Lieutenant Commander Cameron Tegan had gotten word that Kris, his commanding officer and respected colleague, had been released from custody of sickbay and had been allowed to return to his quarters. Good, Cameron thought. The sooner Kris was back on his feet, the sooner he could take back the chair on the bridge which, since taking command, Cameron had steered from with a sort of persistence. Walking to Kris's quarters, Cameron was carrying something he didn't usually bring... even i piece offering. It was a bottle of firewine, a Klingon beverage with a potency level that loosely rivaled that of bloodwine even though Klingons typically regarded it as akin to a sort of afternoon drink.

Reaching Kris's door, Cameron smirked lopsidedly. As much as he'd been looking forward to one day taking command of his own ship, it wouldn't be the Katana; not while Kristopher Kerouac was in command.

Cameron pressed the chime.

Kris had learned earlier in the evening, that this night was apparently visit the Commanding Officer night aboard the USS Katana. Liam had come over, per Kris' desire, and the two were having a fantastic time until interrupted by petty officer Sabrina Corbin who had brought a loaf of banana bread. She had stayed a while, but had since left. Liam too had left, though mostly to get a head start on packing up his things.

Commander Kerouac had been working on his report to Starfleet Command. He had received some rather unforeseen news from command while he was in Sickbay. It was news that Kris carried with a troublesome feeling. He was going to be loosing Cameron as his First Officer already. I finally get a First Officer that I can work with and they do this? They pull him out from under me with a command assignment of his own? thought Kris shaking his head. Kris knew better than to approach Lieutenant Commander t'Dharvanek about the position, though Kris was already filing the paperwork, upon recommendation of Lieutenant Noxa from Internal Affairs that Jhu be promoted to Commander. Kris was fully backing the recommendation. However, he knew she would never accept the position of First Officer.

Kris had been readying himself for a morning meeting with Lieutenant Commander Tegan in order to give came his new orders, and congratulate him on his new assignment as Commanding Officer of his own starship. However, when the chime rang, all Kris' plans went out the door. Kris stood up from his work desk, turned off the screen and proceeded to the entrance of his quarters where he answered and when the doors parted ways, he found himself looking at Cameron Teagan.

"Lieutenant Commander Tegan" said Kris with a smile. "I see you come bearing booze? That merits an invitation into my little home away from the Bridge" added Kris as he gently indicated for the man to come in.

Cameron grinned as he stepped through and let the doors close behind him. "Well, I figure that with all the drugs they've been pumping you full of that some quality alcohol would be in fine desire," he said, setting the bottle down on the coffee table and taking a seat across from his commanding officer. "For being near death only a few days ago, you're certainly looking well, sir. Last time I leave you alone while you're in command," Cameron added jokingly.

Kris shook his head and sighed. "I ache like hell. I am feeling better though, my organs are inside my body and I am not bleeding to death or dying from a toxin" quipped Kris a bit playfully. "Actually, Cameron it will be the last time that you leave Katana while under my command. I just recently received something of interest from Starfleet Command. You may want to have a seat, Commander."

Cameron did so, and with a curious look on his face. "You're not retiring ,are you?" He asked as a joke, although there was an inch of real concern in his voice. Cameron knew of the internal affairs investigation that Kris had just undergone, although he wasn't sure as to how well or badly it had gone.

"Oh I wish" replied Kris with a shake of his head. "Unfortunately, I am still quite needed in command of Katana, and you are apparently needed elsewhere, Cam" said Kris gently. "You are being reassigned...more so, they are giving you your own command."

It took Cameron a few tries to fully process Kris's words. He snorted in disbelief. "I just got here."

"I know" replied Kris. "I do not like this. I do not want to lose you, not this soon...but you have orders and I have no authority in this matter."

"Has Starfleet given any sort of explanation?" Cameron asked, sitting closer to the edge of the cushioned sofa while his brain still wrapped around what was going on. Usually, he'd be excited about the opportunity to have a command of his own; it's been everything he'd been working towards since earning a commission. But there was something in the way that Kris was relaying this information that told Cameron that not all was as it seemed. He wasn't being given a command simply because Starfleet Command felt it was time. "I mean, don't get me wrong. A command of my own is... well... good. But it doesn't make a whole lot of sense for Starfleet to assign me here for a month just to reassign me to a ship of my own like this."

Kris leaned in and looked at Cameron sternly. "Cam, do I look like a Bajoran prophet. Do I look like an Admiral in Starfleet? I haven't a damn clue, not one God damn iota of a clue as to why they are doing this. I am not pleased about it. However, I am happy for you. Why are you getting a command? I do not know. Did you bang any Admirals before you got here?" asked Kris curiously.

"That... could be a possibility," Cameron said after a moment. He'd knowingly shared his bed with a few Starfleet women in his life, and a few felt like they weren't giving him the full story. "But I always figured that, if I did, I'd be sent out to serve the rest of my Starfleet career on some remote outpost... not with a command." Deciding it best to uncork the bottle and let the drink ease the rest of their conversation, Cameron poured two glasses out and handed one to his former CO. "Here's to lucky breaks then," He added. "Unless the whole purpose of promoting me is so Starfleet can saddle you with a new XO. I don't imagine everybody was pleased with IA's review. Any idea who will be replacing me?"

"Not Jhu" replied Kris shaking his head. "I've asked Starfleet to just send me the most capable fit they have. I have no idea what I will be getting, but I know what I will be losing, and that doesn't make me the least bit happy."

Cameron let a thin smile push through an otherwise contemplative expression. "You have a good crew here, Kris." He said, feeling weird about the way Kerouac's first name came out of his mouth; Cameron wasn't accustomed to being so informal even though most of the crew, including Mizuki, didn't seem to have a problem with first-name basis. "It'll work out." He paused as the next step in his career came to mind. "So what exactly does Starfleet have in mind for my first ship?" He asked.

Kris smiled back. "Well, she's a Sabre-class starship. Certainly not the prettiest gal in the fleet but she's seen some good service over the years and needs a good man at the helm. That's probably why they groomed you for it. She has a nasty punch from what I can tell like most Sabre-class starships. It is the USS Kuwait."

"Sabre class..." Cameron said, sounding less than awestruck. He tilted his glass backward to catch a small taste of the firewine. It burned at the back of his throat expectedly. He smirked. "And here I always expected my first command to be at least Cheyenne size." But, as Kerouac had pointed out, the Kuwait, while small, was certainly no little ship. Not with its history. He'd make it a home.

Kris shook his head and sighed. "I'm afraid you'll just have to settle on that compact little fighting starship" said the Commander with a small smile. "I will certainly miss having you around, Cameron. However, our paths are bound to cross one of these days. Just do us both a favor and try to keep yourself out of trouble. I'd hate Starfleet Command to think poorly of the both of us."

That was a good enough promise to keep. Cameron raised his glass. "Yes sir."

"Cheers" said Kris as he followed suit, raising his own glass. "I hope you keep that ship of yours out of trouble."

"Same to you, sir." Cameron added.

[ON]

It had been a LONG day. Throughout Cameron's career in Starfleet, he'd always been excited over the prospect of one day commanding a ship of his own. It was his dream; his singular aim and objective since the day Master Chief Petty Officer Ross pinned Cameron's first golden pip to his collar. And yet, now, after just 48 hours of being acting CO to the starship Katana, Cameron was willing to give himself another three or four years before he'd ever be willing to contemplate accepting his Captain's pips. Returning from Kris's quarters however, Cameron was learning just how dynamic officer careers in Starfleet were. His orders were in hand; in another day, he would no longer be the commanding officer of the USS Katana.

Returning to his quiet quarters, Cameron settled into a couch and pulled out a long bottle of something amber. He wanted... needed a glass of something strong to settle his nerves. Even if he was up to the job, he didn't want this one. He didn't want to assume command of Kerouac's ship -- not under these circumstances.

"Computer, music."

Klingon Opera, loud and boastful, began to play. The Klingon/Trill hybrid cut it off with a warning. "No, no. Something soft, easygoing." Pausing to sniff at the glass in his hand, he tried to be more specific. "Play something from Trill." Soft stringed instruments entered the room in a way that was indescribably gentle. Without even taking the time to listen, Cameron immediately found the knots in the back of his neck softening.

***

It was time for Maica to show up. She was finally off both her duties and had a little spare time so she grabbed a random bottle of overpriced booze and headed to Cam's quarters, pressing the door chime as soon as she was there.

"Come," Cameron announced from the other side of the door. "Maica," he said, noticing the bottle in her hand. There was a mixture of surprise and excitement in his voice and on his face. "What's this?" He asked, nodding to the bottle.

"A bottle of..." Finally looking at the label, Maica read what it was. "400 year old Skagaran whiskey. I was hoping we could drink some and chat."

Cameron waved a hand over to the empty soda. "Well, I usually permit such things only for no less than 500 years," he said jokingly. "But in your case I'll make an exception. Have a seat and I'll grab us some glasses."

Flopping on the couch, Maica cracked the bottle open, savoring the smell for a moment. "So much to talk about but I'll be honest. There are only 2 things I'm interested in and neither one are subjects I want to jump into right away. How about you?"

Cameron stepped over to the replicator and ordered two short glasses before returning to the couch. He set both down and leaned back, tossing one leg over his knee. "I'm enjoying quarters this size while I can, since I doubt the Captain's quarters on board a Sabre-class starship due those of a Danube-class runabout any justice," he smirked wanly. "But a ship's a ship, I suppose. I guess this means you'll have to deal with another asshole for an XO," he joked, winking.

"I'm sure we'll get someone good," Maica said, pouring 2 glasses of the whiskey and handing one glass to Cam. "Your time aboard may have been short, but it's been memorable."

Cameron gestured with his glass and grinned. "Likewise."

"So they're giving you a sabre class ship? Those aren't so bad. I was on one for a few days once. Second smallest quarters I'd been in." Maica sipped at her drink, savoring the taste.

"And the smallest were?" Cameron asked, curious.

"A Drexian courier ship. Fast, but the guest quarters were about the size of this couch." Maica said. "It was little more than a cockpit and some bunks strapped to a trio of engines."

Cameron whistled. "Sometimes I forget that you weren't always a Starfleet officer," he pointed out. "Hell, sometimes I forget you're not even flesh and blood," he admitted; Maica looked, breathed, and even felt like a hot-blooded girl. It was easy to forget that she was in fact an android. He chuckled, taking another large sip of his drink. "You know, as good as this ship and its crew has been to me, I'm looking forward to a bit of normalcy. No more Undine, Pedina, Space Whales, or clicking monsters who kidnap people to deal with."

Maica had to giggle at his reaction. "And I'm only 10 years old too. I'll agree though. Just a week of normal operations would be heaven. Hell, 3 days of vacation on the holodeck with Andy would be worth all this craziness."

"Who knows," Cameron began with a chortle. "Maybe I've been your hex this whole time. As soon as I leave, smooth sailing from here on out." He made a mental note to pass his holodeck time over to Andy & Maica; if anybody needed that time off, they did.

"No, we were cursed before you came aboard." Maica said, sipping at her drink and relaxing a bit further into the couch.

[OFF]

*** Three Weeks Ago ***

Just how much longer must I wait?

That was what Lieutenant Commander M’rayr Eisovo thought as looked up from a holo-paper left on the coffee table in the reception area that he was waiting in. A yeoman manning the reception desk hardly seemed concerned with the fact that M’rayr had arrived from the Utopia Planitia shipyards more than an hour and a half ago. Fifty-six million kilometers away, the USS San Jacinto was still undergoing extensive repairs. M’rayr had been overseeing those repairs up until now.

A small device at the reception desk blinked. The yeoman turned to study it, and quickly turned back to face M’rayr. “The Admiral is ready to see you, Commander.”

***

Admiral Hayes’s office was elegant to say the least. Round in shape, his desk looked as though it was made of solid oak, and tiny carvings decorated it in intricate detail. Upon closer inspection, M’rayr realized that Starfleet vessels from the 22nd century fighting inanimate Klingon ships from the same era. He recognized this desk. It had once belonged to Admiral S’rrel, a Caitian Starfleet Admiral as well as ambassador to the United Federation of Planets. This desk is supposed to be in a museum, M’rayr thought, not quite sure how Admiral Hayes ever managed to acquire it.

The Caitian looked up and found Hayes reading from a medium PaDD. He continued forward, stopping half a meter from the Admiral’s desk before posting himself in attention. “Lieutenant Commander M’rayr Eisovo, reporting as ordered, Admiral.”

Hayes didn’t so much as look up. In fact, the Admiral continued reading from the PaDD for a long two minutes before he appeared to so much as register M’rayr’s arrival. As the Admiral set the PaDD aside, M’rayr was able to catch a glance of what was on it: His service jacket. Hayes interlaced his fingers and brought them to his chin, studying M’rayr quietly for another short eternity.

“Have a seat, Commander.” Hayes said, gesturing towards one of the empty chairs across from him. “How was your transit from Mars?”

“Satisfactory,” M’rayr answered simply.

“Not a man of many words, are you?” Hayes asked, but seemed to move on as though he didn’t expect an answer. He picked the PaDD back up and, for a moment, M’rayr was afraid that he was going to start reading again. “Quite a career you’ve had. The Cushing, the Axanar, and now the San Jacinto. All good ships with good Captains in command.”

“Yes, sir.” M’rayr replied.

Hayes paused to search M’rayr’s stone neutral expression as though he’d hoped to find something within it. Then his gaze shifted to the matted clump of fur over what had once been M’rayr’s left eye, sealed closed and useless now. After a long moment, Hayes seemed to give up. “I was sorry to hear what happened to the San Jacinto. But she’ll be back in space, I’m sure.”

As long as I have something to say about it, M’rayr nodded curtly.

“I have an assignment for you, Commander,” Hayes extracted another PaDD from beneath his desk and slid it to M’rayr who picked it up. On it were the details of a certain Intrepid-class starship operating somewhere in the Gamma Quadrant – the USS Katana, Registry Number NCC-74757. “You’ve heard of the Katana?” Hayes asked. M’rayr shook his head. “The Katana is a good ship, and for the most part it has a good crew. Unfortunately, the Command Staff has, in Starfleet’s opinion, left something to be desired.”

M’rayr thumbed at the PaDD. The image slid out and was replaced with the profile of a Terran male, approximately forty-years of age, brown hair, grey eyes. Kristopher Kerouac.

“Yes, Kristopher Kerouac,” Hayes said, spitting the Commanding Officer’s name as if it had been a foul word in some alien language. “He’s a problem, always has been, always will be.” Hayes leaned back in his chair and smiled darkly. “Let me ask you something, Commander. How would you like to be in Command of the Katana in the next six months?”

*** Present Time ***

M’rayr Eisovo had spent a little less than 48 hours on the surface of Ophinius. The settlement, established only four years ago by the crew of the SS United We Stand, had on the verge of becoming a full-fledged colony, run by Starfleet, and to become a major Starfleet presence in the region. It had a reasonable compliment of Starfleet Navy and Marine personnel; M’rayr had almost forgotten what it was like to cohabitate the same general vicinity as Starfleet Marines.

Walking a small alleyway, the Caitian heard the tell-tale chirp of his comm-badge. He pawed at it. “Eisovo here,”

”Sir,” a voice on the other end began. “We’ve just received confirmation that the USS Katana has arrived in orbit. They are ready to receive you via transporter hub six.”

So the Katana was here… finally.

“Very good,” M’rayr said with a voice that seemed distant, far off, and disinterested, even though he was eager to get aboard, although he was also apprehensive that the exchange of executive officers would not go without issue… at least as far as the crew were concerned. “Inform the Katana that I am enroute and will be ready to beam up shortly.”

USS Katana, Transporter Room 1

Commander Kristopher Kerouac had been on edge for the the past several hours. The USS Katana was heading for the new Ophinias colony and base located on a class-P planet, meaning that it was a glaciated planet. Suitable to start a colony and to build a Federation base on. However, damn cold. Snow storms, blizzards, and an abundance of ice in the frozen tundra were what the new colonist had the endure. Though they had the technology to do it, and being a frontier colonist, meant that these individuals were strong and sturdy. What had Kris on the edge of his seat was the new First Officer.

Kris had yet to speak to the man, but was already nervous about their initial meeting, which he was presently en route to with Jhu t'Dharvanek. The new First Officer was scheduled to be transported over very shortly, and Kris had only had the last half an hour to study the man's personnel file. It was quite a read, interesting and complex for the man had never been to Starfleet Academy, and his service in Starfleet was on a provisional rank basis. As Kristopher and Jhu walked down the corridors of the starhip, Kris looked over at her and made conversation about the matter.

The Commander let out a small sigh. "He's a Caitian. Did you read that? They are sending me a bloody Caitian. Do you how much those things shed? They are like giant earth felines, Jhu. Why does it have to be a Caitian?!"

"You have a Caitian engineer," Jhu reminded him with a bit of a smirk. "Most Caitians are agreeable enough, as long as you steer clear of cat jokes and don't try to pet them. You'll be fine."

"Yes, but that is in engineering. That place is already like a zoo. This is different...this is the Bridge" said Kris shaking his head. "Cat jokes...by whatever do you mean? Like cat got your tongue?" said Kris with a gleeful smirk.

"We're screwed," Jhu deadpanned, trying vainly not to laugh. "Just... try to be nice."

Kris mockingly took offense, bringing his hand to his chest and leaving his mouth ajar for a few moments. "Meee? I will be purrrrrfectly nice. I just don't know whether we should have tuna fish Tuesdays as lunch special in the mess hall."

"More like sashimi Saturday." Jhu snickered at the puns, giving in to the humor of the situation for now. "With nepata tea, followed by tree climbing and long naps in simulated sunlight."

"We're bad" said Kris with a chuckle. "In all seriousness though, I really haven't had much experience with Caitians. They've been members of the Federation for so long, and yet I haven't the slightest idea what to expect. Have you ever dealt with a Caitian?"

Jhu shook her head. "Just R'tame, and only briefly. He's a sweetheart, but Lydek finds him intimidating. I suppose I'd be scared of a six foot tall cat if I was his size too though. "I mean, look at him. He looks like a lion. This new guy probably looks a lot like one too."

"Ah the lion, the king of the jungle" commented Kris with a smirk. "I would be fine with a King on this starship. I think we have a bit too many queens, myself included" added Kris as they neared the transporter room. "Caitians are usually tall, right? What if he's taller than me?"

"I'm taller than you. Relax." True, she wasn't taller by much, but Jhu had a solid inch on him. "But yes, they're usually pretty tall... close to six feet."

At that moment, a transporter specialist looked up to the doorway as Captain Kristopher Kerouac and Commander Jhu t'Dharvanek stepped through. The crewman nodded curtly before his hands began running across the console in front of him. "Ready to energize at your command, Sir." The specialist advised.

"Energize," Jhu ordered before Kris could utter any more smart-ass comments or change his mind and run back into the corridor.

Kris shot a look of slight near surprise, a bit startled by her command to 'energize' before he could say anything himself. "I think someone sat in my chair too long" said Kris with a furrowing of his brows, a slight wrinkly crease to his forehead. "Power hungry" he muttered in a hushed tone. Kris looked at the transporter operator and nodded, confirming the order. Promote the spotted little bitch to Commander and she's already barking orders thought Kris.

"I heard that." Jhu gave him a mildly dirty look, her amusement barely concealed behind it.

"Of course you would, you little pointed eared spotted freak" quipped Kris with a playful smirk afterwards.

Back on the planet surface, M'rayr felt a familiar tingling sensation that preceded a complete overwhelming of the senses. In a moment, the street in front of his was missing, to be replaced by the bulkhead of a transport room. Like most Starfleet Officers, the Caitian waited until the tingle was gone before he looked to his new surroundings. The Romulan/Trill was obvious by her spots and her pointed ears and raised eyebrows; Jhu t'Dharvanek; M'rayr and Admiral Hayes had had a very in depth conversation regarding her. M'rayr's eyes shifted to Kris Kerouac. Six months... the Caitian thought. And what part of my soul would I have given up by then? he concluded as he stepped off the pad. "Commander M'rayr Eisovo, reporting as ordered," M'rayr said with a brusqueness that couldn't be denied. "Captain Kerouac, Commander t'Dharvanek," M'rayr tilted his head slightly while his ears perked up. "I am prepared to begin my duties."

Kris looked up at the Caitian who stood before him. Hey there big pussy thought Kris, taking in the sight of the much taller First Officer. "Hello, Commander, Eisovo" said Kris with a nod. Mmmm not even trying that first name the Captain thought with a mental flicking. "I am sure that you are, Commander. However, you should probably get settled in before anything else."

M'rayr felt an urge that he ignored. Maintaining a professional distance did not come to him firsthand, but it did come to him. He grunted in reluctant acknowledgement. "I will be prepared on your order, Captain Kerouac," the Caitian admitted. He heaved a small bag no larger than his arm over his shoulder. "I presume Lieutenant Commander Tegan has departed by now?" M'rayr asked.

"He has, and I can't tell you how happy I am to have his replacement on board." Jhu smiled a bit, some apprehension creeping into it. Something felt... off about M'rayr's attitude. She wasn't sure just what it was, but she felt it. What is going on here?

A drunk, Kris had often been. However, he was not the least bit buzzed presently and stupid he was not. Perhaps for Jhu it was her background in Intelligence, maybe even her Romulan nature that made her suspicious or alert. Kris had neither of those. However, he did have the history of being a survivor, doing whatever it took to live another day. Therefore, his own instincts were telling him to be cautious. He was not sure of what or why, but this new First Officer made Kris uneasy.

"Tegan left a while ago. So, the seat is yours of course." said Kris with a nod. "I've lost two good men who sat in that chair, Commander. It is too soon for me to lose another. I hope that you do not have any plans on leaving anytime soon" added Kris as warmly as he could manage. However, personally, he would have rather had Cameron stay.

If Admiral Hayes has his way,you'llbe the one leaving, M'rayr thought inwardly. For a moment, the Caitian did nor said anything. "My assignment to this vessel is unlikely to be short-term," he said tersely and without a note of concern for Kerouac's feelings in his voice. M'rayr looked off to the doorway before returning his gaze to his new commanding officer and second officer. "In that case, if you will permit me the opportunity to settle into my quarters. When is the next senior staff meeting?"

"There is not one scheduled anytime soon. I have yet to receive orders for Katana's next venture out into the Gamma quadrant. We're going to be landing on Ophinias within the hour where shore leave will be occurring, and my promotion to Captain will be finalized by Admiral Adislo. For the time being, take the opportunity to settle in your quarters and perhaps mingle with the crew" said Kris with a nod.

Kris looked at the transporter operator, "Ensign Callaghan, if you'd please take the Commander to the Quarter master" ordered Kris. The red haired man locked controls and left his station.

"Commander" said Caddy with a pleasant smile.



Kris grabbed onto to Jhu's arm before she could exit the room, leaving the two of them alone for a moment. Kris waited a few moments longer than he usually would, not wanting the tall Caitian's ears to catch a word. "Full intelligence check on that flea bag. I smell something fishy and I don't mean his breath" said Kris with a smirk. "Also, I want Counselor Grae to meet with me at her earliest opening" added Kris.

"I was already planning it. Something seriously hinky is going on here. Sending Cam off and giving us some provisionally ranked furball? Someone's up to something, and I intend to find out who and what." Jhu glanced furtively at the door that M'rayr had disappeared through. "I don't like this."

"Usually, I would just call you out on being an overly suspicious Romulan bitch. However, in this case, I think we both are...and with every right to be. I want Lia to try and arrange a psych is evaluation on our new Commander. I don't care about his mental stability of course. I'm hoping her abilities will allow her to get a sense of what the hell he's up to."

"Good plan. I'll send her a message to meet you as discreetly as possible, so we don't raise too much suspicion. And I just might be able to tag the furry bastard's personal comm line to see who he's talking to. Off the record, of course." Jhu smirked a little.

Kris smiled. "Sometimes, you are actually useful. I may have to keep the Intelligence Department after all" joked Kris.

"Funny." Jhu playfully punched Kris's arm as she headed for the door, intent on finding out just what was going on.

After visiting with the Elder, Maica headed to where she hoped the musicians were. She had Shira to guide her there, but she didn't want to keep her from visiting herself, so she would try to keep this brief. Tapping her comm badge, she called out to the rest of the team. =/\="Maica to O'Connor, Waterson, and Verak. The diplomatic side of the mission is complete so feel free to explore as you like. I'm headed to the musicians area to see about the wood for that violin."

Shira looked around at all the action within the hanging city. She was tempted to take her dress off and fly free with her fellow Arboreals. The villagers were preparing for something and Shira knew what it was. It was the Gathering, a sort of rite of passage for the younger generations. Shira was finally mature enough to participate, but they wouldn't be staying long enough to allow her to take part, which made her a little sad. She was tempted to ask Maica if they could stay, but she knew that as Officers the team had responsibilities back on the ship. They couldn't linger longer than necessary.

"Wonderful, we'll have a look around" Verak replied. He then looked at the others and nodded. "Is there anything that we should be worried about, Lieutenant Maica?"

"Try not to fall from the pathways. It's a long way down, though I assume the locals will be able to catch you before you hit the ground." Maica teased with a grin she knew they couldn't see.

"That would hurt," Shira said cutely. But she was definitely distracted by the villagers fluttering about. Their song was calling to her, but she needed to finish the task they came here to do before she could go off and do her own thing.

Noticing how distracted Shira was finally, Maica took note of all the commotion around them. She wasn't as good at understanding such a complicated song as Shira was, but she did get that a big event was coming up. "Shira, what is it? Is it a festival of some sort?"

"Festival..." Shira thought about it for a moment. She wasn't sure that was the right word, but maybe it would work. "It is celebration. Mmm, don't know how to say... It is growing up? This season, I am old enough to participate."

"Ah." Maica had heard of possibly similar celebrations that welcomed people to adulthood. "So it's a celebration of no longer being a child? A sort of welcome into adulthood? How soon is it?"

"I do not know. Not now, but soon," Shira said. "It is very special celebration. I was looking forward to it."

Maica's heart twisted a bit in pain at the tone in Shira's voice. "Do you want to stay for it? Or we could try to have something similar aboard the Katana..."

"You would do that for me?" Shira asked, looking at Maica. Either way, Maica was so kind to offer! "I do not know if we could have festival on Katana, but I do not want you to get into trouble for letting me stay."

Maica pulled Shira into a hug. "It's important to you so I'd like to do whatever I can. If it's in a few days, I'll just extend our stay. If it's much longer, we'll probably have to do something on the Katana for you."

"I will ask when it is," Shira said cheerfully.

"Let me know as soon as you can so we can plan accordingly, ok? For now, let's see what the musicians say about that wood." Maica said with a smile.

As the musician's glade came into view, they could hear a change in the song to the forest as the gentle hum was now accompanied by the subtle art of the arboreal musicians. Shira led the group to a gathering of artisans with their instruments who greeted them with a pleasant hum.

Maica hummed back in greeting, looking to Shira a bit lost now that she was here. She had her sample violin and her sound files as well as pictures of similar woods, but how would she actually go about asking for wood like that?

One of the musicians that greeted the Away Team recognized Maica from her previous visit to the Sanctuary and asked in a gentle hum if she would be playing with them again.

Maica smiled warmly and addressed the familiar Arboreal, softly explaining that she would love to but needed materials for a new instrument for someone special that had lost hers. Pulling out the replicated violin, she held it out to the Arboreal. She tried explaining that it was made with fake wood and that it was only a copy, but wasn't sure how much got through.

the Arboreal didn't understand about fake wood and looked to Shira for more information. Shira didn't know how to explain it any better, but simply reiterated that they were making a new instrument like the one Maica had brought with them and they needed wood. Conversation was shared with the other Arboreals and they guided the Away Team further into the enclave, to a sort of lumber yard where choice pieces of wood were kept specifically for making instruments. There were workstations nearby with instruments in various stages of construction, but no tools seemed to be present. Shira looked to Maica.

"Is this what you need?" Shira asked Maica. "Do you need help finding good pieces?"

Maica looked around impressed. No tools? No signs of machining or anything? She could only assume they used their powers to craft things and hoped to see someone doing that before they left. "Yeah, this is perfect. I know what general kind of woods are needed, but I have to admit that I'm a bit lost on which pieces exactly would sound best, you know?" Maica wandered in a bit further, touching a few different pieces of wood experimentally.

Shira thought about Maica's quandary for a moment before taking the violin and showing her fellow Arboreals the instrument, lightly plucking the strings and listening to the wood. One of the other musicians took the violin and did the same. Shira then explained that Maica didn't know which wood to chose. The musicians took turns studying the foreign instrument and eventually started picking through the available planks for pieces that they felt would make lovely sounds.

Maica looked through the pieces they were picking out, admiring the wood's grain and tapping them now and then. Having a bit of an idea, she pulled the bow out of the case and set the violin to her chin, pulling out a few sample notes for them. It sounded ok, but it wasn't nearly as good as either of the violins Andy had given up for her.

The musicians hummed excitedly, fluttering closer to hear more.

Oh my, now she'd done it. Maica pulled out a PaDD and pressed play on it, starting into a song recorded using one of Andy's old violins. A few notes into it, she started playing the accompaniment piece that went with it.

The Arboreals were all curious about the small device that was producing sounds, but Shira kept them on task. they all noticed the difference in sound between the recordings. Preferring Andy's recordings, they began to pick out woods that would create a richer sound.

Maica relaxed, setting the replicated violin down and turning the recording off. It seemed they understood a lot more about the instrument now. So much that she expected them to have made some of their own special violins by the time she got back.

The arboreals presented Maica with their top choices for the wood. "These are best for you to chose," Shira translated for Maica, not that she needed it. The musicians hoped that Maica was pleased with the pieces they had chosen.

Maica looked over the pieces carefully, definitely happy with the choices. She just hoped she could do them justice. "How do you work the wood when you make instruments?" she sang questioningly. She'd of course have to use tools, but if they had a better way to initially shape the wood...

The question initially confused the musicians. How did they do it? How did Maica and her people do things? Shira was able to clarify that without the Arboreal trait of being able to move things with their mind they used tools. Understanding now that Maica required a demonstration of sorts, they took her to a workbench. One of the musicians took a piece of wood that would eventually become a soundboard for a lute sort of instrument and ran her hand over the surface of the wood, channeling her power into her hands to shave bits off the surface of the wood.

"Amazing..." Maica muttered. She thought it had to be something like this but actually seeing it... That would make crafting things a hundred times easier. "Thank you," she hummed, still in awe.

The Arboreals were glad to be of assistance to Maica and expressed this with a happy trilling sound. And now that this was out of the way, Shira wished to broach a different topic with Maica.

"Maica, if we are done, may I go with Verak?" Shira asked.

"Of course. I assume you want your family to meet him." Maica smiled warmly, her various pieces of wood packed up and ready to go.

"Yes, if that is alright," shira said, looking to Verak with a smile.

Verak's brow rose slightly and arched. He thought about that for a few moments, knowing that it would probably mean something of significance to Shira. He looked at her with his eyes, what some told him was a puppy dog look. "If that is what you would like, Shira. I would be honored to meet your family."

Shira smiled and took his hand. "Thank you, Maica," she said to the android then led Verak out of the grove.

"You two go have fun then. I'll be around here, enjoying the view and sounds." Maica said with a warm smile and a knowing twinkle in her eye.

Nathan came flying into the brig, Maica hot on his heals. He was surprised to see that Ensign Johns had let Ivan out of his cell.

"He started yelling and..."The Ensign stammered as his eyes fell on Maica.

"Spit it out Ensign, Where is The Chief?" Nathan demanded.

"There was a clicking noise, then some kind of portal opened and she floated into it. It closed behind her. I tried to grabbed her I did." Ivan explained, taking a step away from Maica

Oh shit, not again. Nathan slapped his com badge. =/\= Tonkin to t'Dharvanek. Shit just hit the fan again, you better get down to the brig. =/\=

There was the solid thud of a book being slammed shut, followed by a Romulan curse. =/\= I'm on my way. Give me two minutes. =/\= Jhu didn't know what was going on, but Nathan wouldn't call her down unless it was serious.

Maica did her best to remain calm. Her Andy had been kidnapped? More clicking sounds? She knew that clicking was bad news. If only Andy had gone to see the doctor. Glancing over at the S31 agents, Maica dismissed them as possible suspects. No, this wasn't their MO. They didn't use portals or make clicking noises. No, this only matched 2 sets of reports in her memory and both of them were marked as dangerous, non-negotiable, and often killed their abductees. She felt herself getting... Angry? Upset? Something else not in her programming. She did her best to calm herself though - this was no time to fly off the handle. Walking over to the nearest console, she typed up a request. "Solanogen based life forms that live in subspace and the Elachi. We haven't made any deflector modifications that I know of but that section 31 transporter combined with Andy's borg tech may have had unforeseen reactions. As for the Elachi, there have been no reports of activity anywhere near here. Anyway, they're 2 possibilities that I can recall similar instances with."

Jhu wasted no time in getting to the brig, evidenced by her casual dress and loose hair - still damp from a recent shower. A quick look was all she needed to know tgat something terrible had just happened. Andy was missing. Judging by how Ivan was shaking, he'd seen it happen. "What are we looking at here?"

"What is a Solanogen based life for? More important, how do we track where they took Andy?" Nathan said as he moved to a work station and recalled the security footage. "Over here, Jhu."

"Solanogen... that sounds familiar." Curious and concerned, Jhu met Nathan at the work station. "Show me."

Maica pulled up the logs she remembered from the Enterprise D and read through them again. "Unfortunately the logs we have don't say much about them."

Once the security feed finished Nathan sighed. "Can I have just one week where something does not get on this ship that's not supposed to be here? I swear to god I feel like I can't do my job."

"Preaching to the choir, love." Jhu sighed, shaking her head. It took a tremendous amount of willpower not to simply lose her temper, but she managed. Barely. "We need a way to scan for them or we'll never find her."

"Dash, confined to quarters. Johns, take him." Nathan instructed.

Ensign Johns escorted Ivan out of the brig.

"You had better at lest let Tegan know." Nathan suggested as he slapped his combadge.

=/\= "Vara, I need you in the brig please." =/\=

"I'll tell him as soon as we have something to tell him. I call him now and he'll ask for more information." Jhu hated this helpless feeling; it made her want to break things. She'd known about Andy's clicking, but she'd never pressed Andy about it.

"Your call." Nathan said. "I'll get to work on figuring out a way to get that...what ever it is open again so we can go get Andy. You take Maica and I'll take Morgan?" He waited for acknowledgement from her.

"Yeah. That's fine. Morgan's not my biggest fan." Jhu smirked a little. "We'll find her."

"He wants a double date with us and his nurse friend, he must like you on some level." Nathan said, but he left her hanging with that and slapped his combadge,

=/\= "Morgan, its Tonkin. I need your help. Will you meet me in the brig please?"=/\=

Will was in the Operations Office when he got the call. =/\= "Sure, I'm on my way, Morgan Out." =/\=

Will secured the PADD's on the desk and left the office heading for the brig. It didn't take him long to arrive and he saw the commotion in the room. Will headed over to Nathan. "Let me guess, another party I wasn't invited to?" He asked as he looked around the brig...and then he noticed something.

"Erm... Where is Andy?"

Vara walked in by then, her hair still wet and loose from bathing. "You needed me, sir? Need something or someone punched into submission?" she asked as she glanced towards the 2 S31 agents.

"Vara, Morgan you are with me. The question we need answered is not where is Andy, but how did they take her. We need to figure out the how so we can go get her back. Maica, we need access to Andy's alcove. I personally promise you no funny business with it." Nathan rattled off.

Will nodded as Nathan gave his orders and began thinking of a way to try and locate Andy and find out where she had gone to...or been taken to. He knew from their time on the Lexington that as Andy had an alcove there were ways to track her. He knew that when there were times that she'd been taken from her alcove, it logged all of Andy's readings. He also recalled that her borg implants gave off very unique sensor signatures which offered a second option of tracking her... But all of this relied on access to her alcove which Will hoped Maica would be ok with.

"I have a few suggestions," Will offered.

Maica was pretty distracted. Her love had been arrested and having not even been in the brig more than an hour was already kidnapped and missing. She was feeling an urge to exhibit more unusual behavior - breaking something. "Yeah, go for it." They wanted access to Andy's alcove? If it helped track her down, sure. "I found a likely way to detect the portals if it happens again in the logs from the Enterprise D. Lieutenant Morgan, can you understand what they're talking about?" Maica asked as she motioned to the display she was looking at.

Will looked over the various logs on the display panel in front of Maica and himself as he read through the details of the incident on the Enterprise D, picking up on the details of the situation. "Don't worry Maica, I understand whats going on here, I have a few ideas up my sleeve to get Andy back," Will assured her.

"No one will touch the alcove until you say it's okay," Jhu said softly, knowing how particular Andy was about who touched the alcove. "Tell us how we'd detect the portals."

"From this information, it seems the biggest clue to these subspace ruptures appearing anywhere on the ship are locating tetyron emissions, which when increased in strength, open the rupture in the desired location," Will explained as he mentally checked his own theories. "But there is a way to close the rupture once its opened, meaning we should be able to locate Andy and rescue her. But we will need use of the alcove to do that."

Nathan pulled out a tricorder and started scanning the area where Andy had been taken. "The footage of the incident is on that panel over there." Nathan said to Vara and Morgan. "Feel free to watch it. What do you you have for me Will?"

Will headed over to the panel Nathan indicated to before explaining his theory's to the others. "Ok, we know that Andy has active borg implants in her body from her period of assimilation years ago during the Battle of Sector 001. Now those implants that have remained active after her recovery give off a specific signal can be traced, meaning that once a subspace rupture is opened we can locate Andy and bring her back to the ship," Will explained as he also watched the footage of her abduction.

"Once we have located Andy and returned her to the ship, we need to close the rupture using a device that emits a cohesive graviton beam," he finished, hoping his theory was understood by all.

Vara understood enough to realize something. "It sounds like my subspace tetryon scramblers were responsible for these aliens finding us. The rest of it I don't entirely understand other than that's what we should be able to do. I can see if I can put together a tactical assessment on force needed and all that but I'm not sure what help I'll be until the actual rescue mission."

"I should have made her go see the doctor. We might have had a bit more warning." Maica said, still very upset. "I'm going on that rescue mission. I trust you all to bring her back, but I feel I have to be there too. Especially since they've apparently been sneaking her out of bed without me noticing."

Will could see that getting Andy back wasn't just a priority to him only. He was aware of Maica being in a relationship with Andy and how close she was to the others. "I can rig up a device to send out the graviton beam to close the ruptures once Andy is returned," Will offered into the situation, "I can also setup a tricorder to track her borg implant signatures. Either way, you need me here to make sure you all can get back."

Nathan was only picking up a subspace distortion on hisome tricorder, nothing they didn't already know about.

"Will, do what ever you need to do to get that thing opened and closed behind us. Use any resources you need. Vara, go get us some phaser rifles, we are going to need them. Oh and bring that rookie back with you as well. Jhu, if you need to let any know about this now is the time because we are going in." Nathan said giving out orders. Andy had come for him, nothing was going to stop him from going after her. He stepped over to Maica. "I don't think you going into a combat situation is a good idea."

Maica stared at him for a few seconds, ire in her expression and stance. "And why is that? How do you even know it'll be a combat zone? What if you can't read the consoles? If this is because I'm a non-combat Diplomat..." Maica paused a moment, redirecting her argument a bit. “Yes I’m a diplomat. I fight with words in political arenas. Right now I’m a pissed off diplomat and I feel like using aggressive negotiation strategies. On top of that, when you were kidnapped, who did you want to see most? Who did you want charging through that door? Who did you know would stop at nothing to get you back?" Maica paused again for dramatic effect. "I'd like to think I'm that person for Andy. Besides that, there’s only one way you can stop me from going and I don’t think you have the balls to shoot me and lock me up."

"She has a point," Jhu remarked evenly. "I'm going to call Tegan. He might have some input on this and he needs to know." She quietly stepped away, tapping ger commbadge as she did so. "t'Dharvanek to Tegan. We have a situation in the brig. Can you meet me down here?"

Will left the room and headed to the turbolift. He knew that one deck down was a particle generator he could engineer to work through the beam spectrums he required to both open a rupture and close it, offering a chance for Nathan's team to go and rescue her. He met with an Operations Crewman who helped him take the generator out of its compartment and move it to the turbolift.

"My balls may not be big enough, but if I ever need to shoot you and lock you up rest assured my trigger finger is plenty big enough. Your failed attempt to insult my masculinity aside, I should point out that you out rank me and have the right to go on any away mission. My objection has been noted but I have no authority to tell you no. It's my job to protect you, not tell you what you can and can't do." Nathan pointed out. "Get a phaser. " he said to Maica.

Vara headed to the brig weapons locker, unlocking 4 phaser rifles and a couple pistols before tapping her comm badge. "Ensign Leryssa Kiska, please report to the brig." Carrying the weapons to the table, she handed them out to Jhu and Nathan before facing Maica with one in her hands. "Do you need me to familiarize you with the standard phaser rifle?"

"No, I think I remember how they work. Pointy end towards what you want to hit, trigger, safety, targeting system. Yeah that looks familiar." Maica said, taking the weapon and looking it over. "Nathan, Sorry about the balls comment. I just want Andy back."

Nathan waved Maica off and took his rifle. "I want Andy back also, don't worry about it. Set to kill..."

Will returned a few minutes later with the particle generator and two crewmen carrying backup power units and he set to work attching the units to the particle generator. As he worked, he looked over at Nathan's team noticing the phaser rifles and failed to hold back a smirk. "Have you got enough firepower?" he asked.

"Yeah I got my shadow with me. We're good." Nathan said with all seriousness.

Vara blushed just slightly at the use of her nickname so casually in front of others. "Sir, I remind you I'm still injured from my last 2 combat encounters. It might be advisable not to rely too heavily on me."

Sighting her phaser rifle at the floor, Maica had a thought. "Vara, do you have a targeting subroutine I might be able to use? I'd rather not have to relearn how to shoot from scratch with my new body."

Shaking her head, Vara sighed. An android with potentially comparable accuracy to her own augments and implants and she didn't even know how to shoot? Another one she'd have to fill in for... "I don't think our systems are entirely compatible. Neither do I have a way of transferring my own software to a PaDD without throwing every nearby replicator into a tizzy for hours. I can give you some basic instruction though..."

Leryssa had just entered the brig, Phaser rifle held in both hands, "Sorry if I'm late, I still haven't gotten around to studying the rest of the deck specs of this ship yet, and I ended up getting a little lost on my way here." She admitted albeit a little shyly.

Will finished up working through the settings on the particle generator and ran a final diagnostic check with his tricorder to make sure it would work with stability in trying to produce two different types of particle beam. Satisfied it would hold up, he picked up a second tricorder and went over to a computer panel on the wall. "Computer, take an algarithmic sample of standard life signs and borg implant signal outputs from Operations Chief Carters alcove and download it to this tricorder," Will requested as he setup a remote transfer link from the alcove to the terminal he stood at.

"Transfer complete," the computer confirmed after a few moments. Picking up the tricorder, Will walked over to Nathan with it. "Ok, this should help you find Andy. It has a sample of her bio-signature and a sample of the frequency signal that her implants give off. Thats two ways to locate her," he explained to him.

Nathan took the tricorder. "Good work lieutenant. Rookie, there is going to be combat. You are authorized to use deadly force. Maica, you are to stick to me like superglue. I do not want to ever have to look for you, clear?" Nathan said, then he mumbled to Maica "I don't even want to think what Andy would do to me if I let you get hurt."

"She'd skin you with a spoon." Having relayed the situation to Cam and told him they were going after Andy now whether he liked it or not, Jhu rejoined the group. "I'm going with you."

"I'll be right beside you the whole time." Maica confirmed, nodding. "We also have a third way to find her once we're close. She has a distinct mix of smells."

Will went over to Nathan and patted him on the shoulder. "Bring her back home," he said quietly before heading back to the generator. "I'm ready with the particle generator. I can produce a rupture when you ready," he advised, taking hold of the tricorder and monitoring the readings from it.

"Just keep the door open for us. Let do this." Nathan said.

The pitch darkness began to fade and lighten. Slowly at first, but then faster and faster. Soon, between the shimmering, a blurry figure could be seen. As the surroundings began to clear, it was obvious they were in a room. After a few more moments, Arivek Zhuri was standing in an empty set of quarters alongside a Trill man in a gold uniform.

He sighed, though it was an empty feeling, and looked around. “Are we here?” he asked, flexing his hands.

The other man nodded, “Yes, sir.”

Arivek’s shoulders fell as he looked at the man. “What have I told you about that. You never call me sir.” He walked closer and placed a hand on the man’s cheek.

A tear formed and made a slow trek down the Trill’s face. “I’m going to miss you so much,” he said, placing his hand atop the other man’s.

“I told you, this isn’t goodbye. We will see each other again.” As he said it, Arivek wasn’t sure if he even believed what he was saying. “I just need some time to myself. Some time to figure all this out. Jolyn, you have to understand that.”

The other Trill pulled away and walked to the windows that overlooked the planet’s nighttime landscape. “I’m not saying I don’t understand. But you have to know where I’m coming from. This is hard for me.”

“And you don’t think this isn’t hard for me?” Arivek asked, raising his voice. After a few breaths, he looked at the man, “I”m sorry, I shouldn’t have shouted. I’m just…”

“I know,” Jolyn said, coming over the man and taking him in his arms. “I know this hasn’t been easy for you. For either of us.”

Arivek melted into the man’s arms and closed his eyes. “Thank you for understanding. And like I said, this isn’t forever.”

The other Trill nodded and squeezed tighter, knowing he couldn’t hurt the blue man. “You know where to find me ok?”

Breaking the hug, Arivek nodded. “Thank you for bringing my program here. You didn’t have to make this trip.”

“But I did. And I would again.” Jolyn leaned in and gave Arivek a soft kiss. “I love you.”

In what seemed like a blur, Arivek’s belongings were brought in and Jolyn left to return to Twilight Station and the Lieutenant was soon standing alone in his quarters.

With a sigh, he picked up the PADD that was currently housing his program. “Computer transfer program Arivek Zhuri from PADD interface into the Computer’s databanks.”

With a chirp of confirmation, Arivek’s body blinked out for a moment and soon returned. As he looked around the room, he decided that now was not the time to unpack nor did he want to get to work right away.

“Computer, deactivate Arivek Zhuri,” and he shimmered and disappeared.

[ON]

Twelve hours.

M'rayr had been on board the Katana for a full twelve hours. While many of the crew had decided to visit the planet below, he'd opted to remain aboard, both to familiarize himself with the Intrepid-class starship, and to think. Captain Kristopher Kerouac – a child of one of humanity’s most tormented worlds; someone with a criminal past of his own; supposedly redeemed by a career in Starfleet, Commander Jhu t’Dharvanek – a Romulan and fittingly former Section 31 operative. Senior Chief Andy Carter – an ex-Borg troublemaker. When Admiral Hayes had mentioned a certain leadership problem on board the Katana, M’rayr considered the man to be exaggerating. Now, he wasn’t so sure.

There was a chirp at his door. A visitor.

“Come,” the Caitian announced with a subtle growl.

Jhu entered as bidden, her expression unreadable. As the door closed behind her, she produced a PaDD and dropped it in M'rayr's lap. "I don't know what sort of game you think you're playing, but if you thought you could pull the wool over my eyes, you were sadly mistaken."

For a long moment, M'rayr did nothing. He continued to look at Jhu as if expecting her to continue. Then, he reached into his lap, withdrew the PaDD, and thumbed it active. A video/audio recording awaited him.

“I have an assignment for you, Commander,” an Admiral Jethro Hayes announced. How Jhu had gotten a hold of this recording was something that, even in the back of his mind, M'rayr could not even begin to fathom. More importantly, however, was why Hayes had had their meeting recorded at all. "You've heard of the Katana? The Katana is a good ship, and for the most part it has a good crew. Unfortunately, the Command Staff has, in Starfleet’s opinion, left something to be desired.”

“Let me ask you something, Commander. How would you like to be in Command of the Katana in the next six months?”

The Caitian thumbed at the screen again, halting the playback. He set the PaDD down on the table calmly, as if the recoding had done little to perturb him. "Your aptitude for intelligence gathering is remarkable, Commander," M'rayr said in a tone neutral voice. He tilted his head, gazing at the Romulan/Trill hybrid curiously. As far as his own reports indicated, she was no longer affiliated with Section 31. But getting this report clearly took something in terms of resources.

"You'd think so, but that was remarkably easy to find. As if he wanted it to be found." Jhu wouldn't tell him just how easy it was; she didn't want him knowing it was an old Section 31 colleague who had sent it. "I don't expect a straight answer... I'm not dumb enough to think you trust me enough to tell me. But I'm warning you... this crew is a family. You do anything that might destroy it, and I will personally guarantee that you regret it, regardless of the consequences."

"This family is deeply dysfunctional," M'rayr said after a pause, his voice irritably calm.

Jhu folded her arms over her chest, regarding him coolly. "How so?"

M'rayr flicked his ear to one side. "You are a Section 31 operative whose past has already caused at least one death as well as numerous injuries, including the near fatality of Captain Kristopher Kerouac. Your Chief of Operations might have instigated an all-out war between the Federation and the Undine because she couldn't follow orders. Lieutenant Tonkin, the Katana's Chief of Security, as well as your lover, nearly died in Section 31 custody while his imposter was able to move freely and unabated through this vessel for several days before being discovered," M'rayr stood up to his full height. He interlaced his paws and set them at his waist. "And your commanding officer is an alcoholic battling severe... almost crippling... depression over the loss of his fiancé.

"Excuse me?" Jhu's cool demeanor rapidly transitioned to cold fury then furious burning anger. "First. I am a former Section 31 operative, and they've made multiple attempts on my life. Second. The impostor had a suicide chip that activated, and DeLancer was trying to murder me. Third, Kris is a recovering alcoholic, not a crippled one, which you'd know if you actually talked to the man instead if trusting what that old fool Hayes told you." She glared up at him, not at all intimidated by his height or gruff appearance. "Chief Carter was arrested and put in the brig for her actions, on my orders. What are you going to accuse me of next? Because I can't wait to hear it, Whiskers."

Whiskers, how original... M'rayr thought wryly. But he'd struck a nerve, at least. And nothing in Jhu's retort convinced him that what Hayes -- as obvious as the man was in his intent -- had said was wrong. The Caitian reached down, picked up the PaDD, and held it out to the Romulan/Trill hybrid, waiting for her to take it. "As I stated, deeply dysfunctional."

Jhu snatched the PaDD from his hand, resisting a powerful urge to smash it against something. His head, perhaps. "You're entitled to your opinion, but at least try forming your own instead of believing a power drunk old man who hates us for simply existing. You might find he's wrong."

Without responding immediately, M'rayr stepped over to a shelf and snuffed out three candles that had been burning incense in order to neutralize the smell left over by the Katana's former First Officer, Cameron Tegan. As the incense cleared over several seconds, the Caitian took several deep sniffs in the air. Better... he thought. The room no longer smelled like blood wine and sex.

What Jhu hadn't taken into account was that he’d been ordered to the Katana by an entire board of Admirals, not merely Hayes alone. Jethro Hayes, a human known by his habit of applying a wealth of his power and influence in order to affect his personal and/or political agenda, merely desired to use M'rayr's appointment to the role of Executive Officer to his advantage. But the fact that there was a political chess match going on between Kerouac and Hayes couldn’t be ignored, either.

And given the current climate, even in a neutral capacity, M’rayr’s impression of Kerouac and the rest of the senior staff would carry a lot of weight back at Starfleet Headquarters.

Out of the corner of his eye, he regarded the PaDD shaking in her hand for a moment, and was curious as to whether she'd been the only one to read its contents, or if there'd been others as well. Such evidence would easily throw most of the senior staff against him should he choose not to offer his own explanation. She had made a reasonable point. What if Hayes had leaked the recording intentionally in order to force his paw?

M'rayr finally faced Jhu. "Your attitude on this matter is noted. Now was there anything else, Commander?"

"No." Despite how her hands shook with anger, Jhu's tone was remarkably flat. But as angry as she was at M'rayr for hiding his part in this, it was Hayes she held a special ire for. "Watch your back, Whiskers. And I don't mean because of this crew. Hayes is up to something, and he'll throw you out the airlock with us."

M'rayr waited for Jhu to leave and the doors closed before replying.

"I am aware..."

[OFF]

Nathan gathered up the several PaDD's that he wanted to bring with him. Commander Tegan had made it back and after what had happened; all of what happened, Nathan figured that a chat with the current CO was in order. Also, he had seen the orders that Cam was leaving Katana. It was too bad, Nathan was finally starting to have a better working relationship with Cam.

"Computer, locate Commander Tegan please." Nathan said out loud, putting his duty jacket on and zipping it up.

=/\= Lieutenant Commander Tegan is in his quarters, =/\= The computer replied stoically.

Nathan quickly made his way to the Commanders quarters and pressed the call button. He hoped he was not interrupting him.

Cameron Tegan was still overcoming the sense of shock and surprise that came with his new orders. Holding the PaDD in hand, he only barely heard the audible chime of his door telling him that someone was waiting on the other side. Maica had already left while leaving behind a bottle of something very tasty but very strong -- bloodwine quality. He'd barely been on board the Katana a month and now he was being reassigned? It was difficult to fathom.

Being Chief of Security it really bothered him when people didn't answer the door right away. He always had the momentary thought of rushing in phaser drawn. But for all he knew Cam was busy with...who knows. He hit the call button one last time.

"Come," Cameron instructed, only now becoming aware of the chime.

Nathan entered and stopped just inside the door. "Busy?" He asked. "I have a few things for you. Some of them work related."

Work related, Cameron thought. In a little while, those responsibilities would be passed to someone else. But not wanting to alert Tonkin, Cameron forced a smile and waved to the empty sofa. "Have a seat, Nathan. For the moment, it seems that I have all the time in the world. How can I help you?"

Nathan took a seat. "Rumors fly around thus ship like flies to shit." Nathan said looking over at Cameron. "Is it true you have been reassigned? "

"I see that the ship's rumor mill is hard at work as always," Cameron said in acknowledgement. He reached for the PADD with his new orders and passed it to Nathan. "Yes, I've been reassigned. Orders to take effect once we arrive at the colony. I've been give command of a Sabre-class, the USS Kuwait. Don't ask me who the new XO will be because, in truth, I don't have a clue." Cameron admitted.

"Your own command! Congrat Cam, you deserve it." Nathan was not one for long sentiments and he was sure Cam was not either so he got down to business. " First of all I would like to tell you that I'm sorry for keeping the Section 31 information under wraps. It was not my call and I would not have kept it from you had the order not come directly form the captain." Nathan handed Cam a PaDD. "This is my complete report on everything I know about including a very detailed outline of what I went through while in captivity, read at your own risk. Its very graphic."

Cameron took the PaDD reluctantly and studied it without turning on the display, as if he were reluctant to read its contents. No doubt, what Nathan had gone through was particularly traumatic, even for someone like him. "I'll consider it," Cameron said, setting the PaDD down for now. If he was going to read it, it wouldn't be with its victim present. At the same time, Section 31 had become a thorn in his side, and Cameron was convinced that it would need to be dealt with, if even just by a few Starfleet Captains. "Speaking of which, how are you?" Cameron asked. No doubt Lia was already working with Nathan over his experiences, but it couldn't hurt to ask.

"I'm doing very well sir, thank you for asking." Nathan said. "Still getting use to the prosthetic but medical says that I'm adapting very well. Lucky for Jhu I find that the repetitive and matched action of rubbing back has helped me get use to it faster. She's not complaining." He said with a bit of a chuckle.

Cameron grinned. If anything, he was going to miss the corny love romance between Jhu and Nathan. But something told Cameron that Nathan's progress towards normalcy was due in no small part to her presence. "I'm sure," he said, standing up and walking towards a cabinet that, at least for another day or so, held his small cache of alcohol. Of his collection was the bottle that Nathan had brought him several weeks ago as an attempt to mend broken fences. The effort had worked, and the bottle was down by a solid third. But Cameron had been keeping the rest for a good occasion. He poured out two generous glasses, passing one to him. "Few people could have gone through what you did and come out as intact... both physically and emotionally. As someone who usually makes an effort to find himself in relationships, I have to say, Jhu is good for you."

"She is incredible." Nathan agreed with Cam. "And on that note, thank you. I'm not sure exactly what you said to her but Jhu said that you helped her through a tough time while I was gone. I owe you one for being there for her when I could not." Nathan. Took the glass and smelled it, then he took a long sip.

It hadn't occurred to Cameron that what he had said was relevant, particularly to someone like Jhu. "I have no idea what you're talking about," he lied playfully, taking a long sip. It stung in a way that felt glorious.

"If you say so sir..." Nathan said and took a sip of his drink. "My last bit of business I have for you is a simple request. I'm sure you are aware of our tribble problem. I have rounded up all the tribble in cargo bay two and Chief O'Connor has found a suitable planet to drop them off at." Nathan handed over one of the PaDD. " Bopak III is suitable and has several life forms that could be a predator. If I could have an hour in orbit on the way I will have this tribble problem wrapped up."

Cameron took the other PaDD and studied it. Dealing with Tribbles is a lot easier than reading Nathan's after action review over what happened during his captivity. The trick with Tribbles was that they needed a natural predator, otherwise they completely overwhelm the native ecology. Based on what he was reading about Bopak III, it sounded like a reasonable option. "I'll make the necessary arrangements with Kerouac and Collins," Cameron grinned wryly. "It could very well be my last act on this ship -- helping to save a few hundred Tribbles."

"Won't you just be the hero." Nathan said holding his glass out to him. "Commander Tegan, savior of the tribbles...has a nice ring to it."

Cameron grinned. "Just as long as it isn't heard by a Klingon. We... they, hate the things."

"So I have a gift for you." Nathan said with a wily grin. "This gift comes with a reminder. Security, on all Star Fleet vessels have sensors in all public areas." He handed Cam two PaDD's. "One of them I'm sure you will be glad to have...the other one...Lets just say that I loved the part where you puke on her." Nathan leaned back and took a sip from his glass.

Resisting the urge to cringe, Cameron took the PaDDs. The first PaDD showed him with a certain Chief of Operations in the public shower. That was a nice time; one he wouldn't be forgetting in the near future. The second one was set on what looked like a record of the evening that Cameron had ingested some of the Chef's 'Plasma-leak soup' along with Hayley who was drugged. "First thing I'll have disabled aboard the Kuwait," he joked wryly. "I'm assuming this 'gift' means that these records have been removed from the Katana's main computer?"

Nathan nodded, "Indeed they have." Nathan took a long drink from his glass.

Cameron let out a chortle. "I owe you one," he added. Eventually, he set down the PaDD and interlaced his fingers over his lap. "I appreciate the gift. While I can't say this promotion was anticipated, or even wanted given that I just came aboard, I can say with some degree of certainty that the Kuwait's crew is going to have a hard time matching par with this one. You might have been a pain in the ass from time to time, but you're a good officer. Maybe if we'd had more time to get to know one another, even a good friend."

"I would have liked that, but its how Star Fleet works sometimes. For what its worth, you were an excellent first officer. Even if you were a pain in the ass sometimes." Nathan replied with a chuckle. "It will take a lot to fill your place on this ship. A short time yes, but you were a fantastic fit for this crew."

"I appreciate it," Cameron replied.

After talking with M'rayr, Jhu was - understandably - pissed off. Regardless of the answer he'd given Hayes, she didn't trust the cat. Not one iota. Whether he intended to take the admiral's offer or not, he was already ruffling feathers... especially hers. She didn't know if it was her training or her ancestry, but she was damned suspicious of him.

And she needed a drink. Or ten. So it was Maica's cabin she sought, ringing the chime twice when she'd meant to only ring it once.

Maica was a little upset herself what with all the extra comm traffic through diplomatic channels lately. "Come in. Come in." She wondered who it could be.

"Don't ask questions yet," Jhu said immediately upon entering, her agitation bubbling close to the surface. "Tell me you've got something strong, sweet, and calming hidden away in here. Otherwise another replicator might get broken."

"Don't have to be psychic for that," Maica muttered as she picked a small honey colored bottle off a shelf and tossed it to Jhu. "Just drink from the bottle. It's worth it."

"That obvious, am I?" Jhu snagged the golden bottle out of the air, giving it a quizzical look as she carefully popped the cap off and gave its contents an exploratory sniff before tasting a sip. "Damn, girl. You know how to deliver."

"Best sit down. Carnwennan honey liqueur is surprisingly strong." Maica sat on the couch and leaned back, waiting for Jhu to tell her what's going on.

Jhu obediently flopped down into a chair, taking another tiny sip of the sweet liquid. "The new fuzzball is trouble."

"By fuzzball I assume you mean our illustrious new Caitian XO." Maica said. "Sent here by the infamous Admiral Hayes?"

"Why, yes. Yes, I do. That furry bastard accused me of nearly getting Kris killed! Like it's my fault that Section 31 can't leave well enough alone." Jhu scowled rather darkly, her displeasure at the accusation clear. "Hayes offered him the ship."

"Offered him... I'll work on the political side of things. I haven't met him yet, but his rank is provisional, right? Very rare..." Maica was pondering things now.

"Yeah, but he still outranks me until I can take the test." Jhu heaved a long sigh. "Then he'll have seniority and he'll still be first officer."

"Congrats on your promotion. I've been meaning to give you something..." Getting up and heading to her desk for a moment, Maica grabbed a PaDD and handed it to Jhu. "A study guide for that test. Sort of a study guide... It's more of a cheat sheet for most ranks up to commodore."

Jhu looked at the PaDD for a moment then laughed, lightening up a bit. "This is fantastic. I'll be in so much trouble if someone catches me using it, but I'm sure as hell going to study it. Thanks, Maica."

Maica just shrugged and flopped back on the couch. "How do you think so many diplomats make rank so fast? Anyway, I know you'll keep it safe. As for Admiral Hayes, his name keeps crossing my desk."

"Does it really?" Jhu hadn't drunk much of the honey liquor, but her head was already starting to feel fuzzy, and she couldn't think of why the admiral's name would cross Maica's desk. "What's the context?"

"His office is sending out messages and orders via diplomatic channels all over the place rather than using the normal channels for them." Maica explained.

"That's weird." Jhu knew she should be concerned, but she was too mellowed out from the drink Maica had given her. "This stuff's dangerous. Is it even legal?"

"Not in the slightest." Maica giggled with a big smile. "Much more and I'll have to call Nathan and have him carry you home."

"You might have to anyway." Jhu snickered, reaching to place the little bottle on a nearby table. "You would give me illegal booze and laugh when a couple shots is enough to get me drunk. You're a terrible influence."

"Probably. It's effective though, isn't it?" Maica said with a twinkle in her eye. "So tell me more about this new XO. I haven't met him yet."

"He's... furry. Really tall. Only has one eye. Doesn't talk much... wouldn't say if he took the offer. I don't like him." Jhu blinked a few times, wondering if she'd drunk too much of the golden liquid.

"Sounds interesting. I'll have to look into him a bit deeper. Most Caitians I know are rather talkative, though admittedly they're almost all bureaucrats and ambassadors." Maica didn't have much to go on with Jhu's description, but the fact that she didn't like him was sign enough of trouble.

"Yeah, he's weird. Not like R'tame. R'tame is nice. Eisovo is... gruff. Kinda mean. And cold. He seems cold to me."

"Hmm... One of them..." Maica pulled a small flask out of her uniform and took a swig from it before tucking it back away. "Any advice for my first meeting with him?"

"Yeah." Jhu giggled quietly. "Don't call him 'Whiskers'."

"Call him Whiskers. Got it." Maica said teasingly.

Jhu giggled some more. "On second thought... do it. Because it might be funny."

"I'll try to be diplomatic about it at least." Maica said with a smile.

"Yeah... try that." Jhu grinned lazily. "I should probably go home before I make a total fool of myself."

"Want me to call Nathan? Can you stand ok?" Maica asked, getting up to lend Jhu a hand if she needed it.

"Maybe." Jhu wasn't sure which question she was answering until she stood up and promptly fell back into the chair, giggling a little. "Stand, yes. Walk? No. Too dizzy for that."

Maica just giggled and tapped her communicator. =/\="Maica to Tonkin. Can you please come to my quarters?"

=/\=" Yeah Maica, what's up?"=/\= Nathan asked.

Curling up in the chair, Jhu perked up slightly at the sound of Nathan's voice but wisely kept her mouth shut for the moment.

=/\="Jhu needs help walking home. I gave her something dangerously strong." Maica explained.

=/\= "Heh I'll be right there."=/\= Nathan said heading to her room.

"You're not kidding. Where did you even get that stuff?" Jhu snickered a little, feeling 'fuzzier' by the minute even though she'd stopped drinking from the bottle several minutes ago.

Maica had to think on that one for a few seconds. "I believe it was a very appreciative 'trader' that needed some clarification on Ferengi trade regulations regarding some illicit cargo."

"Remind me to never ask you for something strong again. You're a devious woman, Maica." Jhu did have to admit she'd asked for the strong stuff, but she'd never imagined that Maica would give her something like that.

"Right. Nothing that can knock a Gorn out in one sip. Gotcha." Maica couldn't help but giggle a bit.

"...I'm screwed, aren't I?" Jhu couldn't help giggling as she wondered just how much worse she was going to get before this wore off.

"If by that you mean you're getting laid tonight, I'd say that's likely. Your pheromones are through the roof." Maica said with a chuckle.

"Not what I meant, but now that you mention it..." Jhu grinned, stretching so that her body draped over the arm of the chair.

Nathan walked up to the door and hit the call button.

"Come in," Maica called, the doors opening.

Nathan stepped into Maicas room and looked between the two ladies as the door shut behind him. "Having fun with out me?"

Maica chuckled a bit more, leaning back on the couch. "I think at least one of us would rather have fun with you."

"That's a more... appealing option." Jhu snickered a little. "Maica got me drunk."

Nathan laughed, "Good, I'm sure you needed the girl time."

"Mmm. Yeah, I did." Jhu didn't think what she'd said was quite that funny, but she grinned again anyway.

"Yeah, I think we've talked about Commander Whiskers enough. You two go have fun, ok?" Maica said with a mischievous grin.

"Commander Whiskers?" Nathan said and walked over to help Jhu up.

"Eisovo. He's... fuzzy." Jhu took Nathan's hand and pulled herself up, practically falling into his arms.

"And our new Caitian overlord. I'm sure you'll hear about him later though." Maica said.

Nathan scooped Jhu up into his arms. "I keep carrying you through the halls like this and people are going to start talking." He said to Jhu, nuzzling her neck a little.

"Let 'em." Jhu kissed him, putting her arms around his neck.

Nathan kissed her back with passion. He decided it would be best to ask about the new XO later. Once the kiss broke he looked to Maica. "What exactly did you give her and do you have more? "

"I gave her Carnwennan honey liqueur. Two or three sips I think." Maica said with a knowing grin. "Care for a taste? Oh and make sure she takes that PaDD with her. She'll need it."

"Will you hand it to me?" Nathan held his hand out for the PaDD. "What is it?"

Maica stood, picked up the PaDD and handed it to Nathan. "It's a study guide," Maica said mischievously.

"Speaking of study guides, " Nathan said taking the PaDD, "that book you lent me is very interesting. The zero g one..."

"Zero-g?" Jhu gave them both a suspicious look. "Zero-g what?"

"The Orion Zero-G Kama Sutra." Maica said innocently.

"Zero-g sex?" Jhu would never admit it, but the Trill part of her brain was intrigued.

"We should take some holodeck time." Nathan said with a wink.

"We should make it a 4 way." Maica said even more innocently, yet with a mischievous twinkle in her eye.

"I knew it. You crashed our holodeck party on purpose." Jhu snickered, not objecting to the idea. "You're just jealous because Andy had sex with us."

"You have that backwards." Maica said with a pervy grin. "I'm jealous because you had sex with Andy in a turbolift and I wasn't there."

Nathan rolled his eyes. "Ok time to go. Say good night."

Jhu snickered quietly. "Good night, Maica."

Maica giggled happily. "Good night, both of you."

In a pocket of space constructed within subspace existed a lab. It was so dark and the clicking sound was making Chief Petty Officer Andrea Carter lose her grasp on reality. They were doing something to her, that much she knew, but she couldn't seem to get a fix on who they were or what exactly they were doing to her. Sometimes she would catch glimpse of them just out of the corner of her eye, but it wasn't consistent with what was being written into her memory engrams. In her memories, all she could recall were Borg, and instead of clicking she heard the oppressive sound of the Collective, but whatever these things were they weren't acting like Borg and the teeming voices she heard were without the cohesion and order that should have been there. Everything was so confusing in her head. What were they doing to her? Why couldn't she move, and why couldn't she remember clearly?

[Brig]

Will turned on the particle generator and built up the power to be able to create a rupture by increasing the tetryon flow in stages. Within a few minutes the power reached the desired level and Will opened up the beam, creating a growing rupture in the nearside wall. He monitored the rupture with his tricorder as it beeped, confirming it was reaching the desired threshold. "If your gonna go, nows the time Lieutenant," he advised.

Nathan lead the way, walking right into the rupture.

Maica wasn't far behind, sticking close to Nathan. Blinking a few times, she adjusted her vision to the darkness. "Maybe we should have brought flashlights too."

Vara was just behind them, her rifle at the ready as she scanned the dark room. "I'm detecting several unfamiliar biosigns not far from here. One of them is registering as borg. I'll have to recalibrate my radar though. This space is reading strangely."

"We'll cover you while you calibrate. I need you at your best, Vara." Jhu looked around the dark room, not able to see much aside from vague shapes that represented furniture and other obstacles. Slowly, her vision cleared and sharpened, but only enough to navigate. Not enough to fight safely, should they need to do that. "I don't suppose either of you have flashlight implants," she said dryly.

"I can make my eyes glow red..." Maica said equally dryly. "Aren't these rifles supposed to have lights on them? I know Vara and I can see fine, but you two..."

Vara snapped around, bringing her rifle to bear on a deeply shadowed area of the room. "I'm done and we're not alone in here. The lifesign registers as human. There are 14 other bio signs within 100 meters, 1 is definitely borg. We'll need to get closer to see if it's Andy though."

Nathan pulled a light attachment from his belt and snapped it to his rifle. He clicked it on and looked around the room. "Rescue whom ever you can, but our objective is Andy."

"Not all of us brought our Batman equipment belts," Jhu deadpanned, calming 'borrowing' a second light from Nathan when he wasn't looking.

Heading over to where Vara had indicated, Maica's eyes started glowing red faintly as she looked over some sort of pod with someone inside. Tapping some controls, the pod opened with a hiss and a whoosh. "Crewman Daniels. Vara, are you sure you're picking up those human lifesigns?"

Vara grunted in reply. "I was until you opened the pod."

The Solanogen-based lifeforms working on Andy in the main area of the lab were aware of their intruders and were now trying to close the rift that had brought the away team here, leaving Andy unattended for a moment. Unable to move to try to investigate, all she could do was lay on the table staring into... What was she staring at? One minute it was a Borg assimilation bay and then it was darkness, she couldn't tell what she was seeing anymore. The clicking and the sounds of the Collective were becoming inseparable, she couldn't separate the two in her mind. But she wasn't supposed to interpret her experiences or even think, it was all irrelevant. She was just supposed to lay there and accept her modifications like any other drone...

Maica turned away from the pod, looking around the rest of the room for a door and spotting one along a far wall. "Andy, where are you..." Maica muttered as she headed towards that door.

"Let's not open any more pods, okay?" Jhu was no stranger to death at this point in her career, but she had no desire to needlessly murder people either. "And don't get too far ahead. Even with lights, we can't see as well as you can."

Vara took a moment to look over the body of Crewman Daniels. "I'm picking up signs of polymers inside of him. Odds are he would have died anyway."

[Brig]

Once the team went through the rupture, Will kept an eye on the particle generator and its power output to make sure the rupture remained stable. Will wasn't sure how long the team would need and he was glad he installed the extra power generators. Suddenly the tricorder began beeping alarmingly and Will re-checked the readings on the rupture, finding himself unhappy with the results.

"Oh hell, thats not good," he muttered to himself. Will pressed his combadge.
=/\= "Morgan to Tonkin, whatever your doing, you'd better hurry up... Someone is trying close the rupture from your end," Will reported before getting back to the generator and checking the power levels again and increased them by 10 per cent to make sure the rupture remained stable.

[Subspace lab]

Meanwhile, Back in the alien lab that she'd never seen before in her entire life, Leryssa saw the pod that held the deceased crewman, and chanted in her native Bajoran language in a hushed, yet loud enough tone for the other members of the away team to hear, "Raka-ja ut shala morala... Ema bo roo kana... Uranak... Ralanon Crewman Daniels... Propeh va nara ehsuk shala-kan vunek. (Do not let him walk alone... Guide him on his journey... Protect the one named Crewman Daniels... Take him into the gates of heaven... )" She chanted this for several minutes, Followed by the words, "Ahn-kay ya, Ay-ya vasu. Coh-ma-ra, Di-nay-ya.." This though, She repeated several times in a lower tone.

"Ensign." Jhu kept her voice low, sounding even quieter in the darkness. "Pray for Daniels later. I need you to focus on what we're doing right now, and that's looking for Chief Carter." Not certain if Leryssa had met Andy yet, she continued, "Short, with wild red hair. Can't miss her, even in the dark." Hearing the message over Nathan's badge, she looked toward him. "Best we move fast."

Leryssa stopped her chanting and nodded to Jhu, "Understood." Was the only word Leryssa had uttered to the Half-Romulan, Half-Trill Commander; Though, she made a mental note to pray for Daniels later.

"Understood Morgan...Maica, stay with me. She over here." Nathan said looking at his tricorder that was set to lead him to Andy. He started leading the group down a hall.

The aliens in the main lab continued to work against Morgan and his generator, using brute force to try to seal the rupture. One of the hooded aliens resumed its work on Andy, removing a strange device from within her forehead just above her eyepiece. It pondered what this small glowing green rod was used for and set it aside to focus on the machinery in her head that served as her memory center.

Andy was beginning to doubt her memories and what this experience was telling her. It felt real, the Borg around her looked real, but they weren't acting like Borg. She wanted to explore this experience, but she couldn't move. What the hell was going on? And would someone please turn off that fucking clicking sound!

As they came to a doorway, Vara tapped Nathan on the shoulder and motioned to him that she'll take point for entry. Hitting the door actuator, she leaped through the opening door and fired 6 quick shots. 5 of them hit their marks but the 6th one just missed, the remaining Solanae scientists scattering. Moving further into the room, the 5 she had hit were motionless and the only light was over a rather unusual looking surgical table.

Maica was second through the door, ignoring the scattering scientists and heading straight to the table. "Andy! Can you hear me?" Then she noticed a silver and green rod and the hole in Andy's forehead. "Oh shit... I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure that's supposed to be inside your head..."

Andy still couldn't move while she was hooked up to the table's machinery. The people she could see moving around her all looked like Borg to her and Maica's words were distorted. Maica... Fuck, what did they do to you?! A single tear slipped down her cheek as her heart shattered at the sight of Maica assimilated. How did this all go so wrong?!

The clicking communication of the solanogen life forms renewed itself as they gathered in greater numbers within the darkness. They were not going to let these intruders remove their specimen! She was unique and the key to bringing themselves out of subspace and into the space of the carbon-based life forms.

Nathan entered the room after Maica. This was one pissed off carbon based life form and he was ready to show it. Normally a peaceful man, Nathan was quick and brutal when it came to protecting his family.

Nathan's flash light cut through the darkness and when he saw the group amassing itself he lit them up with out mercy. He phaser fired again and again as he cut through the enemy like they were nothing.

Jhu was close behind, but between Nathan and Vara, they had the room pretty well covered. Instead of adding more phaser fire to the insanity, she joined Maica next to Andy, giving the machinery a careful look over. "They've paralyzed her. We'll have to get her unplugged before we try to move her."

As Vara and Nathan picked through the stragglers still alive, Maica looked over a console next to the table, muttering to herself as she translated the glyphic language displayed. After a few seconds she had it and shut off the table, releasing Andy from it. She pointed to the cortical node on the table next to her. "Jhu, do you know how to reinstall that in her head?"

"...no, but we'd better figure it out." Jhu gave the node a careful look, trying to determine which direction it was supposed to be re-installed.

Leryssa listened to the conversation that was going on, and called out, "Well ya better figure it out fast, Or we'll all be visiting the prophets in the celestial temple." She was helping the others pick off their targets one by one with the use of her phaser rifle, Though she turned her head for one second to check on the away team, When she suddenly felt a searing pain in her left shoulder, One of the lifeforms had shot his weapon at her and had grazed her there. She screamed in agony that same moment.

Vara was quick to up her rifle's setting and vaporize the offending alien and his weapon. Continuing her fire, she shot every one of the aliens she could, alive or dead, vaporizing each one just for good measure.

With the scream and all the weapons fire, Maica was almost in a panic so she did the next best thing to getting the node back into Andy. She stuffed the probe into her pocket and after one last check on the monitor to make sure nothing else was obviously missing, she picked Andy up to carry her out of there. "Let's let the doctors figure it out. We should leave before reinforcements arrive."

The reinforcements were already there and accessing the main console. The room shook as the pocket of space destabilized. They couldn't risk the intruders escaping with their research!

Andy hung limp in Maica's arms confused with what was going on. With the alien tech no longer affecting her perceptions and memory, she was starting to see everything normally, but it was all still so skewed. She couldn't tell what was real and what wasn't anymore!

"Let's go. Keep Maica and Andy in the middle." Jhu grabbed Leryssa's arm and hauled her along. "We're running out of time. Something's going wrong."

As Leryssa was being dragged along, She'd managed to pull a spherical object from her belt, and passed it to Jhu, "Press the button and toss it at those alien bastards." She managed to explain through her pain, "It should give us a bit of time to escape." She smiled a wicked smile, "I bet they're not familiar with smoke grenades." Leryssa added jokingly.

Already familiar with such weapons, Jhu had instinctively pressed said button as she caught it, and now she lobbed it toward the group of alien lifeforms before dragging Leryssa out of the room.

Like any good leader nathan was waiting by the door for his team laying down cover fire. Once Jhu and Leryssa were through the door he stepped through and made sure it was shut. He brought up the rear and slapped his combadge.

=/\= "Tonkin to Morgan, we have Andy and we are coming out. Prepare to shut the rift behind us we have hostiles on our tail."=/\=

Maica had made tracks to the portal, carrying Andy through it without hesitation. As soon as she was on the other side, she called out to the computer without waiting to make sure everyone else made it out safely. "Computer! Emergency transport to sickbay, now!" A moment later, her and Andy were vanishing into the sparkle of a transporter beam.

Will had been working hard on keeping the particle generator going with his efforts hampered by the enemy trying to close the rupture from their end. He had the generator working at 70% over maximum when he heard Nathan's message over his combadge. Will grabbed a phaser just in case the team needed covering fire. Moments later, he saw Maica step through with Andy slumped over he shoulder and then beam out to sickbay.

Will setup the tricorder and prepared the generator to fire the cohesive graviton beam at the rupture."Come on! Get in here now!" he yelled to the others.

Pushing Leryssa through the portal, Jhu turned back for Vara, making sure both ensigns made it through before nudging Nathan through as well. "Kiska, get to sickbay."

"You don't have to tell me twice." Leryssa commented dryly as she left the room after being pushed through the portal. She then made her way to the turbolift, and once inside, She spoke to the computer, "Sickbay." The turbolift began it's journey to the destination that Leryssa had said, and once finally got there, She exited the turbolift, Walked down the corridor, and entered sickbay.

The left shoulder area of her uniform was tattered and singed in places, Her left shoulder was pretty singed and slightly bleeding a little as well from the fire-fight that had happened earlier in the alien subspace pocket during the rescue of Andy, The one person she hadn't met yet. Neither had Leryssa formally met the green-skinned woman who'd been carrying the redheaded one as they'd escaped. Once inside Sickbay, Leryssa stumbled a little as she made her way to one of the unoccupied biobeds and sat down. Waiting for one of the orderlies or the Chief Medical Officer to see her and fix her up.

There was no way Nathan was going to let anyone get left behind, expecially not Jhu. As she nudged him through, Nathan hooked her arm and pulled her through also.

Once they were through and the rift was closing Nathan set his rifle aside and grabbed Jhu in a hug. This mission hit close to home for him. He was glad it was over. But now the hard part. "I'm going to go see Andy..." he mumbled into Jhu's neck.

"I'll report to Tegan and then come visit Andy." Jhu kissed his cheek and headed off to find Cam.

As soon as the emergency transport was complete, Maica laid Andy on the nearest open biobed and plinked the cortical node onto a tray next to it. "Doctor! Medical Emergency!"

Everything around Andy was chaos; there was no rhyme or reason to anything she was seeing. Humans and Borg walked amongst each other like there was nothing wrong with that and it scared the hell out of Andy. But what scared her even more was the slight flickering of the node in the tray next to the biobed. Whether it was because it had been improperly removed or simply left out for too long, there was no way for anyone to know for certain, but Andy knew that that little flicker was bad. The node was damaged and there was no fixing it. Her eyes sought out Maica. Somehow Maica looked fine now, but Andy still couldn't move to turn her head for a better look.

"Well you've certainly brought us a mess." Nolira waved the rest of her team over, immediately setting about checking Andy over. "Whatever happened to her... well. It's not good. Vitals all over the place, brain waves out of whack... but... I think we can handle it." Then her eyes fell on the flickering node, and a flicker of concern flashed across Nolira's face. "That's going to be a problem."

Stepping back so the doctors could work, Maica was worried too. She was pretty sure the light was stable earlier. "The Solanae aliens took it out when they kidnapped her. Will... can... She'll be ok, right?" Maica asked, a couple tears rolling down her cheeks.

"She'll be okay," Nolira said firmly, but gently too. "It might be hard, but she can adapt." Nolira worked quickly, setting up various devices to control Andy's symptoms as the team worked to stabilize her.

Maica was only marginally reassured by Nolira's words as she watched over the scene unfolding before her. She wanted to help. To do anything. But she knew she would only get in the way. She backed up against a wall and crossed her arms tightly under her bust in worry.

Once she was sure Andy wasn't going to randomly crash on them, Nolira picked up the cortical node and examined it for a moment. It was clearly damaged, but a damaged node was better than no node until Andy was stable enough for the genetic resequencing she would need to survive without it. Praying the node would hold until they were able to get the resequencing started, she slid it back into place, securing it back where it belonged. Its reintroduction stabilized Andy's vitals... somewhat. They weren't what Nolira would call normal readings, but it was better than relying on sickbay's machines... and it freed Nolira to investigate the rest of what Andy was experiencing. "There's some sort of... neural block in her cervical spine. We can remove it, but it's risky."

"Maica!" Andy called out as the reintroduction of her node reactivated the necessary brain functions to allow her to speak. "Maica, I need to see you," she called desperately, her eyes darting about to look for her.

Maica rushed back to her side, leaning over her so Andy could see her clearly, only partially relieved. "Andy! I'm right here! Can you see me ok?"

"No, everything's wrong!" Andy said, the panic rising in her voice. "I see Borg everywhere. Fuck, tell me you're alright Maica." She was starting to understand that what she was seeing wasn't real, but she still needed the assurance that Maica hadn't been altered.

"I'm fine. It'll be ok. There aren't any borg here. You were kidnapped by Solanogen aliens and they did experiments on you. That was the clicking you've been hearing. Not borg but Solanae." Maica explained, still crying a bit.

"The clicking... fuck..." Andy squeezed her eyes shut as she tried to shut out the visual of an assimilated Maica. Her assurance that she was fine was enough for Andy now. "The dreams, they were getting so messed up. Memories were getting distorted... Why would they do that?"

"I think they see us as lab rats and nothing more. Other than that, I have no idea why." Maica said, calming down a little and looking up to Nolira with a tear streaked face.

"I can't stop seeing them," Andy said brokenly. "And the Collective, I can't shut it out!" She knew now it wasn't real, but it was still swallowing her up and drowning her out like the real thing.

Nolira sighed inwardly, knowing that the hallucinations were going to be a lot harder to fix. "I can sedate you, but until I can figure out how they put those... images in your brain, there's not much I can do."

"Cortical array," Andy said, thinking it over. "It's not just these... hallucinations... Memories have been tampered with, they feel wrong. I don't know how they did it, but if you need a place to start looking..." Andy looked back at Maica, then to the doctor. "Can I have a few minute with Maica?"

Nolira looked at the readings first then nodded. "Call us back if you need anything." With Andy stable enough for the moment, Nolira ushered her team away from the bedside for now.

Maica watched them go, then moved one hand to Andy's squeezing tenderly.

Andy could feel the contact, but couldn't reciprocate with the neural block in place. She wanted to squeeze Maica's hand, but she would have to take comfort in the contact as it was. "I'm sorry, Maica..." Andy said quietly.

Maica started crying anew when she heard those words. "Please... Don't say that..." She said, sobbing. "It's not your fault, ok? Just talk to me. It'll be ok."

"Remember how we talked about maybe removing my cortical node?" Andy said. "Now I an't got a choice. It's damaged and it'll work for a little while yet, but once it's gone... there's no fixing it and no replacing it. I'm sorry, I ain't ready to go and I certainly don't wanna leave you all alone, but you gotta know... it's possible I won't make it."

Maica didn't want to hear this and just kept crying uncontrollably, her free hand smoothing Andy's hair out as best she could. She opened her mouth a couple times to say something, but her words wouldn't come out. She wanted to tell her she'd be ok. That she'd pull through just fine. She was scared though. Of losing Andy. Of living without her now that she had found her. So much she wanted to say but nothing was coming. The talkative android diplomat. There was one thing above all else though. Something she might not get to say again later. "I love you." she said clearly, tears still pouring down her face. This was the woman that risked her own life to give Maica new life and taught her how to live that life. What was there she could do for Andy though?

"I know..." More than anything, Andy wanted to put her arms around Maica and hold her, but she couldn't and it was frustrating her that they would both be denied this. "If I don't get a chance to say this later, I just want you to know that being with you can be so a hair-pullingly frustrating and there have been days when I seriously questioned my sanity... I love you Maica, and if I survive this I want to spend the rest of my life letting you drive me crazy."

Maica kissed Andy softly on the lips and nodded. "I'll take care of you no matter how crazy I drive you. Till death do us part." Maica paused to swallow, tears still flowing like twin waterfalls down her cheeks. "I've been working on a surprise for you. I'll make sure it's done by the time you get out of here, ok?"

"I look forward to it," Andy said softly. It was killing her to see Maica so sad, she had to say something to lift this mood, but she didn't know what to say. "Now take off your shirt," she blurted out.

Maica had to laugh a little through her tears. Reaching down, she pulled her uniform top and shirt up, flashing her mountainous boobs and lacy red bra at Andy. "Just make sure that's not a last request, ok?"

"Deal," Andy said with a grin. "Now go get the doctor. They've got a lot of work to do and not a lot of time to do it in."

Maica pulled her uniform back down and kissed Andy again before heading out silently to get Nolira.

Nathan sat in the hall just outside sick bay. He had literally been kicked out and now he waited to be informed that he could go in. Maica had already been in and come out. She had let Nathan know that Andy was ok and had left. But Nathan wanted to see her as soon as he could.

The doctor had just finished repairing the damage from the Solanogens, but with her cortical node damaged Andy now had to undergo genetic-resequencing to adapt her internal functions to work without it. The doctor would be starting the first procedure soon, but Andy wanted a few minutes before starting. She wasn’t sure if she was ready for this, but she had little choice in the matter. She was alright for now, but soon vital systems would start shutting down and she couldn’t linger for long. She just wanted a moment to talk to her friends on the off chance that things didn’t turn out so well...

A nurse stuck her head out into the hall. "She wants to see you."

Nathan stood and entered sick bay and over to the bio bed that held Andy. "Hey..."

“Hey,” she replied. She looked up at Nathan with a waning endurance. She was so tired and she felt so broken inside. “Thanks for the thrilling heroics,” she said, attempting to give her trademark smirk, but her body seemed unable to comply with such a simple request, she was just so tired that her face remained placid.

"Next time just take me to the holodeck if you want to see me in action. No need for such drama." He tried to joke, but his face gave away that his heart was not overly in it. He grabbed Andy's hand. "You're going to be fine."

Andy wanted to squeeze his hand, but she couldn’t move her hand with the neural block still in place. Hell, she could barely feel his hand in hers. Everything was so distant and dull. “I’m not so sure about that,” she said sadly. “I know I don’t exactly have the best chances… I shoulda had this done years ago but this is what I get for putting it off.” The fear was plainly visible in her eyes.

"Come on now, chin up and all that." Nathan said. "You gotta pull through. I need someone to teach me how to shoot that bow still."

“I don’t know if I can, not this time… I shouldn’t have been so stubborn, I did this to myself.” Somehow she felt she deserved the fate she thought was before her. Or maybe she was just so emotionally strained that she couldn’t fight that feeling.

"You did not do this to your self." Nathan said with a sharp tone. "You're in good hands here. Everyone is going to do everything possible to fix you."

“My cortical node was damaged,” Andy said quietly. “Nate, that can’t be fixed…”

"You were going to have it removed anyways right?" Nathan squeezed her hand. "Silver lining. Shit Andy...I'm sorry I didn't make it sooner."

She still couldn’t move her hand to return the gesture. “I gotta have some genetic resequencing done. the plan was to get that done and out of the way before the node was removed, do it while I was well enough to tolerate it, but now it’s anyone’s guess if I’ll survive.” Andy didn’t want to sound like she had already been defeated by this, but there was so much stacked against her. “I coulda saved myself this trouble by having it done sooner… Or I coulda gone to the doctor when Jhu and Maica suggested it instead of insisting I was fine when I kept hearing that damned clicking. I coulda saved myself a world of hurt, but I was too stubborn. I did this to myself.”

Nathan leaned on the bed. "Ok, let it out. But know this, I will be here beside you whenever I'm not on duty. You will not go through this alone."

Andy would have nodded if she could, but simply talking was already taking so much out of her. “I don’t know if I can do this anymore,” Andy admitted. She had been holding in all the fear and tears while Maica had been in the room, but now that Maica had gone, she couldn’t hold it in any longer and she let her tears fall. “They did something to cortical array, all my memories are jumbled up… It feels like I was taken by the Borg again...” She wasn’t giving up, but she didn’t know if she had the strength to endure this anymore, not with her memories violated like this.

Nathan moved himself to the head of the table. He pulled a stool over and took a seat. He turned Andy's head to the side and laid his head next to hers so there’s where facing each other, but upside down. His finger ran through her crazy red hair. "The good thing is, you don't have to do it alone."

“I think I’ve lost myself, Nate…” She felt so lost lying on this bed, crying to one of her best friends. She thought she had survived hell being assimilated, but whatever the solanogen’s had done to mess with her memories had broken something vital within her and now she was adrift in her mind and she didn’t know if she could find her way back.

"We're going to find you Red." He said leaning his forehead against hers.

Andy let herself cry until her tears ran dry. “Keep an eye on Maica for me?” she asked after a while. “You know, in case this don’t work and I don’t make it.”

"You know I will, but that's not going to be an issue." Nathan assured her.

Andy sighed and closed her eyes. She was tired and she’d wasted enough time. “I’m ready…” she said, opening her mismatched eyes hoping he could see her resolve in them. She didn’t think she was going to live, and she certainly didn’t want to die, but she was not giving up; she was tired, but she was not done fighting.

"I love you Andy." Nathan said and placed a kiss on her forehead before he stood to go the doctor.

“Laaaaame…” Apparently Andy hadn’t lost herself as much as she’d thought...

Nathan stood at the head of the room in main security looking over a stack of PaDD’s. He had called an all security meeting. A lot had been going on over the past month and he felt it was a good idea to get together at least once a month and go over everything.

Kadan strode through the door quietly, longcoat attachment to his uniform swirling after him. He'd checked his pistols out of the armory by force of habit, and they each rested at his side, peeking out from underneath the coat, while the phaser rested on his waist. "Tis good to see you in bettah health, Lieutenant." he gave, remaining standing for now.

Nathan didn't look up from his reading, but he did nod as the man entered.

Arthur stepped interesting the room, a few seconds after. A small Type 1 phaser hung loosely from his belt, along with a tricorder and Klingon dagger. Almost mockingly saluting Nathan, he said "Nice to see you're back in the swing of things, Nathan!" as he strolled towards the middle of the room.

"Thanks." Nathan said distracted.

Illyana entered the room and took a position near the main bank of terminals along one wall. She gave the Security Chief a polite nod but remained silent.

Vara casually walked into the room seemingly unarmed, the short but deadly augmented Lagashi woman sitting in her usual spot so she could monitor some things.

The newcomer, Leryssa, A Bajoran woman with perfectly straight, shoulder-length brown hair and a traditional silver-colored Bajoran earring hanging from her right ear, Entered the room. She did not look up nor speak, In truth, She looked rather nervous. Leryssa wasn't used to being in a crowd, but it eased her nerves slightly when she noted that most of the others around her were infact Human. The rest who were not completely Human, Made her feel nervous and very shy. Especially around them.

Having everyone gathered now Nathan looked around the room. "Thank you everyone for coming. We will be doing monthly meetings to talk about security issues and address anything that might need addressing. First of all, I would like to welcome our two new Ensign's Kadan and Leryssa. Kadan was instrumental in the operation to keep the captain safe after he was attacked, but more on that later. As I understand it, this is Lerysssa's first assignment, you will get plenty of experience on this ship I promise you that. Again, Welcome both of you."

Leryssa sighed, Great. She thought silently to herself. Singled out by her own boss made her feel much more nervous than she'd already been before. Instead of really saying anything, Leryssa looked a little pale, Her light mocha-colored skin turned a lighter shade than normal, and she felt a little faint. Infact, She looked like she was about to faint right where she stood, "Uh, Sir. I don't feel so....." Leryssa began to say, But before she could finish her sentence, Her brown eyes fluttered for a few seconds before they finally closed, and her knees buckled under her before she began to fall towards the floor as she blacked out.

The man merely nodded at his acknowledgement, and turned his attention to the other new arrival. Stunning, really. Having faint ridges along his forehead, he would find the ridges of her nose to be particularly attractive looking, along with the particular shade of her skin. It was simply the truth. However, he noticed the signs. Fainting? ...yep, there it was. His body moved before his mind even thought about it, dropping to one knee and offering his shoulder for her to impact against instead of the hard floor below. One arm holds her in place, while the other quietly turns her over into the crook of his first arm, checking her pulse. Good, the girl was alive, just unconscious. "With your permission sah, I'd like the meeting to be transcribed and delivered to her at a later time. The strain of such a momentous occasion was seemingly too much for her to bear, but with time, she will bear it."

Nathan rubbed the bridge of his nose. Great, they sent me a fainter. "Storm, handle that please..."

Vara shook her head. Someone else she'd have to cover for. How the heck do people like this get through the academy? Oh yeah, Starfleet doesn't let them see real combat during training.

"Computer. after this meeting is concluded, deliver a copy of it to my personal PaDD." The device beeped, and Kadan nodded. "Excuse me then, ladies and gentlemen." He squared his legs appropriately, and raised upwards to a standing position, carrying the fainted Bajoran in a bridal style hold. He exits through the door, and, once in the turbolift, heads for his quarters. Regulations may have said sickbay, but he deduced that such a thing would be even more embarrassing for her.

Arthur was standing silently as the affair unfolded, scowling disapprovingly as the woman fainted. So, this is who they let into Starfleet security these days? This fool could get herself, and other officers killed if this happened in a fight. Looking uncertainly at Nathan, he asked "Who that the hell was that, Nathan? She can't actually be in this department, can she?"

"Alright alright lets settle down. Don't give the rook to much trouble. We were all green once too." Nathan said trying to bring the meeting back in order. "First thing I was to talk about is Section 31. Almost all of us have now had a run in with this rouge group. Working backwards, They had two implants on the ship who tried to assassinate the captain twice, they kidnapped me and replaced me with a double. They attempted to recruit both Chief Carter and Chief O'Connor, they attempted to assassinate Commander t'Dharvanek by tampering with the phaser scanners Chief Carter installed to monitor for changelings, they installed some kind of transporter devices all over the ship and had two cloaked operatives who were also trying to kill Commander t'Dharvanek." Nathan took a deep breath. "Did I forget anything?" he asked looking to Vara.

Vara nodded. "I believe sabotage devices were found in all the secondary systems as well, sir."

"This ship doesn't exactly have the best luck." Ng said, "At the request of Fleet Security they asked me to do a review of the security operational procedures aboard the ship. Nothing personal, not pointing fingers, well, that may be what Fleet Sec wants but I just wanted to bring it up. I received the orders this morning."

"Great..." Nathan rubbed the bridge of his nose. "On top of the fact that internal affairs is here breathing down our necks. On the bright side Chief O'Connor and I have figured out what to do with our tribble friends. Science department is going to gas the cargo bay to sterilize them and we have located a near by planet that has several likely predators. So we will be swinging by the planet before we hit that colony."

"Ok." Nathan said movino on. "So while the captain was recovering from the failed assassination attempt, we encountered a Undine ship that was trying to heard the space whales back into fluidic space. We also encountered a race of aliens call Pedian. They hunt the whales. We were able to save the crew of the Pedian ship and manage to open some dialog with the Undine. But whas important to us is that there was a security incident on the bridge." He continued, "Chief Carter took it apon herself to open a rift into fluidic space and this cause a series of events to unfold including Katana almost going into the rift. Did any of you hear about this?"

Vara raised her hand. "I heard a rumor. Unfortunately I was with some others in a shuttle crash then got shot by some Jem'Hadar. What actually happened?"

"Chief Carter took it upon herself to open a rift into fluidic space that would only close once something went through it, this cause the IA officer to hijack one of our shuttle crafts to fly through the rift. Lieutenant Dash was at the helm and he is personally involved with Noxa so he did want he could to stop her, fly Katana into the rift. Luckily We were able to fix everything but Carter and Dash were taken to the brig." Nathan explained.

Vara nodded thoughtfully, accepting the answer.

"Ok then, unless anyone has anything else to add I think we are done here. Great work everyone!" Nathan said to his team.

Ng gave a polite nod and headed for the door.

"Can you wiggle your toes for me?"

Andy looked at the Bajoran doctor and did as asked, wiggling her toes slightly. Thankfully, she could actually do it now that the neural block had been removed. "I feel really heavy," Andy said sluggishly. She had only just come out of surgery, so it could easily be the anesthetics making her feel that way, but it could also be a side affect of her failing cortical node and the genetic treatments that would hopefully save her life.

"It's a normal feeling after surgery," Nolira assured her gently. "Try moving your fingers."

Jhu could hear them talking as she approached, and she paused just outside Nolira's work area, watching for a moment.

Andy closed and opened her hands a few times, then tapped her thumbs to each of fingers one after another. "I can't lift my arms yet," she informed the doctor when she tried to do so but failed. But it was something she was used to, she had been through this before so she wasn't really worried about it.

"But you can move your fingers, which means the nerves for your arms are intact as well. They're just not awake yet." Nolira smiled a little, glancing over to where Jhu was waiting. "I think you have a visitor."

Andy managed to turn her head to look at Jhu. "Hey," she said simply, glad to see a familiar face.

"Hey. How you feeling?" Jhu took it as an invitation, moving up beside Andy's bed.

Nolira pushed a chair over to her. "I'll let you two talk. Yell if you need me."

"Thanks," Andy said to Nolira, then turned her attention back to Jhu. "I've been better, but I've also been worse," she said tiredly.

"Well... you look better than you did when we pulled you out." Jhu smiled a little weakly, sitting down as Nolira left to work in another area of sickbay. "Honestly, I didn't know if you were going to make it."

"They got me stable for now, but I could still kick off," Andy said rather bluntly. "We won't know for a few more days of gene therapy if I'm out of the woods."

Jhu snorted at her. "I think you'll be fine. You're acting like you again."

"Not really," Andy grunted, but she didn't really feel like elaborating. "I just wanna get out of here. I hate Sickbay, I hate feeling like an invalid."

"I know how you feel." Jhu grinned a little crookedly. "Nathan had to bribe me with sex and champagne to get me to come in here after DeLancer kicked my ass. I sure as hell wasn't coming in on my own."

"Yeah, well, at least you didn't need help to take a piss," Andy retorted. "And I gotta stay here upwards of a week, so I'm not all that happy about that."

"Look at it this way. You stay here for that time and go back to Maica happy, healthy, and ready to have sex for three days straight." Jhu smirked at her. "I know it's not fun, but it's worth it, Andy."

"You know, it's fucking easy for you to say that, but what you don't realize is how big a change this shit is for me," Andy shot back. "Assuming I even survive, things just won't be the same for me anymore. I have to learn how to live without a piece of vital technology. Now tell me how it's worth it if I reached into your head and took out a piece of your brain."

"Cut that out. You know damn well I don't mean what the Solanae did to you. I meant putting up with Nolira... she's a damn good doctor, and she'll get you right if you let her." Jhu gave Andy a serious look, laced with both concern and sympathetic understanding. "I don't even know what all the Dominion took from me. I never read the medical reports... never cared to. At least you know."

"Nolira's alright," Andy admitted begrudgingly. She sighed. "What the Solanae did was reopened old wounds... I thought I had buried my past, but now it's fresh in my mind, like I'm back on the Lexington, and I hated Sickbay then too. You can't begin to understand what this is like for me."

"You're right. I can't. The closest thing I have is when that Changeling invaded our ship. Not quite like being assimilated by the Borg, and frankly assimilation is not an experience I want to share with you. I mean... I like you and all, but no thanks." Jhu smiled crookedly, shaking her head slightly. "Burying it isn't the answer. It doesn't work... it's only temporary."

"No problem, I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy..." Andy replied dryly with a forced laugh. "And there are some things in the 'verse that a mind just ain't meant to deal with. The Hive Mind is one of them things... Burying it was the only thing I could do..."

"There's got to be something Lia could do..." Jhu was hesitant to tell anyone what Lia had instructed her to do in coping with the Changeling's reappearance, but she wondered how Andy would respond to it.

"I like shrinks even less than doctors," Andy grumbled. "I ain't seeing her unless you make it an order."

"And I won't order it unless I start to feel like this is interfering with your work. I don't like shrinks either... only went because Tegan forced me." Jhu decided to leave out the bit about feeling like she'd already talked to a million counselors beforehand.

"I got people I can talk to, I just don't wanna talk to some stranger counselor," Andy said as her way of assuring Jhu that she wasn't just going to bottle this up.

Jhu nodded at her. "That's fine. My door is always open, and I know Maica would sooner die than make you talk to someone you weren't comfortable with."

"I know," Andy replied. "I'm really tired now."

"Get some sleep." Jhu squeezed Andy's shoulder as she got up. "If you need anything, let me know. I can get it for you."

Andy nodded. "Thanks Jhu... and I'm sorry for making a mess of things on the bridge before... I was an ass and I ain't afraid to admit it."

"You're an ornery bitch, and we all love you for it." Jhu laughed a little, clearly harboring no ill will over the incident. "You took a chance, Andy. It might not have been the right choice, but it worked out in the end."

"Are you gonna make me serve the rest of my brig time once I get out of here?" Andy asked. Not that she was opposed to serving her time, she was just going to be freaked at the idea of going back to the brig for a while.

Jhu shook her head. "I'm not that cruel. You went through hell as it is."

"Thank you," Andy said with a sigh of relief. "Computer, dim lights," she said and closed her eyes as the lights dimmed.

As the lights dimmed, Jhu quietly slipped out to let Andy rest.

Maica had just finished it! Andy's violin! The Arboreal woods were amazing to work with and almost seemed to want Maica to mold them into an instrument. The mahogany stain took to it amazingly well too. Heck, even the special little detailing on the head seemed to take perfectly. The strings were perhaps the least perfect bit - unfortunately she had to replicate those. They seemed to turn out well though, so she hoped Andy didn't mind.

Carefully setting it in a case she had replicated just for it, she closed it up and wrapped a large bow around it. Grabbing that case and another similar case, she headed out of the work area she'd had set up just for this little project. Soon she was back at her quarters. Since Andy was still waiting to be released from sickbay, she set them both on the coffee table with the polished gold name plaques on each violin facing the door. One said 'To my Dearest Love, Andy Carter' while the other simply said 'Maica' on it. The violin she had made for herself was a carbon fiber model tweaked to accompany Andy's new violin.

Stepping over to her desk, she started looking through dress options. She still hadn't picked anything out for the Captain's Ball and there wasn't much time before it. She only hoped Andy could get out of sickbay long enough to get ready to go.

=/\= "Sickbay to Lieutenant Maica."

"Maica here, go ahead," she said to the air, hoping there wasn't any of the worry she felt in her voice.

"Chief Carter is all set to leave for the afternoon. Do you want to come get her or should we have a nurse walk her home?"

"I'll be there shortly." Maica was already out her door by the time they had finished the first sentence and made short work of the trip to sickbay.

Andy sat on a biobed waiting for Maica to come get her. Though she had survived the loss of her cortical node as well as the genetic therapy to help her to live without the node, she was still weak. More than that she seemed empty; this experience with the solanogen had somehow left her as less than what she was before.

Maica spotted Andy immediately and rushed too her, arms spread for a big hug. "There you are, my love. How are you feeling?"

Andy put her arms around Maica, but she still felt so empty. "Tired," she answered honestly, her voice dull. "Doc said don't keep me out too late."

Maica was relieved and happy that Andy was ok, though the fact that she wasn't entirely back to her old self did worry her a bit. Andy had gone through a life changing event yet again but at least this time Maica was there for her. She'd do her best to help her through this. "Shall we head back to our quarters and get ready then? There's something waiting for you there I hope you like."

"Yeah, sure," Andy said, slipping off the biobed and heading out of Sickbay. She moved a little slowly, but only a little. She definitely lacked the usual swagger in her stride. She put an arm around Maica as they walked, glad that they could have a little time together. "I got one more treatment, then they say I can come home," she said as they walked. She almost sounded hopeful.

Maica was happy to be walking with Andy at all, her arm around her lover's waist as they walked home. "With as far as you've come and with everything you've survived thus far, I'm sure you'll be back to your old self in no time."

"Yeah," Andy said, but said nothing else. She was content to enjoy the silence for a while. Just being with Maica like this was enough for her for now.

It wasn't long before they got back to their quarters, the doors opening for them as they approached. Maica watched Andy's face as they entered to see if she noticed the coffee table no longer had bottles on it, but had 2 violin cases instead. "Welcome home."

Andy didn't notice the violin cases right away. "Home," she murmured as she grabbed Maica and pushed her against the wall, kissing her hard. there was something vulnerable about Andy in this kiss; she was desperate for some affirmation that everything was okay even when everything within her was all wrong.

Maica was a bit startled by the roughness, but she responded in kind, kissing Andy passionately. This may have been rougher than Andy usually was with Maica, but she was just glad she had Andy home in her arms at least for now.

The kiss turned soft and bittersweet, tears were building up in Andy's eyes. When their lips finally parted, Andy sighed and buried her face in Maica's hair, holding her tightly as she trembled slightly. "I was so scared..." Andy said softly, but didn't go into details; they both knew why she had been scared. Maica could feel Andy's tears hot against her cheek as the ex-Borg woman breathed in deeply the scent of her lover's hair.

Maica wrapped her arms tighter around Andy, hugging for all she was worth in an attempt to sooth the traumatized woman. "Shh, it's ok now. I'm here for you. Everything is going to be fine. It's already gotten a lot better, right? You've survived worse and you're pulling through this with ease. Everything is ok."

It wasn't easy, but Andy was getting better. She held Maica for a while, taking all the time she needed to use the comfort of Maica's embrace to calm her turbulent emotions, but eventually she let her go and stepped away. "I'm okay now," she said, not entirely believing her own words, but she was at least confident she was okay enough to get through this evening. Andy wasn't looking forward to going to the Captain's Ball, but she was a department head and Maica's date, she had to at least make a brief appearance.

"That's good," Maica said with a loving smile, pointing to the coffee table. "Ready for your present now?"

Andy looked to the coffee table and noticed the violin cases. She sat on the couch and took the case with her name engraved on the nameplate. The small smile she gave managed to reach her eyes as she ran a finger over the little 'love letter', then she tugged at the big bow around the case. The red silk fell away and Andy opened the case to see the violin that Maica had given to her. She could still smell the stain and the fresh lacquer and there was something comforting about it. This wasn't just a replicated instrument, it had been lovingly crafted and it meant so much to her that Maica would do something like this for her. "Thank you," she said quietly as she admired all the little details.

Maica sat down next to Andy on the couch, a hand rubbing the ex borg woman's back in slow circles. "You're very welcome. Shira's people gave me the wood and I did all the work myself. The metal bits are still replicated, but the wood is all real from Arborea. I made myself a violin too, but it's carbon fiber. I figured they would sound good together."

There were so many things that people took for granted in life, like the smell of wood, the feel of the perfectly polished finish, the hum of the strings as she ran her fingers down them... Most people took their senses for granted because they had never had to live without them, but Andy had. Though it had been a very brief point in her life, her time as a Borg had left an indelible mark on her soul and she never took these things for granted anymore, especially now that she had been forced to relive those agonizing memories. It had been something she had tried to give to Maica, humanoid senses to better appreciate everything around her, and now Maica had returned the favor by reminding her of something she had almost forgotten.

"It's perfect," Andy said as she lifted the violin from its case. For a brief moment, a spark of the old Andy shimmered in her eyes as she longed to hear what kind of sound this violin would produce.

Maica motioned to the bow still in the case. "Do you feel up to playing a little now? Do you think you could play a little at the party?"

Andy took the bow and put the violin to her shoulder. She started with scales to see how it sounded. Oh... Such a rich sound... It felt like her soul was melting! "You know I don't like playing for others," Andy said as she retuned the violin slightly, then worked through scales and arpeggios.

"Then play for me and ignore the others there." Maica said as she reached for the other case, unlatching it and pulling the carbon fiber violin out.

"Do we really have to go?" Andy asked as she continued with the scales so Maica could tune her violin to match Andy's. "I mean, we could just lay around here, playing together, clothing optional..."

Maica started playing scales as well, tweaking the tuning of her violin. "Unfortunately, my attendance is mandatory. Diplomatic BS I'm sure. Also, the only way I could get you out of sickbay was for this, so we best at least make an appearance."

"I dun wanna," Andy whined. "Please don't tell me I have to get all dressed up."

"I won't then." Maica finished tuning and started playing the first tune she had heard Andy play. "I'll dress you up myself."

Andy immediately fell right into the tune with Maica, but grimaced at the idea of getting dressed up. "Just, don't make it too girly..."

"How girly could I make you just using my teeth?" Maica asked innocently.

That made Andy sputter and her bow screeched across the strings. "If you do that, we won't leave these quarters for days," she promised her android lover.

"Oh yeah, that's how I plan to undress you afterwards." Maica said, not missing a beat. "I did pick out a few feminine yet functional dresses you can choose from. I think you'd look amazing in any of them. One is a green velvet number with a sling for a bow and quiver. And no makeup."

"I hate makeup," Andy grumbled as she worked back into the tune, then she sighed and put the violin down. "Alright, show me whatcha got for me."

Maica set her own violin back in its case and grabbed a PaDD she had left on the couch, thumbing it on and to the first option. "This is from an old 2D holo-movie called 'Brave'. The rest are rather different."

"That's a cartoon character, I ain't a cartoon character!" Andy blurted out as she saw the dress and the image the design was based on.

"Cart-what? That isn't antique holotechnology? I thought you would look good in green like that..." Maica said with a little confused pout.

"Okay, so maybe it looks alright..." Andy mumbled, but she flipped through the other images anyway to see if there was anything else she liked, but nothing was jumping out at her. "Replicate it, I'll go jump in the shower," she said, pulling herself from the couch to go to the bathroom.

"Will do!" Maica said, heading to the replicator. That green dress for Andy and a similar red one for herself. To top it all off, she replicated a pair of matching tribble fur stoles as well as stockings and some decent boots for ice. She hoped they'd look marvelous together out there on the ice. Maybe she could talk Kris into marrying them right there as well. After all, how often could she get Andy in anything resembling a fancy outfit? She might as well take advantage of the situation. Humming to herself, she laid the clothes out on their bed.

Andy took her time in the shower, scrubbing away days of stress from her aching body, and when she came back out to get dressed she didn't look nearly as tired. She flopped onto the bed next to their dresses, wrapped only in a towel. As she looked over at their clothes for the evening, she saw her alcove. She wouldn't need that anymore... "Hey, have Will remove my alcove while I finish recovering," she said to Maica as she ran a hand over the soft velvet of their dresses.

"I'll have him in here as soon as possible." Maica picked up her dress and started putting it on, her huge melons bulging almost obscenely out of the low cut neckline. In this dress she went from smuggling cantaloupes to creating a landing pad for starships. "Does this dress make my hips look too wide?" she asked, posing a little for Andy.

Hells yes! And Andy liked it! "I don't think anyone's going to be looking at your hips," she commented.

"I wonder why..." Maica mused as she looked in the mirror at herself. "Should I do my hair up or down?"

"Up," Andy said as she sat up and looked at the dress she was supposed to wear as if it had somehow offended her, but eventually she picked it up and tried to figure out how to put it on.

Maica grabbed a few clips and quickly styled her hair into a sort of clamshell poofball on top of her head. Looking back to Andy and seeing her struggle with her own dress, she stepped over and helped pull it into place and zipped up the back.

"I already feel silly in this thing," Andy grumbled. She put on the stockings and the boots, then stood. She was surprised by how heavy the dress was, or maybe she was just feeling that weak. "You're not going to make me put my hair up, are you?" Maica had promised no makeup, but that promise probably didn't extend to hair. Andy hated all this girly shit.

"And ravage your natural beauty? No way." Maica preferred Andy's hair down anyway. It looked more natural. "Silly or not, you look astonishing and a bit adventurous. Almost like you're about to wrestle a bear elegantly."

"I'd rather not..." Andy wrinkled her nose at the smell of the hairspray. God awful stuff... "Do we really have to play something at this shindig?" she asked.

"I'd like us to but if you don't feel up to it, it's fine. Probably best to leave our violins here I guess." Maica tried not to sound disapointed and refused to be pouty. This was Andy’s decision, not hers.

Try as hard as she could, Maica couldn't hide the pout completely and Andy was a slave to that little gesture. "Fine, but just one song," Andy said as she strode back to the couch.

Maica smiled brightly as she finished dressing up, clipping a pair of red and clear dangling crystal earrings and a matching necklace. She also slipped a thin silver vine weave headband onto her forehead. "Thank you so much." Maica said happily as she walked out of the bedroom holding a matching necklace for Andy. "Would you wear this as well?"

She had to wear jewelry too? "Just the necklace, right?" Andy asked. She supposed just the one thing wouldn't be so bad, and at least it didn't clash with the bits of exoskeleton exposed across her shoulders. Fuck, she felt so foolish in the get-up as it was, now she had to add to it? "I guess, put it on me... But no more. I'm already way outside my comfort zone."

Maica gently placed the necklace around Andy's neck. "Then you might be happy to know it's a functional communicator too. Computer, please transfer communicator alpha 117 to Chief Carter." The computer made an obliging chirp at her request.

"Well that's handy," Andy said approvingly. "So, what are we playing at the Ball?" Andy asked as she closed up the violin cases.

"Anything you'd like, my love." Maica said, pulling Andy in close enough for a kiss.

Andy was about to say 'nothing', but Maica's kiss made her rethink her answer. She sighed. Maica put up with so much of her shit, the least Andy could do was cooperate with her on this. "Well, I got that new one I've been working on, I think it's done." Well, all except for the words. it was one of the few songs she had written with words, but that part wasn't finished yet, though it wasn't like the song needed it.

"You're actually going to play something you wrote? I'm impressed." Maica picked up her violin case and wrapped herself around one of Andy's arms. "Ready to go, love of mine?"

"It's what you wanted, isn't it?" Andy said with a shrug. "And I'm as ready as I'm going to be."

"Then let's not keep them waiting any longer, shall we?" Maica said with a loving grin.

Andy put her arm around Maica and tried to put on a happy face. She wanted nothing more than to cuddle with Maica right now, but she knew Maica had obligations and this party being a Diplomatic function meant that Maica had to attend. Andy would at least try to enjoy herself. It was one evening, what could it hurt!

The cadet had heard that Andy was in sickbay. She hadn't heard why though, and general medical data was limited. She figured a visit might help, though she couldn't do much more but listen. And so, Mizuki walked in, casting her eyes around until she caught sight of the person in question on her biobed. Uncertain whether she was awake or not, the young girl approached hesitantly, trying to see whether Andy was awake or asleep. If she was asleep, she'd come back later.

Andy was not having a good day. She was more or less stable, but it had been a great juggling act for the medical staff to stay ahead of each system failure as it happened. Her cortical node hadn't lasted as long as they had hoped it would and had been removed already, so now the different implants that were still controlled by the node were shutting down and her body just couldn't keep up with what it was doing to her. She couldn't eat, she couldn't sleep... All she could do was lay there curled up in a ball and pray for time to pass by faster and wait for the next crash.

But seeing a friendly face always helped to make passing the time easier. She wasn't in the best shape physically to see anyone, but the medical staff hadn't been keeping the visitors away because she really needed it to help her get through this. Andy smiled weakly when she noticed Mizuki coming closer. "Hey kid... What are you doing, shouldn't you be working?" she teased in a tired, raspy tone.

Her face lights up a little as Andy speaks to her, and concern crosses her features as she closes the distance, holding a hand with her own. "I was on the same deck and felt like I could make time for a friend. What happened? You can give me the summary if you don't want to talk about it much."

"I let my stupidity get the better of me," Andy said with a wry grin. "Something that... I had been putting off for a long time... came to bite me on the ass... and now I'm paying for it." Her head hurt so bad... hell everything hurt! She squeezed Mizuki's hand a bit harder than she meant to as her body spasmed slightly. "Fuck, that shirt hurts..."

Mizuki holds her hand tighter and gently puts her other hand over it. "Wish there was something I could do or say, but I'm just a teenager still. Maybe my company will be of some aid to your recovery." she nodded softly. "I should also let you know that I am thinking about building a small land vehicle."

"It helps to not be alone," Andy said as her body slowly relaxed. "So, taking up a side project? Why a land vehicle?"

"A side project as extra credit for my Engineering course. And a land vehicle? I don't know. I kind of feel led to do so. It'll be built like an old earth motorbike. Only, modernized.. It may not go anywhere, but, it's nice to have a hobby or two, I suppose?"

"Well, if you need any help, bring the specs by and I'll give you any advice I can," Andy said. "And if I can't help, I can direct you to however can help." It was good to see Mizuki getting interested in something like this. A project would do her some good.

"Thank you, Andy." she smiled softly. "If nothing else, it will help me be more rounded in what I know." Looking the ex-borg over again, a soft frown crossed her features. "I really hope you pull through this, you know. There's more people that need you here than you might think. And I'm grateful to you for what you've done for Maica. If you hadn't done that, I wouldn't have had the opportunity to meet her, and become her diplomatic assistant." The young girl was starting to warm to Andy a bit, and she figured it showed.

"I just did what I had to do. I'da done the same for any one of you guys..." Andy said honestly. "And I'm trying to pull through... But maybe this is a lesson you can learn from: don't put things off. If I had taken care of this problem before it was a problem... Well, then it wouldn't be a problem, now would it? So if you got something you've been putting off, just do it, get it out of the way and save yourself the trouble later..."

"Sou ka" she murmured in an older language, before switching back to the language that everyone used. "I see..." Trailing off, she bit her lip as various things came to mind. "There's a few things that come to mind like that...but..I think you're right. Life is only lived once..and we should make the best of it, shouldn't we?" Her eyes meet the other's, wondering perhaps if they had been thinking along the same lines..

"Sometimes you get lucky and you get second chances," Andy said sadly. She may not have died during the Battle of Sector 001, but there was no doubt that her life had ended in a way. But being rescued had been her second chance, expecting yet another miracle would be asking too much. "We all have regrets... The idea is to take as few of them to your grave as possible. Or maybe just the right ones..." And right now, her biggest regret was that she would make Maica sad if she died now.

"Yeah." She nodded, squeezing Andy's hand gently, as if sensing the thought..though she didn't know what Andy was thinking. "I know there's one regret I will not have, ever. And that's meeting you, and everyone else on this ship. I've had few regrets in my life...and I hope to keep it that way. Though such hopes are naive and will probably be pushed aside by reality. Though there is one thing I was thinking. When you get out.." She trailed off, her eyes lighting up a little. "Maybe we can do something in the holodeck. You, me, and Maica-chan?"

"Might take me a while, but sure, kid," Andy said with a grin. She had some leave time she was going to take with Maica, then she had to get caught up with work once she could go back on duty, but she would try to make some time for Mizuki. Her grip on Mizuki's hand tightened against as her stomach churned with another painful spasm. "Fuck," Andy muttered, then heaved over the edge of the bed, spitting bile onto... well, she aimed for the floor, better on the floor than where she was laying, but she ended up hitting Mizuki's shoes. "Shit, sorry kid," she said as she lay there cringing. "I had a bucket, but I guess one of the nurses took it earlier..."

She kept hold of Andy's hand as her own was squeezed, and then nodded softly as her shoes were hit. It wasn't the most pleasant thing, but she made it an absolute point not to show any annoyance at all. Instead, she smiled. "It's okay, Andy-san. I can submit them to be cleaned here and replicate a new, temporary pair. No problem at all." Her naive yet bright smile could only serve to bring more of the same, hopefully.

"You are way too cheerful," Andy grumbled, but then she smiled. "Now get out of here; I'm sure you've got better things to do than to let an ornery bitch puke on your shoes... And I'll make sure Maica keeps you informed on how I'm doing."

"Someone needs to be. And I want to be." Mizuki nodded and smiled back. "Alright, I'll head out, and thank you." she bowed her head and turned to walk off, thinking in her mind: Andy-san really is a nice person...even if she's a tsundere. The smile lingers on her face at that thought, her feet carrying her away to do..whatever it was she needed to do at present.


Cadet Sr. Grade Mizuki Masterson
Yeoman and Diplomatic Assistant
USS Katana

Chief Petty Officer Andrea Carter
Chief of Operations
USS Katana

[ON]

Commander M'rayr Eisovo programmed the holodeck, stepped through the large double doors on board the Katana, and then wondered why in the name of the Caitian goodess he had. A brief moment of panic rushed through his stomach and up through to his lungs and into his throat as the doors parted to reveal the heart of the USS San Jacinto – main engineering. But where he expected – (remembered more like) - a battlefield of trashed stations, ruined bulkhead, and dead bodies, was instead a near pristine chamber accompanied by the soft and continuous pulsation of the warp core.

“Hmm…” M'rayr murmured. “The Dekyon field modulators are out of alignment again…” On habit, he approached the nearest station, sat down, and let his hands sail over a console, pressing commands expertly into the input. A report came back to him: the Dekyon field modulators were, in fact, in perfect alignment. This was not the San Jacinto. If it were, the computer have reported those modulators to be out of alignment by more than .05 degrees.

Why had he come here? Or more to the point, why did he continue to come here? Psychiatrists like Lia Grae would suggest that he came back to the San Jacinto in order to overcome the some of the trauma he carried from its battle against the Gorn. But after eighteen hundred lives gone from the CDF R’toroa; another hundred-and-three on USS Cushing; a hundred and fifty aboard the Axanar during its assault during the battle against Cardassia in 2375, what made the San Jacinto any different?

An answer he couldn't reach even several months after the fact.

Pivoting in the chair, the large Caitian studied the warp core. It throbbed steadily, sending power to the rest of the ship. The pulsations were relaxing, in a way, even if they were holographic. He felt his eyes begin to flitter. And the world around him started to dull.

“Bridge reports that we’ve lost almost our entire lateral shields,” a distant and disembodied voice roared over a rising shudder of frustrated inertial dampeners. “Major hull breaches on decks three, five, six, and seven. Emergency force fields are in place and holding.” “We need to get those shields back online. Jacobson, what’s the status on those targeting sensors?” “Less than thirty-seconds, Sir!” “Get on it! Commander Eisovo, we’ll have main power back online in…”, a klaxon blared suddenly. “All decks! Intruder alert! Security to Main Engineering. Aargh…!”

A touch to M'rayr's shoulder broke him from his trance. He spun around, toppling the chair he'd been sitting on, and found himself looking at a woman who he knew for a fact hadn't been aboard the San Jacinto during the battle of Rigel Beta. “Commander t’Dharvanek,” M’rayr said with alarm. For an instant, he looked as if he was about to unloose a hellish fury upon her; even his claws had unsheathed themselves. But his face melted quickly into the stony gaze he was used to wearing. “What do you want?” He asked, his voice irritable but at least now under control. He glanced at the chronometer on the console. He'd been sitting here for more than an hour.

Jhu was not easily rattled in most situations, but she took a half-step back before M'rayr's expression became more neutral. There had been a look in his eyes, one that never meant anything good. It was gone as quickly as it had appeared, but she recognized it. Rage, a feeling she was all too familiar with herself. "I came to check on you. Ever since Kris was stabbed, I keep track of him and... well. Cam, but you inherited the monitoring. When the computer said you hadn't moved for an hour..." Jhu sighed. "I got concerned. But since you're obviously alive I'll leave you to your thoughts."

So you've been spying on me, M'rayr thought, even though his focus was nowhere near where it needed to be in order for him to have that sort of conversation. The urge to look out beyond his peripheral vision, presumably for Gorn infiltrators, was distracting. Even though she couldn't see it, his heart was still pumping a little extra dose of adrenaline. Forcing himself to calm, he made sure that his voice was measured and steady. "I am fine," he began. M'rayr opened his mouth as if to say something else, but closed it unexpectedly. I appreciate your concern, never quite made it past his brain/mouth filter. M'rayr was still working out on whether he could trust the Romulan/Trill hybrid. Part of him thought that, as a former Section 31 operative, that she'd be working to gain leverage on him, to undermine his authority in some way, particularly if it would help her to preserve the chain of command in its current form - Kristopher Kerouac in command.

Jhu raised an eyebrow at him. "No, you aren't. You're sitting in a holo-simulation of your old ship. Usually not a good sign, Whiskers." Where the chosen nickname had been mean-spirited before, it carried a note of gentleness now. "You seem tense... breathing a little fast, ears a bit twitchy. And jumpy. Almost fell out of your chair." Jhu smiled just a little. "Not that I'm implying you're just a bigger version of my cat, but it's classic feline anxiety. Not too different from anxiety in the rest of us either. Something I'm a bit familiar with myself."

M'rayr took an impulsive step forward and crossed his arms, but said nothing. He wasn't the sort of person who would outright deny her accusations, but there were things that, even if he didn't suspect her of having an ulterior motive, he simply didn't wish to speak about. Reflexively, he uncrossed his arms and touched at the small patch of fur that used to be his left eye, which began hurting for some reason. Nevertheless, his body language relaxed by about a millimeter, which for him was considerable. Somehow, saying "you caught me at a bad time, didn't sound like it would be very reassuring. "I was distracted," M'rayr admitted after a moment. "I didn't notice you enter the holo-deck."

A half-truth.

"You were distracted all right. I'd almost call it a trance." Jhu retreated a step or two, putting the same distance between them again. "I understand if you don't want to talk about it, M'rayr." She stumbled over the pronunciation of his name, but he didn't seem fond of 'Whiskers' and she didn't want to push it.

Making an ugly face that almost looked like a scowl or a scoff -- (assuming Caitians could do either) -- M'rayr heaved an almost inaudible sigh. He had no idea how much Jhu knew about his service record, but, given her suspicions of him, he would have imagined that her research had gone quite far. The fact that she knew that their surroundings were the holographic recreation of the San Jacinto told him that she was at least somewhat familiar with its involvement in recent events.

If you are aware of my service record, then you know what happened to the San Jacinto, and that we lost several good officers defending her. And instead of being there to help finish her restoration, I'm here. And yet, I'm not even sure this is the right place for me right now, he thought mentally although, again, those words never found verbal expression... for obvious reasons. He bent down and picked up the chair, setting it into its old place in engineering. The act seemed pointless considering this entire room, and anything inside it, would vanish as soon as he or someone else terminated the program.

"The San Jacinto will not be space worthy again for at least another six months," the Caitian pointed out, looking off to the warp core still humming. "It made sense to accept this assignment. Nevertheless, I spent much of my career in Starfleet on board the San Jacinto. I knew most of its crew very well. Leaving has..." the Caitian sighed as his words droned off and away, although the sound came off as more of a grumble. He turned back to face Jhu. "The transition was unexpected -- sudden. Coming here felt necessary for some reason."

Jhu blinked, surprised by the sudden degree of openness. "But you'd prefer to be there. Getting her ready. Looking for new crew and making sure they're worthy. You were ordered here, weren't you? To the 'problem' ship." Now a lot of his attitude was starting to make sense. "You miss them."

The Caitian made a noise that balanced between consent and annoyance. Whether he was annoyed at being reassigned, or annoyed that she had been correct was anybody's guess. "We go where Starfleet requires us," M'rayr said pointedly. He knew that no matter where he was that he'd give both crew and ship his best effort. He wouldn't allow himself to fail the Katana. Too many people had died on the San Jacinto, as too many people had died on the Axanar, the Cushing, and the R’toroa. While the Federation was hardly operating in wartime anymore, M'rayr was determined to keep this crew alive. "I am needed here, more."

"Maybe you have that backwards," Jhu suggested lightly. "It could be that you need us more than we need you. I might not agree with Hayes or any of his brass buddies, but I do believe in fate. Maybe you're meant to be here, but not to 'fix' us."

M'rayr tilted his head in a skeptical look. Nevertheless, he wondered if she was at least partially correct.

"Just a thought. Besides, you'll need friends here, regardless of why you came." Familiar with the nagging feeling of being an outsider, Jhu didn't want M'rayr to feel that way, even if she didn't really like him that much yet.

A small part of M'rayr wondered if she might be right. Before the San Jacinto, every other ship had just been an assignment where making friends wasn't important. But if there was anything in the past few days that he was coming to understand, it was that the crew and the senior staff of the Katana didn't see things that way. There was, however, still too much doubt for him to completely forgo everything he'd been told before coming here. And there was still the matter of whether or not Jhu had fed the video between M'rayr and Hayes to the rest of the crew. "Are you suggesting that you want to be friends?" He asked, crossing his arms.

"I'm saying I'm trying to make the effort." His posture was not encouraging, and Jhu wasn't sure he'd even consider the idea.

M'rayr stood motionless for several seconds, as if he were debating her offer. It wouldn't do him any good to continue treating her with distrust; at least not until he had true reason not to believe her. She'd at least demonstrated a degree of sincerity that he could appreciate and respect. He extended his large paw out to her, holding it sideways. "As... am I, Commander."

Grinning, Jhu took his paw and shook it. "You can call me Jhu."

[OFF]

Hayley cursed as she fidgeted with the final computer systems. The engineer next to her chuckled. "Oh, what's so funny, ya bugger?"

"Nothing ma'am. Do you think this new shuttle will work?" the young engineer asked.

"I don't see why not. We need a versatile shuttle that will work in underwater conditions without modifications," she replied. "Besides, this shuttle will be perfect wen we need to get a small strike team in nearly undetected with it's low energy output." As she finished the connection, she heard the shuttlebay doors open.

Kyle walked in. There was enough confusion in his life at the moment. Noah leaving, Will and Rayze appearing. He didn't know what to do. So eh needed a distraction. This trip, though he knew little of the details seemed the perfect solution. He had gladly accepted Haley's invitation.

Vara on the other hand, needed a bit of a 'vacation' from her work. With all that had gone on, she hadn't even taken time to sleep lately and this seemed like a relaxing away mission so here she was as part of the security detail for it as well as some sort of 'tactical advisor' whatever that was supposed to mean. Stepping into the shuttle behind Kyle, she couldn't help but wonder why she had really been invited. "Hello, everyone," she said as she stowed her small amount of gear and took a seat towards the back.

Arthur was happy for the break from his duties. He had a lot of paperwork on his plate, so he welcomed this break in the monotony. Strolling into the shuttle bay, the older man glanced around at the other people there. He recognized two of the three. Arthur had been on an away mission with Hayley before, and he vaguely knew of Vara; after all, they were in the same department. He entered the shuttle and sat down near the front. He reclined in his chair, and waited for anyone else to come aboard.

Haley was finally satisfied with the connection to the flight control systems. "Alright. That does it," she said to the engineer.

"Go ahead, ma'am. I'll clean up here and signal you when you're ready for launch," the engineer reported.

"Very well." Hayley stood and entered the shuttlecraft. "G'day," she greeted everyone as she made her way to the pilot's seat. The pilot station was designed similar to the helm area of the Intrepid to allow unrestricted view to the sides and front--a true pilot's shuttle.

Outside, the engineer, slipped a small octagon-shaped device onto the flight control relay just as he closed and sealed the access plate. Closing his tool box, he stood, grabbing his tool box in the process. Rounding to the front of the shuttle, he nodded and waved with a grin. Seeing Collins wave in return, he stepped quickly out of the shuttlebay. The engineer smiled, knowing the device would take care of the cyborg aboard--the others were simply collateral damage. Too bad. He was rather attracted to Collins.

Hayley started up the engines as she ran a computer check of all the systems. "Good so far."

Kyle settled into his seat, completely oblivious to the sabotage that had taken place. He'd wind up killing the perpetrator in the end, If of course they survived the affair.

Once cleared for launch. Hayley pushed the shuttle to full impulse once it cleared the Katana. The acceleration was quicker than other shuttles of it's size

Hayley grinned as she finished a turn and engaged the warp engines. "Successful jump to Warp 2. Increasing speed to Warp 3....Hayley noticed the shuttle was accelerating faster than she was controlling it. "Uh oh..."

Not liking Hayley's tone, Vara stood and leaned against the back of the pilot's seat. "Is something wrong?"

Kyle had been relaxed, half asleep when he heard the words 'uh oh', followed by another voice asking if something was wrong. This kind of diversion he did not need. "What's up?" he asked sitting up instantly awake.

Arthur stood up, and walked over to behind and to the right of the pilot's seat. Instinctively placin his right hand on his phaser, he asked "What's the problem?"

"The shuttle seems to be accelerating automatically. I can't control it." She glanced at the speed indicator. "Now passing Warp 6."

'Damn!" Kyle exclaimed, "Let's try to call the Katana. And what direction are we going? Do we have any control at all?"

Hayley checked their position just as an alert beep sounded. "Well, we're almost in Dominion Space." Hayley hit the communication panel and got only static in return. Test flights were always risky, but these were things that shouldn't be happening. All systems were working before she scheduled the launch. What the hell had happened? "Comm is down as well."

Tapping a console a few times, Vara brought up a schematic of the shuttle. "Anything in particular you don't want me to break?" she asked as she noted a combined power control circuit. Heading towards the rear of the shuttle, she started punching at the wall, her augmented and cyberneticly enhanced musculature quickly working through the durasteel bulkhead and ripping the control circuitry out to kill power to most of the shuttle.

Arthur looked over in shock. The only real thought that came to mind was the phrase 'out of the frying pan, and into the fire'. "What are you doing?!? You're gonna tear this shuttle apart!"

"That's my intent, sir. It's tactically the most expedient method of disabling further malfunctions." Vara explained as the shuttle dropped out of warp.

"Or getting us killed, Have you ever heard of something called life support? That was tactical it was bare ass stupid. Are you a complete idiot?"Kyle asked.

Vara just shook her head and pointed to a nearby life support vent. "Air is still coming out of it. Backup systems should hold out for several days at least. As long as we have our backup comm unit in storage, we'll be fine. Besides, that was only main power." Holding up her burnt hand, she continued. "Which didn't exactly feel too good."

"You're making a lot of assumptions you know. Assumptions that could get us all killed," Kyle said trying to keep his rising anger under control. "Next time why don't you think before you react."

"I think more often and faster than you could ever dream of, Human." Vara was starting to lose her anger as well. What did these people know about her? She calculated the survivability of the standard shuttle of the type they were in without main power in mere milliseconds while he was just gawking. "Lieutenant Collins, I recommend finding a planet you can land us on with backup power." Flopping back in her seat, she began peeling the control circuit from her hand.

If the woman only knew he was no mere human, though of course he looked the part. He decided that any further arguing would have no value so he sat back in his seat still seething, but saying nothing.

"If you two are done," Hayley snapped as she scanned for a habitable planet. Being in Dominion space was dangerous enough without going to active sensors. She scanned with passive sensors, picking up a large complex with high energy readings. Other than that, the planet appeared to the deserted. "Landing us on a Class -M planet, but there appears to be a base of some sort there...likely a Dominion Base of some sort, so hold on."

Hayley approached until the planet's gravity took hold and cut the engines. "We're going in with minimal thrusters only."

TAG?

Hayley glided the shuttle into the atmosphere as she made several sharp turns to throw off speed as the shuttle shuddered hard. She spotted a clearing as she engaged the thrusters and set the shuttle down hard. "Everyone alright?"

Unbuckling and standing, Vara grabbed the medkit and a phaser from the storage bins just in case. "Lt Collins, your piloting skills are greater than I had calculated. That was the smoothest low power landing I've ever been in. Thank you."

"I aim to please but it's likely because I designed this shuttle myself, so it handles atmospheric flight better than most shuttles." Hayley stood from her seat. "I need to find out what happened to the shuttle, and let's hope we weren't spotted on our way in."

"From the readouts just before I punched my way through the bulkhead, it looked like a control system somewhere was trying to overload the engines." Vara said as she pulled a dermal regenerator out of the medkit and started running it over her hand.

"A device? That's not possible. I oversaw the construction of this shuttle myself," Hayley protested. Yet she knew that Vara's answer was the only one that made any sense as to why the systems failed.

Hayley brought the systems report online. "Damn," she cursed as she looked at the amount of damage done. "It'll take a miracle to restore the shuttle to flight status."

Vara looked up in surprise. "I only ripped out one circuit... I didn't calculate much damage from that. Was it from the system overload?"

"That...and the rough entry and landing. The readout shows majority of the flight control and propulsion systems are fried and we're not getting into orbit with thrusters only. It will take days in shuttle maintenance to fully repair this and all we have is an engineering field kit."

Finishing up with the dermal regenerator, Vara tucked the medkit back away. "And this deep in Dominion space we can't risk calling for help. Do we have any options on repairs?"

"I can possibly see what can be done with the Field Kit but I'm not promising anything. Might be best if you keep an eye out for any Jem H'Dar." Hayley said, grabbing the Engineering Field Kit.

"I'll be outside then. Let me know if you need me for anything." Checking the atmosphere, Vara opened the shuttle door, stepping outside and closing it behind her.

Hayley went to work at looking at the circuit panel destroyed by Vara. "Damn," she mumbled, as she began to strip out the damaged wiring. "Maybe I can reroute the wiring here..." she again spoke to herself. She was no engineer but she knew enough to repair a flight control system from her years of flying.

Arthur nodded, sitting in his seat. He was thinking of a way out of this jam. Scratching his chin, he tried to come up with an idea for escape, or survival.

A moment later she heard the sound of phaser fire along with what sounded like polaron weapons fire. "Shit!" she left the console, to look out of the view port to see Vara firing at something out of her vision.

Arthur pulled out his phaser and stood up. He looked out of another porthole, and yelled "I gotta help her!" With that, he opened the door, and stepped outside, phaser at the ready.

Vara was holding her own well enough but without decent cover, that left the shuttle and herself exposed. Firing back, she held back a curse. Worst test flight ever.

Hayley stepped out of the shuttle only to be missed by mere inches from a polaron beam. She instinctively ducked and fired back in the direction that the beam came from.

Being as sore as Vara was from her last combat experience and armed only with a hand phaser and a few blades up her sleeves, the situation looked grim at best even though they had downed at least 2 of them so far. "I'm picking up at least 7 of them on my radar, probably more with those cloaks they use."

Hayley returned fire again, finally hitting a Jem H'dar in the chest, dropping him instantly. She then felt a burning sensation as the force from a polaron beam kncked her to the ground. Her leg pulsed with pain as she noticed a Jem'H'dar rushing her. She picked up her phaser that she had dropped next to her when she fell and fired, striking the Jem H'Dar in the face this time, causing him to fall only a foot from her. "

Seeing that Hayley had been injured, Vara fired several wild shots to cover her movement, taking at least 1 more Jem Hadar down as she went to the other woman's side. "Can you get into the shuttle and apply a compress? Arthur and I will handle this."

Hayley gritted through the pain and nodded as she stood. "Yeah...I think so."

Arthur crouched right outside the shuttle door, firing his phaser at the enemy soldiers. He wasn't as accurate as he could have been 10 years ago, but his marksmanship was still relatively good. Arthur quickly looked over at Hayley when she fell to the ground. He grimaced and looked over at Vera. "We have three viable options at this point: Fight then out here, fall back into the shuttle, or surrender. We are outnumbered at least two-to-one, ad we have one injured. What's your recommendation, Ensign?"

"I recommend you both get in the shuttle and get the medkit ready. I've picked through their cloaks with my thermal radar now and there are only 5 left." Grabbing Hayley's phaser, Vara reset it to a kill setting and stood slightly, firing seemingly wildly at the enemy soldiers, hitting one right in the face. " Make that 4. I also recommend activating the emergency beacon."

Hayley was going to protest against setting off an emergency beacon in Dominion territory, but they were already fighting Jem H'Dar who most likely already contacted their base. Sitting down in the cockpit, she activated the emergency beacon. She then received a confirmation code from the Katana with an ETA of a half hour. "We have a one hour ETA.

Vara made short work of the other 4, but had taken a grazing polaron blast to her abdomen in the process. That wouldn't be an easy wound to deal with... Heading back to the shuttle door, she called inside. "The area is secure for now. Any way they can get here sooner?"

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The USS Katana had endured some trouble of their own. A skirmish involving a species known as the Pedians had resulted in a few ruffling of feather between the Pedians and the Undine over a situation revolving the Gekli. Commander Kerouac had been brutally stabbed as had Lieutenant Verak. With the shuttlecraft, Kennedy failing to report back as scheduled and no contact with the shuttle, Lieutenant Commanders Tegan and t'Dharvanek had given the order for another shuttle to go search for the missing Kennedy.

Internal Affairs Investigator, Noxa, having security experience and certified to pilot shuttlecraft, volunteered for the search and rescue operation. All pilots, Kerouac and Verak included were unable to leave Katana, and the ship was in need of some repair work before she got going again. Noxa had took an experienced communications officer, Ensign Callaghan with her. He was great with communications, knew multiple languages, and was handy with transporters...a good person to have along.

It had taken some time but Noxa and Caddy had found a trail, one that was like a flare. They could easily track it to where the shuttle ended up, and it was quite off course and dangerously flirting with Dominion territory. The shuttle's beacon had been detected. As they approached the system, Caddy began trying to contact the shuttle or anyone who had been aboard.

"Shuttlecraft Poughkeepsie to Shuttlecraft Jefferson...I repeat Poughkeepsie to Jefferson. This is Ensign Callaghan of the USS Katana, can anyone hear this?"

-------------------------------

Hayley was grimacing through the pain in her leg as a voice came over the communication frequency on a secure channel. "This is Jefferson. We're disabled on the planet's surface--we have minimal thrusters only and two of us are wounded from a Jem H'Dar attack."

"We're on our way!" shouted Noxa over the comm channel. She had then realized that her voice would be unfamiliar to the others. "This is Lieutenant Noxa, I'm...well, I'm a friend. Sit tight and we'll swing by to pick you all up. How many of you are there? Forget the shuttlecraft. Plant an explosive device in it if you can and gather in a cluster safely away from it" she directed.

"There are four of us," Hayley replied and paused, taking in the fact that the shuttle she had built was about to be destroyed. 'All of this damn work for nothing,' she thought. She the replied, "we will be north of the shuttle. Jefferson, out." Hayley then accessed the computer and began to initiate an overload in the shuttle's warp core. A moment later, she was done. "Alright, let's move!" she ordered the others. As she stood, she nearly fell as a sharp pain went up her leg. 'Bloody hell,' she thought as she grabbed the nearby console to catch herself.

"We'll attempt to get a secure lock on you all and get you out of this hell hole soon" replied Noxa.

Vara grabbed the medkit and a couple ration packs and looked Hayley over. "Do you need me to carry you?" she asked, ignoring the pain of her own injury.

"I'll be fine. Just go." Hayley said. The pain was getting worse and moving didn't help at all but she limped as fast as she could away from the shuttle, several yards behind Vara. She only hoped the shuttle could pick them up soon. She then felt blackness encompass her as heat from the exploding shuttle sent her flying forward.

Aboard the rescue shuttle, Lieutenant Noxa shot a glare at her companion. "Ensign" she said firmly. However, he had simply given her a nod in reply, understanding what she wanted. The red haired man got the transporter lock on the away team as Noxa took a low flying sweep over them. The transporters whisking them up from the surface of the planet.

Noxa surrendered the pilot's seat to Ensign Callaghan, who had some minor piloting experience. It was enough to keep the pilot on course and pull up and out and into open space, on a heading back to the USS Katana and Ophinias.

Lieutenant Noxa headed back to the rear of the shuttle with a medical kit and a look of concern. She knew there had to be injured. She quickly went to assist. "I'm Lieutenant Noxa. Who was in charge of this little test run?" she asked as she tended to the wounded and injured.

Vara pointed to Lt Hayley as she slumped to the floor, relieved to be rescued in a shuttle that assumedly wasn't sabotaged. "The Lieutenant there. I'll take responsibility for what happened though. Make sure she's ok. She was too close to the shuttle when it blew up."

Noxa nodded. "I'll do what I can, Ensign. I am not a medic by any means, but I know enough to keep the Lieutenant alive. At least until we get her some proper medical care" replied Noxa as she tended to the woman. The Ferengi shouted at the man piloting the shuttle. "Ensign, maximum speed. Let's get the hell out of here!"

The USS Katana had been docked on a platform pylon on the surface of the icy planet, shoreleave had been granted and only a very light skeletal crew remained aboard Katana to oversee the most recent repairs and minor upgrades after the most recent skirmish with the Pedians and Species 8472, an averted crisis for sure. Kris was still a bit sore from his stab wound, which was of course due to modern technology and medicine, not the least bit noticeable. There had been yet again some crew changes aboard the Katana. Most importantly were the departures of Lieutenant Rayze, Chief Engineer, Lieutenant Weaver, Assistant Chief Intelligence Officer, and Lieutenant Commander Cameron Tegan, the First Officer.

When Kris had learned that a new Chief Engineer was already lined up for him when he and his starship arrived at Ophinias, the man was relieved of the stress that he felt knowing that for the second time since his command, he'd have to see the position change faces. However, after his morning briefing with admirals Adislo and Cameron, Kris learned that his new Chief Engineer was being installed aboard Katana. They gave me a fucking hologram? thought Kris shaking his head in some disbelief as he walked through Katana's corridors, heading to Main Engineering.

It wasn't that Kris was prejudice or anything against holograms, it was just that....Can one even be? he asked himself. It was not a living breathing person. They were an image of someone, programmed by man. The whole concept of one serving in such a senior capacity and with a rank no less was perplexing. With a small sigh, Kris stood in the center of Engineering, a handful of engineers at work.

"Computer, activate...." Kris paused for a moment to remember the damn thing's name. "Uh, activate the Chief Engineer?" commanded Kris hesitantly.

The Computer chirped in response, "No Program found."

Kris, a bit frustrated let out a groan and kicked the nearest console. "Computer, is there a holographic program designed to serve as Chief Engineer aboard this starship?"

Another chirp, "Affirmative," she stated, coldly.

"Well, activate the damn thing" replied Kris shaking his head. Why...why did they have to go tinker with the computer again. I hate the defult voice and attitude.

Moments later, a humanoid shape shimmered into existence. With a sigh, the figure opened his eyes and looked around. "What the fuck am I doing in Engineering?"

Now, this has personality thought Kris with a small chuckle. He found the hologram's language amusing. "Fixing shit, I hope. We had some minor damage from a little skirmish. I need you to get your ass to work while the crew are on shore leave" said Captain Kerouac.

The man glanced around the room, "I have quite a few Engineers on duty who are doing work. Who might you be and why did you summon me?"

"You have a few enlisted personnel, and a couple of ensigns" countered Kris, crossing his arms. "WHO might I be? Well, I might be the man who just rubbed your lamp and summoned you. So, perhaps that makes me your master. However, we can settle on Captain or Sir" said Kris.

Fuck, already making a fool of myself, Arivek thought to himself. "A pleasure, Captain. Where might I find the rest of my department? I need an update on the ship's systems. I could also use a list of what repairs are underway. Is that information you might have?" As he spoke, Arivek turned and began to walk towards a set of doors set off from the main hall.

"The rest of your department, aside from the few already here at work are on shore leave and are presently not aboard. I cannot tell you much as I was not in command during the skirmishes that resulted in the damage. However, I am sure the ship's computer can inform you of what has taken place. Also, your predecessor may have left some engineering logs about what he was working on" informed Kris.

"I see. When is shore leave over? From what I've seen so far, there's a lot of work to be done. I may need to cut it off early." The duo entered the small room and Arivek looked around the office. "Not bad, I can work with this."

Kris nodded "It is set for one week. Trust me after what the crew has been through... they need it, I need it, and for the greater good of this starship, it is best that everyone at least gets a few days of shore leave. However, if you need to recall some engineers, you may do so."

Arivek leaned against the desk and crossed his arms. So far, he wasn't a fan of this man, "I will do without them for now. The ship has quite a few research labs, are they open for free use or are they assigned?"

"You are the Chief Engineer of this starship" said Kris firmly. "That makes you part of my senior staff, and as Chief Engineer you have roam over this starship and all the possible resources at your liberty. You may use whatever resources you wish and go where you wish. We have holo emitters and projectors on just about every inch of Katana" confirmed Kristopher.

The man's eyebrows scrunched together, "Have I offended in some way, Captain?" he asked. "Please excuse me for not wanting to walk onto a ship I don't know with a crew I don't know and start barking orders. I'll make sure to piss on anything that's mine and make sure everyone else i well aware of it."

"Better get to it then, Lieutenant. My new First Officer is a Caitian and I'm not sure if he's house broken yet" said Kris with a smirk. "I am not offended, Lieutenant. I am just frustrated. I've been in command for less than a year...you are the third Chief Engineer to serve under my command, and I was quite fond of the first one, and was enjoying the second one. You....you are going to take some getting used to" admitted Kris. "I mean, an EMH sure. Use the damn thing in an emergency when Sickbay needs an extra hand. Now...you are different. You have a name and a rank, but I can put my hands through you if you so chose."

"If you ever try to put your hand through me, we will have issues. And I'm not going to apologize about being your third Chief Engineer. I don't know what happened to the first two, but that's not my problem. I'm here now. And for the record, I was flesh and blood until a week ago, so unless you want to start searching for a fourth Chief Engineer, I suggest you never compare me to an EMH again.

Kris scoffed "I haven't looked over your personnel file, Lieutenant. I don't know anything about you. However, I will look over it when I have the time" explained the Commanding Officer. "Just do whatever it is that you do and get my ship ready by the end of the week" added Kris with a sigh. "Believe me, I have no interest at all in putting my hands through you. However, for the record, Lieutenant, I like you better than the EMH and your personality seems appropriate for this ship."

Arivek rolled his eyes and sat down behind the desk, "Lucky for me. I assume that if it wasn't, you'd try to reprogram me?"

"No" said Kris shaking his head. "I would not have the patience nor technical skills to do so. I would have my Chief of Operations do it, and believe me, you don't want her screwing around with your reprogramming. You could easily end up looking like an Orion sex slave" joked Kris.


"Lucky for me, I'm the only one who has authorization to make changes for my programming," Arivek replied. "Again, let me remind you that I'm a real person. I just happen to be in a holographic body. Please don't treat me as anything other than that."

Kris chuckled and let out a long sigh. "Oh you have a lot to learn my photonic friend. I'm treating you just like anyone else aboard this starship, better than some even. You'll get to used to it."

With a sigh, Arivek rested his head in his hands. He sat there in silence for a few moments before looking back at the man standing in front of him. "Then this will be quite the interesting tour of duty, Captain." Arivek stood, "Computer, deactivate Arivek Zhuri." With a shimmer, the man disappeared.

"Computer..." said Kris shaking his head. "Computer, next time the Arivek Zhuri program is activated, please display holographic image without clothing."

The Computer chirped, "State authorization code for program editing."

Kris threw his hands up in surrender. "Cancel order" said Kris with a frustrated scoffing. "Fine, I'll just show up here next time in my boxers" muttered Captain Kerouac to himself.

ON:

Bridget hurried to medical after receiving the news about Commander Kerouac. She wasn't entirely sure how she would be able to help as she wasn't a medical doctor, but she could at least help out with some of the research as she was a scientist. Bridget arrived at medical and quickly sought out someone who looked as though they were doing some research. Approaching the ensign she asked, "Can I be of any help? I have expreience using most of the equipment in the lab."

Valerie had received samples from both the Captain's tainted blood and a second vial of the poison the dagger was laced with. She carefully transferred about a drops worth of the Captain's blood onto the microscope. In fact she was reviewing the affect of the poison when she heard Bridget coming in. She looked over the should and nodded, "Yes, you may." She spoke looking up from the microscope. "Take the sample of the poison and run a few base structure tests. Look for the baseline component whether cyanide or coumarin to ricin, anything."

Bridget took the samples that Valerie pointed out and took them over to an empty work area. She began running the tests, anxiously waiting for the results.

Looking back into the microscope she focused on the blood sample, and it didn't look good, the were a dark shade of red, almost black and some of the cells had bursts. She tapped the side button activating the internal scanner for the microscope. "The iron in his blood have bonded together, and it looks like there is a vitamin k deficiency. So this thing is designed to slow the blood cell transfer of oxygen throughout the body and is an anticoagulant. A blood thinner would limit the amount of blood cells passing through the cardiovascular system and with their ability to transfer oxygen due to the binding iron...the body chokes itself."

As soon as she heard the test finish, Bridget grabbed the results and read them over quickly. They were...confusing...to say the least. "It looks like coumarin is the baseline component, for the most part," Bridget reported to Valerie. "But I don't think its a pure form of coumarin. The results aren't clear enough to indicate that. They mixed something in with it to make it harder to identify, the bastards" she spat.

Valerie reviewed the results Bridget had handed to her. "The structure almost looks like voraxna poison but that doesn't affect the blood steam... but the raxna root is known to be a good blood thinner." her voice trailed off as an idea formed. "Bridget pull up blood thinner medication that feature raxna root."

Bridget turned to the computer and pulled up the list. "Here is what we have," she said as she turned back around to face Valerie. "The computer lists a handful of medications that fit that profile. What do you have in mind?" she asked, intrigued as to what Valerie was thinking.

Valerie looked down at the monitor and quickly skimmed through the list. "I'll tell you when I find...here we are." She tapped the screen and pointed to the medications "Some poisons are made by mixing different standard medications together, and as you can see Y'raxi, a Bolian blood thinner, shares an almost identical molecular structure. This will serve as our baseline." She tapped the screen and compared the two molecular structure of the poison and the medication. "See a 90% match, the only difference is this benzene ring here with the Zs."

"Hmmmm...." Bridget thought out loud. "It could be zendril. Although it would be odd to find it all the way out here. It's a pretty rare modification as it can be difficult to get right. In fact, I think that the Mawassi are the only ones who have been known to use it until now." Bridget looked at Valerie with a startled expression on her face. "If it is zendril that means that they either have shared the specifics of how to modify that particular benzene ring with everyone or they are working with someone else who wanted to kill the captain. Either way, I don't particularly like it."

Valerie looked back with a calm composure, shrugging her shoulders slightly she replied, "Considering the infestation of Section 31 on this ship, I wouldn't put it past the organization deciding to take the necessary amount of zendril." She frowned as she looked at the screen with the Captain's blood sample. "Do you know by chance if the Captain drinks heavily?" she asked.

Bridget shrugged. "I've heard rumors that he does but I haven't really been onboard long enough to know anything past that. Will that make a difference?"

"I just noticed his blood alcohol level is higher than normal, which could explain why the poison didn't advance at a faster rate. I'm thinking alcohol could be the key in finding an antidote." Val explained she tapped a few controls, "Lactitol seems to be a good base considering it's used to treat Y'raxi overdose. As for the zendril benzene, we'll have to modify the standard treatment for it."

Nodding, Bridget replied, "My skills are mostly with research, but I'll help out any way I can."

Valerie nodded at Bridget. "Alright. This is what we'll do first..." she took a step closer to Bridget and explained what she needed to be done. The two worked together to find the right molecular structure best suited to cure Commander Kerouac of his affliction. Almost a half hour of testing various treatments haven't yielded the results they were hoping for at least until the final sample Bridget had prepared.

Taking a sample from the vial, Val pipette the solution onto the sample of Kerouac's blood and watched as the blood cells returned to normal. "Yes!" Val cheered as she stepped away from the microscope so Bridget can see for herself. "Look!"

Bridget grinned as she looked at the sample of the Captain's blood. It had been frustrating seeing sample after sample fail. She did a little happy dance as she cheered, "whoo hoo!" and threw her arms in the air.

Val prepared a hypospray and handed it to Bridget, "Here the Captain needs this, I'll prepare more of the solution and a report for the Chief Medical Officer."

Bridget took the hypospray from Val. "I'll take this straight to the doctor," she said as she turned toward sickbay.

OFF:

Life was slowly returning to normal, or at least as normal as it could for Commander Kristopher Kerouac. His starship was back under his command, having been released from Sickbay and back to work. The USS Katana was on it's way to the new Ophinias colony. However, a slight detour would be in order to meet with another starship to take on a new First Officer. The news was contained for the time being. Kris knew, Cameron now knew, and Jhu had been made aware of it.

However, Kris needed some reports to be sent, and assistance with filing everything. He also needed to be brought up to speed on everything he missed while Jhu in command. He had heard everything regarding Species 8472 and the Pedians. However, there were always minor things that command had to deal with. Requests from the galley on new kitchen supplies, various science personnel requesting authorization to grow something, and so much more. Kris knew that a bunch of these matters were on hold while Jhu was busy keeping the starship together.

He had scheduled a meeting with his yeoman, Cadet Mizuki Materson, knowing that she would have everything in order for him to sign off on. She was the best damn yeoman in the fleet. At least Kris was inclined to believe it. He sat at his desk awaiting her arrival.

Mizuki had just finished her work with Maica for the day, having received quite a bit of help. She had also worn her purple dress for the first time since coming aboard the ship. It felt comfortable, and she had her combadge and phaser on. The former..delicately placed. She was about ready to go to her quarters when she got the reminder on her padd. Shit was the first thing that came to mind, followed by a fast-walk to the turbolift. All of her Yeoman stuff was up in the office.

Tapping her foot, she waited on the turbolift to take her up, and then stepped out on the bridge. She noted the few stares that were cast her way as she scurried into the briefing room office in a dignified manner. Taking a deep breath, she gathers all of the things, stuffing the extra padds into a pattern buffer that seemed useful at the time to get.

When the chime to his Ready Room broke his attention from the PADD that he was reading, Kris looked up at the closed doorway. "Come" he said firmly, reaching over to the side of his desk, unlocking and opening the door. "Hello, Cadet. Please, have a seat."

Having walked across the bridge in a more normal way, the cadet was still nervous as she held her padd in one hand and the buffer in the other hand. Upon being greeted, she gratefully stepped inside and bowed her head to him before taking her seat, materializing the padds neatly in front of her on the desk.

"I hope this is just some light reading" replied Kris with a small chuckle. "Every few hours, somebody is sticking another PADD in my face to look over or read thoroughly... how about you give me the synopsis of it first?" asked the Commanding Officer as he stood up from his desk and proceeded over to the food and beverage replicator. "Mizzy," he addressed her informally "care for something to drink?" he asked generously.

"Some of it's light reading, some of it is heavier stuff." Mizuki gave, relaxing into her seat as he offered her something to drink. "Tea, Raspberry sweetened, warm, please...Kris." she provided him with the information informally, not minding the nickname, before checking out the padds neatly arranged. "Okay...the Operations department's usual reports are here, including word of a slacker that has "hopefully" been dealt with? They've been working with the other departments to find some things that ought not to be on the ship. Engineering is well, team cohesion seems..good? The Chief Engineer is cheerful...perhaps a little more than I'm used to. They had us battle-ready and it seems their work turned out okay. Security seems to be getting back in good shape. Got some new blood aboard, including a half-human half-Klingon who is most ...peculiar? Either way it seems that this man and his sister saved you from being terminated in sickbay." The utter calm in which she is reading all of this might be astounding.

Kris scoffed at the last part. "Nothing new there. I'm always about to get terminated" he said in a quiet grumble.

"And there was one other thing from the Security department. At the same time that the Chief of Intel was in the shuttle bay, there was a hostage situation in Transporter Room 1. I was the hostage, but managed to free myself so Lieutenant Tonkin could shoot my captor, the Transporter Chief Mister Mallory. My statement was taken but further video logs were not appropriated by Security. I figured you might want to see, though." Separating the PaDD which would let him see the video of the encounter, she tossed it to him. "You want me to continue reading while you watch?"

There was some concern on Kris' face and in his tone of voice. "Hostage...are you alright? If you would like to talk about it or need someone...don't hesitate to take some time off and see a counselor" said Kris as gently as he could. He simply nodded as she proceeded to brief him on the matter. Commander Kerouac watched to whole scene is was taken back by what he say. More so what happened with the woman in front of him. "Wicked" he said as though he were a young teenage cadet again. "I mean....most peculiar and fascinating" he added correcting himself. "What do you know about it?"

She hands him the PaDD with her work in Vara's program, before shaking her head. "Respectfully, I don't feel like I need to see a counselor. While it's not the best of feelings to have a phaser held to your head, I knew that my friends were there for me. All I had to do was set them up to succeed." she shrugs and shakes her head. "That's all. And if the man had fired on Chief Carter, I would have taken that shot instead. Thankfully, the Lieutenant was faster. At any rate, to simplify. It's an artifact of an ancient people long gone...There was little knowledge to gain from it. It turns me into a holy warrior, of sorts, I can use a halberd, sword, longbow, and a hammer. The color of the armor changes to match, I imagine these are different shades or forms of the same thing, with different skillsets. It is something I can control, and generally appears in life or death situations. And it can be an invaluable asset against the Unknown...if you want it to be."

"What I want, Yeoman...Cadet, is for it to be studied, thoroughly and efficiently" said Kris with a shake of his head. "I understand how you feel, and I find this ancient artifact and this armored ability to be quite fascinating...and yet also rather startling. We simply cannot take the risks at this time to you or the crew. Please comply with all the ship's personnel who will want to study this technology" added Kris. "Additionally, I am ordering you to see a counselor. Whether you feel fine or not is not of my concern. Your mental health is."

She knew it. She knew that this would come up..though she'd hoped the Captain would show some leeway. Once again, she was being treated like a child. Her face becomes as void of emotion as she can make it. "Is there anything else you need of me then, sir?" She asked, in a more professional tone. I'm better not become a lab rat. was her only thought, a silent glare being the only indication of how she felt at present.

"Mizzy" said Kris with a look of concern on his face. He had seen the look in her eyes, disappointment and some offense had been taken by her from his words. "We are explorers, very inquisitively drawn to study and examine what is new and strange to us. We have to make sure that this is all safe for you and everyone else aboard. Please try to understand that."

"...." she stared at him for a moment, before sighing and slumping down in her chair, wiping a few tears from her eyes. "Look." she gave, after calming down. "I'll comply. Just don't make me a lab rat, please. I can continue my work and my aspirations to graduate. And I can protect those who matter to me and the ship if the need arises. I wasn't raised in an insular environment, sir. I wouldn't know about being "safe". I just know about being careful and using your head. That's what my father always said."

"You are not a lab rat. You are a person with rights and an officer in the making. I respect all of this" said Kris firmly. "However, I am responsible for the safety of over a hundred lives aboard this starship, yours included. We will treat you as you deserved to be treated. I thank you for complying, Cadet. Now, get back to work" said Kris with small smile.

"As you declare." she replied with a nod. "I was originally going to go over the reports with you. Did you still want to do that?"

"Fuck no" replied Kris with a broad smile. "I want you to save them and give them to our new First Officer when he arrives."

The room was silent as a figure shimmered into existence. Arrived looked around his office and was glad he was alone. The last thing he wanted to do was see the Captain again. Their last meeting wasn't exactly what you'd call 'getting off on the right foot'. But he'd deal with that later. For now, there was a new ship to familiarize himself with and a department to run.

He walked out into the main part of Engineering and snagged the closest crew member he saw. "Where might I find the Assistant Chief Engineer?" he asked the man, who looked very confused.

Without a word, the man pointed to a woman bent over the Warp Core Control Panel and fled back to what he was doing before.

"Good afternoon," Arivek said to the woman as he walked up to her, hoping he didn't startle her.

The t-shirt clad, muscular woman was working on something when she heard a voice. Muttering a quiet curse in klingon, she turned to see who it was. "Can I help you, Lieutenant?" she asked him calmly.

The man's OCD nagged at him regarding the woman's lack of proper uniform, but perhaps his first conversation with her wasn't the right time to reprimand her for her lack of protocol. "Yes, you can. I would like a complete work up on the ship's systems. I need a diagnostic done on the Warp Core and I would also like to know what repairs are currently underway and what repairs need to be done."

"Let me take an educated guess...you're the new chief engineer? Why do I always get assigned under the neat freaks..." She muttered without really caring if he heard or not. "I'll have that information for you shortly."

Arrived scrunched his eyebrows and cocked his head slightly to the side, "Do you have an issue with having me as a superior officer?" he asked.

She straightened up a bit and shook her head. "No sir." she gave her best smile. "I'm half-Klingon, so I tend to have a temper, or be very blunt in my language. But, I have no problem with you. Because you see, I'm also a combat engineer that can go on away teams. And while that's going on, you can take care of things here. It works out quite well for the good of the ship." In short, she had identified him for what he was, and predicted possible future missions. "And before you comment on it, my uniform jacket is hanging over there." she pointed. "I work better without it on, and showing the results of the training and the hardship I have experienced is quite glorious. If it bothers you however, I'll wear it if ordered."

"You know I'm..." Arivek hesitated. The realization of what the woman was saying was like a slap in the face. Even though he specifically requested his current physical state be kept out of his Service Record, it was painfully obvious his request had been ignored and his holographic state was being announced for the world to see. Ari took a deep breath, "Lieutenant when you're on duty, I expect you to be in full uniform. Please do so at your earliest convenience," he stated, moving into her view and looking at the console she was working with.

"Oh don't worry. There wasn't anything about it on your service record. I just recognize certain things when I see them." Konora gave with a grin. "Including a touch of OCD." that particular statement was lower, out of the hearing range of the others present. Quietly, mentally, given his perceived disdain for her current state, she had also deduced that he was like many others on this ship. When I was to be assigned here with my brother, I thought that there might have been some openings to meet new people...it seems I was wrong, stepping aboard the rainbow boat.

Sighing after such a dismal thought, she looked back to him and rolled her eyes. "Fine fine, sir." Clearly using it as a term of referring to rank, not respect. Respect would have to be earned. Throwing on her uniform jacket, she got it back into place, the way it used to be. The previous Chief was more agreeable, at least..

"Thank you," Arivek stated, choosing to ignore the clear attitude she was giving him. "Also, the recalibration you're working on is unsafe. You should bring the couplings into alignment at a slower speed. If one of them malfunctions at this speed, you can cause a system wide failure."

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that first part." Konora grumbled, doing the recalculations in silence. For when she worked in silence, she was suppressing her anger. She'd need a release for it, later.

"Lieutenant, I would appreciate it if you didn't speak to me as if we were off duty and 'hanging'," he said, using his fingers for air-quotes.

"Hanging?" Konora gave, obviously taking the other meaning of the word to heart. thanks for giving me an idea of what to do in effigy to you on the holodeck later. she thought, before shrugging. "I'll give you that one. Since I'm not hanging from the second level with a noose around my neck." she replied bluntly "Let's get one thing straight. You want the work done right? Then give me an order, and let me do my job. This standing over my shoulder and wanting everything done to perfection is not helping at all. You want perfection? Do it yourself. You want good work done by an experienced war veteran that knows what she's doing? Let her do it without interference."

Arivek nodded slowly as the woman spoke. "You've given me much to think on, Lieutenant." He stood for a moment thinking, and then smiled, "You're right, if I want perfection, I should do it myself. And that's exactly what I'll do." He snatched the tool from her hand, "You're relieved of duty, Lieutenant, until further notice. You can return to your shift when you can learn how to properly address a senior officer. Go have fun with your friends on shore leave," he said, shooing her away with his hand.

"Enjoy the entire workload that comes with running the ship, Lieutenant Atlas sir." She gave, removing her arm from near his before Konora turned and walked off. Yeah, she'd been relieved from duty. And yeah, she'd probably regret it later. It wasn't the first time she'd gotten in trouble. Nor would it be the last. It had been his attitude that rankled her. She knew he was the new Chief Engineer, but he could have used more..tact. Perhaps he didn't have a filter on his mouth either. Would she apologize? Probably not. Would she work in silence and follow his orders? Probably. For now she enjoyed the small victory of having had enough restraint not to deck him, even though he probably had programmed pleasure and pain receptors out of his tactile interface. Cheater.

Lieutenant J.G. Konora Storm
Assistant Chief Engineer
USS Katana

Lieutenant Arivek Zhuri
Chief Engineer
USS Katana.

Thankfully, not a lot of people had seen him enter the quarters, with his charge in arms. Taking her through the spartan yet somewhat extravagant main room, he would lay her down upon the couch, ensuring it was comfortable. A light, silk throwover blanket was placed over her frame, and he took a seat nearby, dimming the lights to create the illusion of firelight as he looks at his PaDD. If he needed to take her to sickbay, he would. But one thing was for certain.

Somewhere in his mind, his klingon half spoke of how she was glorious. And with some muttered mental retort about animals, the other half, his human, more dominant half, would agree.

Now all that remained was to wait for her to awaken.

Leryssa began to awaken after what seemed like hours, but it was only several minutes. When she finally did awaken fully, She let out a soft groan and glanced around the room once her eyes had adjusted to the light, But something was off. Where were her family photos; Her impossibly large duranja lamp that she had in the middle of her quarters' floor, and her other personal belongings? It was then she realised that she wasn't in her quarters, and that she also wasn't alone. "By the prophets!" Leryssa gasped loudly through her teeth and sat up in surprise when she suddenly noticed the man sitting near her. It was clear that she was visibly startled by him. "Where am I, and how did I get here?" She asked as she took another glance around the room.

"You fainted in the staff meetin'" Kadan drawled forth softly. "Regulations would say to take a fainted person to sickbay, but I felt that might embarrass you further. So!" he placed his padd aside. "I'm Ensign Kadan Storm. The gentlest half-human, half-Klingon you will probably ever meet, who carried you to his quarters and laid thee down to rest. And you, pretty lady. Would you like a drink? Probably somethin' non-alcoholic, I'd wager?" His accent would be both peculiar, and yet smooth / soothing at the same time.

Leryssa nodded silently, Not sure whether or not to trust him. "Bajoran Deka Tea would be nice." She commented shyly.

He bounded to his feet, walking with a measured gait over to the replicator. "Computah. Bajoran Deka Tea...warm. Two." Two cups appear upon the stand, and he takes one in his hand, handing the other to her. "Here you are." The man gave calmly, taking a sip of the other tea. "Interestin'" he mumbled, tasting a bit more.

Leryssa took a sip of her tea, and swallowed it before speaking, "My parents used to make it for me when I had a bad day."

"It is rather...calming." He murmured, placing the cup down and smiling a bit. "Are your parents still in this marvelous galaxy? I have the fondest memories of my mother...my sister liked her father better. We're both of the same blood, but took after different sides."

Leryssa shook her head, "Both my parents died when I was five." She admitted sadly, "They were killed by Cardassians when we lived on Bajor. They killed my father first when he tried to protect us, My mother tried to hide me in the closet in their room, But the Cardassians found her and killed her too." She sighed as she continued, "I would've been next, But I ran out into the streets. Luckily enough, a Human Starfleet Security Officer saw me, and shot the Cardassians who were chasing after me before they could kill me. The Human adopted me a year later. I was the only Bajoran child in a family of three Humans."

His expression softened, and he gently reaches a hand over to rest on top of her own. "I never met a Cardassian that I didn't hate." He mused quietly. "I'm sorry to hear about that. Humans are..interesting creatures, aren't they? Some are good and benevolent, some are not so much. They have the potential to be more than who they are...and yet so many never explore that. But none of them have pretty ridges like you do." He chuckled softly, before continuing his tale. "Being born to a Klingon father and a human mother was certainly a unique background, but it did not bode well growing up. I embraced my human side, and practiced restraint. Suffering through the triflings of other, bigoted people who would make comments about my forehead. One time..I got fed up with it. Singled out the biggest fella among them, and introduced him to my forehead so...easily. Needless to say the triflings were less than vocal after that. I made it a point to learn all I could about other species, about other cultures. So that I wouldn't be like my father."

"I'm not really used to other species." Leryssa mused as she held her cup of tea in both hands, "To be honest, I tried to be more like my adopted Human family. At school, I tried to hide, But the other kids picked on me because of the ridges on my nose." She took a sip of the tea in the cup before she continued, "My adopted older brother practically had to shove the other kids away from me. Finally, He got fed up with all of them calling me names, and he ended up breaking one of the kid's arms when they tried to hit me. Sure, He got in trouble for it, But it was then that he and I formed a bond together. None of the kids ever picked on me again because he stayed by me."

"Yeap. A bond. That's a family bond right there. I'm happy to hear that he was there for you." He chuckled. "Did your adopted brother follow you into Starfleet? I know that my sister did, over the objections of our father." The man held the cup of tea in one hand, looking at her. "You'll find no one here that dislikes your ridges, of that much I am certain."

Leryssa nodded, "He thought about it, But he had a tough time getting through the entry exams." She replied, "I told him to try again, Or I'd yank on his ears till he looked like a Ferengi." She giggled at her own joke.

He smiled a bit, amused by it. "He would be an honorable one at that." Then he places his tea-cup aside on the little end table, and looked at her. "So why exactly are you uncomfortable or not used to people of other species? Surely I can't be that bad-looking.." There was a joke interlaced somewhere in there..

Leryssa shrugged, "I guess when I was growing up, I was afraid they'd hurt me. Like the Cardassians tried to do when I was five." She sighed, "Not long after that, Those kids at school picked on me. And yes, They were all of different species too." She glanced at her cup in her hands for a moment before she looked up at the man sitting before her, "I guess I associated everyone around me with those past events in my life, and I didn't realise I was still doing it back there in that room with everyone." She rolled her eyes and sighed once again, "I guess that's the reason I fainted too. I suppose I was just scared out of my mind of everyone there."

The man stands up, and looked at her. "Stand up for a moment please." he requested gently.

Leryssa set the cup in her hands down, Then stood up slowly. Not sure where this was going.

In a very gentle but fluid motion, he places his hands on her shoulders, to lightly keep her in place. He looks into her eyes. "It's scary out here..in this galaxy. A lot of unknown things, unknown people." he gave, in the soothing tone from before. "Some are great at first contact. Some would rather replicate the tragedy that happened to you on a much larger scale. But you know something? This isn't Bajor anymore. This isn't Earth...this isn't Qo'Nos. We're explorers..we're on our own out here...and all we have is each other. For all of those bad men waiting outside the door, or sometimes inside, we've got a few badasses of our own that will meet them. We'll help each other, pick each other up. Because we're friends. Sometimes more. But despite the ebb and flow of personal relations...we're a team at the end of the day.

And like your adoptive brother...we've got your back, Ensign Kiska."

Leryssa nodded in thanks, She felt better knowing that he wasn't kidding around in his speech to her. "Thanks." She muttered, Leryssa was now glad to know that she didn't have to worry about being alone anymore, or feeling afraid of those around her like she had been before.

"You are welcome." he gave, sitting down to the couch and guiding her to sit down next to him. "There's a few things I can help you out with, regarding Security. But right now I'm interested in knowing about you. If you feel like sharing, that is."

"What else is there to know?" Leryssa asked curiously as she sat down next to him.

"A lot, given time." He replied sagely. "I'm sure you have some stories to share of your time in the Academy and beyond. And I have some stories too. It's a process, really...when someone is interested in someone else..." Having chuckled softly, he continues. "What do they like, for example. What makes them tick...How do they feel about various things."

"Well, In that case; I like Spring Ball, Hoverball and Parises' Squares." Leryssa began, "I also enjoy reading or swimming when not on duty, I also like to spend my time in the Holodeck doing activities that include horseback riding and archery, I also did a little bit of Operations training incase they needed an extra hand in that." She paused for a moment to think for a second before continuing, "I also have done several combat training simulations as well. As for my time spent in the Academy; They wanted me to share my quarters with another person, but of course, I told them that if they didn't find me a Human roommate, Then I wouldn't share my quarters. I suppose they gave up on that matter and finally allowed me to have my own quarters."

"Nice." He commented, with a chuckle after hearing her out the whole way. "I'm something of an educated man. I know varied languages and cultures, including yours. I studied history, science and flight. Along with climbing and being an explorer by nature. The water doesn't bother me when I swim, and trips to the beach are quite appreciated." he gave quietly. "Drinking and gambling are two things that I've done a lot of. Some of my more funny stories come from that. I have a weapon collection, and I'm quite strong...but you wouldn't be able to tell by looking at me."

"Probably not." Leryssa agreed, "I'm not that strong myself." She commented a moment later, "The only thing I really have that belongs to my mother, Is this earring." She added as she gestured to the Bajoran earring that was currently dangling from her right ear.

"It looks good on you." He murmured softly, "These two disruptor pistols are part of my family's weapons. One's mine, the other is my sister's. She prefers the bat'leth, while I prefer ranged combat. The family wasn't really into jewelry, though." He nodded a bit. "You should treasure that."

"I do." Leryssa commented as her hand reached up and touched the Bajoran earring that still dangled from her right ear, "I never take it off, Except when I take a shower, or go to bed at night. The only thing I have left from my father though, Was a ancient leather-bound book of Bajoran children's stories that he had always read to me before I went to sleep. I have that in my quarters. You can't really get that book on a padd; Unless you copied it to one word for word, Since it was passed down many generations ago, In his family. And I highly doubt they had the Starfleet padds back then."

"Mmm..I see." He mused softly. "You know, I have a hobby in working with languages. If you were to allow me to see it, I could potentially bring that blast from the past, straight to the present and into your heart. Up to you, but I am pretty good."

"I'll bring it to you when I'm off my next duty shift." Leryssa responded, She'd began to trust him a little bit, But she was still a little wary of him. However, If he could translate her father's old story book and put it into a padd for her, That would not only impress her, But make her feel a little happier too.

"Very well." He chuckled with a small smile, zoning out for a moment as the lighting caught her mocha skin and ridges in an entrancing light..that he finally had to physically look away from for a moment. "I'll do my best for you."

"Thanks." Leryssa commented. Even though she'd noticed that Kadan had zoned out as he stared at her for a moment; But she pretended not to notice it, Just to be polite.

He noticed that she had picked up just a little bit, and coughed. "My apologies. My eyes can't seem to tear themselves away from how breath-taking you look." The half-human gave, looking away briefly.

"I never really noticed that I looked that way." Leryssa mused absentmindedly with a slight shrug of her shoulders, "To be honest, I thought I looked plain enough not to be noticed. Or atleast, I hoped that was what I'd have assumed." She muttered more to herself than to Kadan. There you go, Babbling on. You should quit now before you embarrass yourself, or him. Leryssa thought silently to herself without saying a word. She quickly stood up and moved a couple steps away from Kadan, Turning her back to him, Ashamed, "I'm sorry." She apologized, "Guess I just embarrassed both of us by saying that. Didn't I?" She heaved a sigh, but didn't turn around to face him. Thinking she'd insulted him.

Kadan sighed a little under his breath. This girl was too adorable. He quietly gets to his feet, and gently loops his arms around her waist from behind, but loose enough where he could pull them away if she asked. "Leryssa." he began, in his soft-spoken accent. "It's not a bad thing, to consider yourself plain. Maybe in that way, you avoided a lot of attention to yourself. But maybe I've discovered what's hidden underneath the plain facade. So what will you do with me, now that I've done that?" He rested his chin on her shoulder, gently speaking the next words into her ear. "Are you going to push me away and be alone? Or will you let yourself be treated like I feel you deserve to be?"

Leryssa didn't speak for the moment, She'd quietly contemplated his words, Lowering her head as if still in thought. He may have a point there.Leryssa had thought to herself without saying anything. Without another word, She raised her head and slowly turned herself around to face Kadan while she was still being held in his arms, Leaning in closer towards him as she'd wrapped her arms around his neck, and rested her chin against his shoulder. "I don't think I could ever push you away even if I wanted to." Leryssa admitted almost in a whisper into his ear.

Such words made him exultant on the inside, and he held her a little closer to him. "That's good, darlin'" he whispered, "because I'd never intentionally push you away or hurt you. It's not in my nature." After the gentle platitude was whispered, he gives her a platonic peck on the cheek.

Leryssa blushed a little as soon as he'd given her the peck on her cheek, Though, She hoped that he didn't notice that she'd done that. She felt her heart begin to race inside her, but she dismissed it as if it weren't noticeable. Instead, She leaned in closer, Giving Kadan the unvoiced signal that she cared about him, and that she really wanted him to kiss her.

He did pick up on the blush..and the unvoiced signal. His heart was stirred with a slow burn of passion..and he gave her a brief, almost imperceptible nod. One hand remains on the small of her back, the other gently comes up to her upper back and shoulders, supporting her. While Kadan did the next thing that she was requesting...which was leaning in and capturing her lips with his own in an infinitely tender kiss...

The kiss lasted for several minutes, and it had definitely made Leryssa tremble in excitement. "Would you mind if I stayed with you here for the night?" She asked as she gestured around at Kadan's quarters once the kiss had ended.

The kiss had made his stomach warm and made his heart race in excitement. The Bajoran Ensign was glorious...and some of his instincts wanted to go further. He would suppress those instincts unless she was wanting to, however, and merely nod, looking into her eyes. "Why sure. You can stay here tonight. I can take the couch."

The couch? Leryssa felt rather disappointed the second Kadan had mentioned that he would take the couch. Her arms dropped from where they had been wrapped around Kadan's neck, and at that same moment, Leryssa sighed and looked away from his gaze.

"Unless.." he let the word dangle in mid-air, noticing her reaction. "...you wanted to share the bed? I made my willingness to let you have the better place known to prove a point. That I'm different from others you've met before. Now if you want to share the bed darlin', then by all means. It's big enough for us both." Having hopefully recaptured her attention by this time, he gives her a wink.

Well, I guess I can't argue with that. Leryssa thought to herself without saying a word; Instead, She gave Kadan a smile and a nod. "Should I bring a few things from my quarters? Like something comfortable to wear to bed, For example?" She asked as she wrapped her arms back around Kadan's neck. Holding him like she'd done just moments before.

"Mmmn.." he murmured, watching her intently. "You can bring some things, if you'd like. Though you should know that I sleep shirtless." he whispered with the soothing tones of his accent.

"That doesn't bother me." Leryssa replied with a playful, and somewhat teasing smirk, "When I was at the Academy, I normally slept in my quarters without a single item of clothing on."

"Good..that's good.." He leaned in with a small smirk, giving her a peck on the neck. "I'm happy that you feel that way. So was there anything you needed to get, or are you good?"

"I suppose the site-to-site transporter could be used to fetch a few of my things." Leryssa suggested as Kadan gave her the peck on her neck, "I don't really have to go and fetch them myself if you don't want me to."

"The transporter sounds good." he chuckled, giving her a peck on the cheek before pulling back and showing her the computer console. "Bring over what you need, if you need any help let me know." And with that, he began to peel away the second skin that he had, being the uniform, taking off the overjacket and the long-coat, followed by unbuckling his disruptor pistols and setting them aside out of the way. Setting his phaser aside as well, he then removes the white undershirt, whilst leaving himself clothed from the waist down.

Leryssa moved over to the computer console and began pressing several buttons in a fluid, yet quick motion; Instructing the computer to use the site-to-site transporter to transport some of her belongings from her quarters to Kadan's. Not too soon had she'd done that, Her father's storybook, Her hairbrush, toothbrush, and a flirty-looking yet seemingly revealing, spaghetti-strapped, short-lengthed pale pink silk nightgown had materialized into existence on a table near them. She then moved over to the table and carefully examined each item to make sure that those were the right ones that she'd wanted to bring from her quarters to his.

Satisfied with her inspection of the items on the table, Leryssa then began to remove her uniform's overjacket and tunic, and tossed that onto the couch. Next, She removed the pale lavender tanktop and unclasped the hooks of her red silk bra, and removed that as well. These, She tossed onto the couch on top of her uniform's overjacket, and once she'd done that, She pulled down her uniform's pants from where they'd hugged her athletically-trimmed waist, and allowed them to drop to her ankles, Revealing her matching red silk panties over her light mocha-colored skin. When they did, She stepped out of them, and grabbed her nightgown from the table. This, She pulled over her head and allowed it to fall naturally down her body to where it came to a stop to rest about an inch or two above her knees, Slipping her arms through the spaghetti straps, and sliding them over her shoulders to hold the nightgown in place so that it didn't fall further towards the floor. When she was finished, She fixed her hair, Turned to face Kadan and smiled a playful smile, "So, What do you think?" She asked as she gestured to the nightgown.

Kadan had politely averted his eyes when she began to change her clothes, and only when her words reached his ears did he look up. An approving nod came, followed by a "I like it very much, dear Leryssa." he chuckled, smirking just a little playfully, even if he was a bit entranced by her look. "It looks quite fabulous, and it incites attraction from me."

"Good." Leryssa mimicked Kadan's previous response, Albeit, Returning the playful smirk he'd given her. She then walked over to him and wrapped her arms around his neck, giving him a quick peck on his cheek. "So, What would you like to do now?" She asked in a playful tone as she ran her fingers through his hair.

"Mmmn..." he trailed off, closing arms around her athletic but trim waist. "I propose that we get to know one another a little more..intimately. If you're up for it. But, I'm fine with cuddling, if you are not." he whispered with a sensual note into her ear, with that accent of his.

"Your proposal is acceptable." Leryssa replied in an equally sensual tone, followed by giving him an intimately tender kiss on his lips.

The kiss was rejoined, and somewhere along the way it went from being intimately tender, to intimately sensual, stepping through the door of a deeper passion that would ignite figuratively in the stomach, and coincide with the gentle placement of hands on her upper back.

"Mmmmn..." Leryssa moaned softly as she and Kadan continued kissing passionately, One of her hands rested against the back of Kadan's head, Her fingers intertwining and moving sensually through his hair, Whilst the other hand rested against the side of his neck as they kissed.

And that would only be a taste of things to come, as they remained the whole night, with assorted sounds of pleasure. The two of them would probably smell of it the next day. But that would be another day's problems. For this one night, Kadan felt complete. And that was most unexpected.

Ensign Kadan Storm
Security Officer
USS Katana

Ensign Leryssa Kiska
Security Officer
USS Katana

[ON]

Judging by the severely pristine condition of the executive officer's ready room before he got here, Commander M'rayr Eisovo could only assume that it hadn't gotten much use. Odds were that, given K'a'mirh'un Tegan's beginning as an enlisted-man and non-commissioned officer before he earned his commission, the Klingon/Trill hybrid preferred to spend his working time out there in the corridors rather than by allowing himself to be cooped up in an office.

Good, M'rayr thought to himself. He'd spent enough time fumigating his quarters of the stench of alcohol and a man’s overindulgence of sexual-escapades; to have at least one area where M’rayr wouldn’t have to worry about catching a disagreeable scent was a small blessing as far as the Caitian was concerned.

It also gave him an area to work in. And unlike the former first officer, he preferred to have his day-to-day briefings in an environment that he could control.

An audible chime at his doorstep told M’rayr that his 12:00 appointment had arrived to discuss various items pertaining to Starfleet’s diplomatic initiatives in this sector. “Enter,” he growled. While Maica was a tremendously unique individual, the Caitian had observed from her records a general desire to succeed in her career. Perhaps his meeting with the Orion android would go well.

Maica had kept her modified glasses on for this visit, several PaDDs in her hands. Entering the office, she nodded to the new XO and sat in the chair across from him. "Pleasure to meet you. I'm Maica." She spoke in perfect Caitian (though possibly with a more northern accent) as she slid the stack of PaDDs across to M'rayr, She was all business now, wanting to skip the pleasantries so she could get back to her own work.

"You speak Caitian," M'rayr observed neutrally in his native language after a moment, although he knew from her record that, given the advantages of her cybernetic origins that the Orion-Android could in fact speak several languages to the point that she rivaled the Katana's Chief of Science - also a language expert.

M'rayr sat still and observed her. There was something about Orions that most species found alluring and almost even irresistible. Perhaps it was because she wasn't truly an Orion -- just an imitation of one -- or because M'rayr had more distinct preferences, that he could ignore her features which were considerable. The Caitian's eyes never drifted below her nose. "You are also prompt." M'rayr said, this time in Federation Standard. He extended a paw, expecting her to pass him a PaDD.

"I'm fluent in over 4 million forms of communication and I like to be on time." Maica noticed he hadn't even glanced down at her other ample assets. Good, maybe she could get this over with quicker. Handing him the top PaDD, she continued. "Normally I'd be a fair bit more cheery and pleasant, but work has picked up a lot lately. Admiral Hayes is trying to stir some pots better left alone for now and I'm the one stuck with trying to put out his fires in this area."

The mention of Jethro Hayes caught M'rayr's attention, although he gave no impression that it had. He wondered if it was a casual observation on her part, or if it was because she knew of Hayes's affiliation with M'rayr based on the recording that Commander t'Dharvanek retrieved. He took the offered PaDD and flipped it active. "What is your report?" He asked, keeping his tone neutral.

"The SS Venture Gained, Commanded by Captain Leyset, is missing. It was carrying several diplomats to a world near Dominion space but never made it. Interestingly enough, it's already being covered up." Maica rattled off a few more details somewhat absently.

The Caitian's curiosity perked. "How so?" He asked.

"Well for one," Maica started, pushing her antique looking glasses up her nose a bit. "There's been no investigation ordered. There's also no attempt to rescue survivors. They're not even sending a probe. Just filing it all away like it's a solar survey."

Disturbing, M'rayr thought quietly to himself as he reached for another PaDD and began making notes. "And you feel that Admiral Jethro Hayes is responsible for the lack of action in this matter?" He asked coolly, raising an eye to study the robotic-Orion; not that he knew whether he'd be able to tell if she was lying or not.

"He's the one that sent the ship and was responsible for it. Other than that, who knows?" Maica said with a shrug.

M'rayr sat there, still, for several seconds before nodding and returning to the PaDD in his palm. "Continue with your report, Lieutenant Commander," he said with a hint of dismissiveness.

"We also have issues with the Pedians. I've been smoothing things out with them as best I can, but the loss of their ship alone is a heavy toll. We also have a Devoran scientist aboard. Aznihel is a space life specialist of some sort. She's requested to stay aboard and study with us." Maica handed over 2 more PaDDs, each with info on the stated identities.

The Pedians were rescued from the Katana's most recent mission. Despite fact that it had fired upon the Katana on several occasions during the conflict, Commander t'Dharvanek had authorized their safe beaming before the Pedian's ship was destroyed. From any perspective, it was the most compassionate decision for the Romulan/Trill hybrid, let alone anybody else, could have made. As for the Devoran, M'rayr knew very little about her. Her personality jacket was nearly non-existent. "What in the matter of arrangements towards returning the Pedian crew to their native region are being made?" M'rayr asked, raising a brow.

"I've arranged diplomatic dispensations to be sent to them and we're scheduled to rendezvous with one of their ships at the Ophinias colony." Maica explained.

Good, M'rayr thought. The sooner most non-Starfleet personnel were off the ship, the more controllable an environment it would be. "And as for the Devoran?" He asked, moving onto the next topic at hand. "What do you know about her."

"Her people are coral based lifeforms and don't view things the same way. For instance, most will wait hundreds of years for something to come to them rather than go out and study it. That being said, they're amazing scientists, judging by the reports they send our way. They're not exactly xenophobic, but they prefer to keep to themselves for the most part." Maica said. "As for Aznihel herself, she seems to be in poor standing with the Devoran Science Council for being impatient. AKA she goes out to do her research."

M'rayr rolled his wrist as he set the PaDD down on the table. He interlaced his fingers and leaned back into his seat. "Do you feel that Ms. Aznihel will be able to contribute to our mission effectively?" He asked, even though other questions were forming in the back of his mind.

"Diplomatically yes," Maica said, pulling her glasses off and leaning back as well. "She presents an excellent opportunity for us to learn about a culture Starfleet knows very little about outside of reports. She's also a space life biologist and her own research has been useful in our recent encounter with the Gekli. I can't professionally recommend an extended stay for her, but I think she'll be an asset to both myself and the science department while she's aboard."

M'rayr nodded. "Very good, Commander." He said. Between the Arboreal and now the Devoran, the Katana's crew compliment was starting to blur. It was, as he considered it, yet another eccentricity. While his tail lapped lazily behind him, the Caitian studied Maica. So far, everything about her, and the way she carried herself, had been professional. "Is there anything else that you wish to add to your report?"

"Officially no. I would like to know more about you though. Your thoughts and goals for this ship and all that." Maica wanted to know if he'd admit to anything, though she doubted it. Perhaps he'd come around and warm up to the crew and not take Hayes up on his offer.

The question passed through the space between them while M'rayr silently contemplated his response. Part of the crew was of the opinion that he had been assigned to the Katana in order to usurp command from Kristopher Kerouac. There was plenty of evidence to suggest that he was, particularly if Jhu t'Dharvanek had streamed her recording of his meeting with Admiral Hayes. Had Maica seen that recording? Then again, t'Dharvanek had at least appeared to be willing to believe in the possibility that his motives were not pre-determined, either, and that a chance that his loyalties to Admiral Jethro Hayes, if it existed, could be altered.

M'rayr tilted his head, and his left ear twitched several times before stopping. "What do you want to know?"

"First off, what are your goals for this assignment? What do you hope to get out of it?" Maica knew it was a BS question that supervisors asked people to make them think, but she was curious about the Caitian's answer.

As loaded a question as any, M'rayr through wryly. He resisted the urge to drum his fingers on the desk. If Maica was as well informed as Jhu t'Dharvanek, she could be subtly asking him if he intended on taking command of the Katana. He took that possibility into account as he formulated his response. "I was assigned to the Katana, Lieutenant Commander. I am here to do my duty, which is to provide purpose, direction, and motivation to the crew of this ship as we complete our missions. A successful tour is all that I strive for."

Maica pursed her lips as she thought a moment. "Not much of a list of goals there. Yes they're expected, but not much else. As a registered sex therapist, I can't help but recommend you seek positive recreational activities. For someone as professional and rigid as you seem to be, I expect the crew will try your patience regularly so you'll need a reliable form of stress relief that works well for you. Also, if you ever need it, I have a Caitian harem program. Feel free to use it."

As far as M'rayr was concerned, there was no need for him to elaborate much further. But Maica's inquiry over his rigidness, plus her recommended solution, had caught him off guard unexpectedly. If it were possible for a Caitian to grin, he somehow managed it beneath the lower corner of his snout. "I have been doing this for some time, Commander. I am well practiced in stress relief," he said, although failing to elaborate on exactly what he meant by that.

Maica raised an eyebrow curiously as she smiled. "Oh? How about friends, then? I'm sure you've noticed by now the crew of the Katana is a family. Find anyone you might have a drink with?"

The Caitian shrugged. He'd only been aboard a few short days. The closest person to a 'drinking partner' he could think of was Jhu, given their recent conversation in the holodeck. "You're assuming that I require such things." He pointed out.

Maica huffed at his reply. "I'm an android and I require those things. I also know how social Caitians can be. You can't tell me you don't."

M'rayr was reminded of a few times that it had, particularly while he was serving aboard the San Jacinto. The Diplomatic Officer was correct, though. Caitian's were intensely social creatures, so much to the point that if one were to be exiled from the tribe, that individual require extensive psychotherapy and additional counseling in order to deal with the emotional trauma. There were a few Caitians, himself included in that number, who knew what that felt like.

M'rayr glanced a the chronometer on the wall. He made a noise indicating that their meeting was concluded. "If there's nothing else, Lieutenant Commander, I will allow you to return to your duties."

Maica stood, slipping her glasses back on her face. "Just remember that I'm there if you need me. Professionally or otherwise." Turning to leave, she assessed their conversation, plotting projections from it on how M'rayr would integrate into the ship's family. This would be a hard XO to get to know but Maica felt up to the challenge.

You're a damned hypocrite, the holographic man said to himself as he plopped into the chair behind his desk. He'd be up all night pulling reports on ship systems and still didn't quite understand what was going on. It was times like these that he really could use his assistant. Though no doubt she wouldn't be speaking to him after the tiff they had the day before.

And to think you acted no better in front of your own superior officer. With a sigh, he tossed the PADD onto the desk. "Computer, locate Lieutenant Konora Storm," he commanded.

"Lieutenant Storm is in Holodeck 2," the voice said plainly.

"Transfer program to Holodeck 2."

With a shimmer, Ari's perception when dark and he soon found himself standing in a plain looking room. He looked around at the undecorated concrete walls and rolled his eyes. He knew from the look of the room and the odd cylindrical devices hanging from the ceiling what sort of place this was. He'd seen them before back on the Twilight Facility.

"Lieutenant Storm?" he called out, unsure of where the woman was.

And she was nearby, dressed in a black mid-riff baring top, kicking and punching with a punching bag. Upon hearing the voice of the one that she had quarreled with before, she stopped, flipping her hair and returning the greeting in the language she was accustomed to when angry or disturbed. "nuqneH?" was the question posed with a hint of a growl to it, the equivalent of 'What do you want?'

Arivek stepped around the nearest object until he saw the woman who had spoken to him. "I just want to talk," he said to her, holding up his hands in an almost surrendering gesture.

"Then speak." she said, going about her practice, while still listening.

"I wanted to apologize about my attitude towards you yesterday. It was unprofessional and being your superior officer, I shouldn't have overreacted in that way."

Konora muttered something under her breath and then shrugged. "Well, as long as you realize what you did was wrong. To, as the humans say, start off on the wrong foot with the best engineer under your command was probably not the best course of action. For all intents and purposes, I could be a Chief at this very moment." she gave, referring to the chief engineer spot. "And I was, on another vessel."

Arivek resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the woman. Of course, it was too much to expect the woman to return his apology with one of her own. "I'm aware. I read your service record. If you wanted the job, why didn't you say anything? I'm sure the Captain would have preferred to promote from within rather than bring in a stranger."

"Because I am a warrior, and prefer being out in the field to sitting behind a desk or being ship bound. But past that...I voluntarily accepted a demotion in position to come here. It was so I could be with my brother." After a cursory look over of him, she added, "I may not be the most sociable, or the most friendly to be around. But I do come through when it counts. And it's regrettable, that incident from before." The closest thing he would get to an apology had just been spoken.

Arivek slightly nodded, "I can understand that preference," he stated. In fact, it was that preference that was the hardest part of being a hologram. He desperately missed being able to leave the ship or go on away missions. But he couldn't think about that now. "I would hope that you could come through for me. The truth is, I'm reading through these reports and I don't understand what they're telling me. I don't know what this ship has been through recently and I don't know where to start." He smiled at the woman, "I need you, Lieutenant."

The woman huffed and flipped her hair a bit idly. "Need me, huh? Alright. What's bothering you silly about these reports? Since you don't know where to start let's start from the beginning."

"Sounds like a plan. Tell me, was the Katana involved in any ship-to-ship combat recently?" Arivek asked, a bit upset he didn't have a PADD to take notes with. He would just have to remember them.

"Yeah. There was an incident with some Pedians. And the deflector was brute-forced into creating some kinda tear in space. That was a pain in the ass to fix."

"That explains quite a bit, actually." He leaned against the nearest hanging device, "What sort of repairs are currently underway on board. And what sort of repairs is the ship waiting for?" He hated having to ask her a question he'd asked before, but he didn't get an answer last time.

"Lots of little repairs all over the place. Patching up holes, really. Deflector's been a hot spot, transporters were even on the list..and one of the shuttles needed some touch-up work done. No wonder you don't understand where we've been. Didn't help that I had to go help my brother prevent the Captain's assassination in sickbay. But I did that anyway."

Arivek hesitated for a moment, "Dare I even ask?"

"There was a plot to really fuck up the ship. One of those plots involved activating the EMH while security was off chasing the cowards. The EMH would administer a lethal solution to the Captain as he lay in sickbay injured. In the incident that followed I forcibly deactivated the EMH while my brother ensured she didn't use her lethal injection."

"Glad to know you know how to forcibly deactivate a hologram. I'll have to double my autonomy controls' security measures when I get a chance." Arivek pushed himself from the hanging device and stepped towards her. "Lieutenant, I can't do this on my own. Your extensive knowledge of the ship and history with her crew will be invaluable to me. Not to mention, as you've already pointed out, your ability to leave the ship. I would like if you could come back and join me." He extended his hand to the woman.

"I'll look forward to seeing them." She gave a wink before shrugging and looking at the hand. "Alright, alright. I'll help you out. No need to go all mushy on me." Konora shakes the hand firmly, before pulling it away.

"Then I will leave you to your activities. Try not to hurt yourself. Computer transfer my program back to Main Engineering." With a whisk, the man disintegrated into the air.

"Hmph. Thanks, I guess?" Konora said to thin air, before going back to her fitness program, changing it to the gym.

Lieutenant j.g. Konora Storm
Assistant Chief Engineer
USS Katana

Lieutenant Arivek Zhuri
Chief Engineer
USS Katana