawned over the picture for a few more seconds before showing Nexi a picture she had taken of the candy vault. "See all the candy she keeps? There are like a thousand different kinds in there. Even a Klingon blood candy that hasn't been made in our time for over two hundred years because of the extinction of three different animals."

"Ew, and I thought Ferengi were weird..." Nexi remarked with a grimace. Then she put her camera away and headed for the cockpit. "Alright, let's separate and get out of here. I need to run an errand before we go home, then maybe you can help me fix up the Star; how's that sound?" she asked, as she sealed the shuttle and began detaching from the sloop.

"That sounds good," Aewia said as she went through the sensors and took a few more quick scans of the solar sloop. "I can't believe she's a pirate though. I guess that does explain a few things about our Enalia though."

"Explains a lot," Nexi said with a nod. Once separated, the hitched a tow from the sloop to get them safely out of the radiated field, then fired up the engines and they were on their way. After a while, Nexi leaned back in her chair and pulled the pirate token from her pocket and looked at it, turning it over and over in her fingers as they sped through space.

"That's... a pirate killer token..." Aewia mumbled as she stared at the coin Nexi was playing with. "I earned one on an undercover mission in Breen space but with a different mark."

"Uh, actually it's called Parley Token, and that's the mark of the Artan pirates," Nexi corrected, showing Aewia the token. "I've collected so many of these things, I've lost count. I'm even an 'honorary' member on more than a few crews... I like working with pirates; they're not afraid to get their hands dirty, but... they're typically not afraid of good honest work either. Some of my best jobs have been done with the help of pirate crews," she recalled fondly.

Aewia sighed heavily. It seemed she knew something her sister didn't. "Yes I know all that. The edge of that token marks her as one of the most feared kinds of pirates among other pirates though. One that only preys upon other pirates and lowlifes. If a band of pirates crosses a line too far, one of her kind will hunt them down without fail and well before any government gets within a sector of them. I've seen it before."

"Hey, look at that, you're on a roll today with all you've remembered." Nexi smiled proudly, then continued to turn the token over in her fingers. "These tokens say a lot, from the material used to the patterns on the back, and some will even embed chips in them with information or messages. It's been a long time since I've come across a token like this, though... space just ain't what it used to be, so many opportunists and individual crews scraping and clawing for power; they don't make many pirate crews like this anymore."

Aewia smiled brightly and nodded. "Yeah things were a lot rougher and yet simpler. The craftsmanship put into her ship proves how much pride people took in crafting things by hand as well. You just don't see things like that these days. Anyway, what's our next stop?"

"That was a beautiful ship," Nexi said in agreement with a wide grin, still twirling the token. "Our next stop, we need to find an establishment that can give us currency for couple of antique coins our Enalia gave me, and then, well, I've got to secure our future," Nexi said elusively. "Our Enalia has been operating on a budget that exceeds anything she could have inherited from the Artan legacy. She showed me a message that I left her when I opened a high interest Bolian bank account for her, and I saw the deposit amount; one of the coins, if I can get the amount I'm thinking it will fetch, will be more than enough to open Enalia's account, but I'm thinking of using the other coin to open a second account for us... After I bought my freedom from Grek, keeping you with Starfleet was the only option I had, I couldn't afford the care you needed, and I know since then I've thrown my chips in with Starfleet, but it ain't like me to not have a backup plan. I'm just wondering if I should open that second account."

"That's up to you, but you should probably at least open a second account for her with the third coin just in case." Aewia leaned back in her chair and relaxed. "Either way, we still have my parents' inheritance and each other so it's not like we don't have a small fortune already, you know."

"Yeah, you're right..." Nexi said, but something was clearly still weighing on her mind. She stared at the token as she continued to twirl it, then she stopped and began flipping the coin over the back of her fingers. She tilted her head, lost in thought as she watched the token move like magic over her fingers. "I know what to do with that money," she said with a lopsided grin. Merrit, of course! It had always struck her odd how her old mentor had taken an interest in her, taught her how to track bounties, and give her the skills she needed to strike out on her own... "Holy shit, I hate time travel..." she said with a laugh and a shake of her head as the realization hit home fully.

Aewia was now lost and sinking. "What? I... I don't get it... You have a plan? Does it involve ice cream?"

"We are definitely getting ice cream after this," Nexi said with a grin. "I don't know if you can remember this, but I told you about a man who helped me get away from Grek. It just seemed so out of nowhere, he just showed up without introductions and started doing jobs for Grek, and then a few months later... What if I left an account to him with a message to get me out there? I could just tell him time travel is involved; if he decides to be selfish and not get me out from under Grek, then the money disappears..." Not that Merrit was that kind of man, but it couldn't hurt to stress the importance of helping Nexi free herself from Grek's control. "It all makes sense, he said he had just come into a lot of money; this is what I have to do!"

Aewia nodded happily. "Ok. Then we do it for ice cream. And you can pick the flavor."

As much as Nexi liked it when Aewia was clearheaded, she had come to adore the more child-like Aewia as well. There was a purity, an innocence about her, and it made Nexi feel... less damaged when she looked at the universe through child-like Aewia's unique lens. "Vanilla," Nexi declared, quickly pulling out her camera to get a shot of Aewia's no doubt disgruntled expression for choosing such a boring flavor.

Aewia was happy with vanilla if that's what her sister wanted. She smiled happily at Nexi as if she didn't have a care in the world. "Can we have sprinkles?"

"Yup, and waffle cones." Nexi took a picture of Aewia anyway; she could never get enough pictures of that smile...

It was quiet, for once, as the Hera sped through space, the stars streaming by at warp. Enalia moved through the darkness to get to her desk to get a head start on some paperwork so she wouldn’t have it hanging over her head while on shore leave. As she sat at her desk, her eyes fell on the framed photos of her great grandmother, Enalia Artan, and her stunning solar sail sloop. It was amazing to see this little slice of her family’s history, but was was even more amazing had been that Nexi took these photos. It wasn’t that Enalia thought Nexi incapable of the care and skill required to frame a composition like these photos, but it was unexpected, and it served to remind her that for as much as she knew about Nexi, there was always more to learn.

Maica moved through, leaving a cup of coffee and some scones on Enalia’s desk, then leaving a cup of coffee on the table beside the couch where Nexi slept. Technically, Nexi’s quarters were registered as the same as Aewia’s, and anyone who knew her knew that she spent more time on the Wandering Star than her registered quarters, but since the Star had been damaged, Nexi had been bunking on random couches, and it seemed that she had chosen Enalia’s couch to camp in last night. Catching Nexi while she slept was a rare treat, and in this moment she couldn’t see the weight of all the pain she carried around with her.

“Crewman Sanders finished repairs on the Star before she got back, but I’m sure she can tell the difference,” Maica whispered as she returned to Enalia’s side. “That ship is the whole world to her, isn’t it?”

“Almost the whole world, I think,” Enalia replied, as she sipped at her coffee. “Aewia is the rest of it. If not for her, I doubt she’d have held together as well as she had.”

“I can hear you, you know,” Nexi murmured from the couch, her eyes still peacefully closed. “And she smells different, too new…”

“If you want, I can order Crewman Sanders to eat a few buckets of fried chicken in there…” Enalia joked before nibbling on a scone.

“If he even thinks of bring food into my Star, I will space him,” Nexi stated firmly, then finally opened her eyes and looked over to Enalia. “Morning.”

“Morning,” Enalia said with a smile. “As for the new smell, I’m sure that’ll go away soon enough. You just need to break in the new parts, is all.”

Maica nodded reassuringly, “And what better way to do that than to go over all the repairs yourself?”

“I know what you’re trying to do,” Nexi said with her trademark scowl. She sat up and found the cup of coffee Maica had left for her, giving it a sip. “I’ll do it in my own time, leave me alone.”

“What I’m trying to do is look out for the mental health and well being of one of the members of my crew. That happens to be one of the responsibilities of being the Captain of a starship and though it sometimes doesn’t seem like it, I assure you, I do take it quite seriously.” Enalia scowled into her own coffee. “I will leave it alone for now though.”

“I know, I know.” Nexi sipped at her coffee knowing that that alone would help improve her demeanor. “So, how’d you like the pictures?” Nexi asked, hoping to make a peace offering. “Aewia and I got enough scans of that sloop we could recreate it.”

That did brighten Enalia’s demeanor considerably. “Amazing pictures. Thank you. I’ll have to compare the scans to the sloop itself when we get to my orbital fortress. It’s permanently moored in the family museum now. There was some restoration work after my great grandmother and her ship were recovered, but with those scans… They would go a long way towards full restoration.”

“Recovered?” Nexi asked. She had never really looked into Enalia’s history, mostly out of respect for their friendship, but curiosity was nibbling at her now. “What happened?”

“In 2168 while hunting a group of Syndicate pirates, she was ambushed. Her ship and three other privateer ships were gutted and left to drift in the wreckage of Selen VI.” Enalia stared into her coffee a moment longer before continuing. “Backup arrived a few minutes too late and while they were able to prevent them from raiding the ships, they were too late to save anyone. There were no survivors. The sloop was towed back to the orbital fortress she had just purchased and it’s been there ever since.”

“I’m- I’m sorry to hear that,” Nexi said. Her jacket was draped across the back of the couch, so she turned and found the Artan token and looked at it. “If I had know, I would have found a way to warn her,” she said, as if that was any kind of consolation. “But she got her fortress…” she added with a wry smile.

“And you’ll be able to see it in a few more days. I hate limping along at warp four, but in this case, it’s not just for us. They need time to prepare to receive us as well.” Enalia nibbled on another scone for a few before Maica glanced around.

“I’m sorry, may I offer you something to eat?” Maica offered. “Some biscuits and gravy, perhaps?”

“You are scary good at how you can read my mind,” Nexi said to Maica with a grin and a nod to accept the offer. Then she reclined back for a moment to enjoy her coffee and to twirl the token. “She was right neat lady, your great grandmother,” Nexi said to Enalia. “She reminded me of you. You… If ever there was a person meant to be a pirate, that’s you… The way you Captain this ship, just proves to me that the two of you were made from the same mold.”

As Maica busied herself in the kitchenette, Enalia grinned knowingly. “Perhaps. I was supposed to take over the family business when my parents retired. In a way I have, but in a much more limited capacity, I think. There’s also the matter of being Joined, that kind of gets in the way. No, I think my mother is the last true leader of the Artan Pirates.”

“Yeah, they don’t give those slugs to just anyone, and Starfleet looks so much better on the resume,” Nexi said. She downed the last of her coffee and motioned to Maica that she’d like another. “Speaking of which, I gotta ask; what’s it like to be joined? I know you’re the first host, but the slug has got to have some… maybe not memories, but at least some feelings, personality of its own. So what was it like? Did it change you any?”

“They say that being the first host is the most important and the most difficult. It can make or break both the symbiont and the host. The host has to be of particularly strong will and personality.” Enalia paused a moment and reflected on the experience a bit as Maica returned from the kitchenette with a plate of homemade biscuits smothered in sausage gravy and a fresh cup of coffee for Nexi.

“Realistically… Yes. Every joining, no matter what will change the host. I’m told that second hosts don’t get many memories of the symbiont, if any, but as a first host… You get them all. It took me months to relearn how to sit in a normal chair comfortably again. Even being as strong willed as I was, it still felt like I should have been swimming in a pool of hot water whenever I was on the bridge. My personality did change a bit, but at least I could sort it out, unlike other hosts that had to figure out lifetimes of other Trill experiences. I could say yes, that’s something the symbiont experienced and not me. I’m less cocky and I enjoy taking things slowly a lot more than I did before. My spacial awareness was amazing before but it went through the roof after.”

Nexi sat forward as Maica brought food over, and she couldn’t help herself when she reached out to give that fine backside a pinch, snickering as Maica swatted playfully at her hand. She dug into her breakfast with gusto, nodded as Enalia related her experience. “That’s crazy, I never woulda thought any of that about first joining, but I can see now why the choice is so crucial,” she said around a mouthful of mouth-watering biscuits and gravy, damn that woman was a fine cook! “Did you, I dunno, feel cheated that you didn’t get an experiences slug, or was it a greater honor? Like knowing you would be the first of many?”

“Think of it this way,” Enalia began. “Would you rather be the first person to explore a system or one of the twenty follow up teams that research and colonize it?”

Again, Nexi could only nod in response; she was the kind of person who would want to explore, to do all the firsts that exploration allowed, but she also knew that not everyone was like that, some people liked the safety and comfort of a follow-up research team. So just another reason that the right choice had to be made when introducing a new symbiont.

Enalia added a bit more for clarification. “That being said, It’s best not to let others know you’re a first host due to the stigma attached to it. A lot of people will get violently jealous or just outright angry. Most first hosts actually live in somewhat secular compounds or join Starfleet right away for the seclusion these days.”

“Huh…” Nexi replied, perplexed. “Why the hell would this be a cause for jealousy? Your people already know that joining is a rare gift, why would being the first make them angry?”

“Because the selection process is hard enough as it is and these days most first hosts are either rich fucks like me or politicians.” Enalia put it bluntly, then finished her coffee, just as Maica set another cup next to her.

“Seriously?” Nexi said with disbelief. “I thought the Symbiosis Commission was above all that. At least, that’s what I heard.” Nexi washed down her breakfast with some more coffee, then sighed in contentment; maybe she should think about getting one of these holograms to baby her. She knew Maica was more than just some cook and housekeeper, Enalia loved her, a feeling she could see was equally reciprocated in Maica’s eyes, but damn she was a good cook!

“It is,” Enalia replied, chuckling softly. “ No money changed hands or anything. They just wanted a nice safe environment. One with plush velvety carpets and grand halls. Somewhere secluded and out of the way where a young symbiont and host can just live peacefully together and figure things out while living a normal, albeit luxurious, life while surrounded by security provided by the family of the host. Nothing more, nothing less.”

“Well… I suppose that makes sense, sort of… The slugs actually ask for this? How do they communicate, though?” Nexi asked.

“Before the first host, they can now and then telepathically communicate with the people that care for the pools. Normally it’s just to ask for more food though.” Enalia chuckled as she bit into another scone. “The Symbiosis Commission has also determined that no symbiont has any idea of what it really wants before it’s joined anyway. Other than that it wants a host, that is. And that’s just from it learning from old retired symbionts.”

Okay, that did make sense. Nexi nodded, then finished off her breakfast and took her mug and plate back to the replicator for recycling. “You ever regret joining?” she asked as she moved back to the couch.

“Not in the slightest,” Enalia replied with a grin. “Also, please don’t feed my antiques to the replicator.”

“Oops… I owe you?” Nexi chuckled, then ran her fingers through her loose curls before tying them back and grabbing her jacket. “Thanks for letting me borrow your couch,” she said as she finished getting herself situated; not that she had asked, she rarely did.

Enalia nodded and chuckled a bit more as she took Maica’s hand. “They were replicas anyway. Like I’d keep original 17th century Earth dishes here on the ship. As for the couch, It’s free to use as long as you’d like as long as we have a bit of privacy now and then.”

“You got it,” Nexi said with a grin. After all, it wasn’t like she didn’t have other couches, or even Cato’s bed, to crash on. Giving a mock salute, Nexi rose and made her way out to see what kind of trouble she could get into...