"And remember what Doctor Z said the last time," Stefano said, a friendly smile on his bearded face.

"I know, I know," Crewman Wallace chimed. A sensor technician, Amanda Wallace was also an avid cyclist. Stefano knew that she maintained a holodeck program consisting of cycling courses of various difficulties from any number of planets. Everyone in Sickbay knew about this program because Crewman Wallace had the more than occasional injury stemming from her attempts at some of the courses. Her current injury, a broken left wrist, was fairly minor compared to some of her others.

"Just take better care next time, " Stefano suggested. "I don't want to see you in here so often."

Crewman Wallace smiled at the attractive Italian nurse. "I'll try."

It took several minutes, but Stefano was able to get Doctor Zilloninger to pull himself away from a journal article to treat Wallace. Another ten minutes Wallace was discharged.

"So Stefano, how much longer are you with us?" Zilloninger inquired.

"This is my last shift actually, though I don't leave for another two days."

"I hope the Katana crew realizes that they're getting one of the best nurses in the 'fleet."

Stefano felt his cheeks redden some. "Thank you Doctor. It has been an honor serve on the Theseus. This Sickbay staff has been wonderful to work with."

=====

Looking around his quarters for the last time, Stefano thought back on his two years on the Theseus. It had been a time filled with excitement, like first contact with the Kre'al. There had been danger, like when the ship had been attacked by Leandrite rebels. During his tenure on the ship, he'd attended 14 weddings, and seen numerous other romances blossom. He took joy in seeing his friends happy, but he wished that he could find such happiness in his personal life. His tenure on the Theseus had allowed him to grow professionally; he was now a certified in forensic nursing. He had also been mentored by Lieutenant Commander Jonicka Sharon, the Theseus's Head Nurse. It was that mentoring that had allowed him to qualify for his new assignment as Head Nurse on the USS Katana.

Shouldering his bag of personal belongings, Stefano exited his quarters, and reported to the shuttlebay.

=====

He had been on New Sydney for three days before the Katana had arrived. In that time he'd enjoyed the shore leave. He rarely took much leave, so it had been nice to just relax. But now he needed to report to the Katana. He grabbed his bag and headed for the transporter.

=====

Materializing on the transporter pad on the Katana, Stefano smiled at the Ensign behind the console.

Ensign Callaghan had operated the transporter controls with a smooth transport. The man had soon soon materialized on the pad in front of the ensign's console. With a smile and warm tone, the red haired man politely greeted the man. "Welcome aboard the USS Katana, Lieutenant. Will you need any help with your luggage, Sir?"

"No thank you Ensign..." Stefano's voice trailed off and he hoped the young transporter operator would fill in the blank.

"Callaghan" replied the ensign simply. "Cadwallader Callaghan, but people tend to just call me Caddy."

"Caddy it is then," Stefano said, closing the distance between them. He offered his hand. "Stefano Piccoletti. Friends call me Stef."

"A pleasure to meet you Stef" replied Caddy pleasantly. "May I ask your position, Lieutenant?"

"I'm the new Head Nurse. Just left the Theseus." Stefano started missing his now-former assignment, and opted to change the subject. "I'm not sure if I've been assigned quarters yet. Who should I talk to about getting those logistics taken care of?"

The Ensign nodded. "Our Quartermaster recently left the crew and we have not acquired a new one as of yet. I would suggest reporting to Chief Petty Officer Carter. You can't miss her. Hair as red as mine, pale skin, and Borg implants."

Stefano smiled. "Thanks Caddy. We should grab a drink later. If you want."

The ensign smiled and nodded. "I would be happy to, Sir."

"Great. I'll go find Chief Carter."

=====

Chief Carter was currently in the holodeck putting a few new holes in her archery targets. After recent events, she'd felt the need to blow off some steam, something she had been putting off since the death of Lieutenant Tonkin. The ex-Borg woman hadn't been ready to face Nathan's death despite how much she had been helping her girlfriend cope with her part in his passing, and as Andy ran through the crisp Colorado forest putting arrows into the wooden targets with so much force that she reduced them to splinters, her thoughts kept wandering back to her problem with Maica. How does one teach an android how to deal with this kind of loss, or how to overcome the grief of not being able to save Nathan? Maica put on a brave face, but Andy knew it still kept her up at night. And what were they to do with this entity accessing Maica to observe the crew? Andy was stumped, and the satisfaction of tearing up her targets wasn't making her feel better about any of this...

=====

The first place he'd looked was the CoB's office. But Carter was not in her office. Nor was she in the R&D facilities. So he resorted to a tried and true method.

"Piccoletti to Carter," he said after touching his comm badge, while standing in the middle of the corridor outside of R&D.

=/\="Carter here," he could hear over the comm. Her breath was heavy and accompanied by the twack of her bowstring as she loosed another arrow. "What can I do for you, Piccoletti?"=/\=

"Well Chief, I'm new to the crew and Ensign Callaghan suggested that you would be able to assign me some quarters."

Fuck, of course. Since whats-his-face left, that meant Andy had to play Quartermaster again. Not a big deal, it wasn't that hard a job, but for fuck's sake, she was trying to take some personal time here! She should have gone down to New Sydney with the rest of the crew....

=/\="Alright, sit tight, I'll be down in just a minute to escort you to your quarters,"=/\= Andy replied over the comm, drawing her bow and carefully aiming to hit a long distance target.

"I appreciate that Chief. I'm standing outside of R&D currently. Where shall I meet you?"

=/\="Just stay where you are, I'll meet you there," Andy replied, then shut off the communicator. She shot the last few arrows in her quiver and shouldered her bow, then headed out of the holodeck. At the arch, she accessed the crew listings and registered a new resident, then she made her way down to her cybernetics lab, which for now served as Katana's R&D department, striding right through the middle of Main Engineering still decked out in her rugged cargo pants, red flannel shirt, and bow and quiver. Her hair was knotted at the nape of her neck, but after so much activity, a few wiry locks had worked free and were now sticking up every which way. It wasn't the first time the Engineering crew had seen her this way and it sure as hell wouldn't be the last.

The ex-Borg woman peered around to look for the new face on the roster, spotting the Officer in Science/Medical teal right away. "Piccoletti?" she asked as she approached.

"Ah, hello Chief," Stef responded, after turning to see the redheaded woman who had called his name. "I'm sorry for inconveniencing you."

"Don't worry about it," Andy said, nodding her head towards the door. "C'mon, I got some quarters for you."

He followed the Chief Carter through the door. "How long have you been on the Katana Chief?"

"A while..." Andy said, pausing to think about it for a moment. "Either 6 months or 4 and a half years, depending on how Starfleet is counting our service history."

Stefano just nodded. He'd read a briefing about the Katana's.... interesting past. The technical details of the whole situation escaped his understanding.

Andy wasn't the chattiest of people right now, and since he said nothing in reply, she chose to enjoy the silence. Not that she would get to enjoy it for long; a quick trip through the lift and they were soon approaching Piccoletti's new quarters.

"Anyway, here's your quarters," Andy said, entering in the codes to unlock the room for him.

"Great. Thanks Chief. I'll go get settled."

Andy nodded in reply. "Let me know if you need anything. A lot of the staff is on New Sydney for shore leave, so don't put in a call to Ops or Engineering, they'll probably just send me anyways..."

"Good to know. Thank you again," Stefano said before crossing the threshold and into his new quarters. The doors closed behind him and he looked around at his new home. After walking into the bedroom portion of his quarters, he set his bag down on the bed and began unpacking.

It took Stefano almost two hours to sort out his quarters. He hadn't brought much in the way of personal items, but he did opt to replicate some artwork for the walls. Once he was satisfied with his new accommodations, he straightened his uniform and headed to Sickbay. He wanted to meet with the Katana's Chief Medical Officer, not only because Dr. Cohen was his senior officer, but also because, as head nurse, Stefano would be working with him closely.

Entering Sickbay, Stefano approached the CMO's office and peered through the window into the office. He saw an attractive Lieutenant Commander. Stefano paused. He hadn't looked at any information about the Katana's crew other than their names, so he didn't know how anyone looked. If this is Dr. Cohen, he thought, this is going to be an interesting assignment.

"Doctor Cohen?" he asked as he stepped into the door frame.

"Yes," He said, looking up, "What can I do for you?"

"Lieutenant Stefano Piccoletti," he said, stepping closer to Dr. Cohen and extending his hand. "Your new Head Nurse. Nice to meet you, sir."

"Ah, I saw the report about that, somewhere." He said glancing over at his desk. "Nice to meet you," The CMO said extending his hand.

Shaking Cohen's strong hand confidently, Stefano tried not to think about the Chief Medical Officer's gorgeous blue eyes. "I am glad to be here, sir. Or do you prefer Doctor? Different Doctors have different preferences on that."

"Liam." He said, with a smile, "But Doctor works when we're on duty."

That smile could melt the ice cliffs of Andor, Stef thought. "Very good Doctor."

"So, medically, what's your speciality?" Liam asked.

"I was originally trained in emergency nursing. I've also worked in surgery," Stefano explained. "I love medicine so I am continually trying to expand my skills. Working on starships, the majority of what I have done is either med-surg, or emergency. What about you, sir?"

"Trauma," He replied, "Which unfortunately you see more than you'd like to on a starship."

"It's too bad that trauma skills are so needed," Stefano expressed. "Violence is an unfortunate reality, I suppose."

He reflected back on his experience with violence. Too many situations for his taste. Including a very personal one that he tried very hard to forget. With zero success.

"Do I have my own work space?" he asked, changing the subject in an effort to help push his memories back beneath the surface. "Are their any operational procedures I should know? Anything we do different than the Starfleet Medical standards?"

"So far everything is pretty much by the book for procedures. It's a pretty communal set up work space wise," He replied standing from his desk and leading the other man out into the main area of sickbay.

"Do you like to work-up patients yourself, or does the nursing staff handle that? What about triage in mass casualty situations?"

Liam laughed, "I'm fine with getting my hands dirty. I don't like to sit back and let others do all the work." He made a nod on a PADD before standing to leave his office. "I'm due in a meeting shortly, we have a department meeting tomorrow at 0800, it should cover the rest of the procedural questions you have." He said with a smile.

That smile again! he thought. This is going to be an interesting assignment. "Excellent, Doctor. I'll see you tomorrow morning then," he responded. "If it's okay with you, I'd like to get to work right now. I'll cover Sickbay while you're gone. If something emergent comes up, you're only a comm away."

"I appreciate the eagerness, but you've already been put onto the rotation. Get some rest and get settled in. Doctor Hansen is more than capable of handling things." He gave a final nod before sliding past the other man in the door way and exiting sick bay.

He watched Cohen leave Sickbay and all he could think about was how much the Doctor's eyes reminded him of Devan. His eyes were the exact same shade of blue as Dr. Cohen's. This is going to be interesting, he told himself.

The briefing had been a little more difficult than Jenni had expected. Any sort of change was always hard to adjust to, and she didn't think anyone would expect any amount of simplicity from their new Captain.

Her difficulty rested with the person sitting next to the Bynar, Commander M'rayr Eisovo. Jenni mused that a girlfriend should be able to look upon the one she was courting, but in light of recent events...

She still couldn't believe this had happened. Or how it happened for that matter. It was never supposed to happen this way. Thankful that the ship and crew now had something to occupy themselves, Jenni had left the briefing and set about getting her reduced department ready for the mission. Running logistics was quite a difference than priming warp cores or checking for efficiency.

But she knew it would also mean an eventual run-in with M'rayr.

Jenni sighed and wondered how one night could have had this much change and avoidance. She was still thinking about it, PADD in hand, when she entered the turbolift and ordered it to move.

Ascending two decks, the turbolift doors parted again and revealed the face of the man she was hesitant to see. Anybody who knew M'rayr well enough to see past his typical stony façade could see some new gears begin to turn while he looked awkward just standing there. The Caitian couldn't help but to scratch at a bare patch of skin on his wrist that, beneath the uniform, bore an alien looking marking that hadn't been there a few days earlier. In his other hand was a PaDD, a small one, whose title: "Turush Culture and Law as it applies to Federation Protocol", easily betrayed the fact that he was still working on a... resolution... to their new problem. With a cursory glance at her PaDD, he secretly wondered if she was doing the same.

Looking rather hesitant at first, M'rayr solidified his expression. "I should wait for the next lift," he said, invisibly grateful that there were no additional witnesses to this awkward exchange. Still, he didn't like the fact that there was a weight of underlying tension between him and Jenni where there'd been none before. It had been nothing but easy... being with and around her. And right now, everything felt so much more complicated. He wondered whether or not their relationship would make it through this.

It would have been nice had the computer taken the lack of an entry as a sign that it was time to move the turbolift on. But instead, the turbolift remained persistently stubborn in waiting for him, or at the very least her words to close the doors and resume.

Jenni could not decide if time was standing still or if the awkwardness had infringing on discomfort. Why couldn't they let something so minor overshadow what was supposed to be a pleasant evening.

Sadly, it was much more than just a minor issue...

===Two Days Prior===

Jenni's eyes fluttered open, and nearly instantly shut once sunlight flooded them. Despite the sudden pain, a smile appeared on her face. What a perfect way to bookend an incredible night. And to think if either one of them hadn't run into Maica and decided to act on her interference, they both still be aboard the Intrepid-class starship orbiting New Sydney sorting personnel reports and the like.

Well, that too would come later today. What was the rush?

Jenni sat up slowly in the bed and looked to her right where M'rayr still lay asleep. She couldn't tell for sure, but there seemed to be a bit of a soft purr in his breathing. Smiling, she looked out the uncovered windows to the sun rising above the horizon. It'd been three years since she last saw a sunrise, and that was when Katana had made port at Earth. Even then, she could not resist a night in a hotel on the moon, scoping out her old stomping grounds.

And, like then, much had changed. Ever since this Katana had replaced her own, and the arrival of the cat that laid beside her, Jenni felt like herself again. No more being lost among the stars wondering what she was doing with her life.

Quietly, she turned and planted her feet on the floor. Standing, she walked over to the closet and pulled out a robe to cover herself, not to shield herself from present company, but from prying optics from outside the window. This was a beautiful place, but everyone in the sector knew not to trust New Sydney. Jenni entered the bathroom and turned on the light, unafraid that it would disturb her roommate. Surely the sun would take of that itself. She looked at herself in the mirror and took note of the smile on her face. Even it felt brighter than it had been in the past.

And why shouldn't it? Though she thought it impossible, her smile still found space to grow. And that's when she noticed her hair. It was... not like she'd prepared it the evening before. Not wanting to appear disheveled, she reached up to brush her hair back behind the ears for now. A shower would be in order for later, and a bit of brushing--

Jenni froze, her eyes now fixated on something else. Something was on her wrist, some form of alien script colored in a mixture of black and dark purple hues. When did that happen? She rolled up the sleeve of the robe and stuck her hand under the faucet to wash it off.

She was unsuccessful, no matter how much energy she put into scrubbing her wrist, even to the point of her skin turning red from the abuse.

The sun had already risen enough that a swath of light covered most of the hotel bedroom. M'rayr Eisovo's eye squinted as he came to, opening only after a moment so he wouldn't find himself momentarily blinded. With a yawn and a stretch, the Caitian reached towards the part of the bed where he knew Jenni lay, and was surprised not to find her there. Touching empty bed sheets, M'rayr rose to a sit and surveyed the rest of the room.

It didn't take long for him to become distracted by fond memories from their previous night...

First there was the empty bottle of Champaign and the plate of what had once been covered with strawberries, then the messy arrangement of their clothes leading from the main door to the bedroom. The rest... he didn't have to leave to imagination. He knew just how wonderful it had been to be with Jenni, and with a feeling of euphoria that M'rayr couldn't shake, he rose and started to make his way to the shower room where he heard the sound of running water.

"Good Morning, Kis," M'rayr said, drawing himself close behind her as he greeted her with a customary Caitian word for one whom he expressed strong affection for. It was a word rarely shared behind the barriers of Caitian culture and etiquette. And If his tribe had caught him speaking such words to a human, their response would have been quite severe.

Although it required that he hunched over a bit, M'rayr managed to rest his chin upon her shoulder, trying to be sweet. It was then that he began to notice the black/purple band on her wrist, something he hadn't noticed the previous night. Perhaps he'd been too distracted by the rest of her to.

"Hi..." she greeted, her attention still focused on her wrist. Jenni did tilt her head slightly, allowing her ear to press against his fur. She had wanted the morning to be a bit more intimate, and hopefully it still wasn't too late for that.

She shut the water off and turned around. The small of her back pressed against the countertop and Jenni reached up to place her wrists on his shoulders so that she could stroke behind an ear of his. Jenni smiled, hoping that alone would be enough to offset her earlier monotone greeting. "Last night was..." her smile grew, thinking of their nocturnal activities. "Last night was amazing."

In her stroking, however, she caught sight of the foreign marking on her wrist. Jenni brought her wrist out to where M'rayr could see it. "But I don't remember this."

M'rayr took her wrist in his paw and held the tattoo to the light where he could see it best. In doing so, he realized that a large swath of his own fur was missing, and that a similar looking tattoo had been etched into the skin underneath. There was, sufficed to say, a moment of mortification in his one good eye. With a patch of his fur missing, it was the Caitian equivalent of a bad hair cut.

Pressing past it without grunting out something under his breath, he held the two markings side by side. Hers was elegant, and compared to hers, his was rather imposing. Alien scripture from a language he'd never seen before was shaped into the design, almost invisible given the way it flowed across the overall pattern. "Nor do I," M'rayr began. He wished he could focus more on the first part of what she'd said -- that the evening had been as good for her as it had been for him.

Then, he realized that beyond an inconvenient reality that perhaps they'd had more alcohol than they realized (although he never recalled feeling inebriated; at least not until that final glass of alien tea), it was just a tattoo. If they truly wanted to, they could ask Doctor Cohen to remove them.

Raising the wrist to his lips, M'rayr placed a soft kiss upon Jenni's new marking. "Perhaps we can inquire with the hotel owner... after breakfast," a subtle but still very lopsided grin grew across one corner of his lips.

Her skin tingled at the touch of his lips. It was almost electric, far more energizing than anything she'd felt before, the previous night included. Perhaps there was something more in that ink than met the eye. Jenni didn't have to glance behind the towering Caitian to know where their clothes had been left, and no amount of alcohol would have prompted her to leave, clothed or otherwise, to get writing she could not read permanently affixed to her wrist.

Look past it, Jenni... her heart urged. Jenni then followed the prompt to push up on her tiptoes to reach his lips. It was clear a single night had not been enough to demonstrate her passion, yet a thought in the back of her mind simply would not yield. Slowly, she withdrew, letting her feet flatten on the floor. Her gaze drifted back down to her wrist, still tenderly held by M'rayr's paw, and the markings she and he now bore.

The Caitian chortled as he gave her hand a soft squeeze. Before he could say anything, however, there was a knock on the door.

While humans tended to be more sensitive regarding their nakedness, Caitians had no such taboos. With the exception of the major cities Cait where alien presence was not uncommon, it was not unlike a Caitian to go about their business wearing very little if anything at all. Still, M'rayr reminded himself that he was not on Cait as he pressed past Jenni and withdrew a second robe from the closet. Wrapping it around himself, he and Jenni moved for the door and opened it simultaneously.

And was met with startling applause...

There were three standing on the other side of the door, each of the same species, Turush, and each looking rather excited. "Good morning!" One said, holding what looked to be a large plate of sliced fruit. The others held almost identical containers, albeit with different contents. When neither Jenni nor M'rayr said anything, the first person to speak made an awkward sound to clear his throat. "Ahem, well, we were going to leave these by your door. But as you can see..." the man looked down to his left and right, prompting M'rayr and Jenni to follow his gaze. There were gift baskets lining most of the wall, and even extending out to the atrium.

"Perhaps we could leave these inside?" A woman in the group asked, her voice eager but uncertain.

Jenni stood in complete surprise, unable to piece any words together for what was now happening. Were all of these baskets for them?

"Sure." Jenni's subconscious appeared to be on autopilot as her right mind was overwhelmed by these surprising events. First a strange tattoo, now visitors with... gifts!? Obviously they knew something that she and M'rayr had missed. She stepped back, permitting entry to the three Turush. Jenni, trying to recompose herself, turned to watch them deposit their offerings, all the while fighting a blush from seeing them step over their hastily discarded clothing from the night before. One of her hands even attempted to raise when Jenni thought a foot was about to step on the fine red fabric of her new dress. She'd purchased the dress two nights ago under Maica's urging. Fortunately, their visitors took enough care to avoid it, so Jenni put down her hand.

She also couldn't make out what they were saying in softer tones, but from the expressions on their faces, the Turush seemed rather thrilled with the situation. "So," she asked, finally having the voice to say something in the least. "What...?" It wasn't her mind that escaped her. It was confusion in what to ask. Should she start with the tattoo? The strange gifts? The fact that three unknown people had knocked on their door, claiming that they were going to leave their gifts at the door, but really wanted to talk to them?

M’rayr cleared his throat. Even for him, all of this was a little overwhelming. Particularly when it had been in their hope to keep their romantic encounter as quiet and discrete as possible. But now, his curiosity and confusion was getting the best of him. “While we appreciate this gesture,” he said, putting on his diplomatic voice – something he rarely used. He shrugged in preface to his next words. “We are also quite confused. What is the reason for these gifts?”

The second Turush looked up from where she stood, looking rather bewildered. “Surely you must know,” she began to say, hesitating long enough to await a response from either M’rayr or Jenni – a response that didn’t come. At this, she appeared to blush. The other two Turush stopped what they were doing as well, both wearing mixed expressions. The woman gestured towards M’rayr & Jenni. “It is customary. We wish to congratulate the two of you.”

M’rayr gave Jenni a strange look. After all, it wasn’t every day that one received such a degree of compliments and presents for having sex. Then he turned his attention back to the Turush. “Surely many… couples… seek lodging at this establishment.”

The Turush nodded. “Of course. But most have already been brought in union. It was exciting to bring together a new couple in shi’ka.”

There was a burst of static at M’rayr’s commbadge that accompanied that last word. It was having difficulty translating the term. “I am sorry, ‘shi’ka’?” M’rayr asked, handing Jenni another odd look.

The Turush nodded again. “Yes. You understand the term, correct?”

M’rayr and Jenni both shook their heads, but both began to look apprehensive.

Flushing red in the face again, the Turush woman looked as though she were trying to find the best way of defining what ‘shi’ka’ meant. In the end, she locked her hands together and squeezed. “It is what we call… how shall I say… eternal bonding.”

“I have heard other races call it, marrying… I believe,” the other Turush clarified. He pointed to the tattoos, hoping that would explain the rest.

"Married!" Jenni blurted as one hand moved to brush the imprint on the opposite wrist. She knew full well that she sounded surprised, and she was glad for her years of quick engineering prowess finally beginning to kick in. "Of course!" She said, quickly slipping over to M'rayr, sliding her arm behind his back and pulling herself close to him. Jenni flashed a brilliant smile, hoping to quickly brush over the awkwardness.

The expressions on the three Turush displayed their collective relief. Before any of them could say anything, Jenni quickly spoke up again, "We were, you see, about to, right before you came in..." Jenni's voice trailed off, still smiling, hoping the Turush would catch the hint.

And they did. Politely, their hosts quickly excused themselves and slipped out the door. Jenni and M'rayr watched them until the door closed, leaving the "eternally bonded" couple alone at last.

Jenni exhaled and looked down once more at hers and M'rayr's tattooed wrists. So much for taking it slow...

===Present Day===

Married. Even days later, the word hardly seemed real to M’rayr. He certainly didn’t think he was feeling what he expected to at the thought of being married. No matter how genuine his feelings for Jenni were, he’d yet to consider anything in the long term.

And he’d had time to consider the greater latitude of what being married to a human might mean. It didn’t take him long to feel a very real sense of fear as to what the would-be repercussions might be if the Eisovo tribe were ever to find out. The Eisovo tribe – his entire family – were notorious for their anti-alien sentiments. M’rayr was already exiled. But he knew there was so much more they could do to him, or her, if they wanted to.

"I should wait for the next lift," M’rayr said, gripping at the PaDD in his hands. On it was a summary of how Federation law would likely interpret their impromptu marriage license. This particular summary read in such a way that the suggestion of finding a way to absolve the marriage was quite unlikely. M’rayr and Jenni would have two choices, it seemed. Either recognize their marriage, or don’t.

Still, as he watched Jenni standing in the turbolift, as difficult as it was to look at her, it had been even more difficult not to. He’d missed her.

Jenni sighed, watching M'rayr uncomfortably stand there. Though there was not a soul around to see them, this incident would set the precedent for their future encounters. As little as she expected this relationship to evolve so quickly, Jenni would not forgive herself for letting this sudden matter to be what brought their time to a close. She nearly frowned, chastising herself for thinking of closure. Of course she didn't want this to end. They could get through this.

The lieutenant took a step to her left and offered a smile, summoning as much strength as she could into it so that M'rayr would enter.

"Bridge," Jenni said, still bearing a meager smile as the doors closed. As the lift began to move, Jenni kept her gaze affixed on the doors in front of them. Silence ensued, and Jenni's subconscious took over. Her hand, the same bearing the elegant tattoo around her wrist, reached over and grabbed M'rayr's free paw, giving it a soft, yet tender squeeze.

And, when Jenni realized what had happened, she continued to hold on.

-End-

It had been a long day, and it wasn't even half over yet. The reality was that, although he was tired, Stefano had only been on duty for a couple of hours. But before that, he had been organizing and decorating his quarters. And prior to that, he was on New Sydney. He had yet to see a patient, instead Stefano had occupied himself by skimming the crew medical records.

Sickbay was so mysteriously empty and quiet with so many of the crew taking advantage of the ship's presence at New Sydney. When she first entered, Jhu thought no one was there at all, until her ears caught the very faint sound of someone working at a computer somewhere in the sickbay. "Hello?"

"Hello," he responded, turning to look for the source of the voice. Not seeing anyone immediately, Stefano peered around the corner. It was then that he saw a female Commander standing just inside the doors. "Can I help you, sir?"

Not Liam or Chandra. She'd have to explain things again, but Jhu was slowly getting used to that. Still, approaching the topic was nothing less than awkward, and she didn't like discussing it in the main bay. "I hope so. But... uh... is there somewhere private we could talk?"

Stefano smiled. "Of course, Commander." He led her to the private exam room just off the main ward. "What is the problem?"

"My baby is demonic and lives to torture me," Jhu quipped a bit humorously, rubbing at the spots on her neck. "Apparently a Trill woman's spots itch like mad when she's pregnant. And not just the ones you can see either... all of them. It's driving me crazy. I can't sleep, and nothing I've gotten from the replicator helps." She paused for a moment, having briefly forgotten her other discomforts with how badly her spots had been itching. "I've also been feeling kind of light-headed, but I've had a hard time getting food down, so that's probably why."

"I'll be honest Commander, obstetrics is not a field I am particularly skilled in. Have you spoken with Doctor Cohen about these symptoms?"

"No, this is all new and well... we don't get along," Jhu replied sheepishly. "I can talk to him if necessary, but I've been seeing Doctor Hansen for appointments."

I should probably meet Doctor Hansen, he thought. "No worries, sir. Hop on up on the table," he responded cheerily. He grabbed a PADD from a nearby side table so he could start a new chart. "Name?"

"Jhu t'Dharvanek." She hadn't gained that much weight yet, but Jhu found it was still more effort to get up onto the biobed already. It wasn't that the baby was heavy exactly, but it was certainly enough to throw her balance off.

"Nice to meet you, sir. I'm Lieutenant Piccoletti," he said, entering the Commander's name into the medical chart. When he did this, the PADD automatically synced with her medical records and filled in some of the other fields, like position, age, species, gender, etc. Some of the data remained blank as Stefano needed to note things like Jhu's vital signs and primary (and other) complaints. "I'll need to take a couple of scans for the chart. Is that alright with you, sir?" he asked, picking up a medical tricorder from the same table he'd gotten the PADD from.

She'd never been asked if the scans were okay before, and Jhu smiled just a bit. "That's fine, and you don't need to call me 'sir.' Most people just call me Jhu."

Stefano simply nodded in response. He had never been comfortable being informal with more senior officers while on duty. He popped the small handheld scanner out from the back of the medical tricorder and moved it slowly over the Commander's body, paying careful attention to her midsection, where she was maturating a fetus, as well as on areas where a Trill's trademark spots were. Once the scans were complete, he picked up the PADD again and entered some additional data.

Jhu watched as Stefano worked. While she appreciated him not asking personal questions, the complete lack of any type of chatter was just so strange. After a few long minutes of this silence, she cleared her throat. "You're very quiet. Is everything all right?"

"My apologies Commander. I tend to focus on treating my patients, sometimes at the expense of the more social aspects of nursing. I've spent a lot of time in high volume medical wards so I've gotten pretty good at putting my head down and plowing through the work," he explained. "I'm also a fairly reserved person."

"Oh that's something I understand." Jhu chuckled a little. "Carry on how you usually would then."

Stefano referred back to his PADD. "You'll be happy to know, Commander, that the baby is fine. As are you."

Jhu smiled, very happy to hear that the baby was doing fine. "I'm glad. I didn't think anything was actually wrong, but it didn't hurt to double-check."

"About the itching, I have some had some patients have relief with hydroisoproline cream. It's a simple topical application. There is no reason it shouldn't work on either a Trill or a Romulan, so you should be fine."

"Wow, can't believe I didn't think of that." Jhu chuckled a bit. "Would it be safe to assume that I'll have more of an appetite once I'm not so uncomfortable?"

"It's possible. The scans don't reveal any causes for your loss of appetite, so for now we should try the hydroisoproline and see how you respond." He tapped the notes into her chart. "We should have you see a doctor for follow-up. I can put you on Doctor Cohen's schedule for tomorrow."

Jhu wasn't Liam's biggest fan, but she nodded. "Okay. Do that... just let me know what time."

"Is there a time that works best for you Commander?" he inquired.

"Any time other than the hour after lunch... I usually lie down for a while then." Jhu hated to be that lazy during her shift, but growing a baby was hard work!

Stefano looked at his PADD again. "I'm showing an opening tomorrow at 1100. Does that work?"

Jhu nodded a bit. "Yeah. Yeah, that's fine. Thank you."

"Not a problem Commander," he responded. He set down the PADD. "Commander, excuse me if I'm wrong, but I feel like we got along reasonably well."

That earned him a grin and a bit of a laugh. Jhu's first conversation with most people tended to lead to the opposite conclusion. Either she wasn't as mean as everyone thought or the Katana really had been a good influence on her. "Seems that way, doesn't it?"

Stefano's mouth curled into a half smile. "I wonder if we could, perhaps, share a meal sometimes."

Even knowing it was just a friendly offer, Jhu's smile faltered slightly, a visible twinge of sadness lurking beneath it. She hadn't eaten with anyone since Talos IV; shared meals always turned to conversation, and conversation lately always lead to Nathan and why Jhu now wore security yellow instead of intelligence grey. "Perhaps," she said slowly. "But as friends. I'm not quite ready to move on yet."

He chuckled. "Just friends," he reassured Jhu. "I'm not looking for a relationship right now. Things ended badly with my last boyfriend, well, all of them really, and I'm taking time for myself now."

"Oh." Now she felt silly, but Jhu chuckled anyway. "Well, a friendly meal with a new face might be nice. Maybe tomorrow? I'm not feeling up to it today."

"Consider it an open invitation." He referred to a readout on the wall display. "You are good to go, Commander. It was very nice to meet you."

"Okay, I can work with that." Once Stefeno cleared her to leave, Jhu got up from the biobed, taking a moment to find her balance. "It was nice to meet you too. Thank you."

"Let me know about lunch. Or dinner. My schedule is pretty open at the moment."

"Mine's not... on paper anyway. But I have some wiggle room... I'll see when I can take a long lunch or something." Retreating toward the door, Jhu gave him a friendly wave before disappearing into the corridor.

Stefano watched Jhu leave Sickbay. A new friend already, he thought. This might be a good assignment for me after all.

[USS Katana | Transporter Room 1]

Times, like many things, were changing. The galaxy was ever changing, ever evolving, and the United Federation of Planets with their Starfleet was no different than the galaxy they served to watch over and protect. Guardians by choice or necessity? It was a common debate full of analytics and scorn, but whether or not the Federation's 'self imposed' guardianship was truly by necessity or choice, Starfleet's primary mission was always with the heart of exploration and holding ever presently a mantle of peace.

Justice had been served and the previous commanding officer of the USS Katana, Captain Kristopher Kerouac would pay the price for his actions and perversions of command. However, as the 'court room' exchanges put it 'The Captain was on trial, not his ship nor his crew' and that was something Captain Tau connected to on a deeply personal level. Years ago, some Bynars were part of a work force assigned to the USS Enterprise-D to update systems, including a recent advancement in the holodeck. Tau was not part of these Bynar, but a few of them had attempted to hijack the Enterprise to save their planet's master computer. For that, the Bynar people faced an uneasy mistrust and weakened relationship with the Federation and Starfleet.

Tau was assigned to the USS Katana as the starship's new Commanding Officer, and ze knew that he had a lot to measure up to. Perhaps not so much in proper procedures or command experience, but the crew had a loyalty to Kerouac. Tau was uncertain how quickly the crew would take to zir, or if they would take to him at all.

'There's nothing like a planetary crisis to bring a ship together' his former First Officer had said in jest before Tau handed over his previous command to her. It was true, perhaps the best thing for this Katana crew was to get back to work and a crisis was exactly what had fallen into their hands. The crew of Katana had known that someone would be replacing Kerouac as Commanding Officer and relieve Commander M'rayr as Acting Captain. Though it was probably not on anyone's mind that their new Captain would be a Bynar.

Time was not an ally to the Evora people nor their planet which was being bombarded with a series of tremors, and most recent reports of a quake that demolished one of their metropolis. The trial of Kristopher Kerouac was a long and lengthy one, but testimonies had been taken from his crew and their shore leave was up. Repairs to the starhip were freshly completed. All that was needed was a new face in command, a new ass in the Captain's chair. Tau was that chosen soul.

Zir transfer arrival was scheduled for 0700 hours, but just shy of 0500 the transporter room aboard the USS Katana was fully illuminated and the console was going into immediate operation as the shimmering and glistening form of the Bynar began to materialize aboard the Katana. The transporter operator on duty looked as alert as she could. "Captain, welcome aboard the Katana. We were not expecting you for a another few hours, Sir" she said casually.

"Yes" replied Tau simply and nodded kindly in her direction. "I am well aware of that, Crewmen. However, an urgent situation has woken most at Starfleet Command a few hours ago, and me more recently. I was ordered to report ahead of schedule and get this starship underway immediately. Please notify the Senior Staff to meet me in the large conference room on Deck 15" ordered Tau.

[USS Katana | Deck 15 | Situation Room]

No sooner had Tau left the transporter room had he heard the voice of the transporter operator frantically trying to round up and assemble the Department Heads, the Captain's Senior Staff. Ze saw two burly men in Operations gold come charging down the corridor, but stopping immediately to salute the Captain. "My welcoming party?" asked Tau looking up at the taller men.

They shook their heads as if on cue and spoke. "No sir" replied the one. "We were sent to pick up your personal belongings from the transporter room" added the second.

"Very well then. Just bring them to my quarters and be very careful. I have some fragile items that are irreplaceable" explained Tau. The Captain soon made his way into a turbo lift that shot down to deck 15 as if even the turbolift knew how urgent the matter was on Evora. The Bynar proceeded into the Deck 15 Conference Room, dubbed the Situation Room. Two yeomen were exiting the room just as he was entering and they quickly scurried off after having set up the room with a carafe of water and juice and several glasses.

The Bynar took a seat at the head of the table after pouring zirself a glass of the deep orange colored juice, a blend of oranges and ruby red grapefruit. Tau was rather pleased with how attentive the yeomen were to his dietary preferences already. As he sat down, he gathered up a PaDD reading the updated reports of the damage on Evora as he waited for the staff to pour into the room and fill the vacant seats.

Jenni found herself first to enter the Situation Room, something of a rarity for her lately. Perhaps it was the unusual hour this meeting had been called. She'd intentionally woken up early, staying the night in her own quarters this time, to review departmental reports from the last few months. Having lost Lieutenant Morgan and purposely leaving Andy to her recovery, Jenni had been working diligently to get settled in her new role.

The transporter chief had told her the new Captain was aboard, and she was glad that she'd had the quartermaster finish his quarters the night before. At least there would be one thing they wouldn't have to worry about this morning. She smiled at the Bynar as she rounded the table, selecting a seat near the middle of the left side. "Welcome aboard, Captain," she greeted, setting on the table in front of her both a mug of coffee and a PADD she'd brought with her to the meeting.

Captain Tau looked at the woman and gave a very mechanical like nod, as though ze were some sort of wind up being. Ze was short in stature, non-threatening and not much taller than a human child. Zir skin was a pinkish-purple with a large oddly shaped head and bulky cranium. "It is" ze replied and momentarily readied himself to finish zir thought. Even with so many years being unpaired, Tau still had a ghost in zir voice, a pause waiting for his partner to finish the thought or response, but there was no partner, no pairing anymore. Tau was an independent.

"Nice to meet you, Lieutenant" added Tau as he fumbled to finish what ze alone had started.

Just a few minutes after the doors closed behind her, the doors opened again and a blue man stepped through. "Good morning," he said, running his fingers along the lower ridge of his eyes. One thing he hated about the tactile subroutines Andy has masterfully built for him was that he now felt the physical strains of his emotions. While he couldn't get physically tired, he could feel like he was. And having spent all night awake in Engineering was not helping. He slid into the chair opposite his Operations counterpart and sat back, waiting for the others.

"To you....as well, Commander" replied Tau a little more seemlessly than before.

Bridget trudged into the room with a large cup of coffee. She was most definitely not a morning person and this morning's wake up had come way too early. She nodded at the others who had arrived before her and plopped into a seat, trying very hard not to look cranky and miserable but she wasn't sure she was being very successful.

Commander M'rayr Eisovo had been anticipating, and dreading, the arrival of Captain Tau. Past the individual's service jacket, M'rayr knew almost nothing about the person who would be replacing Captain Kristopher Kerouac as the Katana's new Commanding Officer. And somewhere beneath the surface, M'rayr had also been disappointed not to be given command himself. Certainly, it wouldn't have been under the best of circumstances. But given his time on board the Katana, he also felt that he would have been the best person to lead the Katana in restoring its honor and dignity amongst the fleet.

Entering the conference room, he already found Jenni, Arivek, and Bridget waiting. Mugs of coffee were already present as well, and the aroma was too fixating for the Caitian to ignore as he walked to the replicator. He replicated a Raktajino, and then moved to his usual seat to the left of the Captain. Sitting, M'rayr noticed with a degree of amusement how much shorter the Bynar was compared to the already vertically-challenged Kerouac. "Welcome aboard, Captain Tau," the Caitian greeted neutrally.

Two humans, a Caitian, and a highly sophisticated photonic life form, assessed Tau as xe examined the crew briefly with his eyes and pulled up their personnel files on the PaDD in hand. Tau looked at the Caitian and have a simple nod before looking at the Chief Engineer once more. "It is a honor..." said Tau slowly and in a highly mechanical sounding tone generated by the devices he wore that slowed down xir otherwise inhumanly fast speech. Furthermore, the universal translator processed Tau's binary language and presented it in the best it could. "...To meet such an advanced technological being."

Arivek shifted uncomfortably in his seat as the man spoke. He wasn't used to someone referring to his being so overtly, and never in front of so many people. If there was anything Ari didn't like, it was being singled out or put under a spotlight. "Thank you, sir," was the only reply he could muster at this moment, hoping the conversation would end there.

Tau was pleased to see the assembling members of the Senior Staff, though noted that only a few had shown thus far. Humans and various other species had a tendency to be sluggish, especially at an hour where most were used to being asleep. The Captain looked at his First Officer inquisitively. "Have all the crew returned from their shore leave, Commander?"

M'rayr shook his head. "There are twenty-two persons still on the planet surface, Captain," he replied. "The last transport windows is at 0900 hours; under the existing brief, they have until that time to return to the Katana before being declared absent without leave." The Caitian cleared his throat, wondering if Tau would anticipate what he was about to suggest. "Unless you wish that they be recalled immediately."

The Bynar closed hir eyes for a moment and gave it some thought. "I understand that it may not be a popular order, but shore leave shall be ended immediately and all crew recalled, transports are to be rushed" ordered the Captain.

The Caitian nodded. After everything that the crew had been through over recent weeks, cancelling shore leave early was hardly what he'd consider as positive for morale. But even a Bynar would know that, so if Tau was prepared to do that, there must be good reason. "Aye, Captain," M'rayr said, tapping his comm-badge before relaying those new orders to the Quartermaster.

Cohen walked into the meeting slightly flustered, "Sorry I'm late, sir." He said to the new Captain, he took a seat and ran a hand through his dishevelled hair before picking up a tablet off the table and pulling up the meeting notes.

"It is...acceptable this time, Doctor. This meeting was no to commence for another several hours" replied Tau. "As true to naturalness of the galaxy, things change" added Tau.

A bit unusually, Jhu came in late, her uniform jacket hanging open and her hair in a spectacular mess. She wasted no time in finding a chair and dropping into it, resting her head on her hands.

Cohen gave Jhu a small nod, despite there previous issues she was one of the decreasing number of familiar faces on the ship. He had caught the last of the XOs report but wasn't overly relevant to him, his thoughts were drifting back to Kris who was still under arrest for his actions. A court martial had a way of straining a relationship.

Liam wasn't Jhu's favorite person on the ship, but she offered him a weak smile anyway. "You wouldn't happen to have a hypo of zofran in your pocket, would you?"

Liam smirked and shook his head.

"Didn't hurt to ask." Jhu wasn't sure Liam would have given her the zofran in a meeting anyway. It wouldn't exactly look professional.

Hayley walked in and dropped into the closest open chair, propping her feet up on the table. "Sorry I'm late, Captain. Lieutenant Collins present."

Tau simply nodded and proceeded to give another minute before delving right into things.

Maica walked into the conference room and headed for one of the remaining empty seats, her uniform so fresh, it still smelled of replicator. "Please excuse me for being late. Apparently being relieved of duty doesn't get me out of meetings, as I thought it would."

The Captain, pleased with doing a very basic head count in his head saw that his Senior Staff were present and accounted for. "My apologies on behalf of Starfleet Command for abruptly and prematurely ending shore leave, and calling you all in at this hour. However, a situation has arisen on the planet Evora" began the Bynar Captain as he reached forward and activated a holo projector in the center of the table to open and form the image of the topic planet.

"This was how Evora appeared as of just a few hours ago" added Tau as he time lapsed the image. "And more recently, it now looks like this. As you can note, the planet has suffered extreme geological catastrophe. There was a sudden unpredictable increase in tectonic activity. A series of tremors occurred causing earthquakes which resulted in further landslides and tsunamic behavior form the planet's major oceanic regions. Their metropolis has been wiped out and their population has dwindled significantly. The planet is in a state of emergency."

"Do we know what has caused it?" Jenni asked, unfamiliar with Evora. "Surely there had to be at least some kind of warning."

Oh, a science problem. Jhu knew her role in that... secure the civilians, keep people safe, and stay out of the way while the issue was investigated. That was mildly disappointing, realizing she wouldn't have missed much if she'd stayed in bed. Where she'd been feeling just fine until the call for the briefing had come through. Maintaining her current posture, she closed her eyes, waiting for the science-y explanations that she wouldn't understand.

Maica was familiar with her normal role during humanitarian aid missions. Information dissemination and head counts. She'd be the one to write up the statistics and get information out there to survivors under normal conditions while security actually handled the rescue operations and science did their thing figuring this all out. She'd start by surveying the remains of any communication networks remaining on the planet - that was something she was good at at least. Ops could worry about the infrastructures, but she'd make use of what there was, whatever it might be.

"What are we looking at on humanitarian aid?" Liam asked his eyes moving from the display to the Captain.

The Captain examined the PaDD for a moment before turning full attention on the Chief Medical Officer. "Buildings have fallen, Evorans are trapped. Our sensor technology is more advanced than their own. It will be up to you and your medical team, Doctor to stabilize and treat the survivors" replied Tau.

"Can we count on any additional support from the Federation or our allies in the area? Hospital ships, long term aid team, anything? the medical department of a starship isn't equip to handle a disaster of this scale."

Tau nodded slightly. "We have been contacted by some of our allies who have agreed to render assistance. The Klingons do not have much in medical or science to assist us. However, they have agreed to send some ships to provide safe escort to Evora."

Liam nodded, it was wasn't the answer he wanted but it was what they would have to work with.

"Has Starfleet Geology been informed?" Arivek asked, leaning back in his chair and looking at the colorful Captain. "I'm not sure how helpful we can be in such a situation, especially when we're still unfamiliar with the technology in this universe. And I'm very hesitant to release technology from this ship."

Technology was something Tau understood, technology was essential almost religiously to the Bynar. "I understand your reluctance and hesitance, Commander. However, the Evoran people require immediate assistance. We're one of several starships dispatched to Evora, but we are the closest. In all likelihood we will be first on seen with a Starfleet crew. Starfleet Geology is aware if the situation and have sent their best Geologist aboard several other starships."

"How long until they arrive?" Arivek asked in response. Releasing technology from the Katana was not a subject Arivek would budge on. "What sort of assistance will we be providing?"

"They will be arriving in the hours following our arrival there. The amount of assistant or what sort of assistance is uncertain at this point, Commander. We had not been anticipating such an immediate instability of the planet without warning" explained Tau.

Hayley fought to contain a chuckle. 'Why waste resources helping an obviously doomed civilization?'. She never did understand this part of Starfleet. What had she gotten herself into?

Though Tau could not read thoughts or feelings, the Bynar could assess the reactions and expressions around the room. "I know some of you may be aware of who the Evorans are...others may not. I have not had the opportunity to read on the status of the Evorans from your universe, but here, they have been a Federation protected planet and pending member world of the Federation" explained the Captain.

"I know the Evora," Jhu kind of mumbled, not looking up and maintaining her posture with her head resting on her hands. "Not sure of their Federation status back home though... just that Picard met with them." She paused, just barely glancing over at Tau. "I hate to rush you, Captain, but I'm really not feeling well. Can we skip to the security notes? Please?"

Commander Eisovo glanced towards Jhu. He knew the woman. He also knew what was going on inside of her. But whether her illness was due to the baby, or because Jhu was still feeling remorse and dread over the loss of Nathan Tonkin... perhaps even both, he could not decide.

The Captain gave a simple nod in the woman's direction. She was one of the most senior officers aboard the starship, a full Commander by rank, a Department Head, and an essential part of the ship's command as Second Officer. "Commander, I am no so concerned with security matters with the Evora so much as I am concerned with the safety of any and all Starfleet personnel sent down to that planet, danger from land slides, mudslides, and acts of nature. At best, your people will be assisting in evacuating citizens to safer locations" instructed the Captain.

"All right, thank you." That was something she could handle, and now that she knew her role in this for sure, Jhu carefully slid her chair back so she could slip out the door.

The Bynar looked around the room and found a gaze locking onto the Caitian. "Commander Eisovo, I understand that my predecessor had an unhealthy habit of leaving the ship and setting foot wherever he deemed of interest. That sort of risky behavior is not of my nature and I have no interest in placing myself in danger, nor going anywhere where I would be in the way. I'll be remaining aboard the Katana and using my strengths in statistics and probabilities to run scenarios with the ship's computer" added Tau.

That should make my job a lot easier, thought M'rayr as he judged his commanding officer neutrally. A sarcastic quip almost made its way to his tongue, but the Caitian relented at the last possible moment and instead nodded curtly. "Understood, Captain."

Hayley looked at the woman and slowly shook her head. 'She sounds more like a whiny kid instead of a military officer,' she thought to herself. 'Did my other self really put up with such wimps?'. She then noticed the eyes of Lt. Matthews glancing in her direction. She knew if anyone could discover who she really was, it was Matthews since she was from this universe and knew of her personality. 'Need to shove her out the nearest airlock before she catches on,' she thought again as she simply nodded at Matthews.

Tau looked around the room once more. "It is best that we get to work now. The more time we sit here doing nothing, the more Evoran life we lose with each passing minute. I want Engineering and Operations personnel working on a way to stabilize the tremors on the planet. Science...find answers. Turn every stone if you must, but I want to know why the planet has gone from relatively stable to being a doomsday scenario overnight" commanded Tau.

The Bynar looked at the Chief Medical Officer "Dr. Cohen, you know what you and your medical teams have ahead of you. Be ready by the time we get there" added Tau. "Commander Eisovo, I'll need to speak to you privately, everyone else may leave."

As the senior staff filtered out of the briefing room, M'rayr remained stone. He hardly even glanced towards Jenni as she stood and exited. When the doors hissed to a close behind him, the Caitian was prepared to offer first words to Tau, but instead chose to wait and see what the Bynar had to say.

"Aye, Captain..." the Caitian told him.

Maica was dreaming again, but this time it was more real than usual. She could tell it was a dream, but she was so lucid for it as she walked along the crystalline ground. She was in a strange landscape made entirely of crystalline structures. There was a small ravine nearby and some jagged hills not far on the other side. The whole place still looked organic though. the path she was on was lined with small jagged plant-like crystals in a dizzying array of colors.

As she walked, she thought over all those memories that entity had dumped into her brain. Why was she the only one it could communicate with? Why did it erase her memories, then restore them later? Questions like these kept running through her mind.

Soon she came to an aquamarine tinted crystal block that almost looked like a bench and she decided to sit and enjoy the view for a while as the thoughts about this entity tumbled through her head. The breeze through the ravine almost sounded musical as she looked out across it into a valley of rainbow swirls of colored crystal formations.

Soon, she realized she wasn’t alone on this bench. Turning her head to look, she saw that she was sitting next to herself. Her other self was smiling at her patiently, waiting to be noticed. “Do you like the view?” Her other self said softly, not quite in Maica’s voice. There was something more too it - a depthness that she couldn’t quite pinpoint. She nodded in response to her doppelganger's query, not wanting to yet break her own silence.

Looking out over the landscape, the other Maica continued. “I’m glad. This is what I used to be. In essence a crystalline life form that rivaled the size of most moons you know of. The fluctuations of light were my thought patterns. Not entirely dissimilar to your own primitive mental network.”

“Is that why you’re here in my head?” Maica asked, breaking her own silence, her curiosity too high to remain quiet any longer.

The entity nodded. “Your mind is close enough to what I was. The rest of the creatures in your universes would be permanently damaged if I were to do this with them. Their minds are too… Fleshy? I think that’s the word.” The entity looked confused for a moment, not sure how to describe the difference. “Either way, your composition is resilient enough to withstand this barest of touches.”

Somehow, that made some sense to Maica. This brought up further questions though. “I know generally what you are thanks to the memory restoral and dump that you gave me earlier… But I have to ask what your plans and intentions are for me now. Are you going to keep visiting me like this?”

“I plan to do nothing more. This is likely the last time you’ll hear from me. As your people have a Prime Directive, I too have adopted a policy of non-interference with those living in the… Universal realms. I had to act in the situation of your ship and of you, but that was… An interesting diversion that I should have handled differently. I’m sorry if I’ve caused you any distress. Hopefully in a few billion years you’ll have evolved to the point where you can contact me in person and we can have a true face to face conversation. Then I’ll be able to explain everything I know to you.”

The green skinned android wasn’t sure how to take this, but she did her best, laughing nervously. “This almost sounds like a Q trying to have a discussion with an amoeba. I’d like to think I’m a bit more sophisticated than that, but compared to the possibility of what you are… It’s a little daunting hearing that I might evolve, let alone still be around in millions of years.”

The entity smiled back softly. “I may seem a god to you now, but one day you will see. There are many possible futures and I look forward to the chance of in some universe, you becoming a true companion for my lonesome vigil and joining me in the space between universes.”

“Lonesome?” Maica blurted out, now realizing that this entity had never made mention of others.

The Maica clone nodded, the sorrow of being alone now apparent. “Of all the probabilities and all the chances, once I ascended to a 12th dimensional being, all of my other selves collapsed in on my one self and I became a many of one. The end result of what you know as ‘string theory’ if I understand your mind right.”

Maica nodded, once again silent. She almost wished that none of this had happened, but felt a bit better at least knowing a portion of the truth. “It’s time to wake up now,” the entity said as it leaned in and kissed Maica. The passion and hope behind that kiss broke Maica from her sleep, shuddering awake to find herself in bed snuggled up with her fiance, Andy.

At first, Andy’s slumber remained relatively undisturbed, responding to Maica’s shuddering only by turning and throwing an arm and a leg around her so she was encased in the ex-Borg’s embrace. But after a moment longer, awareness dawned on Andy and her eyes slowly cracked open and she gave Maica a sleepy grin. Well, they were both awake now, so… Andy nuzzled against Maica’s neck, placing warm, wet kisses along her impossibly soft skin.

Maica snuggled back as well, using her tongue more for licking along the edges of her lover’s ear before whispering into it. “Sorry for waking you. Someone visited me in my dreams.”

“I’m not,” Andy said with a grin as she slipped a hand underneath Maica’s nightgown. “Your dream visitor, was it at least sexy?”

The android had to grin at that question - who sexier than herself? “It was that entity in my form. I was sitting beside myself in a way. Sexy enough, my love?”

“Mmmm, yeah,” Andy replied as she kissed down Maica’s neck and over her collarbone, Her hand roamed along Maica’s side and down her back, kneading and needy. “Anything kinky happen?”

“She whispered into my ear,” Maica replied, her own hands roaming to Andy’s butt to massage it tenderly in slow circles. “Apparently she just wanted to talk.”

“How boring!” Andy said with a chuckle, then rolled onto her back, pulling Maica on top of her with a serious expression. Andy knew how important this ‘thing’ had become to Maica since receiving that data dump, and she could take a moment to be serious about it rather than talking around a midnight romp. Andy didn’t do ‘emotional’ all that well, but she still made an effort to let Maica know that she cared.

Maica let herself be pulled on top of Andy, bracing herself against the mattress enough to not crush her giant boobs too far into Andy’s own breasts - she wanted Andy still able to breathe normally for this. She was calm - a sharp contrast to the passion she’d had about the entity’s last visit. “You’ll have to view my memory engrams of the visit then. We were on a planet made entirely of crystal, light swirling everywhere. She said that that was her before she evolved into what she is now.”

“Her? The way you’re talking, I’m wondering if I should be jealous,” Andy replied with a grin to let Maica know she wasn’t serious about the jealousy. She trusted Maica, there was nothing to be jealous of! Andy didn’t like that this thing was in a sense violating her girlfriend and creation, but at the same time, she knew it wasn’t doing any harm, at least so far. And it had given them information, that had to count for something! Andy massaged Maica’s thighs as she looked up at her, thinking over all they knew about this entity so far. “She say anything else? Like maybe why she’s been accessing you?”

“Not directly, I don’t think. We’ll have to review the engrams. It seems she’s incredibly lonely though, and looks forward to seeing me evolve over the next few million years.” Maica said that as deadpan as she could, completely serious about it. “She also said that I was the only being similar enough to her and… Robust enough… To withstand her barest of touches.”

For the longest time, Andy just gazed at Maica as she thought over this new tidbit of information, her expression passive. She knew she was a good engineer and liked to pat herself on the back, but the idea of Maica surviving over millennia? She was equal parts proud and sad over that revelation, and eventually her brows furrowed at the thought of Maica being just as lonesome as this entity. She would talk to Maica about that later, she didn’t want to ruin what seemed to be a good mood if she didn’t have to, but it definitely weighed heavily on Andy’s mind.

“So, she reached out because she was lonely,” Andy stated after a while. “Guess I can understand that. As long as that’s all she’s doing and further communication ain’t causing any long term damage, I guess I don’t mind. But it’s still a problem with your duty status, we’d have to somehow prove you ain’t a Security risk ‘cause of her.”

“She also said that that would be the last time she contacted me herself. The next time, I’ll have to find a way of contacting her.” Maica replied, planting a cute little kiss on Andy’s nose and smiling happily down at her lover. “I don’t know of any way to prove it other than by taking her at her word, though.”

“We’ve exhausted all options looking for a known external source for what’s been accessing you, and the information she gave you is consistent. Since she hasn’t caused any damage, I’m willing to take a leap of faith that she ain’t lying,” Andy said, reaching up to run her fingers through Maica’s hair. “I’ll download the memory engram, log all this as best I can. Then it’s up to Security and Command.”

Maica smiled warmly. That was all she could ask for at this point but she was sure everything would work itself out. “Thank you, love. Strictly speaking though, she’s definitely a highly evolved being and looking at other possibly similarly evolved beings, I can’t think of any recorded instance of them lying. The two most prominent ones being Q and the Prophets.” Did she just call the wormhole aliens the Prophets? So she did. That wasn’t like her, preferring to think of them in more diplomatic and scientific terms. Perhaps this experience had changed her in more ways than she had expected.

Andy didn’t notice the little slip and continued to play with the hair over Maica’s shoulder. “It’s a good thing that Starfleet has a history of working with higher evolved beings in the past or this would be hard to explain. Barring this entity, your systems are secure, I don’t think we’ll have a problem getting you cleared to go back work.”

“Thank goodness. I mean, it’s nice being able to make love to you whenever, but I would like to feel useful again, you know?” Maica had one of her sly grins slowly spreading across her face at this point. It didn’t take very much imagination to figure out what was on her mind.

Andy had a similar grin on her face and pulled Maica down for a heated kiss, one that she ended a little sooner than either one of them wanted it to end. “Hey, if you ever find a way to talk to her again, see if you can get her to send us back where we came from,” Andy said. A lot of the guilt she felt had gone away when she learned that she was not responsible for the Katana ending up in an alternate universe, but there were still some mixed feelings on the matter, and if they could still get home… it couldn’t hurt to ask.

Maica looked a tad bit disappointed the kiss had ended prematurely but was understanding when she heard the question. “I doubt that’ll be any time soon and though I’m sure she could with a thought, she said she had a non-interference policy as well. Hence the memory wipes. She also said she mishandled the situation, which while comforting, is also worrying that a being of that power is fallible like that.” Maica wanted to get back to their own universe as well, but at this point she was happy enough where they were. She had Andy and she considered that to be all that was truly important to her right now.

“Like the Q never made any mistakes,” Andy said with a crooked grin. “Look, I ain’t in any rush to go on another ride to who knows where, I’m alright being here as long as you’re with me. But other people got people on the other side who’ve got to miss them. And after what happened to Nathan… Sometimes I still feel guilty. He would still…” Her smile faded and she finally let Maica see how much this was eating at her. Andy had been avoiding Nathan as a topic, even avoiding Jhu, not that Jhu had been all that social since the baby started making her ill, but Andy hadn’t really taken the time to grieve, she had been so focused on Maica. “Sometimes I hate this place for all it’s taken from us,” she said, holding Maica tightly.

Maica nodded, her expression becoming hollow as well. “I know. I was there on the planet. I watched as he… I was responsible for the lives of the away team and I messed up. I know there was nothing more I could have done. But still…” Maica let herself sink down onto Andy the rest of the way, their foreheads pressing together and a mountain range of boob flesh squishing between them.

Andy quite happily rested her face in those giant bazongas as she let herself feel the ocean of feelings she had been denying herself since Nathan’s death. “I miss him… I wish your friend could bring him back…”

“I know. There are a lot of things I wish I could ask her to do for us. Like explain why a reuben sandwich is so delicious.” Maica sighed heavily, thinking over all the things she could have asked the entity but didn’t.

“Because corned beef and sauerkraut are fucking awesome,” Andy answered with a shuddered sigh. “She probably won’t help, though. ‘Non-interference’ and all…” Answering questions was one thing, but moving a ship to another universe or bringing someone back from the dead was a lot to ask for. “But part of me wants to hang on to the hope that she might.” And maybe that’s why Andy was finding this so tough to deal with, she couldn’t let go if there was hope.

“It came at a cost to her to remove that engine as it was. I can’t imagine what it would cost her to do more than that.” Maica wasn’t entirely sure of that part, but that’s what she had inferred from the entity’s prior data dump. “Besides, what if she brought him back but because she had touched him, he was crazy or mentally damaged? And what if the same happened to everyone here if she moved the ship? Technically, we moved ourselves, so I have no idea what the effects on us would be, let alone on her.”

“I know,” Andy replied quietly, holding Maica just a little tighter.

“Keep hold of that hope though. I’m sue there are other ways than through a twelve dimensional being.” Maica whispered into Andy’s ear softly, her tongue flicking out to lick the edges. “Now then… Do you want some breakfast? Or maybe some dessert?”

Andy’s only reply was to bite one of Maica’s gigantic knockers with a throaty hum.

The Katana sped towards Evora with all of the speed she could muster. Even now, as Jenni stood behind her console looking through various readiness reports from the different departments and juggling requisitions for gear from the industrial replicators, the lieutenant couldn't help but be amazed at Starfleet's lack of resources for the planet. It would still take them the better part of an hour at maximum warp to arrive at Evora. It would be a lot longer for other ships to come to the planet's aid, but even then not much could be pulled away from the Breen border. Tensions were still strained, and it would be like the Breen to take advantage of a moment like this.

A distraction crept into Jenni's mind. For all of the differences between the two Intrepid's, the vibrations in the deckplates were still very much the same, a thought that put a smirk on her face.

Looking up from her console, she took quick note of the activity on the bridge. An hour was a long time, but not long enough to prepare for disaster relief.

But there was a void. The center chairs were left unoccupied. She didn't remember Captain Tau coming up to the bridge, and she had arrived with M'rayr. There wasn't a ready room for him, and it didn't seem like M'rayr to retreat into the Ready Room (especially now that it was no longer his to occupy) in the middle of a crisis.

A crewman stopped by her station with a PADD. "Commander Zhuri is wanting an extra set of power converters."

The spare set Andy hid in Cargo Bay Two is what Jenni instantly thought of. Not in the mood, nor the position, to protest, Jenni accepted the PADD, entered an authorization and returned it, all the while her gaze still looking at the empty chairs. Something wasn't right. She could feel it.

A quiet series of taps on her console revealed M'rayr's location. Her sleeve had pulled back just enough, revealed the unwanted tattoo on her wrist, forcing her again to Jenni nodded at the nearby relief technician and stepped away from her console. She slipped off the bridge via the rear ramp and crossed the threshold onto Deck Two. It wasn't long before she was standing at M'rayr's closed door and pressing the door chime.

Was he the Captain or wasn't he? Commander... no... Captain M'rayr Eisovo held onto the four pips that Tau had previously planted on his collar. The Caitian had removed them almost as soon as he entered the turbolift. And now he sat on his couch, simply staring at them. They might be permanent... assuming his first actual command was perceived in a favorable light by the Bynar, Tau. Then again, they could be just as fleeting as the first time he'd been told he was the commanding officer of the Federation Starship Katana.

Standing up, M'rayr moved towards the view port. Past the streams of cosmic radiation, he could see a dim light in the distance. The Katana seemed to be heading directly towards it. Now whether or not it was Evora was of no matter to him. The fact of the matter was that the ship was heading in that direction. Looking back to the four pips still in his hand, he wondered whether or not success was in his future.

Then again, this was not a conventional mission. Failure didn't mean he'd have to bear through a harsh after action review; failure meant the annihilation of an entire species.

Millions of lives... all dependent on his ability to command.

The cue at his doorway jolted M'rayr out of his near-trance as he turned and looked towards it. Maybe Tau was on the other end, or some member of the crew wanting orders from the ship's executive officer. If only they knew...

"Enter," M'rayr announced in a gruff voice.

The doors ripped apart, matching the tone of the voice that came over the tiny speaker outside the door. Had this been earlier in her service aboard the Katana, Jenni likely would have been frozen by the gaze that met her. Something was different. Very different.

Emotions battled for control of her body and mind. Leave! Stay! Reach out! Run away! they shouted. Ignoring them all, Jenni stepped inside, not noticing his bare collar or anything else for that matter. "We're a little less than an hour out," Jenni reported, trying to keep it professional for now. She felt that saying anything else would again bring up the topic of their accidental marriage and force it back to the surface. "The crew will be ready to go in about fifteen minutes." She reached up to hand him a PADD, but then she remembered that she'd forgot to grab one.

She spotted her tattoo in the corner of her eye. Silently desiring a longer sleeve, Jenni stepped forward, hoping that action would erase the awkward raise. "Everything okay?" she asked instead. Marriage or no marriage, she still cared about him, and wanted to help him through whatever this was.

M’rayr listened to the status update coming from his Chief of Operations, not even considering the fact that she was by technicality his wife, and felt a strange sense of calm and familiarity. This was what he knew. Career. Duty. Responsibility. The Caitian felt a pang of guilt as he felt himself begin to transition close towards that feeling, when he stopped, and remembered that she should have been much more than just a fellow officer.

And as ready as he’d been prepared to answer her status report, she’d interrupted his prepared answer with the personal question.

Was he alright?

It would be overdramatic if he’d said no. But weren’t they here just a few days ago? In his quarters, discussing the revelation that Tau would be commanding the Katana, and not him? Suddenly, the report was reversed.

“Captain Tau has informed me,” he stopped short, not sure how to explain in just a few words exactly what had happened. He tried to smile, but the effort failed him. “That he will be acting as an assessor on this mission, and not as the Katana’s Commanding officer.” With that, M'rayr held out his paw and allowed her to see the four solid pips.

Her heart skipped a beat as another wave of emotions flowed through her soul. Jenni knew M'rayr had been seeking his own command and had suffered a major hit to his pride upon learning about Tau. She almost asked why he wasn't more excited, but looking up at his bare collar said more than a verbal response could. His provisional rank was absent, replaced with an official commission.

"Congratulations," Jenni offered, placing a trademark smile on her face. She considered placing the pips back on his collar. The thought of again looking at the tattoo on her wrist while doing so was a bit apprehensive. This crew had experienced a vast amount of change over the last few weeks and months, and not a single soul aboard expected it to end any time soon. "All things considered, I think this crew will perform much better under someone they know."

Looking up to meet his gaze, she added, "And who also knows the crew and its capabilities."

Only reluctantly did M'rayr finally let out a nod. She was right, of course. But he was still having a difficult time convincing himself that he was capable of handling such an important mission. Even considering the fact that Captain Tau would be present to offer its recommendation and experience didn't seem to help nearly as much as the Caitian would have hoped.

When M'rayr looked to Jenni, he saw a different look on her face. Or maybe it was the same expression, and he'd only just now noticed. Those eyes didn't read like a fellow officer looking towards her superior; they were those of a lover who cared deeply for her mate. M'rayr barely contained a wince at that recognition. Between avoiding each other and the new crisis, they hadn't had much time to discuss their future. And as long as M'rayr was being honest with himself, he wasn't sure he wanted to.

Simply put, this affair was so much simpler before New Sydney. Shi’ka, as the Turush called it, was the act of bonding two lovers. Whether they wanted to be bonded or not...

I can't deal with this right now, M'rayr admitted inwardly as he tried to reach back for that sense of professionalism he felt moments ago. "I appreciate your sentiment," he said, hoping that what he said would soften the blow of what he was about to say... or rather not say. With a slight movement, he straightened himself into a solid demeanor. "Interference has been blocking our communique with the Evora homeworld. Our first priority upon entering the system will be to re-establish communications. From there, we will determine the severity of the crisis, and formulate a response."

Jenni nodded, albeit slowly. He needed space. They both did. And right now, the Evorans needed them more than they needed each other. She nodded and replied, "As soon as we can, I'll start checking the narrow band frequencies as well as any shortwave or related transmissions. They're nearly a couple decades into warp drive, so they're likely to have a lot of older technology at their disposal."

M'rayr nodded. "Thank you... Lieutenant."

[ON]

In a burst of radiation and energy, the Federation starship USS Katana collapsed its alcubierre bubble just a few thousand kilometers from the edge of the Evora star system. This flash of tortured photons which, to the naked eye would have appeared as a short lived star, was detectable for up to three light-years away even without subspace sensors. Even with the stellar distortion from Evora’s star, they would soon become aware of a vessel within their borders.

Rather than sit in the Captain’s chair, Captain M’rayr Eisovo chose to stand, watching the eternal ballet of the Evora system on the view screen in front of him. Five planets, only one of which was habitable, circled the tiny yellow star. The Evoran home-world itself was a blue/green speck in the distance, only discernible with the help of the sensors and computerized view screens. Even from almost five astronomical units away, telemetry and seismic readings were pouring in, conveying in no uncertain detail the horrors being visited upon it.

This shouldn’t be happening, M’rayr thought while his one good eye studied the incoming data. Evora, while beautiful and flourishing with life, came with a design flaw. Geological instability from the planetary mantle caused frequent earthquakes and typhoons. For thousands of years, the Evoran people adapted to these conditions, constructing towers and structures capable of handling even the most severe tremors. But as of a century ago, the planet’s seismic activity turned for the worse. Evora was literally shaking itself apart, and for the Evorans, there was nothing they could do to stop it.

At least so they thought. Because without a second habitable world in their system to colonize, the Evorans were forced to study warp theory in the hopes that they would be able to achieve faster-than-light capability before the destruction of their species was complete. They succeeded in 2374 with a test flight making it to the edge of the solar system in just under forty-one minutes. And soon after, like every other new space-faring civilization to have ever come before them, and every space-faring race which would come afterward, the Evorans discovered that they were not as alone in the galaxy as they once believed.

The Federation, desperate for new allies and resources to use in its blood-spattered campaign against the forces of the Gamma Quadrant’s Dominion fleet, had been more than prepared to forgo convention and absorb the Evoran Hegemony, along with dozens other emerging civilizations, as quickly as possible. The admission of the Evoran Hegemony into the United Federation of Planets as one of its newest protectorates was formalized on board the Flagship of the Federation, the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-E, just one year after first contact.

A short time later, construction of immense geological regulators, the planet-scale equivalent of shipboard inertial dampeners, began on every major continent under the care and tenure of the Starfleet Corps of Engineers. Within six months of project completion, the system was brought online, and the planet stopped shaking.

So why, M’rayr thought as he previewed more incoming data, was Evora destroying itself again almost 30 years later?

With no straightforward answer based on telemetry available, the Caitian knew that the first step in resolving this crisis would require a closer inspection. That meant opening communications with the Evoran Primarch, then sending away teams to study the regulators. M’rayr tilted towards Collins at the helm. “Bring us into stationary orbit over the Evoran capital, Lieutenant. Keep us a safe distance. We will not be able to help anyone if we are caught inside the planet’s gravitational flux.”

"Not a problem," Hayley commented as she punched a series of commands. The Katana responded instantly as it approached the planet at a faster than normal pace. Timing it perfectly, she rolled the Intrepid Class ship into a high geo-synchonized orbit.

Turning to Operations, M’rayr reminded himself that he needed to think of Jenni as a subordinate and not his mate now more than ever. He needed to stay focused, and couldn’t allow himself to be distracted. “Ops, hail the planet. Notify the Evoran Hegemony that we are a Federation starship responding to their distress call, and need to speak with their Primarch.”

After quickly typing the message, Jenni opened hailing frequencies towards the planet on every frequency and band the antenna would allow. Almost instantly, she was flooded with a variety of transmissions though very few of them were directed at the Katana. Her eyes scanned each frequency until she was able to spot a non-subspace signal with a government signature. "Coming on screen now," she announced, patching the signal through and then starting on cleaning it up.

A moment later, on the view screen, the scene of Evora growing larger with every passing second as Hayley Collins brought the Katana into obit blinked away. Replaced with static at first, the image soon coalesced into what looked like some sort of office. A second later, an Evoran dignitary, presumably the Primarch, sat down in front of the camera.

“Primarch Victis, my name is Captain M’rayr Eisovo. I am the commanding officer of the Federation Starship Katana. We are responding to your distress signal,” M’rayr told the image, feeling as though he’d just repeated himself.

For a moment, the Primarch looked taken aback, as though he hadn’t expected to see a giant cat on his screen. Then the expression turned to relief as the Primarch sighed in gratitude. “Captain, thank you for coming,” the Primarch stopped suddenly. His eyes looked off to the side, and the furrowed ridges on his forehead returned. “I… I don’t understand. I only see one ship – yours. Where is the rest of the Federation fleet? We need evacuation.”

“Primarch, a relief force to aid your world is being assembled as we speak. But evacuation should not be our first resort,” M’rayr said, his fur cackling slightly. Not due to the Primarch, but because M’rayr had suddenly became aware of a new presence on the bridge – Captain Tau, not merely to provide aid and expertise on this mission, but also to evaluate M’rayr’s leadership ability and to assess whether putting M’rayr in command of the Katana would be in the best interests. Great, M’rayr thought. The last thing I need right now is to feel like I’m being graded,

“Can you tell me what happened?” M’rayr asked the Primarch.

The Primarch looked panicked. If he thought that evacuation was the first step, he was surely not pleased to hear otherwise. But retaining a composure of dignity and strength, Primarch Victis began to speak again, “It’s those geological regulators of yours. They’re tearing the planet apart.”

“How do you mean?” Asked M’rayr next.

“Instead of equalizing the field, it’s as though they’re playing some game of tug-of-war with one another. Those on one continent will pull while the others push. Nothing we’ve seen in our planet’s entire history compares to what we’re seeing now! We’ve tried reconfiguring them; we’ve even tried shutting them down, but they won’t respond to our commands and we don’t understand the technology nearly as well as your people do to shut them down manually!”

Captain Tau had taken many notes during this brief exchange. Both for personal records and for the evaluation of Commander M'rayr in regards to his potential pending promotion to Captain, and securing that his first command would be that of the USS Katana. Though Tau's stay aboard the Katana was likely to be brief, the Bynar's presence was important in ensuring the Katana would be in responsible hands.

Bridget listened to the discussion of the two men. Her brow furrowed as she looked at the readings on her screen. There was something very odd occuring on Evora. "Excuse me, Commander," Bridget said. Then continued on not waiting for his acknowledgement. "There is an anomalous reading coming from the planet."

M’rayr looked to his Chief of Science with a mixed expression. Of course there were anomalies! And he had half the mind to tell her to stand by until he was finished speaking with the leader of the entire Evoran Hegemony. He swallowed his first and second response, then addressed the Primarch. “I understand your situation. Excuse me, Primarch. There has been a… development. One that may be a factor in what is happening to your planet. I will return shortly. Stand by” The Primarch’s image blinked away as quickly as it had appeared, replaced once again with the blue/green glow of Evora, now much closer. In fact, it appeared as though Collins had successfully established an orbit while he was speaking with Primarch Victis.

“What do you have, Lieutenant?” M’rayr asked his Chief of Science, emphasizing that last word as a point.

Bridget resisted the urge to roll her eyes at his tone. "It looks like a ship that is attempting to cloak itself. Sir," she replied. "And I say attempting because it isn't doing a very good job. The planet's atmosphere is giving off too much background radiation probably due, in part, to the tremors. There's always some sort of cause and effect with a geological change."

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M’rayr nodded out of concern. “Bring us to within fifteen kilometers and scan the anomaly,” he turned to his new executive officer, Jhu t’Dharvanek. “Bring us to yellow alert, XO.”

Tau let out a somewhat pleased hum at this order. It was what Tau would have done as Captain as well. The yellow alert was necessary in this situation. The Evoran people were in a dire situation and Tau was slightly alarmed at the situation regarding the Federation technology having been a potential cause. If it is our technology causing the problem, there are no doubt Evorans on the planet that suspect our wrong doing thought the Bynar.

"Aye, sir." Though she hadn't been manning the tactical station for very long, Jhu brought the shields online and put the ship's weapons on standby with an almost practiced ease, tapping a button to signal yellow alert throughout the ship.

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Suddenly, a warning klaxon at one of the consoles went off. M’rayr didn’t need to ask for a report, he could see what was happening on the view screen as the ‘anomaly’, its cloak failing to account for gasses and ionization within the atmosphere, began to move into a higher orbit and towards the Katana. It vanished as soon as it escaped the mesosphere.

He was reminded of how a shark moved when it identified prey…

“Red-“ the Caitian couldn’t get out his next words before the anomaly, a ship indeed, de-cloaked. Revealed to be the size of a large battleship, and possessing the shape of a vessel only once before encountered by a Federation Starship, the Scimitar Dreadnought unleashed a torrent of disrupter fire upon the Katana. Thankfully, with its shields already raised, most of the damage was absorbed and distributed across the array of emitters. “-Alert,” M’rayr ordered, taking his seat at last. He looked to the empty chair where the executive officer would typically sit, then up, behind him, and to the right until he saw Jhu at her station. Having his XO serve a dual capacity as Chief of Tactical would take some getting used to.

Knocked off balance by the weapons barrage, Jhu clung briefly to the tactical console, freeing one hand to slap the control to bring the ship to battle-ready status. "Weapons online. Shields holding at..." She blinked at the number, concerned that a half-finished Scimitar could deal such a blow. "Seventy-nine percent."

“Damage report,” M’rayr instructed, keeping his tone as calm as possible. It had taken the Enterprise-E everything she had, plus Romulan military assistance, just to defeat one Scimitar. There was no way the Katana would be able to replicate such success on its own. "Helm, evasive maneuvers, Kerouac Pattern One."

Hayley sighed. 'Kerouac Pattern One?' She was wasn't familiar with the maneuver as she scrolled through the flight computer database, spending precious moments to find the maneuver and finally initialized the maneuver just as the ship shook.

"Superficial damage thus far," Jenni said, brushing aside a couple notices from her console. "Shields down to seventy-nine percent. Looks like they're trying to target our communication array."

Captain Tau had to resist the immediate urge to step in and take over. This was no simple humanitarian mission any longer. The Bynar's eyes widened at the sight of the mammoth Romulan vessel. "Commander M'rayr, a vessel of that class nearly destroyed the Federation's flagship in this universe. I do not know how events played out where you come from..." began Tau as the Bynar swallowed hard. The calvary had better arrive soon thought Tau.

Vara had just arrived on the bridge in time to hear those words come from Tau's mouth and the readouts on the nearby tactical display didn't comfort her any at all. Stepping up beside Jhu, her hands tapped a few of the controls she could reach easily to confirm that it indeed did match the profile of a Scimitar. "Commander, your stress levels and the situation seem to be detrimental to your health. May I assist in any way?" she asked as quickly as she could, considering the circumstances.

"I don't feel good," Jhu answered Vara in an undertone, barely audible over the red alert klaxon. If she hadn't been leaning against the console focused on keeping an eye on the Scimitar, her hands would have been shaking. As it was, she could feel beads of sweat along her hairline. "Take over for a minute. Please."

Moving in to take the tactical systems over, Vara helped Jhu ease herself out of the way.

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Something doesn’t make sense, M’rayr thought next. The kind of firepower coming from the first Scimitar during its engagement with the Enterprise had been massive to say the least. For the Katana’s to fall by a mere twenty-one percent (still quite considerable, but not when compared to the aforementioned previous records), was an enigma.

Ignoring the medic’s presence, M’rayr focused on the shape of the predator that, at least for the time being, appeared to be considering its open options. The volley of incoming fire had ceased several seconds ago.

“Hail them,” M’rayr ordered.

Jenni nodded as a response, though she knew the Captain would not see it. The trademark chirp of the hailing frequencies over the bridge speakers served as confirmation enough.

'Yes, let's spread peace, love, and free sex while people are trying to kill us,' Hayley thought sarcastically, as she pulled the Katana into a tight, high speed turn.

Popping onto the viewscreen was a darkened interior of obvious Reman manufacture. In the dim lighting could be seen several open wall panels, a partially disassembled console and a chair with a hooded figure in it. The figure could barely be made out as female from the leather work uniform she was wearing. The hood over her head shaded further her goggled eyes, the orbs behind the tinted glass giving off an almost eerie glow from the internal mechanisms. She spoke methodically and deliberately, delivering a warning in a rough and gravelly yet feminine voice. "Federation starship, that was a warning of our power. Leave this system now or we will be forced to destroy you. You have thirty of your seconds to comply."

It was a cold threat. One that was coming from a dangerous authority in threats. Aware that the Katana had no way of combatting a fully armed and equipped Scimitar-class dreadnought, but still responsible for the lives on the planet surface, M'rayr found himself wondering if his first command would also be his last.

"This is Captain M'rayr Eisovo of the Federation Starship Katana," he began, realizing that he was reading out of protocol and procedure. "Your presence in this system is in violation of the Treaty of Algeron. Withdraw, and I'll agree to arrange a conference with Romulan leadership at a neutral location."

With a shimmer, Lieutenant Commander Arivek Zhuri materialized next to the Engineering station that was currently being manned by a Junior Lieutenant. He held up a hand as the Lieutenant tried to move, but instead he walked up between the Captain and his new XO. "We can't take too many hits from something like that right now," he whispered to the two of them, trying to keep his voice low so no one would be alarmed. "I can't stress enough that we still don't know how compatible this universe's technology is to ours. If we lose a critical system, it's possible we won't have the resources to repair it to full functionality."

"I'm doing the best I can, Ari," Jhu whispered back. She'd never fought a Scimitar before, or had to face such possible technology incompatibilities for that matter.

On the viewscreen, the Reman woman was already replying in kind. "Hello M'rayr, I'm Lidano. I do not speak for the Empire. We stand apart. You have twenty seconds to comply."


"Commander," Bridget said, sounding urgent. "I think you ought to hear this. Now."

This time, M'rayr wasn't about to argue. If anything, it might at least by them a few extra seconds. With one quick glance to Jenni, the view screen blinked back to a view of the planet below, and the opponent ahead.

"Please have good news, Lieutenant," he said, the soreness in his voice absent," M'rayr said.

Bridget waited until she was sure the transmission had ended. "I wasn't able to make a complete scan but the preliminary report suggests that what they hit us with is likely the best they can do. It seems that their systems aren't fully complete which means we should be evenly matched."

"That is a Scimitar-class dreadnought," the Caitian replied, unable to hide the surprise from his voice. He looked at Bridget, not certain as to whether he could believe her. But as he studied the visual of the Scimitar on the view screen more closely, M'rayr started to notice peculiarities in its hull. And gun ports on one section of the hull were absent on the identical opposite. Curious. Turning next to Jhu, his Chief of Security and Executive Officer, M'rayr was surprised to find her not at her station. "Why are you-" M'rayr stopped; now was not the time. He'd deal with that later. "Man your station, Commander," M'rayr said, turning back to the view screen. "Confirm Lieutenant O'Connor's scan of the Scimitar."

Vara, who was at the tactical station, punched up an overlay on the viewscreen with the various weapons readouts she was seeing. "Sir, sensors indicate that she's only got 13 forward disruptors, 6 total torpedo tubes, and energy level readings indicate she barely has enough power to run them. I'm also seeing no sign of any thalaron radiation devices and the cloak... I think it's a normal Romulan cloaking device, sir. The hull cloaking arrays our database indicates should be there are missing."

Jhu only nodded at M'rayr's order, gently nudging Vara back away from the console. "I'll manage," she whispered. "Reconfigure the auxiliary station for tactical... I still need your eyes."

"Yes, ma'am." Vara whispered back as she moved stations, giving Jhu a worried glance as she pulled up the tactical sensors on the back wall stations.

With a sigh, Arivek moved back to the Engineering station and nodded when the Lieutenant gave him a questioning look, asking whether he wanted to sit or not. As the young man moved, Arivek sat down and brought up the MSD and began to run reports on various systems. Jhu expressed at least slight concern for his warning. M'rayr seemed like he couldn't care less. Either way, he had to keep this ship together.

Those were still considerable armaments, but a far cry from what after action reports from the Enterprise's battle with the original suggested. M'rayr paused to examine the readings for himself, confirming the accuracy of Bridget and Vara's reports, before moving back to the center of the bridge. He turned to Jenni and nodded. "Re-open channel, Lieutenant."

Jenni nodded and tapped a single button on her console. The screen's change was instant, permitting the Reman woman to replace the lethal-looking Scimitar.

"Commander Lidano," M'rayr began as soon as the Reman's figure came back into view. He was, of course just assuming she was a commander. At the very least, she seemed to be the commander of the Scimitar; how she acquired such a command was just one of many questions he had. By the looks of her, he doubted she even had any military service. "You and I both know by now that our vessels are evenly matched. The only difference is that I have reinforcements enroute, and you do not," he was assuming that last part. But even if the Romulan Empire had decided to invade, it made no sense to send a half-finished Scimitar as its vanguard.

"I can assure you that further armed conflict will not end in your favor," M'rayr continued. "Therefore, I suggest we seek out a new means of resolving this matter."

The Reman woman leaned forward slightly, worry creeping into her voice as a series of pink lights started blinking on her console. "I have no interest in pandering to the wordiness of Federation dogs. Speak quickly or you will leave this system as dust." The fact that the time had run out and she hadn't fired again lent credence to what the Katana's sensors were telling them. She didn't want to needlessly risk everything on this one ship, especially if more were coming.

Romulan aggression... or in this case, Reman. Either could be just as deadly. Casting a cautious look towards his executive officer before turning back to Lidano, M'rayr drew in breath. Avoiding another firefight meant he had to choose his words carefully, a task he wasn't sure he was up to. Barely managing to hold his neck straight and not look to Tau with a pleading look, M'rayr kept his resolve fixed on the Reman. "You and I need to meet. It is the only way to avoid further bloodshed. May I suggest neutral territory -- Evora," his tone was more out of insistence than suggestion.

"While you wait for your friends and lay claim to our planet? No. If you want to meet, beam aboard my ship. Two people and no weapons. Any more and you forfeit your lives. If anyone beams to the planet, we will destroy your ship." Lidano turned to her console and punched some controls to both turn the viewscreen off and to send the transporter coordinates.

Damn... M'rayr thought. He turned to face the rest of the bridge.

"Options," said M'rayr after a moment.

Turning from the back consoles, Vara spoke up immediately. "Captain, these do not seem to be the battle hardened Remans of our universe. May I recommend sending Commander Maica over? They may not be willing to listen to rationality but it's my belief that she could talk them into a compromise with ease, none the less."

M'rayr heaved an internal sigh. "I will take Commander Maica with me to the Reman vessel," he looked immediately to Jhu. "Regardless of their demands, we can not afford to ignore Evora's situation any longer. Commander, I want you to take an engineering team to the planet surface. Analyze the geological regulators, determine why they are malfunctioning, and do everything in your power to correct the problem."

"Aye, sir." Jhu elected not to ask just how they were going to pull that off.

That brought another one of the Reman's demands to mind. No transporters. As much as M'rayr doubted the possibility of a one-sided battle, he had to take the Reman threat seriously. Looking next to Arivek, a man whom the Caitian only barely had a working relationship with, M'rayr asked, "Lieutenant Commander. Do you think it will be possible to disguise a transport signal to the planet? Or perhaps a shuttle?"

Arivek stood from the Console he was sitting at and leaned against the bulkhead. "Transporter? No," he said, shaking his head. "I could disguise it just fine but the Remans will still see a beam leaving our ship and heading to the planet. They're not stupid. Now a shuttle?" Arivek pushed his tongue into his cheek as he mulled it over really quick. "A shuttle could work. But it would need to be a small one."

"Make it happen," M'rayr told his Chief Engineer.

Still silently observing the situation from the Bridge, keeping distance and keeping notes, Tau nervously listened to M'rayr disperse several orders rather quickly. His response time was to be commended. His orders were not questioned by crew, and in fact the Caitian had listened to a junior officer's recommendations openly. There were certainly positives notes to be made.

The Bynar, however, had to be a unbiased observer. Tau would have done things differently than M'rayr. However, so would have Kerouac and about every other starship Captain in Starfleet. They all had their difference in command style, the orders they would give, and their means of carrying out a mission. This particular Caitian as the Captain had seemingly chosen to comply with the Reman commander and meet her aboard her vessel.

Tactical Directive 36 thought Tau states that the Captain shall not proceed to engage hostile forces without security escort. Tau was not overly pleased seeing M'rayr so willfully go meet this Reman on such terms, but this was a truly desperate time. Further intriguing Tau was the situation the USS Katana was going to be placed in. Tau was of course aboard, but had no plans on seizing control unless absolutely necessary.

The Captain and Second Officer will be transporting over to the Reman vessel while the First Officer heads down to Evora surmised the Bynar. Tau's head turned and his eyes locked onto the Chief Engineer. Lieutenant Commander the Bynar thought with a nod. Kerouac had promoted him and given the recent change in command structure, I do believe that the chain of command would leave him in command of the Katana until either party returns to the starship.

The hum of the descending turbolift transport was punctuated only by the rhythmic pulsations of a starship under yellow alert status. Captain M’rayr Eisovo felt as though he’d abandoned a very critical duty. The place of the Captain was on the bridge, and he’d just left command of that bridge to a pair of junior officers and a Bynar “advisor” who just as easily could assume command if he… no, it… wanted to.

As the hum stopped suddenly, the Caitian and the Orion styled Maddox Android exited almost as soon as the doorway parted, making their way towards the transporter room. M’rayr felt tense, maybe even a little unsteady, and he was sure that the all-seeing and all-knowing Maica would see right through the façade of composure he was trying to convey.

“Lieutenant Commander. What is your opinion of the Reman Commander?” M’rayr asked, trying to sound official and confident. He gave Maica a sideways glance. "Do you feel that she is capable of being reasonable during our negotiations?" The fact of the matter was that, as assured as M'rayr was in knowing every inch of the Katana's systems and engineering capabilities, he lacked any similar conviction in gauging their formidable enemy.

Maica didn't have to think long on her reply. She hadn't been on the bridge when the conversations with this Reman woman were happening so all she knew was the very little that she had been told prior to suddenly being called. "As I have yet to meet her, I have nothing to base an opinion on. In general though, Remans tend to be... difficult... to negotiate with. Their history has left them untrusting, xenophobic, and short on patience. Their language, both written and spoken, are a nightmare to translate because of this." Walking into a negotiation unprepared wasn't something she liked doing, but at least she knew who she was dealing with. She had been in far worse situations before.

Terrific... M'rayr thought, refusing to admit his doubts to the Chief Diplomatic Officer. Rounding a corner, the two entered the transporter room and saw a rattled looking technician at the main console. Ignoring it, M'rayr waited until both he and Maica were standing on the pad before giving a nod to the technician. "Energize," he ordered, hoping that Lieutenant Commander Arivek would have what it took to keep the Katana intact while he was away.

They emerged an instant later in a room of clearly Romulan design. Green/blue shading against grey walls and corridors, and two armed guards carrying rifles near the door. M'rayr lifted his large paws in as unthreatening a gesture he could afford to considering he was a six foot tall Caitian. Looking around, M'rayr did not see his opposite. "I am Captain M'rayr Eisovo. Where is Commander Lidano?" He asked, hardly sounding as though he were in the presence of two armed enemies.

Neither of the guards spoke - they simply stood there and waited. It was a few moments later that Lidano finally walked in, briskly heading to one side of the table in the room and motioning to the other side. "I've deemed you safe enough to grace my presence. Now sit down and speak quickly before I have you shot."

M'rayr had no idea what Maica's response would be to such a threat, but he kept himself in place for several seconds before Lidano noticed. Interlacing his paws at the small of his back, a gesture he hoped would make his already prominent stature seem even more so, the Caitian looked towards Lidano with an unreadable expression. The fact of the matter was, however, that he was nervous. So many things could go wrong, and so few things could go right in a situation such as this.

Nevertheless, he waited until just before his interpretation of her own body language gave away that she was about to give that order. "What do you expect to accomplish by attacking a Federation world?" He said very matter-of-factly, watching carefully for any 'tell' his words might elicit. With a caress of his eye, he sized her up, and noted the fact that she was not wearing a military uniform. The temptation to reach out further, to brazenly point out the fact that he did not expect her to be a member of the Romulan Empire fleet, came to him. But perhaps it was the diplomat in him that held off on those words.

Strength... but grace.

"You suggest that you do not represent the Romulan Empire. But surely you must know that your actions here affect that empire," M'rayr pointed out, watching her even more closely than before. It was no secret that Remans viewed the oppression by their Romulan masters with a certain distain. It was what caused Shinzon to rebel. Perhaps Lidano's motives were not dissimilar.

Lidano glared through her goggled face for a moment before lowering her hood, revealing the scars of a taskmaster's energy whip. She then removed her goggles, leaving her blinking eyes exposed to the already dim lighting. "I was told that this world is not a member of your Federation. This is one reason why we've chosen it as our new home."

Maica stepped forward and slipped into one of the chairs across from the Reman woman. "What are the other reasons?" she asked after a moment of silence.

For a moment, Lidano almost seemed like she wasn't going to answer, but then she sighed and gave in. "Several rare minerals on this planet that are needed for our survival. It's the only planet we've found with enough."

M'rayr heaved an inaudible sigh, but remained standing where he was. Deep inside however, a brooding anger and hatred for the woman was building; had Lidano truly been prepared to commit genocide just so she could repurpose the planet outside as her own? Thinking over what was happening to Evora, he didn't have to imagine what the cost of life had been so far -- he'd seen the reports. Hundreds of thousands dead. Millions more dislocated. And all of this... all of their suffering... was due to her.

Catching a sideways glance from Maica, M'rayr finally relented and agreed to take a seat at the table. The first thing he'd prepared to say had been venomous, the second only slightly less so. A part of him even wondered if he'd be capable of killing Lidano before her guards could react. No. Provocation, M'rayr was forced to remind himself, would only lead to more bloodshed. And there'd been enough of that already.

"You are responsible for causing the geological catastrophe on Evora," M'rayr stated more as a fact than a question. "For what purpose have you done this?" Surely, even if the Reman dream of discovering a new homeworld had been just a dream, there must have been alternative options for doing so.

"The geology of the planet is unstable. We're forcing it to settle." Lidano replied simply.

"And in the process you're causing the genocide of a sentient, warp capable race." Maica quipped back. "Why is this worth all that blood on your hands?"

Lidano leaned in closer, her eyes narrowing. Because we can't survive on our ship anymore and I won't have the blood of fifteen thousand Remans on my hands. Compared to that, I care not about some primitive peoples that worship beads. I have to put my people first."

Fifteen thousand? M'rayr realized as he shifted slightly forward in his seat. "You believe that one party must be required to suffer so that the other might survive," he said, shaking his head. But in the back of his mind, he was running tactical scenarios. In a space fight, the Katana and the Scimitar were closely matched. The Scimitar possessed an offensive edge, while the Katana made up for that in shield strength and completed armoring. On the ground, even with the Evorans, the battle would easily tilt in Reman favor should Lidano choose to commit the bulk of her forces.

M'rayr saw a solution to the crisis, despite the fact that he didn't like to consider what the he and the Federation would be forgiving in the name of peace. "It could not be furthest from the truth, Lidano," he said, hoping that by calling her by her name he'd win some trust.

Lidano listened intently, leaning in and motioning for M'rayr to continue.

"There are tens of thousands of worlds along the border within Federation space near the Romulan border. Certainly at least one will contain... desirable conditions for your people," he began, knowing that his assurance and the Federation's guarantee could be quite different, should a few on the council come to perceive his proposal as unacceptable. "Provided that you agree to stand down your vessel and cease all hostilities immediately, the Federation will examine your needs and find a suitable planet for your people."

Technically, everything M'rayr said was true. Still, he hoped that the Federation council would not use his particular choice of words against what he was trying to accomplish. M'rayr hoped that what he was about to say next would appease any detractors within the council. Otherwise, it could be a very short command for him indeed. M'rayr's eye changed the way it looked at Lidano. "The price for peace and freedom for your people will come at a cost, however, as it should. Blood has been spilled unnecessarily. You have committed war crimes against the Federation. Crimes which must be answered for."

Lidano leaned back in her chair slightly, considering the Caitian's words. "I admit that having a Federation ship looking as well is a tempting offer. Will your Federation provide my people with supplies and resources while this world is searched for? And who would I be answering to for these... crimes? Your Federation, for which this planet has yet to become a member of, or the primitives themselves? Who will care for my people then?"

Despite only having one eye, both of M'rayr's brows furrowed. He had to present at least some resentment over the way she referred to the Evorans, whether it was actually felt or not. "Evora is a protectorate of the United Federation of Planets," M'rayr stated. While it was true that, as a Protectorate, Evora fell under Starfleet's protective jurisdiction, that could also be said of several thousand worlds... many of which were pre-warp and didn't even know they were guarded. Thereby, it could be said that the Evorans had just as much a right to judge Lidano as the Federation council itself.

They want to become Federation members, someday, M'rayr thought of the Evorans. Now, more than ever, did they need it. Surely they'd permit some judicial flexibility in this matter. "Starfleet is a peacekeeping and humanitarian force," he said, once again feeling like he was maneuvering around carefully worded statements. "One way or another, your people will be cared for. And I will do everything in my power to insure that you are judged by Federation law alone."

Lidano scoffed at the humanitarian comment. "I've only seen the war like side of the Federation and Starfleet's military might and my own experiences with judicial systems leaves much to be desired. You'll forgive me if I don't take your word at face value."

Maica stepped in at that point with a suggestion. "How about you request amnesty for your people? We can find you a new world and create a protectorate for you. As a member of the Diplomatic Corps, I can't guarantee that outcome, but as an android, I give it a 98% chance of succeeding. The only questionable part is your involvement in the destruction of this planet's ecosystem. Even if the worst were to happen to you, and only you, a Federation prison is still far nicer than a Romulan one. On top of that, the Federation can provide a stable Ferengi-free galactic economy for your people to trade with if they so desire."

The Reman woman nodded at this. The safety of her people was her primary concern and it was looking less and less likely that they would stay safe here now that they were found out. "Very well, a truce for now. I will give you one hour to find another planet. We will transmit the required minerals and resources and pause our terraforming systems on this world. If you have nothing at the end of that hour, we will resume. Also, if any other Federation warships enter this system, we will retaliate with force."

Haley's crew had deposited James' body into deep space, on course with the system's star. Bolar looked at the body of Hayley laying in the open coffin. They had been on the run for a long time. It had been fun but also very tiring--now they had lost two of their small crew. One to hostile fire and the other to Starfleet. He wondered how long his boss and friend would be able to fool the crew of the Katana. He noticed movement out of the corner of his eye. Turning, he saw it again--the human's chest had raised slightly. "Impossible!". He grabbed his tricorder from his belt and activated it. The instrument confirmed he wasn't seeing things--this Hayley Collins was alive! " Hanley, Chavez, Korg! Get in here now!"

Two humans and a Klingon entered the small room. "What is it?" Korg asked in a irritated tone.

"She's alive! Look!" Bolar showed the tricorder to the others who looked at the readings in disbelief. "Get her into sickbay now!"

"We should kill her!" Korg stated. "She could cause trouble for us!"

"We won't let her die. The boss wouldn't and neither will we. Now follow my orders!" Bolar demanded.

Chavez and Hanley moved, rushing the metal coffin down the corridor to sickbay.

Bilateral followed as he watched Hanley and Chavez place Hayley's body onto the biobed. "Thetrs a heartbeat, brain activity and a weak pulse."

"Place her on life support and do what you can, now!" Bolar ordered. "Why was she declared dead?"

Hanley, the medic of the crew shook his head. "It's likely the disruptor barely missed her heart but the shock caused her heart to stop. For all I can tell, the heart started working again. Possibly when Korg dropped her into the coffin."

"Will she make it?" Bolar asked.

"No idea but she shouldn't be alive but she is, so I wouldn't count her out just yet but she does need advanced medical care that we don't have on the Black Dagger."

Do whatever you can with what we have. I'll be on the command deck.". Bolar turned and exited the sickbay. Now he had to figure out a way to contact his Hayley without alerting the crew of the Katana.

TBC...

Annette couldn't believe how long it had taken to reach the SS Katana. She had been assured by Starfleet the journey to her new assignment would only take three days. Well three days had quickly turned into three weeks aboard multiple vessels and if she heard the words "almost there" one more time she was pretty sure that she wouldn't be boarding the Katana as a ensign but as a prisoner for murder. The worst part of the journey was that every time she tried to make conversation with her transport they would make small talk and then remain silent for the rest of the journey. At least she had some books to keep her from madness, but she didn't know how many more times she could read Orwell without having it memorized. As Annette was considering which book to read next, she could hear the two men navigating the transport vessel getting into a heated discussion of whether they were going the right way to meet up with the Katana. As Annette moved to go and see if everything was okay, she heard one of the men say, "See I told you we were going the right direction, the ship is right there. If we had gone your way we would have completely missed it". Annette was never so relieved in her life to see a star ship. She gathered up some of her bags and was headed to the transporter before the men even had the chance to announce their arrival.

Upon her arrival on board, Annette's excited could hardly the be contained. She felt like skipping through the halls but knew that probably wouldn't make a first good impression. She had been on a few star ships in the past but nothing like the Katana. As she strolled through the halls looking for her quarters she couldn't believe that this was going to be her new home. She was really looking forward to meeting all of the crew and helping with their diplomatic missions. She had been a little apprehensive at first when Starfleet had assigned her to the Katana. As one of the oldest people in her graduating class, she assumed they would assign her to a smaller ship and let some of her classmates be assigned to the bigger starships. When she received her orders, she almost couldn't believe it and asked her superiors at Starfleet at least twice if they were sure they hadn't made a mistake. Everyone reassured her that because of her experience with diplomatic missions when she was with the British Government they believed the Katana would be the perfect fit.

After settling into her quarters, Annette decided it would probably be a good idea to meet with her supervisor and probably explain why it took her so long to report to the Katana. Annette had attempted to send a few communications while in route but she was confidant the messages had not been received because she never got any responses back. Annette just hoped her explanation would suffice because she definitely did not want to anger her supervisor on her first day.

Maica had been going over her own worries in her head. Starfleet had supposedly sent a replacement diplomat some time ago but with all that had happened recently, she was surprised the USS Hera had found them at New Sydney, let alone a civilian ship without the Katana's transponder codes. That sort of thing seemed to be normal for the Starfleet of any universe though. Sighing and leaning back in her chair, she surveyed the vast array of bottles she had collected over the years, It seemed she'd not be getting many more of them from here on out what with no longer having all her contacts in the diplomatic world. The office area wasn't big, but it was comfortable, being nothing more than an offshoot of hers and Andy's quarters. She'd certainly had a lot of good times in it.

Then Maica noticed an alert on one of her desk screens. It seems her new diplomatic officer had finally arrived and checked in. Ensign Annette Graves... That name was familiar... Typing out a message to the Ensign, Maica requested a meeting as soon as she was available.

Annette received a message that her commanding officer had requested a meeting. As Annette wandered through the ship searching for the office, she replayed a brief conversation with a man that was on the first leg of her journey to the Katana. When he heard that her final destination was Katana, he kind of laughed to himself and causally mentioned that " the Katana had hit a rough patch and that something had occurred with their previous Captain and hopefully everything had worked itself out". When Annette tried to press for more answers the man just said " you will see when you get there". Annette had wondered what he meant but just dismissed as a rumor but as she stood at the door way to her commanding officers office she wondered what she was in for.

"Ensign Annette Graves reporting for duty sir" Annette said as she entered the office.

"There you are," Maica said as she stood and offered a handshake to the older Ensign. "Welcome aboard. Can I get you something to drink?"

"No thank you sir" Annette replied as she shook the Lieutenant Commanders hand. " I tried the replicator in my quarters before reporting to you, it makes a decent cup of black tea".

"I more meant alcohol, but that works too," the green skinned Orion Android replied, motioning to the chairs opposite her desk and smiling softly. "Please, have a seat. And stop calling me sir. Where I come from, you call people with boobs ma'am."

" I would also like to apologize for reporting so late, the USS Hera seemed to have difficulty locating the Katana which delayed me in reporting" Annette said nervously.

"The USS Hera was waiting for us and we spent several weeks docked with them. It seemed we had more trouble finding them." Maica said as she sat down, hoping the Ensign would follow suit.

As Annette sat down she couldn't help but notice the collection of bottles the commander had. " You have quite a collection of bottles Commander, you must have been with Star fleet awhile to have amassed such a collection. I'm partial to collecting rare books myself." Annette stated.

"Thanks but I'm really only ten years old. Every one of these is from a friend I had in the universe we came from and in the past seven years since joining as a diplomat, I had made quite a few. In this universe... All of these bottles of spirits are duplicates here and my counterpart never made it out of my creator's clutches alive." Maica was reminiscing now, reminded of her current lack of a job with this universe's Starfleet. "The empty ones are all in storage. I should recycle them, but I suppose I'm getting a bit sentimental in my old age."

"Sentimentality is good", replied Annette. "it helps us to remember the events and people that have shaped us into the people we are today and helps to keep them in our memories."

Maica chuckled softly for a moment, her smile widening. "But as an android I don't have any troubles remembering anything. Why should I keep them then?"

"Maybe you have some hoarding tendencies" chuckled Annette. Annette was very relieved that her supervisor had a sense of humor. Her last job nobody had a sense of humor leaving her feeling like an outcast at times.

"Possibly," Maica replied, nodding slightly. It was certainly a possibility she'd have to look into later. "So... I assume you're aware of this universe's Katana being destroyed and that this one is from a parallel universe and four years in the past. Do you know why Starfleet sent you here?"

" Um, no I wasn't aware of that" Annette replied nervously, " Starfleet didn't give me much of information about the Katana and they didn't explain why I was sent here". Annette tried to recall if she had learned anything at the academy about the Katana but she couldn't recall anything.

"This should be an interesting assignment then. I'd look over the logs when you have time." Maica said, serious again. "As for your assignment here, since I have no standing with the Starfleet Diplomatic Corps anymore, you'll be our liaison and active representative to them as well as the authorized public face. Sadly this is the only diplomatic office aboard and it's part of my quarters, so you'll have to do most of your work out of your quarters as well. The ship's yeoman was my assistant but with you here, you'll be taking her job as well, not that I had much for her to do either... As a cadet I mostly gave her tasks that would help her learn things she'd need later in her career but since you're not, I'll be giving you a fair bit more than that."

"Ok, Commander" Annette replied. "I bet the logs will definitely make for some interesting reading. Is there anything I can do to help with our current mission on Evora?" Annette asked eagerly. "When I beamed over I heard in passing there was a crisis on Evora. Having such a long journey here Annette was extremely eager to get to work to make up for the lost time.

"I'd love to say just sit tight and watch, but more importantly, I have several reports on the situation that need reviewing and routing to Starfleet. I'll also need you to talk with the locals and see where relief efforts will be needed the most when the other ships get here. Get with Ops for access to what passes for comm lines in the area and I'll make sure all the data on the situation gets to your desk." Maica was punching up some info on her desk terminals as she spoke, sending the info she had already collected to Annette's own desk in her quarters. "Also, if your desk doesn't have one, we'll need to get you a dedicated holo-communications console. If you end up doing similar to what I used to do, you'll be on subspace talking with dignitaries several hours a day."

Annette stood to leave, "I will head over to operations now and talk to someone about the communication lines but it may be necessary for me to travel to the surface and talk to the locals in person." Annette stated, "I've found that in times of emergencies, people are more willing to talk and tell me their needs if they see an actual person, not just a person on a screen." Annette reached out to shake the Commander's hand and added "hopefully we can resolve the situation on Evora quickly so we avoid more deaths on the planet".

"Sounds good but please don't put yourself in unnecessary danger, ok? If you need anything let me know." Maica said as she stood and smiled softly. "It's a pleasure meeting you."

"Likewise Commander, and I will definitely let you know if I need anything." Annette replied. As Annette headed towards the doors, she thought to herself that she would definitely try to avoid any danger, but sometimes it seemed that danger always found her.

The moment Captain M’rayr Eisovo felt his molecules being torn apart piece by piece on board Lidano’s Scimitar-class dreadnought, only to then be reassembled within the contours of the Katana’s transporter room, he felt an accompanying sense of relief. If Lidano had ever wanted an opportunity to kill leader of her enemy, an execution on board the Scimitar would have been it. But instead, M’rayr and his Chief Diplomatic Officer – Lieutenant Commander Maica – managed to convince Lidano that an armistice would be favorable to further armed conflict.

“Report,” M’rayr said before the turbolift doors fully closed behind him as he entered the bridge.

While their mission had been a success so far, there was still much to consider. Had the away team made it to the planet? What was the status of and repairs to the geological stabilizers? Would Katana be able to stop the planet from shaking itself apart – killing millions? M’rayr realized just how much the Commanding Officer of a starship might not know as to the broader situation after spending less than two hours on a hostile vessel.

"The Shuttle has evaded Reman sensors," Jenni reported, looking up from her console. She'd lost herself into passive scans of the Reman ship and the planet below and had not realized M'rayr had returned until she'd heard his voice. After all, she thought, it would be best to be as far ahead as possible in aiding the Evorans in peril. "All comm channels still being flooded by varying reports from the surface below. I've got people working on filtering through the data to see where aid is most needed."

Hayley sat at her station, leaning back in the seat. She was rather glad to stay aboard the ship than on the shuttle with the fools. They could easily outfly and fight the larger, less maneuverable half assed Scimitar ship that hung in space in front of them. Why not just destroy the ship? Because she was with a bunch of Starfleet softies who were taught to be take the first bloody nose before engaging an enemy. She once believed in that train of thought but spending months as a Ferengi slave taught her that in order to survive, you had to hit hard, hit fast, and most importantly hit first. "Do you really expect that Reman witch to keep her word? Remans aren't exactly known for their honorable actions."

Jenni cocked an eyebrow at Hayley's direction, a bit surprised by the tone of her question. That didn't seem like the same Hayley she spoke to in the corridors just before New Sydney. She shrugged it off for now, chalking it up to the stress resulting from the situation. For now, they were only a crew of 150 that stood in the gap for an entire civilization. They all had to stay focused.

Maica had headed to one of the side workstations to look up a few things but had to chime in. "I may not be the best with Remans, but I'm 98% sure she was telling the truth. I detected no duplicity from her at the time. Having said that, I'm amazed she gave us an hour. Remans aren't known for their patience either. Unless it's to spring a trap at just the right moment..."

“Only time will determine, Lieutenant,” M’rayr said, although he wasn’t clear as to which Lieutenant he was referring to. Sitting at the Captain’s chair, M’rayr pulled up Lidano’s list of demands. The diversity and amount of rare minerals listed was staggering, and the environmental conditions were quite specific.

"In the meantime, we must be willing to maintain our end of the agreement," M’rayr touched a command that translated that information onto the main view screen. “We have negotiated a temporary armistice. In return for a cession of hostilities, Lidano will agree to assume total responsibility for the crimes against Evora, and the unprovoked attack on this vessel. She will stand trial for her actions, and will be judged by the Federation court of law. Her crew, in the meantime, will be granted amnesty within the Federation. We will do everything in our power to locate a uninhabited planet along the Federation/Romulan border with comparable conditions to that of Evora so that the Remans may have a homeworld.”

M’rayr’s next question didn’t entirely fall in line with that objective. “Lieutenant Matthews, what is the status of the Federation relief force? He asked, recalling Lidano’s threat. If any additional Federation vessels were detected, she’d break the armistice and attack with everything she had. But the Katana was merely the vanguard for this mission – more ships would be on the way.

And if this peaceful resolution was to be untenable, he wanted – needed – as many ships on his side as possible.

Jenni checked the long-range sensors, the only ones she'd allowed to remain in full active mode. "Two Olympic-class and one Nebula are in route." Glancing back up at the Captain, she added, "They'll arrive in about two and a half hours."

Not soon enough, M'rayr thought as he unconsciously began to brush at the fur underneath his chin. If it came to a renewal of armed conflict, it would be a fight between the Katana and the Scimitar. M'rayr couldn't even rely on the Evorans; their ships were no match for either. "Very well, then we will need to locate a compatible world in order to meet Lidano's deadline," he said, turning to Jenni. "Lieutenant, search astrometric records. A world near the Federation/Romulan border would be preferable, but any world, provided it is uninhabited, will suffice."

Jenni nodded at the Captain, and knew this task was best suited for the Astrometrics lab below. Hopefully with all of the various comm chatter coming from the planet below, she'd be able to establish a solid connection with the appropriate Starfleet database.

Turning to Arivek, M'rayr continued. "Lieutenant Commander, I would like you to begin passive scans of the Scimitar. If it comes to a battle, we need every advantage we can get." I will not lead this crew into a bloodbath for either side, passed silently between them.

Arivek looked up from the console he was studying, a confused look on his face. Last time he checked, Chief of Operations was in charge of menial tasks like running scans. But he decided that this wasn't a battle he wanted to fight. "Setting low-res scans of the Scimitar now, Captain," he said.

M'rayr nodded.

Hayley sighed and turned in her seat to face the caitian. One hour to locate a Class M planet that is deserted was near impossible. Was this Starfleet Officer really so naive or just plain stupid? She hated sitting in the seat doing nothing, however. "So, captain...should I help Matthews or sit here and twiddle my thumbs waiting for the Remans to attack us?"

M'rayr didn't reply right away. "Your expertise in interstellar navigation would, I presume, be rather invaluable to the Lieutenant," he began, indicating Jenni's direction with an almost unnoticeable shrug. His eyes transitioned towards the view screen. Even though the Scimitar was not present on it -- instead a series of alphanumerics and statistics -- he knew it was still out there. "Do what you can to assist. But be ready to take evasive action... should the Remans choose to betray the armistice."

[ON]

Captain M'rayr Eisovo had still been holding onto the PaDD handed to him by Lieutenant Commander Liam Cohen more than an hour ago. With the Katana enroute to Evora on a mission of mercy, losing the ship's Chief Medical Officer was a hard item to swallow. Then again, the Caitian wondered, what would he have done had Jenni been thrown into a brig... incarcerated for a crime of such severity to ensure her never seeing the light of day again? More importantly, at least in the Caitian's own mind, what would she have done if that situation had been reversed?

Neither question, nor its answer, gave him any satisfaction as a chime at his ready room door indicated that someone was ready to see him. M’rayr interlaced his paws and stared at the door for a hard second. The Katana was in a period of dangerous transition. Kerouac was gone, he was in charge, and the Katana was on its way to respond to a crisis of incalculable scale. The resignation of the Katana’s Chief of Medical felt like another domino tumbling towards a much larger stack of dominos.

It's my job to stop that stack from tumbling any further, M'rayr thought. Regardless of any of this, M’rayr needed to appear calm and in control… whether he felt that way or not.

“Enter, Lieutenant Piccoletti,” M’rayr announced.

The Katana was less than an hour from Evora. He needed to make this fast.

Stefano stepped into the Ready Room as the doors parted. When he had been summoned to meet with Captain Eisovo, he was a bit nervous. Having not had any interactions with the Caitian thus far, Piccoletti was unsure of the Commanding Officer's personality.

"You wanted to see me, sir," Stef stated, his baritone voice carrying a soft trace of his Italian roots.

M'rayr still wasn't sure about this. Even as he allowed his one good eye to size up Mr. Piccoletti, the notion of handing the reins over to a doctor of nursing practice, and not someone like Mr. Rose who possessed a proper MD, still felt like a leap of faith. But while on paper, Rose looked more than capable of assuming the role, it was Piccoletti who possessed more experience overall. In addition to that, his evaluations from Cohen had been exemplary.

“Lieutenant Piccoletti,” M’rayr said with a stony face of cold neutrality, gesturing towards a chair with one paw. “Have a seat.”

Let’s see how he holds up to pressure, M’rayr thought, narrowing his eye and giving a very strong impression that this meeting wasn’t going to be a good one. An officer getting nervous under the judgment of his commanding officer was one thing, but M’rayr had seen officers completely lose their calm under that sort of scrutiny. And not one of them, in M’rayr’s experience, would have been good candidates for promotion. If Stefano could handle the harsh examination of a large Cat with claws, there just be enough to hope that he could handle mass casualty situations like the one Katana was heading towards.

"Thank you sir," he responded, crossing to one of the chairs opposite Eisovo. His experience with Caitians was limited to triaging and treating three Caitian scientists who had been injured after their small research vessel had an engine failure and collided with the asteroid they were studying. The ship he was serving on at the time, the USS Rishimar, had responded to the distress call.

He examined Eisovo's face and found it less than inviting. This did not dissuade him from engaging with the senior officer. "I wanted to congratulate you on the promotion sir."

Eye still searching, M'rayr held his tongue for several long seconds, waiting for the silence between him and Stefano to twist into a pretzel. Again, there wasn't time. Things were moving quickly, and the Katana needed to be ready for what was to come. And while Piccoletti had hesitated, he didn't flinch. The Caitian let out an exacerbated sigh. "Due to personal reservations, Commander Cohen has resigned from his duties as the ship's Chief Medical Officer," he said, sounding as though he might as well have been talking about the weather. "Even in a base case scenario, the crisis on Evora is severe. I need a functional sickbay. Therefore, I am appointing you as Chief of Medical. This is temporary... of course," M'rayr added as an after thought.

It took him a moment before Stef realized he hadn't blinked. "Uh, thank you sir," he forced out, hurriedly. "I am very honored Captain, but it's unusual for a CMO to not be a physician or surgeon." He quickly added, "As you know." Chief Medical Officer! Even if only temporary, this is huge!, he thought. Nurse Practitioners often found themselves in administrative roles, including heading medical units of civilian hospitals and clinics. Only the largest Starfleet facilities placed NPs in such positions, however. And holding the senior medical billet on Katana would make Stefano an anomaly.

"Did Doctor Rose turn down the position?"

M'rayr didn't answer right away. "Doctor Rose was not an eligible candidate for the position," he remarked plaintively, gesticulating with his wrist. Stefano was young, and was unable to conceal most of his enthusiasm despite the fact that Cohen's shoes were some pretty large ones to fill. Perhaps he was that confident, or perhaps it was just that reality hadn't quite sunk in. "We will be arriving at Evora in approximately three hours. Our immediate mission is still undefined. We will know more once we enter orbit. But there are tens of millions of Evorans who have been injured by these... quakes. Starfleet is assembling a relief force to assist, but the Katana is the vanguard. Although our medical resources are limited, we should be expected to assist in some way. Please assemble a complete manifest of all medical supplies and resources on board; I will arrange for that information to be sent to the Evoran Hegemony once we arrive. Should the Evorans require extra doctors or medical staff, you may be called upon to assist on the planet," the Caitian raised an eyebrow. "Will that be a problem?"

Stefano shook his head. "Of course not, sir. I, and my staff, stand ready." 'My staff'....I like how that sounds, he thought. "Is there anything else, Captain?"

M'rayr thought the question over. Although he'd already given Piccoletti the job, M'rayr hadn't quite gotten over that uneasy feeling in his stomach. Perhaps, that feeling was less about the Katana's new Chief of Medical and more about its new Captain... trying to get easy with command. None of those worries reached facial expression, however, although M'rayr was glad that Piccoletti was not a telepath. "No, Lieutenant. That is all. You are dismissed."

Giving the Caitian Captain a curt nod before standing and exiting Eisovo's office, Stefano headed to Sickbay. And his office.

Jenni could not remember the last time hours had passed like years. In fact, she'd felt as though the last few days had felt like an eternity. Her mind ached and bore not in mind the welcome distraction at Evora. Part of her had wanted to be on the Away Team that was bound for the surface, especially since Commander Zhuri was bound to the Katana. She was the only person on the ship most familiar with the technology of this universe, and the Away Team was dispatched without a senior engineer, leaving her to sort through Astrometrics records. Was M'rayr so afraid to lose her that he refused to put her in harm's way?

As she entered the Mess Hall to secure a cup of coffee in hopes it would force the fog to lift from her thoughts, Jenni resisted the urge to look once more at the purplish black ink affixed to her wrist. Until now, she'd only thought of this marriage as an unexpected happening, and now it was appearing to be an inconvenience, no matter how much neither her or M'rayr wished to ignore it. Mark or no mark, he was the Captain, and she was obligated to support his decision, no matter how she felt. For a flicker of a moment when she lifted the mug of coffee from the replicator, Jenni felt more helpless than she'd ever have.

And that's when she realized it. For one mere moment, Jenni had just classified M'rayr as a man worse than Kristopher Kerouac. Jenni immediately turned from the replicator in the vacant Mess Hall, closed her eyes and leaned against the bulkhead. That's not fair! she chastised herself. M'rayr didn't deserve that.

Jenni opened her eyes, and walked towards the viewport. The broken world of Evora rested outside its transparent barrier. Jenni wished for a moment there was something else to look at, but for now it would have to do. Hopefully, staring out into space would be enough to help her gather enough thoughts once more, at least enough to make it through the rest of the mission.

Dekusa entered shortly after, being rather listless in her search for something to write about. So far, her time aboard this Katana had turned up very little of interest, though she was getting quite a bit of research data. She just had to compile it all into an intelligible book and make her millions. Punching in an order for some water and sushi-bites, she took the materializing order and headed towards the one occupied area of the mess hall. "May I join you? I find it more agreeable to my palate to dine with another, if you're willing."

"Hmm?" Jenni murmured, looking up from her cup of coffee and the view out the window. The Caitian next to her did not seem familiar. Jenni knew of the four on board, yet she'd made the acquaintance (more than an acquaintance really) of only one. Perhaps company would do her some good. "Sure," Jenni replied, collecting her composure. Also noting that she was a civilian, Jenni added, "I apologize for bringing you out here to a crisis." If an evacuation was in order, then Katana would surely and quickly get crowded.

"No worries," Dekusa said as she sat at the nearby table and sipped at her water. "My research has progressed well enough while here/ You're also from the other Katana, correct?"

Jenni nodded. "The one native to this universe, yes," she added for confirmation. "What about you? Are you from the other timeline as well?"

"I am from this one. I was aboard the other Katana with you, though I rarely had reason to venture outside of the sciences." Dekusa commented before slipping one of the fishy morsels into her maw.

The lieutenant nodded politely, wondering how she'd missed Dekusa while aboard their Katana. True, Jenni had kept to her Engineering for 4 years and only served as Acting XO for a couple of days, but surely their paths would have crossed before now. "Jenni..." she said extending her hand while still considering using her last name for this introduction. Or had that changed on her too? Perhaps in Turush culture, the husband took the wife's name. Jenni hadn't bothered to look into it.

Dekusa shook Jenni's hand in her paw and grinned toothily. "Dekusa. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance. Is that the scent of the Captain I detect on you?" Dekusa was her normal direct self in this, not wanting to beat around any bushes in that curious discovery.

"Scent?" Jenni asked, her tone surprised and slightly shocked at the question. "I..." She caught herself as she retracted her hand to aid the other in holding the steaming mug of coffee. "Erm..." Cocking her head slightly to the left, she asked, "How do you know the Captain's scent?"

"He and I shared some nepata on the holodeck at the insistence of your artificial crewmember. Maica, I think it was." Dekusa replied before munching on another of the fishy bits of sushi meats.

She slowly nodding her head, thinking of how forward Maica had been in the turbolift a few days ago. Had it not been for that urging, Jenni and M'rayr likely would not have wound up at that hotel, much less sharing a new bond. If she ever found out... "Was that all that was shared?" Jenni asked, knowing that she still didn't answer the Caitian's question.

Dekusa nodded, remembering back as best she could. "We got very high and passed out without touching each other, as far as I'm aware. I'm still not sure what happened afterwards. Either way, though he and I share similar circumstances with our homeworld, I find him much too rugged for my tastes."

Jenni nodded, somehow relieved that Dekusa was not or had not been romantically involved with M'rayr. Not that it would have mattered. Their lives had never intertwined before now. "So you've been cast out too," Jenni asked, finding herself sitting at the table, setting aside the subject of their leader for now.

"For differing reasons but essentially yes." Dekusa replied, not letting the subject get her down. "I still have a few ties to my family, but their support is... practically non-existent. The replicator pattern for these morsels of fish is one of their more helpful contributions."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Jenni said before taking a sip of her coffee. She eyed Dekusa's plate for a moment. Jenni had little to say to the stranger, but she strangely felt at peace with the woman. Not completely, but enough to... "Question," she blurted a second before her mind could stop her. Without giving herself a chance to act out of sorts, she asked, "Do you find yourself drawn to the customs of your culture even though you no longer are a part of it?"

Dekusa mulled the question over for a moment before answering, looking over her plate of raw fish pieces. "For me I think it's more upbringing than anything else. I was raised to be a future holder in one of the last Caitian royal houses. Merely honorary and an archaic holdover, but we protect... they protect... Our culture's most valued historical relics. I was excommunicated because I wanted to see more of the universe and mingle with common people. Something that is very against my clan's traditions. Am I still drawn to my own culture? In a way, yes. It's a comfort and a piece of home. But for the most part, I've greatly enjoyed my adventures since leaving. They're precious experiences that no one in my clan has ever experienced before. Does that... answer your question?"

"It does." Jenni nodded in accordance. "Before... Before the Breen, I didn't have much understanding of Caitians or their... your culture. It's been an education for sure." She paused for a moment before continuing. "In your mingling, have you ever... coupled... with a non-Caitian?"

"A rather personal question..." Dekusa mused before popping another bit of fish into her maw. After a moment more, she replied. "Once. With a Bolian. I don't recommend it. Too bald, for one."

Jenni smiled. A man with hair would always be more striking, that's for sure. "Have you ever thought about it for the long term? Not with the Bolian, of course."

"I've often wondered what a cross between a Caitian and a Trill would look like, but no. My research rarely has me in one place for long." Dekusa replied.

"What kind of research?" she asked, taking another sip of her coffee.

"Whatever my fancy desires. On the other Katana, it was the interaction between high stress situations and potential madness in varying crewmembers. On this ship, I hope to publish a book on the sudden interjection of a twin ship into this universe from another." Dekusa stated offhand. "As a chronicler, I study what interests me and what I think will make enough money to get me through my next job."

"Oh?" Jenni asked, her interest piqued by the original Katana. "Did you ever publish anything from the last Katana? Or did we get blown up before you could finish?"

"I'm putting the finishing touches on that report, though the Breen did admittedly cut that study short." Dekusa said with a bit of a grin. Sipping at her water, she continued along another path of inquiry. "So are you interested in coupling with our Captain?"

"You would circle back to that..." Jenni replied, almost playfully. Just what was in this coffee anyway? "It's... complicated."

"As my grandmother would say, nothing worth doing is ever easy. I think she more meant restoral of murals, but it still applies." Dekusa said with a slight chuckle. "A word of advice though, if I may. Don't do it if he's shedding. The fur frizzes and flies everywhere..."

Jenni nodded, considering Dekusa's words. "I'll keep that in mind," she said, taking another sip. Jenni looked down at the bottom of the mug to see that the black liquid was nearly depleted. An empty mug would mean only one thing, time to get back to work and the uncomfortableness of the bridge.

Silently continuing to munch on her fish bites, Dekusa mused silently on how a Human-Caitian relationship would go and if Jenni was one of those famed Human 'crazy cat ladies'. She didn't seem the type, but one often never knew based on outside observations.

"Well," Jenni said, having finished her coffee. "Time to go back to work before the crew starts looking for me." She rose from the table and smiled at Dekusa. "See you around, Dekusa."

"Until next time," Dekusa said before finishing up her meal and heading out herself.

Here she was, finally aboard the strange vessel from another universe - a duplicate ship and crew from 4 years in the past. Well... mostly a duplicate. Vara's research had indicated that several key differences existed between the reality this ship was from and their own. Stepping out of the shuttle, she was met by a burly crewman in gold that was there to no doubt harass her as they seemingly always did. "Excuse me, I'm Lt Cho'ran of the Starfleet Science Academy. Can you direct me to Lt Mathews? I'm supposed to meet her to discuss the ramifications of the quantum filamentary repercussions of this ship crossing the trans-temporal universe barriers."

Crewman Klim Sokamin, a Zakdorn, had been left to tend to the shuttlebay following the Away Team's discreet departure. What the hell was a discreet departure anyway? Any shuttle that slipped out of a starship was meant to be noticed, especially with what he'd heard rumors of existing just outside of the Katana's delicate hull.

The last thing he'd expected was for a new shuttle to appear out of almost nowhere and slide into the shuttlebay. He'd bypassed the usual protocols of notifying the bridge and going through the Chief Operations Officer to bring the shuttle aboard, but he certainly did notify security of the unusual happening, and only because they were in the middle of a crisis. He was in no way impressed to call off the armed gold shirts when he spotted the woman in teal exiting the shuttle. "Quantum filamentary repercussions?" he huffed in a shrill-pitched voice. "Trans-temporal universes? We're in the middle of assisting a planet in the middle of an apocalypse and you're concerned with parallel universes? You're better suited with Temporal Investigations than this edge of Federation space!"

All he had to do now was stall until relief arrived.

"And this ship could be the centerpiece in the possible unravelling of our very existence. My research MUST continue." Vara demanded.

Klim studied the woman for a moment. Then, abruptly, he stomped his foot a couple times on the shuttlebay floor. "Doesn't seem very possible to me," he retorted.

Vara shook her head and sighed. "Unravelling as in discovering the secrets that the space-time continuum hold."

"There are no secrets in this shuttlebay!" Klim protested. The woman's rank meant nothing to the crewman. Even if she were the President of the Federation, this was still his shuttlebay and he'd be damned if he let her stay aboard without sound reason. "Space-time continuum or otherwise."

"You are one of the most dense caricatures of a sentient I've met since the academy. Escort me to Lt Mathews." Vara demanded, knowing she'd get nowhere with this person at this rate.

"I will do no such thing! I have not seen any transfer paperwork, much less a slip of an order from Starfleet Command or the authority in this sector." Still, before she could reply, he tapped his combadge. "Shuttlebay to Lieutenant Matthews. Report to the Shuttlebay. You have... a visitor."

Pulling out several PaDDs, Vara shoved them at the obtuse man before her. "These are my papers from Starfleet Command, the Daystrom Institute, the Vulcan Science Council, and several other authorities. Take your pick."

Klim made no effort to accept the PADDs, though he did glance down to see the official letterheads of each of the named organizations. "But I have no orders stating to expect a shuttle to arrive," he countered. It mattered not to him that he was being difficult. It was the situation outside the ship that prompted him to bring this Lieutenant on board. Had he not, the Remans would have likely blown the shuttle and its occupant to bits.

In this moment, however, he wished he'd allowed the Remans to have that opportunity.

The doors to the shuttlebay loudly opened and Jenni entered the room, followed by a member of security who Klim had summoned not long ago. "What's going on, Crewman?" she asked, trying to not let the frustrations of the mission bleed into this situation, at least for the Zakdorn's sake. It did not take long for her to spot Lieutenant Cho'ran. Jenni felt momentarily embarrassed. In the suddenness of the mission, she'd forgotten that Vara was en route to the Katana for her studies and analysis. "Lieutenant Cho'ran!" Jenni exclaimed, placing a smile on her face as she approached. "Welcome to the Katana."

Vara smiled brightly as she spotted a familiar face. Now she'd get somewhere. "Lieutenant Matthews! It's so good to meet you in person. Nasty business with that huge ship out there. Romulan, isn't it?" she asked, moving towards the Lt and offering her hand to shake.

"Reman, actually," Jenni said, accepting the handshake with a friendly squeeze. Immediately, she noted how much shorter she was than her Lagashi counterpart. Perhaps that came from the major differences in genetic structure. Jenni gestured towards the exit and began leading Vara there. "Kind of a long story, but we're more concerned with Evora at the moment. Is there anything in your shuttle that we need to have brought to your quarters?" she asked, waving off the now unnecessary security detail.

Following along, Vara waved her hand dismissively. "A few crates of test equipment that are notorious for falling out of calibration. They're very delicate, but it's nothing I can't fix. I'd love to inundate you with countless questions but I assume you have your hands mostly full at the moment."

"Oh, trust me," Jenni said as they left the shuttlebay, "the distraction is welcome. I can't stay long, of course. But I can show you to your quarters and lab space, and I can answer whatever you like along the way."

"Excellent!" Vara exclaimed enthusiastically as they headed towards a turbolift. "In that case, is there anything particularly odd that you've discovered about this ship?"

"Where should I start?" Jenni asked lightheartedly. "Well, the cosmic constants are all askew. Some slightly, and others completely opposite. It's so much so that when it comes time for refit or major repairs, finding replacement parts will be impossible."

"Hmm... I had expected things to be slightly off at a quark level, but the actual cosmic constants being off is something I had hoped wouldn't have happened. I had hoped our laws of physics would have completely overlaid their own when they arrived." This was worrying for Vara as she might not have the tools to fully research that. "Is the speed of light from their interior illumination the same at least?"

"As far as I can tell," Jenni said. She hadn't actually taken the time to measure it herself. "But every source of energy, even the most minute power transfers, have been affected. We've had a hell of a time getting this ship back to optimum efficiency. It's almost like having to do a second shakedown cruise. Though you could ask our Chief Engineer about. He's had a hard time dealing with it all."

"I'll do that then. Maybe once my equipment is set up I'll be able to narrow down the variances or causes." This would test Vara's abilities but as she thought deeply about the situation, she knew she could handle it. Besides, she knew some people that could help, even if remotely.

Jenni led Vara into a turbolift and directed it upwards. "How long do you think you'll be staying?"

"I'll estimate a week to a month for now. I shouldn't be here that long and I certainly don't intend to get in your way." Vara replied, still lost in thought.

Jenni nodded. "I'm sure you won't be in our way," she said. "If anything, we'll be focused on Evora for a while. Probably after that, the crew should be more accessible."

"Then I wish you luck and expediency with your current mission," Vara said with a broad smile.

The turbolift came to a stop. Once the doors had parted ways, Jenni led Vara out into the corridor, which was bustling with activity. Three crewmen, in fact, pushed past Jenni and Vara and replaced them in the turbolift. "I tried to put you as close to the center of the ship as possible," Jenni said as she led Vara along, taking note of a few second glances from passing crewmembers. "Thought you'd even be doing some testing or something even from your quarters."

"A lot of it, I will be, yes. Thank you for that. With any luck, I should only need your science labs for a few hours a day while I'm here and really just to compare the readings with my own equipment." Vara said, mostly oblivious to the looks she was receiving. "I suppose I do look a lot like Ensign Cho'ren. I'd like to meet her later, if it's possible. See if there are any other similarities in our two selves than the obvious."

"Actually, it's Lieutenant Cho'ren now," Jenni said with a smile. "Honestly, I don't see the resemblance. I mean, it's there, hints of it anyway. But you're both two very different people, through and through."

"I suppose with our different heritages, that would be expected. Have you spoken with her much?" Vara noted the change in rank from her records, wondering if it was something she herself had missed or if it had happened while she was en route. Something else to look into later.

Jenni had to think about that. There were still many in the crew she hadn't met, and although her position had recently changed, her previous role in assisting Jhu didn't leave much time outside of the office during duty hours. "Once or twice," Jenni offered, straining to remember if it had really been at least once. "But we haven't talked much. She seems to keep to herself, I think."

"Not surprising. She not only lost her family and friends outside of this ship, but her entire civilization." Vara mused. "I don't know what I'd do if I went through that, but maybe through her..."

"Here we go," Jenni said, stopping at a door and tapping the control stud beside it. "Home sweet home." Only the basic lights had illuminated the moment the doors opened, revealing what Jenni hoped to be a suitable room for Vara while she was here.

Vara stepped into her new quarters, nodding in approval at the desk setup and sparse furniture. "This is a lot nicer than my shuttle. Thank you."

"If there's anything you need," Jenni replied with a smile, "just let me know. The replicators still aren't exactly in sync with this universe yet, so you might have some fun experimenting with those."

"I look forward to it. Thank you." Vara turned to smile happily at Jenni before setting off to work at the room's desk.

Jenni nodded before departing. She had a feeling, once this mess with Evora had ended, the next few weeks would have some... remarkable events.

Having just left Vara to settle in, Jenni traversed the corridor, dictating orders to the quartermaster through her combadge. The warrant officer assured the Chief of Operations that Lieutenant Cho'ran's effects and instruments would soon be delivered to her quarters. Apparently, there had been a note left in the shuttle that the items were not to be sent via transporter as there was a fear that another universe's pattern buffer might cause irreparable damage.

She had just finished when she entered a turbolift gangway. Jenni was used to waiting on turbolifts, and she was left surprised when the doors had automatically opened as she stopped in front of them. Her surprise quickly evaporated the very moment she recognized the sole occupant. Jenni smiled, unconsciously fidgeting with the cuff of her sleeve, pulling it downward. "Commander," Jenni said, unsure why she'd suddenly taken a formal approach.

"Lieutenant," Maica replied, taking the same tone and smile as Jenni entered the turbolift. After the doors had closed, she continued. "I see you got married. Who's the lucky person?"

Jenni's eyes widened in surprise. Her body had frozen as well with his hand still trying to tug down on the sleeve. "Computer..." she said with a soft voice, "stop lift." Before the turbolift had come to a full halt, Jenni turned to look at Maica though she was unable to contain her shock. "How did you...?"

"There's a rather obvious Turush tattoo around your wrist and being who and what I am, I'm not going to pretend I don't know what it means." Maica said, eyeing Jenni as she spoke, almost daring Jenni to tell her she was wrong. "Besides, the way you looked at me when the turbolift doors opened said you would rather avoid me."

"It's..." Jenni blinked and tried to relax. Maica had been one of the first to help her feel at ease when she first came aboard. "I..." She wasn't sure why she was struggling. Was it embarrassment that prompted her? Shame? Jenni still hadn't processed the event fully, and had put it off once details of the Evora Crisis had emerged.

Jenni looked down at her wrist as she lifted up her arm and pulled the sleeve back, revealing the tattoo in full. "You probably wouldn't believe that it was an accident, would you?"

Maica shook her head slightly, a hint of a grin spreading across her face. "Considering that the normal Turush bonding ritual involves drugs and alcohol, I would. They normally get brainwave scan confirmation of love first as part of your vows, but this far from their homeworld, I doubt they'll have their clerical stones. They tend to not leave their shrines."

"So what does this mean?" Jenni asked. "We were just going to celebrate, have a good night, and we woke up with these. Is it... binding?"

"That's up to you, really. The doctor can easily remove the tattoo in a few minutes so if you don't report it to Starfleet..." Maica's voice trailed off almost wistfully.

"What about the Turush? Do they report such things?"

"They certainly log it... But unless the Federation asks for confirmation of those logs, it doesn't really go anywhere. Your certificate is encoded in that tattoo." Maica replied.

Jenni didn't reply. Rather, she just looked back down at the tattoo. Emotions battled in her head, and amazingly, none expressed themselves in her face. It was more than just an accidental marriage now. "I'm not sure what to do, really," Jenni blurted, crossing her arms in front of her, using the unblemished arm to cover the other. "And I'm not sure what he wants to do about it either."

Maica could understand that. That's why she was a diplomat in the first place - to promote open lines of communication. "Then you need to discuss it with him. Preferably over a nice sushi dinner."

"See..." Jenni said, making eye contact with her green-skinned companion. "That's the thing. We haven't talked. Hardly at all since..." She bobbed her head down towards her wrist to indicate the tattoo.

Maica had expected as much. M'Rayr was about as talkative as a pillar of salt at times. "I can make an appointment and mediate the discussion, if you want. It's part of my job as both a diplomat and a sex therapist."

"Thanks. But, I don't think that's for the best." Jenni shook her head. "Part of it's my fault. I wanted to take it slow. I mean, who gets married on the first date?"

"Some cultures never meet their betrothed until their vows." Maica quipped back. "Either way, you'll need to discuss it with him. You can either deny it happened or embrace it and that has to be a mutual decision where neither party feels pressured into deciding one way or another."

"I've tried," Jenni said. "Ever since... Ever since Tau made him Captain, he's closed himself off. He needs space, which is fine. I can give him that. A sudden marriage and a sudden promotion is a lot for anyone to handle." Sighing, she said, "But..." Her voice trailed off as she debated what to say.

"He's gone back into that damned shell we've worked so hard to coax him out of..." Maica shook her head sadly. Should she have expected better of him? She had, though she supposed she shouldn't have. "Have you two had sex at least? Did you consummate your wedding?"

Jenni nodded, a shy smile on her face. "We had some liquid encouragement, of course. There's not too much we remember when it comes to the details." Holding up her wrist she added, "Obviously."

"Obviously," Maica repeated with a sly grin. "Interested in some more of that liquid encouragement to help loosen his tongue? I still have several bottles of nepata wine."

Jenni thought for a moment. "I might take you up on that."

"I'll set a couple bottles aside and leave a note with them in case you miss me but Andy is home." Maica said, still with that sly grin.

Jenni's shy smile was still present as she gave the matter some more thought. "If you were me," Jenni asked, knowing full well the dangerous door this question would open, "what would you do? Let the cat have his peace, or deal with the issue head on?"

"You ask that of me..." Maica said softly, shaking her head as that grin slipped from her features. "As far as I'm concerned Andy and I have said our vows and are legally married. Unfortunately, she doesn't see it that way since she wasn't ready and there were no witnesses. She still vowed herself to me though, just like I did to her. I guess what I would do is what I've already done - diplomatic yet direct confrontation then let him have his peace. At least that way you know where he stands and you don't worry yourself sick over it."

The lieutenant nodded, already thinking the same as Maica. "Thank you. And, I don't suppose you are going to keep this matter to yourself until I can talk to M'rayr, eh?"

"I'm a diplomat and a sex therapist. It's part of my morals and job description to maintain confidentiality with my clients. As a friend though, if you take too long, I'll ask him about his tattoo. Without mentioning we spoke, of course." Maica replied.

Jenni's smile became genuine. "Thanks." She reached over and tapped the stud next to the door to allow the turbolift to resume.

"Any time," Maica said with her normal warm smile.

Jhu was not looking forward to the shuttle flight. She knew it was the only way to get to Evora's surface undetected, but just the thought of flying in the tiny vehicle had her stomach tied in a knot. She'd tried waiting inside the craft for the others to arrive, but it quickly proved too claustrophobic, so she instead sat on a crate nearby. At least there she could pretend she liked this plan.

"Feeling ok?" Arivek asked as he rounded the side of the shuttle and began to hold a piece of equipment up to its hull. With his other hand, he held a long instrument close to the hull and after a few quick flashes of light, he dropped his hands, smiling as the piece of equipment stayed connected to the shuttle.

Jhu shook her head. "Haven't been since the shaking and rolling started. And I'm not excited about getting in a shuttle."

Arivek nodded. If there was one thing he didn't miss about being flesh and blood, it was any sort of illness or discomfort. "Do I need to fetch you something from Liam before you go?"

"Driminate, if he has it. Dramamine makes me too tired." Deciding she'd better look more professional, Jhu gathered her hair into a ponytail as she answered him.

"Be right back," Ari said, disappearing in an instant.

Bridget mulled over the problems with the geological stabilizers on Evora's surface as she walked into the shuttle bay. She wanted to spend as little time on the planet as possible given the current situation. As she approached the shuttle she noticed Jhu sitting outside. Nodding hello Bridget sat and waited for the others, completely preoccupied with her thoughts.

A few moments later, a Caitian wearing gold and carrying a large engineering kit exited the nearest turbolift and began to make his way towards the collection of officers. Ensign R'tame Evoss had gotten the call to join the away team at the last minute, and rushed towards the shuttlebay not entirely sure if he had everything he'd need to do his job. But at the time, he'd been afraid to show up late, and didn't want to miss the shuttle's departure. Seeing Commander t'Dharvanek and Lieutenant O'Connor standing next to the shuttle, he now wished he'd taken more time to consider the tools he was bringing more carefully.

"Commander, Lieutenant," R'tame greeted as he came to a halt next to the shuttle.

Shortly after R'taime greeted Jhu and Bridget, everyone's favorite ex-Borg braveheart rounded the corner and strode into the bay. Along with the phaser that was standard issue for any Away Mission, Andy wore her bow and quiver, preferring them over the more modern weapons. Not that she hoped to use it, but that's just how things had a tendency to go with this crew...

"Commander, Lieutenant," Andy greeted, almost mocking R'taime's earlier greeting. then she looked at R'taime with a grin. "Fuzzy Wuzzy."

Jhu snorted at her. "Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear, Andy. At least give him a cat name... like Tigger." With most of her team present, she figured she'd better try to look like the officer she was, so she stood up, ignoring how her head and stomach felt. "Should be quick and easy... fly to Evora, look at their little earthquake prevention grid, find the problem, and fix it. Any questions?"

"Well yeah, he was a bear because it had to rhyme with hair," Andy replied with a grin. then she looked at R'taime. "And you're definitely not Tigger." Then she listened attentively to Jhu's run-down of the mission. Straight forward, piece of cake!

"Okay you have a point." Jhu did have to admit that R'tame was fuzzy. "Once Arivek gets back we'll be setting off."

"Well, you won't be waiting much longer," Arivek said as he walked through the doors to the Shuttlebay. He walked up to Jhu and held up the hypospray with a smile before he pressed it to her neck. "Just what you asked for."

R'tame saw the hypo and his brows furrowed. He had no idea what its contents were, but the fact that the leader of this away mission needed something just before their departure, presumably due to medical reasons, concerned him. Swallowing his concern, R'tame then accepted the fact that it was none of his business. And if the Captain of this ship had seen fit to send t'Dharvanek on an away mission... well... one Caitian couldn't help but to trust another.

"We'll be leaving then," R'tame said next, leaving it to the couple 'hairless apes' to make jokes.

Catching the momentary look of concern on R'tame's face, Jhu gently took the labeled hypospray from Arivek to show it to the others. "It's just Driminate. The last shuttle I flew in crashed. I'm scared to death of getting in that tiny shell of a ship, and I'm pretty sure you'd prefer I take this rather than throw up on you." She smiled a bit, tucking the hypo into her pocket. "Let's... wait." A quick head count showed one person missing. Storm. Naturally it had to be someone from her own department. Scowling slightly, she tapped her combadge. "t'Dharvanek to Ensign Storm. You were supposed to meet me in the shuttlebay five minutes ago."

The team waited several minutes, and when it became clear that Kadan was not going to join them, Jhu made a mental note to deal with him later and ushered her team insude the little shuttle. "Carter, you're on helm." Out of the group, it was Andy she trusted the most there. Storm and O'Connor would know their positions, but she had two engineers and nowhere for them both to work. Sitting idly as a passenger never worked for engineering types. "Eevoss, set up the bulkhead panel for engine and systems monitoring. Zhuri..." She paused for a moment, not sure where to put him. "You're second in command. Take the seat next to Carter and keep an eye on things from there." For a moment it made sense, then she sighed and shook her head. "No mobile emitter. I'm sorry... I forgot. You can be my coordinator on board Katana."

Arivek nodded, as he gave the Commander's shoulder a squeeze, "I'll be right here waiting for you," he said with a smile before he walked away. His job of making the shuttle discreet was finished and now he was due back on the Bridge to take command while M'rayr was away.

Bridget smiled to herself as Jhu quickly found work for the engineers to do. They never were able to keep still. She sat down at her station and began getting ready for the shuttle's departure.

Annette quickly rushed through the shuttle bay doors hoping she caught the shuttle before it departed to Evora. She had attempted to communicate with the locals from the Katana to determine their needs but the situation on Evora made communication very slow and unreliable. So to really understand what needed to be done to help she needed to see first hand the situation.

" Greetings everyone " said Annette as she was catching her breath, "I'm the new diplomatic liason and I was hoping I could catch a lift to Evora so I can get an idea of what relief efforts they may need."

Jhu raised an eyebrow at the new arrival. "Ensign, it is customary for one to only join missions to which they have been assigned. This team is not engaged in relief efforts... our job is to examine the grid and see if it can be repaired." She paused for a moment. "Now that being said, the Evorans will have government officials nearby that may be willing to talk. Take the empty seat next to Senior Chief Carter... and I hope Maica knows you're here." The last was said in a lighter tone as Jhu closed the airlock behind Annette. "Get us out of this shuttlebay, Andy."

"Aye aye," Andy replied. her metal-tipped fingers tapped against the console, closing up the shuttle ramp and clearing their departure with flight control. Flying a shuttle wasn't usually Andy's thing, but she could get them onto the ground and in one piece. She glanced over to the new Diplomatic Liaison and smirked.

"Alright, take a seat and hold tight. Next stop, Evora." With that, Andy eased off the landing pad and out of the shuttlebay.

As Annette studied the away team they, she could feel a slight tension in the air. She wondered if they were nervous about the mission or was something else going on that she was unaware of? She decided to try to lighten the mood a little. " Ensign Eevoos right? Annette said to the Caitain sitting across from her, "How long have you been on the Katana? I haven’t had a chance to explore much of the Katana yet, but it is a very beautiful vessel from what I have seen."

The orange-haired Caitian glanced nervously towards Annette as the shuttle rocked within Evora's dense atmosphere. For a moment, he'd mistaken one of the jolts as nearby disrupter fire. But there hadn't been any sort of evident green flash indicating that the shuttle was being fired upon, and Chief Carter seemed pretty well composed. "It's... nice," he said, keeping his gaze fixated towards the canopy. Please Mraownr, don't let us die... he thought, while also thinking of Paige who was still on board the Katana. When R'tame looked back to Annette, his eyes looked perplexed. "You're rather calm... given the circumstances,"

Annette chuckled to herself quietly, "I was a British Diplomat for 15 years, they trained us to have nerves of steel. My first mission with them required me to jump out of a plane with about five minutes of preparation and on the way down my chute got tangled." Annette reminisced, " I had to learn techniques like reciting poetry in my head to keep myself calm and composed in situations like this."

"Good for you," R'tame added, sounding a bit envious. The shuttle rocked again, and the Caitian peered towards the cockpit. "Not to be a pest, Chief, but how much further before we're planet side?" He asked, his voice sounding sheepish at the end.

"Don't get your tail in a twist, Fuzzy, we're almost there," Andy called back to R'tame with a grin. "And if you're feeling nervous, just picture everyone naked. That helps me." Of course, she could actually see what everyone was packing under their clothes with the help of her ocular implant, but he didn't need to know that. "We're coming up on the landing site, ETA a minute-thirty," she added a moment later.

"Steady as she goes, Chief," Jhu replied quietly. The shuttle's landing a few moments later was indeed smooth and steady, the engines powering down and going still for several long seconds before anyone moved to exit the craft.

Paige tried not to run through the corridor but she desperately wanted to find R'tame before he left with the away team. Maybe it was because they had just been attacked, but she couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen. She wanted to reassure herself with his presence before he left. Scanning the corridors she finally spotted the orange of R'tame's coat speedily covered the last bit of distance between her and R'tame. "Rev," she called as she finally caught up to him and grabbed his elbow. "You weren't going to leave yet, were you?" she asked.

R'tame felt himself being pulled away from the direction he was headed. And for a moment, he didn't fully understand why. When he turned, exacerbated at whomever was keeping him from his duties, his face softened once he realized it was Paige. Moments ago, the Katana was under attack. The bulkhead shook under a torrent of disrupter fire, and now, he was being called to join an away mission on some secret launch. What his mission was, or how dangerous it was, were not questions he could answer. But out of all the things he didn't know, the one thing he realized very so suddenly was that he could have at least told his girlfriend.

"Paige, I-" the Caitian started to say, but then he looked down to his engineering kit. "I'm sorry, but I have to go. Commander t'Dharvanek called me down to the shuttle bay. I don't know why; I don't know what for; but she was urgent."

Paige rolled her eyes. "It doesn't take that long to say goodbye."

It took sheer force of will to stop his body from wanting to twist its way closer towards the shuttle bay, but Paige was right. He was nervous, afraid even. The Katana's battle with the Scimitar had been brief, but it had also been his first. There was a wide difference between simulated combat and actual combat. But Paige seemed relatively unfazed. Was she that strong? Or was she just particularly good at hiding her fears?

"No, you're right," he said, trying to smile but failing. "I'm sorry," he said, resting his paws on both her shoulders. They were massive compared to her petite frame. "Crazy day, huh? I promise that as soon as I get back, I'll try making dinner, and we can actually try to relax for a while."

"I-," Paige paused, trying to keep the worry out of her voice and off her face. "I just, I guess I'm just worried for you." She leaned forward into him, wrapping her arms around him. Standing on her tip toes she whispered into his ear, "Please be careful." She kissed his cheek and lowered herself back down, not breaking their embrace.

If R'tame had been trying to convince himself that he wasn't worried about this mission, he'd failed. And Paige, being so worried for him, made the Caitian feel more dread in his gut, as if this were going to be the last time he saw her again. A sense of mortality seemed justified, after all. He was going down to a planet shaking itself apart, and in orbit was a Reman Scimitar with more than sufficient firepower to destroy the shuttle he was about to ride in in one shot. "I will," R'tame replied. "I'll see you soon."

Somehow, R'tame felt convinced that he'd just lied to her.

Jenni stood in the turbolift next to Lieutenant Collins, though she paid little attention to the woman with the red collar. The Operations Chief's gaze was fixated on a PADD given to her by M'rayr containing the Reman's demands for a suitable world. "Seems the Remans have their heart set on Evora," Jenni muttered loudly, noticing how specific their requirements were.

Hayley sighed. "No shit. And furball wants to wait for them to attack first. One hour to find a habitable Class M Planet that isn't inhabited. Am I the only one who sees that request is impossible?"

Jenni shrugged, a little taken aback by Hayley's candor. When she'd ran into her in the corridor those weeks ago, Jenni wasn't surprised to see that the alternate Hayley didn't possess much of a speech filter, but she hadn't noticed it was this liberal. "If it buys us more time with the Remans," Jenni replied without offering her own opinion, "then it's worth it. Just because the odds are even, doesn't mean that they really are." She thought back to her own unmatched battle with the Breen. Her Katana had been ridiculously outmatched, and only a lucky shot and strategy had saved the small crew. Until reinforcements arrived, Jenni had doubts they would be so lucky here.

Hayley wondered where they could find such a place. To her knowledge, there weren't any suitable uninhabited planets save for Zetay Eight which was an ice rock that even the Breen would likely find too cold for their liking. "Any ideas where to start?" She sighed, resigning herself to performing the ridiculous task.

"This sector and the surrounding systems," Jenni replied immediately, resisting the urge to add the words I guess to the end of her response. Hayley's apathetic attitude would quickly bring her down if she didn't get a hold of it now.

The turbolift doors parted, depositing both women on Deck 8. "Is everything okay, Hayley?" Jenni asked as they began their short trek down the corridor.

"I'm on a ship with an idiot furball captain who trusts a Reman who attacked us and we're on an impossible mission to find a habitable planet. Whatever should be bothering me?" she asked, voice dripping in sarcasm. She wondered how her other self ever managed to fit into this crew. She missed the freedom of commanding the Black Dagger. She had people she trusted and who trusted her in return. She let out a large sigh. "I need alcohol and a man."

"I can't help you there," Jenni said as they turned the corner with the door to Astrometrics now in sight. She had ignored the sarcasm for now as she still fought to add her own opinion to it. Both women bore the same rank, but she could only go so far, no matter how much she felt that choice was not hers. The secret Jenni carried was still just that--a secret. Once word got out, anything Jenni did or said now could come back and damage either herself or M'rayr. The repercussions would not be worth it at all, no matter how large or small.

The doors parted as they approached, revealing the small room with the gigantic screen, a welcome design brought home by Voyager's journeys in the Delta Quadrant. "Can you start by reviewing the immediate sector? I'll start searching the database of the surrounding area."

Hayley shrugged. "Sure." She paused, glancing at the consoles, locating the short range sensor console. She tapped in a few commands, bringing up the graphical layout of nearby planets, moons, and stars. "You seem to have something on your mind, Matthews. Care to share?"

"Hmm?" Jenni asked, not realizing she'd paused in front of a control panel, but had yet to tap a single button. "I... Erm..." She sighed, unsure what exactly to say.

Hayley turned and looked at Jennifer. "Out with it, already. Something is on your mind obviously."

Did Jenni dare speak her mind? Hayley would likely continue to press until an answer would provide satisfaction, even if Jenni would attempt to shrug it off. They did, after all, have an hour to see what they could find, and it would likely take every minute of it, not to mention the initial processing once the scans and database checks would begin.

"Do you ever wonder if you're doing the right thing?" Jenni asked finally, collecting herself enough to enter a string of commands into the control console. She had to at least get the first scan going before she turned to face the pilot.

The door to Astrometrics opened again and in fluttered Shira, a strange creature with wings and grass for hair. She wore a scant dress variant of the uniform in Science teal, but no rank. She was working on getting a rank, but she wasn't quite there yet.

"Can I help you?" Shira asked of the two officers at her Astrometrics station. Well, she liked to think of it as hers. when she wasn't in hydroponics, she was here learning everything she could. She gently fluttered closer, her big eyes examining what the officer in yellow was doing.

Jenni had never been so relieved to see another person in her life. Smiling, she greeted, "Hello, Shira. I hope you don't mind us imposing on Astrometrics, but Captain Eisovo has asked us to track down a planet."

"Oh, hello Jenni!" Shira said with a cheerful smile. "I can help you find planet. Which one did you lose?" she asked awkwardly, not really understanding what it was that Jenni was asking for.

"We didn't lose it," Jenni began to explain. "We're looking for a new world for some Remans to settle so that they don't take over Evora, which many already call home."

"Oh," was all Shira replied with a nod and started working at the controls. "Remans, I do not know these people yet. What conditions do they like?" she asked after a while.

Jenni checked the list on the PADD M'rayr had given her. "Low light. Rich in several rare, yet valuable minerals, especially decalithium. Expansive caves... Basically harsh, yet exploitable." She tapped a couple buttons on her console to display Remus, the Remans' homeworld, as well as some geological facts about it.

Shira nodded and began inputting that data into the search. "It will take some time to get results and then work through them," Shira said as the computer began working. While they waited for results, she examined the data on the Reman homeworld and began modifying the search to include more variables.

Hayley looked at Shira during the exchange. 'What was this...woman? A moth hybrid?'. She shook her head and looked at Jennifer, now wondering what she meant. Was she onto her secret? "Well, as you were asking, I'm not sure what you mean. Was what worth it?"

Jenni fought to contain a sigh. She knew Hayley would have returned the conversation back to the original topic, even with Shira present. "You know..." Jenni led, looking back down at her console to check its progress. "So much has changed the last few days. Makes you really think about what you're doing and if you're making the right choices."

"Change is the only thing that never changes," Shira said as she filtered through preliminary results on some possibly suitable locations. "What has changed so significantly for you?" she asked Jenni curiously.

"It's M'ra..." Jenni paused, wondering if she really should be so frank with Shira and Hayley, especially given Hayley's seemingly loose lips. "It's the Captain," Jenni corrected herself, choosing to stick with rank. "The promotion was sudden, and I'm not quite sure what that means for us."

Hayley nodded in understanding now. "Ah, you think your relationship with furball will be different now that he's Captain Furball. To hell with Starfleet Regulations. Never let regulations and rules come between you and a person you love....life is short and fragile enough as it is," she recalled her memory of James who was killed trying to rescue her other self.

Jenni nodded, somehow surprised at Hayley's advice, but thankful nonetheless. "Sound advice, Hayley," Jenni said, looking over to the blonde woman and bearing a smile. "It's not regulations I'm worried about."

"Worried he will change then?" Hayley asked, relieved to find that Matthews was still ignorant of her real identity.

"Worried that my career will suffer," Jenni answered truthfully, and regretted it instantly. "When this mission started, I thought I'd be on Evora helping get the Federation technology back online." She didn't say what else was on her mind, but she did look at Hayley in order to see her reaction to what she'd said.

"But you are here," Shira observed, blinking at Jenni more than a little confused. She hadn't paying attention to the scuttlebutt going around the ship. She knew that Kris was no longer Captain, which made her upset, and that M'Rayr was now commanding the Katana, which was okay she guessed. But she certainly had no idea that there was something going on between Jenni and M'Rayr. "If you are here it is because you are needed here. Or maybe you worry about the competency of the officer who went to Evora when you felt you should?"

"Yes," Jenni instantly replied. "Less than five people on this ship understand the technology of this universe..." To Hayley, Jenni tossed in a quick, "No offense." Sighing, she added, "An entire planet is in jeopardy here."

Hayley chuckled at Jennifer's answer. "So you think your precious furball will hold back your career to protect you? Stand up to him if that's the case."

"Easier said than done," Jenni muttered. Her console beeped, thankfully interrupting the conversation. "Looks like there's nothing in this sector that will work," she reported to everyone in the room.

After a few minutes of searching, the ship shook. "Time's up," Haley commented.

The lights dimmed, followed immediately by the alert klaxons. "And time to go!" Jenni said, not bothering to save and close her work. "Let us know if you find anything, Shira!" she called out before following Hayley out the door and to a turbolift.

"I will keep looking!" Shira called out after them, saving their progress so far. She worried how this would end, but there wasn't much she could do about it, other than keep working on finding a suitable planet...

Austin Cadwell was itching to get down to Evora.

He hadn’t been on board the Katana all that long, but one sickbay was truly like all the rest. He wasn’t just an experienced officer; he was an experienced, highly trained nurse. He felt useless just being in sickbay at the moment, he wanted to get down to the surface and help others. However, he was the new kid – kid? HA! – on the block, and he wasn’t quite sure if people trusted him yet to be a part of any away mission. In a way was bull-donkey thinking. He was just as capable as anyone else.

Though, he could see the point of the powers that be. He wasn’t totally up on who was who, and what was going on. But, how could he be. He barely knew who the CMO was; let alone the rest of the sickbay staff. At least there weren’t going to be a lot of people’s names to learn. All he did know, is the current CMO was the head nurse before becoming the CMO. It was an impressive feat that was for sure. Then again, experience spoke volumes, and Austin knew he was just as good as any medical doctor. He could easily diagnose and even perform minor surgeries in a pinch if needed. He just didn’t have the MD after his name, so it was just assumed he didn’t know as much.

It just came down to the point that he felt helpless in a situation that demanded all the help he could give. But this, this was why he hated transfers. He had been a head nurse for a number of years now, he ran nursing staffs and sickbays, on the Forester, and he truly was the CMO’s right hand guy. There was no denying he wasn’t good at his job. He cared deeply for those he helped, and he wanted to help. That was the thing; on his previous assignment he was well established. He didn’t have to think, he just did, and he didn’t have to get permission because he and the CMO knew what each other were thinking. Now, it was just like starting over. He was 35 years old, he wasn’t really sure he could take being transferred again.

He was still a lieutenant junior grade even. Not that he cared about rank or such things, but he had always wondered how he wasn’t a full lieutenant or even a lieutenant commander by now. Again, not that he cared about such things, but it was still something he gave some thought to every once in a while. In medical and science, you certainly didn’t need the rank to be the head of anything, which was where experience came in. Maybe it was truly time to think about becoming a medical doctor. Starfleet Medical now offered a program for experienced nurses a chance to earn their medical degrees in a shorter amount of time as opposed to new students.

See, experience could speak volumes.

But that was an ‘all in due time’ type of thing. He was still very much perfectly content with being a nurse. He truly hated when these types of thoughts consumed him. This was what happened when he had to stay idle in a situation where his help could have been needed.

Austin drummed his fingers against the biobed he was leaning against. The padd he had been looking at was sitting next to him. It just contained info on the crew, the senior staff, people he should get to know over time. He knew after his shift he was going to hit up the recreational areas of the ship, he wanted to get to know people. Making friends came easy to him; he didn’t see that being any different just because he was now in a different place. At least that was something to look forward to. He loved his job, tremendously, but he also loved his free time. Some of his best memories were those that revolved around his friends. He hoped he could build up new memories while serving on the Katana. But first, he had to get to know people.

With that, he picked up the padd and moved to a work station. Since he had some time on his hands, he figured he would bone up on the medical staff. At least it would keep his mind busy and he wouldn’t be thinking about non-sense things like rank or position. Most of all, it would keep him from thinking about how he should be on Evora now, helping out those in need. As he sat down, and began to go through the crew files of sickbay, he found himself immersed… however; the itch to get down onto Evora didn’t go away.

He had doubts it would.

[ON]

So it was Captain M'rayr Eisovo now? In truth, every time the Caitian caught a glance of those four pips and not the single pill of a provisional commander, it caught him by surprise. Whether it was a mirror, or the reflection of a wall mounted console, it always happened. Jenni had done what she could to assure M'rayr that this was the right decision made by Captain Tau, M'rayr's new assessor. And maybe she was right. But as prepared as M'rayr had been to take command before, now he was left with an uncertain feeling in his gut, possibly due to the fact that they had a mission now... a dangerous one, with millions of lives in danger.

There was an audible beep at the ready room doorway, and the Caitian turned up to look at it. They were less than half an hour away from Evora; could something have happened already? No, M'rayr thought. If something had happened, the bridge crew would be reaching him from the ship's intercom. They wouldn't bother with the door.

"Enter," M'rayr called.

Upon hearing the response, Leryssa entered the captain's readyroom, Half expecting to meet with Captain Kerouac; But she was surprised to see that it wasn't him that was there. Instead, She found M'rayr there. She froze just in front of the doors as they closed with their familiar hissing sound behind her. Leryssa did not even realise that M'rayr had been promoted, Neither was she aware of the changes in command that had transpired. After all, She'd been in Sickbay unconscious for the past few days due to the injuries she'd suffered along with Ensign Kadan Storm, When the Katana had been brought to their present location during the transwarp incident. "Oh, So sorry Commander, I didn't realise you were here." Leryssa apologized, Then glancing around the room, She added, "Have you by any chance seen Captain Kerouac recently? I was hoping to speak to him about a very strange experience I've just had a few days ago."

M'rayr's brow furrowed. "Captain Kerouac is awaiting court martial, Ensign." He said, suddenly reminded of some very uncomfortable feelings. The name 'Nathan Tonkin' flashed to mind as well, making the Caitian feel that much more somber. "And Captain Tau is likely in his quarters," M'rayr then pointed out. He was curious about this 'experience' of hers, but didn't jump right towards it.

Leryssa frowned, Tucking some errant strands of her hair behind her right ear and out of her face, Revealing her late mother's Bajoran earring that was dangling from it since the earring had been hidden from view by her hair. "I didn't know that." She admitted solemnly, Not really speaking to M'rayr directly. She glanced up at the Caitian the moment he'd mentioned the words 'Captain Tau', "Who's Captain Tau?" She asked him point blank with a look that he'd have probably noticed as that she did not know, or even understand what had really transpired during her absence.

M'rayr's brows furrowed even deeper as he sat a PaDD aside and then interlaced his fingers. "Ensign, where exactly have you been for the past week?" He inquired, thinking that news of Kerouac's transfer off the ship, and Tau's presence, was more than common knowledge. "Captain Tau is... how shall I put it... our mission advisor. Now is there something I can help you with?"

"Well, To be honest, I've been in Sickbay this past week recovering from a few injuries that I've sustained." Leryssa admitted without missing a beat, "When we were first stranded here during the transwarp incident. Doctor Cohen had me restricted to light duties until I've fully recovered." She passed M'rayr a padd with the doctor's orders and her medical evaluation which was being displayed on it. "And now that you mention it, I'm not sure how to say this, But..." She paused for a moment, Intertwining her fingers together in a nervous manner in front of her midsection and looking both worried and upset at the same time, "During the time I was unconscious, I had a Pagh'Tem'Far-- A vision, So to speak. And it's kinda gotten me feeling a little worried."

The word was completely alien to M'rayr. He made certain to keep his face expressionless as he usually did during moments of unfamiliarity. Accepting the PaDD, he flipped it on, but only skimmed the details. "What is a Pagh'Tem'Far?" He asked very matter-of-factly, keeping his eyes on the PaDD so that if she replied with anything that surprised him, he'd not flinch unnecessarily.

"It's the Bajoran word for 'vision' in the Bajoran language." Leryssa explained to M'rayr as if she were teaching him the actual word, Even though she wasn't. "Anyways, In my vision, The Prophets.." She paused for a moment to note that M'rayr wasn't one hundred percent sure what she was saying, "That is to say, Sir. They are what the Bajoran people call the non-corporeal aliens in the wormhole near Deep Space Nine." She added after a moment's silence before she continued, "The Prophets told me that death is near and that it approaches soon." She looked a little more worried than she had looked before, "At first, I thought they were talking about Nathan Tonkin, But seeing as he's already gone, I figured it was already past; Now, I'm not so sure."

Caitians were a spiritual people, and certainly had their superstitions. He'd read of the Prophet or as certain people within Starfleet called 'wormhole aliens', and had at least some understanding of their role before, during, and after the Dominion War. Shifting in his seat while trying not to look too uncomfortable as to what she was implying, he pondered his response. Even the mention of Nathan seemed to put him at ill ease. Heaving a sigh that was audible, the Caitian rotated his wrist in the air in a gesticulatory fashion. "Not to dismiss your spiritual beliefs, Ensign. But it is possible that this... vision... was no vision at all; that it was merely a dream induced by your injuries?" Even though he tried to make a point in that he was not overlooking the spiritual connection between the Bajoran people and the Prophets, somehow it sounded like he'd done just that.

Leryssa nodded, "It might be a possibility, And that's what I thought too." She couldn't discount that as she started pacing around the room as if following some invisible path as she spoke, "Though, It felt positively real. Like they were trying to tell me something. I mean, Like some sort of prophecy was about to come true. Also, Everyone I knew was in the vision I had; Captain Kerouac, Jhu, Ensign Kadan Storm, Lt. Commander Maica, Andrea, Vara, My dead birth parents, My adopted Human parents, and..." She paused for a moment to glance at M'rayr, "You were there too." Leryssa added as she gestured towards him.

That caused M'rayr to recline slightly in his chair. "Was I?"

Leryssa nodded in response to his question, "Yes, You were there." She took a step forward, Acting as if she were speaking to a counselor, Even though Leryssa knew in her heart that M'rayr wasn't one at all, "In the vision, I was standing in the middle of Sickbay here on the Katana; My uniform, Along with the rest of me, Was an absolute mess. The room was barely lit, Save for a few computer consoles, But I could see the faces of everyone around me as clearly as I see yours right now." Clearing her throat, Leryssa continued, "Anyway, The being who took on the form of Captain Kerouac had taken a step towards me, and it told me that death would soon claim me or someone I knew." She shrugged her shoulders as if pondering some unknown thought or decision before adding, "To be completely honest with you, I am having trouble understanding whether or not this 'prophecy', or task of theirs is going to happen; or has already happened. And that's what's gotten me a little on edge, Maybe even a little scared and worried at the same time." Turning to face M'rayr, She dropped her shoulders slightly and sighed as if she'd been defeated by some invisible enemy, "I don't know what to do. How can I handle something like this?"

The scientist in M'rayr still had difficulty believing that Leryssa's 'prophecy' was in fact genuine, and not the product of stress combined with injury and fatigue. But he knew all too well the sort of effect that playing outright doubt to what she was saying might have on the Bajoran. And given recent events, particularly with their upcoming relief mission to Evora, who knew? Stranger things have happened. He began to speak, but stopped to clear his throat first. What he was going to say, and how he was going to say it, reminded him of what it was like to cross a minefield not knowing where to step and where not to. "Keep me apprised, Ensign," he said, not wanting to dismiss her completely. "But for the time being, it is important that we do not begin to second guess our decisions until such time as your... vision... becomes pointedly relevant."

"Understood, Sir." Leryssa answered with a slight sigh that might've been viewed as a disappointed response to M'rayr's request. Though, To her, The response she gave had sounded rather normal from her perspective. She'd never really known a whole lot about the Bajoran culture personally, Seeing as she'd been the only Bajoran child adopted and raised by Humans since she was six years old. The only way Leryssa had learned about the Bajoran culture and its history, was through the records that Starfleet had kept on them. Since then, She'd tried her best to follow the rituals and customs, Even though, No one had really taught her anything about those rituals themselves. It was a rather difficult process for her, But she seemed to manage it, But just barely. Leryssa wanted to ask M'rayr a favor, but instead, She thought better of it, and said nothing. She just waited quietly for his response, or his permission to have her be dismissed if he didn't require anything more from her for the time being.

The matter seemed to have been addressed, and M'rayr half expected Leryssa to about face and exit his ready room from the direction she'd come. He turned his attention back down to the stack of PaDDs on his desk, and then realizing that her presence was unmoved, looked back up. "Was there something else, Ensign?"

Leryssa seemed to have blanked out for a moment as if she were not really paying full attention to M'rayr's question; Though, To a normal person, Leryssa seemed to just be staring blankly towards his general direction, But not entirely staring at him, "Hmm?" It only took her a brief second to realize that the question was still unanswered, "Oh, No. That's it." She responded before she turned towards the door to leave, but stopped short, "Thanks." She managed to utter before finally passing through the door, Leaving M'rayr alone to continue reading his PaDDs that were stacked upon his desk.

[Scimitar Bridge]

Lidano sat there on the bridge of the partially built Scimitar class ship staring at the countdown timer, a nervous tick starting to form with every tick of the clock. Eventually she had had enough - her patience had run out and she started issuing orders. "Attack pattern Theta. Launch suicide bombers. Arm all weapons and fire at will." The crew of the bridge weren't trained military so it took them a few seconds to get everything done, but they did it without question. They were loyal to their leader and would die for her for the promise of a new home.

[Katana, Ready Room]

Captain M’rayr Eisovo surveyed the ready room around him. Since taking command of the Federation Starship Katana a little more than 72 hours ago, he’d done little – nothing in fact – to make this place his own. Had it not been for the yeoman’s efforts, in fact, the ready room would still be adorned with some of the various decorative pieces left behind by M’rayr’s predecessor – Kristopher Kerouac.

Speaking of which, what would Kerouac do at a time like this?

The Caitian’s one good eye furrowed in a crossed way as he swiped a PaDD off the desk, hoping to take his mind off of the question. Kristopher Kerouac, for all his accomplishments, was by no means a man in which M’rayr should attempt to emulate. After all, it was due to Kerouac’s partisan thinking that led the Katana to be stricken from him, along with the death of a crewmate.

With an downward glance to the chronometer on his PaDD, M’rayr realized that Lidano’s one hour condition was less than five minutes from being overdue. Tapping his comm-badge, the Caitian had intended on doing two things. First, he would check in with his Chief of Operations on the status of finding the Remans a compatible world. Second, he would confer with his Chief of Engineering on a possible means of evening out the Scimitar’s advantage against the Katana.

M’rayr didn’t have the chance to do either. As the hull shook – hard, the Caitian found himself instead grasping for balance as the torrent of electric-green flashes along the port indicated that the battle had in fact resumed, and that Lidano was aiming her cannons directly for the bridge.

[Katana, Bridge]

Arivek found himself sitting in the Captain's chair when the fighting began. The first shot sent him to the floor as everyone was shaken awake in confusion. "Report!" he yelled as he picked himself back up and sat back down.

"We've taken fire from the Scimitar," came the voice of a young man standing directly behind the Captain's chair.

With a tap on the armrest, the center console unfolded and data began to scroll across the large screen. "Shields up. Hail them," Arivek ordered.

Another shot rocked the deck. "Shields up, Commander. Our hails are going unanswered," came a female voice, but Arivek wasn't sure who said it.

"Return fire," was Ari's next order as he started running damage reports. It was then he realized the phasers were not functional. "Full photon torpedo spread. Fire at will."

M’rayr held onto the bulkhead as he came through the door onto the bridge as another act of violence strained the inertial dampeners. “Report!” He growled, his eye already locked onto the view screen. The Scimitar was facing away from the Katana now, moving swiftly as though it had just completed an angry pass.

Are the shields up? What is our damage report? How many people on board the Katana have been injured… or killed… so far? Millions of questions raced through M’rayr’s mind. All of which were questions he desperately wanted answered. But panic, or even the abstraction of panic right now, would do more harm than good.

Settle on the one question. Collect information with methodology and conciseness. Then act.

Another torrent lashed against the Katana, shaking the shields. “I said REPORT” M’rayr responded, the telltale strain of his Caitian larynx breaking out human as obvious as a growl from a real Terran lion would be.

Arivek slid up from the Captain's chair and settled into the one directly next to it. "We've taken direct hits, Captain," he said, typing furiously on the center console control panel. "Hull breaches on decks 2 and 4. Forcefields are stable. Shields are up and at 78%. They were able to take down our phaser arrays with the first couple shots, but it was a minor overload of the relays. They should be operational within a few minutes. For now, we're running evasive maneuvers and returning fire."

Edging his way into his seat, M'rayr braced himself against another rocking. Phasers were momentarily out, and without those, they wouldn't have a chance at bleeding off enough of the Scimitar's shields to get a photon torpedo through. At least a list of dead hadn't accompanied Arivek's report. Hopefully it would stay that way. "As soon as possible, Lieutenant Commander." M'rayr warned Arivek. "Helm, evasive maneuvers. Continue to rotate our angle so that incoming damage can be distributed evenly across the shields. If possible," M'rayr glanced at the view screen again. That Scimitar was fast and maneuverable. Even an Intrepid-class ship would have trouble beating its turn rate. "Try to get behind that ship."

Hayley ran through the turbolift doors, hearing M'Rayr's order as she exited. "The Reman broke her word," she said, mocking shock. "Whoever would have guessed that?" She took her seat, nearly shoving the other helm officer out of the seat. She pushed the Katana to full impulse and pulled the ship into a relative climb and pulled the ship harder in the turn, kicking the available thrusters on. The structural integrity generators ran at full power to negate the sudden lethal amount of G forces applied to the ship as it snapped into a loop maneuver behind the scimitar class vessel.

Before Arivek could even get to a console, M'rayr was already back to him with, "Have your sensor scans of the Scimitar yielded any information that might pose a tactical advantage?" He asked. Another volley reverberated against the shields as sparks from an overhead conduit caused more than a third of the starboard consoles to flicker.

Arivek moved to the Engineering console to the side of the Bridge, "None yet, Captain. Their shields appear stable enough at the moment."

Jenni had slipped out of the turbolift behind Hayley and quickly found her way to the Ops console. "Shields down to 60 percent! Rerouting power from non-essential systems to reinforce shields and structural integrity!" she announced to the bridge crew. "Main power is shorting out on Decks 7 and 8."

Deciding whether to make another effort at diplomacy or to forgo politics in favor of a good phaser was a choice that M'rayr had to consider. Looking to his left and to his right, he saw not just members of the Katana's crew, but several of these people had become his friends as well. Any decision might create circumstances to tilt the odds in their favor; that same decision, or its opposite, could condemn them to a cold death.

I've lost too many already, M'rayr thought, thinking about all his previous vessels.

No... Lidano had chosen her fate.

"Tactical, find me a weak point. Disable or destroy that ship."

That was When Vara finally got to the bridge and took over tactical, punching through readouts faster than any normal human could even see them. Then she saw it. These weren't battle hardened Remans. These were civilians. They hadn't followed through with lessons learned fighting the Breen during the Dominion war. "Captain, their reactor intake vents aren't closed. They're shielded but if we flood them with ionized plasma, that'll lock their singularity core down solid."

[Katana, Sickbay]

"...and the food was really good. You'd have loved it Mom. Dad, they had an amazing pinot...SHIT!" Stefano had been recording a message for his parents in his office when the ship was rocked. Felt like weapons fire, he thought. His suspicion was confirmed a moment later when the ship lurched slightly from what was, most likely, evasive maneuvers. Leaping from his desk, Stefano bounded into the main ward of Sickbay. "Get ready for casualties people," he ordered in his most commanding tone. Being naturally shy and soft-spoken, his version of a commanding tone was not particularly imposing, but he could still manage to motivate people to action. There was a quick bustle of activity as Stefano and the rest of the medical staff jumped into action.

And then the injury reports started coming in.

"Anson," he called out, addressing his senior medic, "get your team dispatched." Lian Anson was the only full-time field medic on the Katana's medical staff. The rest of the field medics were staffers in other departments who had been cross-trained for emergency medical duty. The field medics' first priority was to triage the injured. The serious cases were stabilized in the field, if possible, and then taken to Sickbay for treatment by a physician. Or nurse practitioner, in the case of the Chief Medical Officer. More minor injuries could often be handled well enough onsite, with those patients coming to Sickbay for a physician's visit after the emergency situation had died down.

As the senior field medic stepped into a small alcove to begin coordinating her team, Stefano looked at the rest of the staff present. Doctors Rose and Hansen, as well as Nurse Onolla were off duty and hadn't made it to Sickbay yet. Head Nurse Cadwell was present as were several other support personnel. "Let's hope this doesn't get too bad," Stefano said to his staff.

The Katana rocking from weapons fire had caught Austin off-guard. However, as a trained officer, and nurse, he quickly composed himself. Having been a head nurse for several years now, and having been in several battle situations, he knew what to do even if it was a new sickbay and new staff to deal with. He started giving out orders to the nursing staff, not they needed orders, and everyone knew their job in a crisis such as that. At Stefano's words, Austin looked up as the Katana shook again, causing him to grab the nearest biobed for support. "Here's hoping," he said simply as he steadied himself. He moved to Stefano's side, to be of help when needed.

[Evora, Geological Stabilizer Three ]

Ensign R'tame Evoss trekked the two hundred meters or so necessary to cross the range between the shuttle craft and the geological stabilizer which, according to evidence, was the root of the problem on Evora. With an engineering pack over his shoulder and a type-II phaser at his waist, the Caitian was more concerned with stabilizing the platform than focusing on any peculiar noises nearby.

Which was exactly how he'd manage to avoid the telltale harmonics of Reman transporters nearby as he made his way into the platform.

Not occupied with any sort of engineering task, Jhu turned as the familiar whine of a transporter reached her ears... and then dove to the ground as disruptor bolts suddenly flew in their direction. Instinctively seeking cover behind a nearby crate, she drew her phaser to return fire, briefly looking for members of her team. "Get down, you fools!"

As Ensign Graves chatted nearby with a junior government official, she heard someone scream, "Get down" and she turned just in time to see a disruptor bolt aimed in her vicinity. Annette barely missed getting hit in the shoulder as the government official and herself dove behind a nearby vehicle. "Are you OK?" Annette asked as she reached for her phaser. As the official nodded affirmative, Annette could hear her colleagues returning fire and she wondered to herself if the Katana was under attack too.

Bridget had been going over the data from the geological stabilizer when she heard both disruptor fire and Jhu yell almost at the same time. It took her a moment to process what Jhu had yelled but only a moment and she quickly dove for cover. "You have got to be kidding me," she muttered as more disruptor fire hit the ground around her cover. First an ice planet and now this, the captain was going to be lucky if she ever agreed to an away mission again.

As soon as chaos erupted, Andy reacted, drawing her bow and firing off a couple of arrows before seeking cover behind some equipment. From where she was, she could see Bridget hiding. She wasn't well protected... Andy gave the matter no further thought and darted over to where Bridget was hiding. At first she said nothing to the scientist, but rather crouched protectively in front of her to keep her safe from the continued disruptor fire. It was a tight fit, but at least Bridget was protected. Then Andy looked out to see if she could find Jhu or any of the other officers to make sure they were still alive and safe.

"You alright?" Andy asked as she took another peek out to see where the Remans were in relation to everyone else.

"Yeah, thanks," Bridget said. She felt for her phaser as Andy continued to guard her and orienting herself with it after finally unclasping it from her side, took aim at the attacking Remans. "Could we make it back to the shuttle?" she asked, deferring to Andy's expertise without hesitation.

"That's the idea..." Andy said, looking one last time for the rest of the team. "But I'd rather not leave our team behind. There's too much going on out there, I can't see the others." This was one of those moments where having Borg shielding would have been nice, but alas...

"I know approximately where they were before the shooting started but I can't see them anymore either." Bridget turned to Andy with a grave look on her face. "Look, I've qualified with a phaser but I haven't been in a situation like this and I honestly don't know if that qualification will carry over to a real-life situation. I'll do whatever you say to the best of my ability and I guess we'll see what the outcome is like." Bridget had never been one to sugar coat anything and she didn't feel like starting now. All she really wanted to do was get back aboard the Katana and be extremely judicious in choosing which away missions she went on in the future. Delegation sounded like a wonderful idea right about now.

Annette peaked out from behind the vehicle and caught a glimpse of two officers taking cover behind some equipment but they were at least 50 meters away and she wasn't sure she could reach them without alerting the Remans to her location. She needed a distraction. "I think I have an idea" Annette whispered "Do you have the keys to this vehicle?" The official reached into his pocket and pulled out the keys. Annette quietly said "I need you to drive this vehicle as fast as you can towards safety, I will cover you and hopefully this might provide me with enough of a distraction I can reach my colleagues. Understand?" The Evorian nodded nervously and Annette took that as an OK. "Get ready, as soon as I signal get the vehicle started and going as fast as you can" Annette said sternly "Ready? Lets move."

Looking over her shoulder, Jhu couldn't see all of her team. Hoping that meant they'd found cover and not been shot, she turned her attention back to the Remans, narrowly avoiding a disruptor bolt aimed at her head. "Bastard," she growled at the offender, firing back as she tapped her comm badge. "t'Dharvanek to Katana. We could use a little help down here!"

[Katana, Bridge]

"t'Dharvanek to Katana...

The transmission from the surface cut out almost as soon as it had begun. Presumably, Lidano had begun to jam nearby frequencies. Too little too late. Not doing it before she began her attack was a mistake, one that demonstrated the fact that Lidano was anything but a soldier. No... not a soldier... but not helpless either. Had the Scimitar, even in its incomplete state, been commanded by a member of the Romulan Navy, M'rayr doubted that the Katana would still be in the fight.

But the situation on the planet complicated things. As torrent upon torrent of disrupter fire lashed angrily against the Katana's waning shields, M'rayr had to decide. Security teams were available to be transported down to the planet, but doing so now would require M'rayr to give the order to drop shields in the middle of a battle. Looking to the Scimitar, M'rayr presumed even Lidano would make every effort to take advantage of that opening.

"Understood, away team. Stand by," M'rayr said over the comm-link, doubting the possibility that the transmission to the surface would survive Reman jamming. Turning to Vara, the Caitian repeated what she'd told him a few seconds ago. Messing with a singularity could have dangerous consequences, particularly if doing so elicited a breach. "What is the risk to the Scimitar by doing so?" He asked, cognizant of the fact that there'd be little time to discuss their options in detail.

Vara nodded, plotting out her projections in her mind and speaking quickly. "If the design holds true to our universe, it'll take 2.1 seconds for the plasma to reach their singularity where the collectors would then need to be flushed. If they still have a full singularity stabilizer in place, that'll take over, shutting the singularity down, requiring a cold restart which can take upwards of 5 minutes. If they don't... the singularity swallows their ship and everything within 3 or 4 kilometers. Being directly in front of them and venting the plasma before making a micro-warp jump offers the highest probability of success."

"I don't recommend that," Arivek stated from across the Bridge. "Our plasma is running extremely hot right now. If we vent it, we'll fry our coils, maybe worse. We can't cripple ourselves in the process."

"Starboard shields are failing!" Jenni shouted from her station after avoiding a small shower of sparks from beside her. "EPS rupture on Deck Twelve. Casualties reported. Life support is fluctuating on Decks Three through Five. Rerouting Auxiliary Power to compensate." She glanced up to the Captain, not expecting him to meet her gaze, but hoping he wouldn't take long to make his decision.

Time had run out. Knowing that he might be signing the death order for some fifteen thousand Remans, M'rayr nodded to Vara. "Do it, Tactical," he said, taking his seat. "Helm, as soon as a reaction has been confirmed, put a ten kilometer buffer between us and the Scimitar. Operations, be ready to beam aboard any survivors." Touching a console on his chair, M'rayr channeled his voice to another part of the ship. "Sickbay, report."

[Katana Sickbay]

"Stand by, Captain," Stefano shouted. He hated to raise his voice, but the volume in Sickbay made it a necessity. Since the beginning of the battle, Sickbay had been busy. Anson's field medics were doing a great job of triage, but the number of serious cases meant that the medical staff had been kept busy. Luckily, Drs. Rose and Hansen had arrived, so Piccoletti wasn't the sole medical practitioner present anymore. And Nurse Onolla was helping Cadwell out.

"Sorry for the wait, sir. We're a bit busy down here, but no fatalities yet. Two criticals that aren't fully stabilized yet, but other than that, we're just trying to keep up with the patient flow."

[Katana Bridge]

Looking to Jenni, M'rayr continued. "Indications on how many Remans the away team is dealing with?" He asked, knowing that such information would be invaluable once the Scimitar had been dealt with.

"Can't tell," Jenni said, working her controls. "There's too much metallurgical interference in their location. And the weapons fire down there isn't helping." An idea struck her. Quickly, she scanned the Scimitar and compared it with an earlier reading. "There's more than a dozen missing from the Scimitar. I bet I know where they are though."

"As soon as the Scimitar is disabled, Lieutenant," M'rayr said, looking straight to his Chief of Operations... and lover. "I want you to take a security force to the planet. Assist the away team in repelling the Reman incursion, and secure the Stabilizer."

Jenni nodded. Her earlier eagerness to find a way down to the planet would finally be realized; although, she never expected it to be like this. She supposed it was only natural, considering how she'd bounced around from department to department the moment she accepted that red collar from Captain Zanaar all those months ago.

Vara had the engines ready to vent enough ionized plasma within seconds, having expected that response. Watching the sensors closely, Vara held her finger over the release button as the scimitar came around for another pass, the Katana now only a hundred meters from the Reman ship. As soon as she was sure they'd fly right into it, she released the plasma, another salvo rocking the ship as the giant ship flew right into their wake, the exterior lights flickering and going out almost instantly.

[Scimitar Bridge]

As the lights on the bridge dimmed, Lidano stood and pounced on an auxiliary console, seeing the Scimitar's power levels dropping drastically. "Report!" She yelled into the sudden silence. "What did they do?"

A reman engineer turned around from his station, aghast. "My lady, they've clogged our systems with ionized gas. We have to purge the system before..." But he didn't get to finish his report as his console exploded along with several others across the bridge.

Lidano barely made it back to her command chair, pressing a communications control. "I will not give you the satisfaction of begging for our lives, you miserable fur-beast. I'll dine with you in Areinnye. Rah neth lleiset nah'lai llaihr."

[Katana, Bridge]

"Frak!" Arivek yelled as he slammed his fists on his console. "I told you that was a bad idea," he said, looking at both M'rayr and Vara. "We've fried all four warp coils and there's been an explosion in the port nacelle. We need a brand new one. And even worse, the explosion caused a feedback surge through the navigational system and has shorted the deflector. It's completely offline."

Haley sighed. With the feedback through the navigational systems, both deflectors were off line. Meaning she would have to decrease speed to half impulse at best until the redundant systems kicked in.

Vara monitored the tactical sensors closely, the Scimitar's singularity core could still go either way and the way Lidano was talking, they might just blow the ship up themselves.

"Your idea better work, Vara. Because if it doesn't, we won't be able to fend them off now." Arivek grumbled as he ran his hands over the console, running multiple reports all while keeping an eye on the Scimitar.

"That is sufficient, Lieutenant Commander," M'rayr warned.

Jenni kept an eye on the sensors as well, though she was still trying to punch through the interference from Evora. "Life signs are dropping fast aboard the Scimitar," she reported. "The ship is losing power, but there are still some surges of energy..." Letting her voice trail off, she investigated the source of the energy. "They're transporter signatures. They're beaming to the planet!"

Between listening to Lidano's possibly final words, and the banter between Arivek and Vara, even M'rayr was having a difficult time staying on task. If his XO were on board, she'd handle the bickering, leaving him to focus on the strategic aims. At Jenni's alert, however, M'rayr's attention snapped back to. "Chief of Operations, you may take your security detail to the surface." It wasn't an order that M'rayr particularly favored. But he was too focused on accomplishing the mission to allow personal feeling or insight to interfere with what needed to be done.

Vara tapped at her console a few more times to confirm her readings. "Captain, their singularity is dead. I think they tried to activate the self destruct and it just... fizzled out. They're nothing but a hulk running on emergency power. Shields, weapons, life support... It's all down. Shall I finish them off with a torpedo barrage?" Unfortunately, the Remans still had power to transport their crew to the planet and Vara didn't like that - even to the point of offering to kill the remaining crew on board if it meant helping save their people on the surface.

Hayley turned in her seat to look at Jennifer. "And you were worried. Go down and get your medal. Be the hero," she smiled. "Good choice, Captain Furball," she then gave a thumbs up to M'rayr.

"Aye, Captain," Jenni said, nodding to M'rayr before sending Hayley a curt smile. Tapping her combadge, she instructed a security detail to meet her in the transporter room, along with a rifle for her.

"Where are those Remans beaming to?" M'rayr asked next. The Scimitar's compliment was over 15,000, and if the Remans chose to seize a portion of the planet, it would be difficult to uproot them.

"About a few kilometers away. It won't take long for them to overtake the away team," Arivek stated.

Hayley again turned in her seat to face M'rayr. "Let me use a runabout for close air support. Those Reman are too close to the away team to target with the Katana's phasers.

M'rayr turned to Arivek. "Your recommendation, Lieutenant Commander? Is the Katana in necessary condition to provide close aerospace support?"

"I would say no, Captain," Arivek stated. "At the moment, I would rather us do as little moving as possible. Our dampener systems were damaged and the hull stresses could cause more damage."

M'rayr nodded. Coming into the atmosphere would give the Katana greater accuracy, with much less of the phaser beam attenuating across the atmosphere. Firing from orbit meant the Katana would need to use more of its energy, which meant a more intense phaser spread. Too much of which could kill the Remans... not incapacitate them.

"Now that the Scimitar has been disabled, are we able to establish communications with the away team?" M'rayr asked next, although Hayley's suggestion seemed enticing. Jenni's security force *might* be able to handle the remains of the original Reman assault force, but it wouldn't be able to hold against the remains of the Scimitar's crew.

Hayley had had enough as she slammed her fist down onto her console and turned in her seat and stood. "The ship is in no condition to enter an atmosphere! We need less talking and more action! If you're going to be any sort of a decent captain, you need to trust those under you! And your hesitation is going to cost lives!". She wasn't sure why she cared but one thing she hated was people who hesitated.

"That's enough, Lieutenant," Arivek commanded to Hayley, snapping his fingers at the same time. "His question has been answered, leave it alone." Now the hologram looked up at the Caitian, "As for communications, they're ready when you are."

The fact of the matter was that M'rayr was hesitating. Maybe his general demeanor gave a much more positive impression -- the Caitian who deliberated before making the best decision possible -- but by now, that particular falsity was evident to at least Hayley, and possible even more amongst the bridge crew. For a moment, M'rayr's head almost tilted to the side, his eye hoping to find Kerouac.

Thank you, Ari M'rayr thought, although he did not say. One indication of gratitude might go over Zhuri's head.

"We need to understand the situation on the planet, Lieutenant," M'rayr said pointedly to Hayley. "Open communications."

[Evora, Geological Stabilizer Three]

Static. That was all Jhu heard in response to her call. "M'rayr!" More static, punctuated by the disruptor bolts pelting the crate she was hiding behind. "Dammit," she muttered, firing a few rapid shots over the top of the crate before looking around for Andy or R'tame. Anyone who could maybe work a miracle and get a comm line to the Katana.

As Annette started running towards the two figures crouching behind the equipment, she turned around briefly to see if Evorian official was safely away from the action, and saw a Reman running towards her. "Damn " Annette said to herself, "Don't the Remans have better things to do today than attack us". As Annette aimed and fired her phaser at the Reman's leg, she hoped she didn't miss because there would be no second chances.

Bridget heard noises behind her and turned to see Annette running toward her and Andy and a Reman not far behind. "Andy," she hissed, "I think we've found one member of our team." She gestured behind her toward Annette.

Annette barely registered that her phaser successfully hit the Reman's knee, causing him to fall to the ground, she was completely focused on reaching the other members of the team. As she dived behind the equipment, Annette lost her footing and almost landed directly on top of the lieutenant. "Sorry Lieutenant, didn't mean to run you over" Annette whispered " But I'm sure am glad that I was able to reach the both of you, hopefully there is strength in numbers because these Remans sure have the advantage right now."

"Not for long..." Andy said, drawing her phaser to point a kill shot at the Reman Annette took down to ensure he stayed down. She had been focusing on the shots fired, trying to calculate the enemy's positions so she could return fire. She would essentially be firing blindly, but they had to do something! "Okay, this is either the worst idea ever or it's gonna be awesome and Jhu's gonna name her kid after me," Andy said with a grin as she stared at the column they were hiding behind. She blinked a few times until she could see heat signatures from the other side of the pillar. She couldn't tell from heat signatures alone which ones were the Remans and which ones were Jhu and Fuzzy Wuzzy, but coupled with the angle of trajectory on the shots flying past them, she had pretty good idea of which signatures were friend and which ones were foe.

Andy holstered her phaser and took a deep breath, then she reached over her shoulder and grabbed a handful of arrows. "Hit the deck!" she called out to her missing teammates as she stepped out and began firing, drawing arrow after arrow across her bow and sending them hurtling at the Remans in rapid succession, each precise and lethal. And explosive; if the initial shot didn't kill the Remans, a small pop later and there was no chance for survival. She was about to grab a second handful of arrows when a lucky disruptor shot to the leg took her down, sending her tumbling to the ground with an undignified "Fuck!", her arrows scattering all over the floor.

Bridget pulled all of her limbs out from under Annette and managed a quick, "It's fine," before rolling on her stomach. She grabbed Andy's arm and pulled her toward her. "Are you ok?" she asked as she looked for where Andy had been hit. She continued to mutter indistinctly as she looked for something to help Andy with.

"No... I lost my arrows," Andy said with a pout as she tried to ignore the burning pain in her thigh. Her pride was never recovering from this...

Bridget rolled her eyes. "I'll personally get you more when we get back to the Katana," she said. Turning back to Annette she asked, "Have you seen Commander t'Dharvanek?"

"No, I haven't seen the Commander or any of the other members of they away team" Annette replied.

"I think I caught their heat signatures earlier, but I lost track of them when I went down," Andy said as she rubbed at the edges of the disruptor wound with a wince. Her nanites were slowing the bleeding, which was good, but it still hurt like a sonofabitch! "At least we've got a few less Remans trying to gank our ass, maybe now we can find the others and get out of here."

"We better find the others quickly, the Remans will be sending in reinforcements soon" Annette said as she turned towards Andy. "Do you remember in what direction you saw the heat signatures?"

"Gimme a minute, woman! I just got shot!" Andy grumbled. She leaned her head back in thought. "I know they were between us and the Remans, by a stack of crates." The disruptor fire had momentarily ceased. She knew she hadn't gotten all the Remans, so they were probably just regrouping, but the ex-Borg woman hoped it would give Jhu and Fuzzy a chance to find safer shelter.

The blue shimmer of the transporter faded from Jenni's eyes, revealing the geological stabilizer not far in front of her. By the time she'd met the security detail in the transporter room, the sensors had cleared up, allowing them to get a clearer picture of Reman activity on the surface. They'd fortified themselves around the stabilizer, pinning the Away Team away down from it. Jenni had selected a beam-down site behind the Remans, not close enough to be detected, but far enough away to surprise them.

As instructed, the security detail split into two as one moved up the center, leaving Jenni and two other officers to flank to the right in order to provide support to the Away Team's weakest side. Not a single person fired their rifle, waiting for Jenni's signal to open fire to take full advantage of the element of surprise. It didn't take long to get into position, and Jenni wasted not a second in peering out from behind cover to fire the first shot, striking a Reman who had been using a high platform beside the stabilizer to unleash disruptor fire on Jhu's team. Instantly, the Reman fire shifted from a single direction to multiple points on an axis as they tried to deal with two angles of attack. It didn't help the Remans either once the other half of the security detail opened fire, exposing their weak rear flank.

The distinctive sounds of phaser fire combined with startled shouts and half the Remans turning to face an enemy Jhu couldn't see brought a small smile to her face. Before comms went down, M'rayr must have understood that they needed help. Taking advantage of the distraction the second team provided, she stunned several of the Reman attackers before a disruptor bolt passed so close to her right ear that she felt the ear drum pop under the pressure of the heated air. And smelled the distinct odor of singed hair. Swearing loudly, Jhu lost her grip on her phaser and clapped her hand over her ear, wincing. "Sonofabitch, that hurts!"

"I found Jhu," Andy said with a grin, using the sound of Jhu's exclamation to narrow down her location. "But I'm kinda tapped out on ideas, and arrows, so one of you guys are gonna have to be brave and bold to get us all back together. Unless you wanna wait for our backup to clear everything out."

"I would much prefer to get out of here sooner than later," Bridget got out before being interrupted by a barrage of phaser fire. "Now what?" she yelled and turned to see Reman after Reman materializing and joining the fight. "Uhhh, I think we have a problem," she said as she ducked and turned to face Andy and Annette. "The Remans have multiplied."

Jenni fired off another shot from her vantage point just as two Remans materialized in her line of fire. "You've got to be kidding me," she muttered, firing off a couple of stun blasts as soon as the transporter process had completed. Though more Remans continued to enter the fray, it wasn't long before Jenni noticed something peculiar about the newest arrivals. Each and every one that had managed to avoid incoming fire slipped behind cover and stayed there, hoping this battle would soon end, especially since they had nothing to fight back with.

"Upper catwalk!" Jenni called out, taking note that the final bits of Reman fire were coming from above them now, and everyone on the ground level was either stunned, dead, or unarmed. A few well placed shots took out the remainder of the resistance, none of which were discharged from her own rifle. "Cease fire!" she called out. With caution, Jenni and the security detail closest to her shed their cover and began to walk towards the Remans, still holding their weapons at the ready. The lieutenant nodded to the junior officer in charge of the detail, allowing him to take care of gathering those who had been unwilling to fight.

Jenni slug the rifle over her shoulder, and approached Jhu's position, or at least, where she'd heard the exclamation. As she did, she passed by Bridget, Andy, and an ensign she hadn't yet met. Jenni tapped her combadge, noting Andy's wound. "Matthews to Katana. We could use a medical team down here."

"Katana to away team," the voice was distinctly M'rayr's. "Be advised that you have additional hostiles approaching your location. The Scimitar has been... neutralized, but an unknown percentage of its crew managed to beam down to the surface beforehand."

[Katana, Bridge]

"Get your people consolidated behind cover," M'rayr continued from the bridge. "Katana will provide fire support from orbit. Prepare for extreme atmospheric disturbance." Any first-year cadet would understand the thermodynamics of a phaser beam cutting through atmosphere. "We will render medical assistance as soon as the area of operations has been cleared."

With the communique complete, M'rayr looked to Hayley. "Bring us as low as you safely can." Turning next to Vara at tactical. "Prepare a phaser spread. Saturate the last known location of the Remans. Do your best to incapacitate only, Lieutenant, but do whatever you deem necessary to stop the Remans from overtaking our away and security teams." If only M'rayr could admit that his chief concern was the away team... and not the Operations Chief embedded within.

"Sure you don't want to launch a probe and have a meeting first?" she commented sarcastically, as she brought the Katana into a low geosynchronous orbit above the location of the away team.

Stun people with phasers from orbit? It was doable... "Captain, I recommend the away team takes cover just in case," Vara replied as she began programming the ventral phaser banks for miniscule targets at 0.005% of power levels. Air disturbances would be minimal and the hit to the Remans on the ground should be enough to heavily stun them and anything else living. Cycling in the individual life sign targets, she saw that this would take a little while to do the right way.

Hayley kicked her feet up on her console and crossed her arms as she looked at the view screen. She had given up on trying to teach Captain Furball how to be a decent captain. Maybe Matthews would be killed. Was that necessary to teach him that some situations required immediate action, not a debate?

M'rayr's jaw locked. Hayley's behavior had fast moved into insubordination, and her attitude was proving a distraction for everybody else on the bridge. Turning to Vara, the Caitian nodded. "Make it so," before next moving towards Hayley's station, swiping her feet off the console with one hand while straightening the chair with the other. Bringing his eye close to Hayley, "If you are not capable of doing your job, Lieutenant, then get off my bridge."

Something was off about her. But that, like many other things, were matters he'd need to address later.

Hayley simply looked up at M'rayer. "I'm not the one not doing their job. I outflew the scimitar and we are in a low geosynchronous orbit above the remains and away team. The ship is currently on autopilot, so for the moment, my job is done. I just hope your girlfriend and the away team are dead by now. Because I bet that would really suck for you and your career, Captain."

M'rayr withheld a snarl. "Lieutenant Vara, are you prepared to fire?"

"Three, two, one... Yes, nine hundred Eighteen Reman lifesigns targeted and ready to fire." Vara replied.

"Fire," M'rayr replied simply.

[Evora, Geological Stabilizer Three]

"Dammit," Jenni cursed, preparing to pull her rifle back off its sling. With haste, she recalled the security detail towards the Away Team's location. She kept standing, rifle at the ready as the detail took cover with the Away Team, before she kneeled next to Jhu, still pointing her rifle in the direction she expected the Remans to approach from. "Things just keep getting better," she quipped to Katana's first officer.

"No kidding," Jhu growled, one hand still over her sore ear as she retrieved her dropped phaser. "Glad you could join us. Wish it was under better circumstances."

"Hey, at least you didn't get shot. Much..." Andy called out to Jhu, trying to pull herself up so she could help the team defend there positions. "Damn, I'm so glad you're alright. Is Ensign Fuzzy with you?" she asked Jhu. So far, R'tame was the only other member of the away team unaccounted for.

Jenni checked to her left and right before replying, "Can't see him."

"I haven't seen him since we landed and he went to work on the geological stabilizer," said Bridget.

[Scimitar Bridge]

Lidano could only stand there and watch as her remaining forces were taken down by a broad and barely visible phaser sweep from the Katana's dorsal phaser banks towards the planet below. As her heart sank, she slumped into her chair. She had failed her people. Every last one was now dead as far as she knew. She barely had visual scanners and life support was running on a single emergency battery. It was only a matter of time before she too was killed. Activating the emergency beacon, she programmed it to send out a general surrender message, though she had no way of even knowing if it was working.

[Katana, Bridge]

Looking over the tactical readouts, Vara confirmed hits on all targets and none on non-targets. "Success, Captain. All hostiles neutralized and life signs are stable."

That was the second breath of relief that M'rayr took.

"Hail the Scimitar."

[Evora, Geological Stabilizer Three]

Like several of the others, Jenni had ducked behind cover when Katana's phaser lances struck the incoming Remans. When the firing ceased, Jenni peered out to verify that all was under control. She tapped her combadge. "Matthews to Katana. We could use that medical team now."

"Confirmed. Medical teams beaming down shortly." M'rayr's voice returned over her comm-badge.

Looking over to Andy and Bridget, Jenni asked, "Either one of you want to head up with me to check out the stabilizer?" The job on Evora would continue to be perilous until it was stabilized, and no one knew yet if the firefight caused more damage than necessary.

"I'll go," Andy replied right away, doing her best to ignore the pain in her leg as she stood. She stooped to pick up her dropped arrows, then limped her way over to Jenni. "We had just got here when the fighting started, hadn't even had a chance to assess the problem yet," Andy briefed Jenni as she sorted her arrows, turning them all the same direction before stuffing them back into her quiver. "Damn, I really wished I hadn't given up my job to you; moving to R&D was supposed to be safer!" she added with a pained chuckle. Not that she had any hard feelings over the matter, it had still been the right thing to do, she was just trying to make a joke to bring some levity to the situation. She headed for the lift, hoping it was still operational. She could still manage a ladder to get to the upper level, but it would suck big time.

Smiling at Andy's quip, Jenni surrendered her rifle to a nearby security officer, thankful and hopeful that its use was no longer required. Nodding to Andy to take the lead up the ladder, Jenni volunteered to follow behind to catch Andy should she fall.

"I'll come too." Bridget followed Andy and Jenni up the ladder. She wished the elevator was working; the adrenaline was beginning to wear off.

Giving the elevator a huff and a pout when she saw it was not working, Andy began scaling the nearby ladder, not bothering to slow down for the pain in her leg. She wanted to get this done so she could go back to her quarters so Maica could baby her. Thank goodness for smokin' hot girlfriends with dermal regenerators built into their palms! As soon as they reached the upper platform, Andy checked that the consoles and controls were operational before finding a chair and taking a seat to take the weight off her leg. "Alright, lets see what we got going on here..." the ex-Borg woman thought aloud as she accessed the geological stabilizer's settings.

Seeing that Andy had settled into the console, Jenni pulled out her tricorder to check for any variances. As she glanced down, she spotted a paw laying on the ground behind a nearby console. Ignoring the readouts her tricorder gave from the stabilizer, the lieutenant dashed over to the paw and found its owner slumped over an open hatch, covering a few vital components while two weapon burns continued to bind fresh, fur and fabric. Jenni pulled back on his shoulder, exposing the work he'd performed before being shot. "R'tame," she muttered, checking for a pulse and not finding any. Turning her attention to what he'd worked on before his demise, Jenni didn't need her tricorder to know that the exposed equipment was functioning normally.

"Matthews to t'Dharvanek," she said, tapping her badge, choosing to report this to the ship's Executive Officer and the one currently leading the Away Team. "We've lost R'tame."

True to Jenni's speculations, all readings on Andy's console were showing operational, everything was fine. But hearing Jenni's words, Andy suddenly couldn't see any of the words on the screens in front of her, it was all just a jumbled mess as Andy tried to process what had happened; R'tame had sacrificed himself to fix the stabilizer... Andy looked over to where Jenni knelt with the deceased Caitian. Oh, Fuzzy...

There was silence over the comm line for a moment, then Jhu's voice with a weary - perhaps depressed - tone. "Damn." She liked R'tame, despite how awkwardly they'd met. "Have him beamed to the ship's morgue once the medical team arrives. They have to call it."

Leryssa lay completely unconscious on a biobed in Sickbay; Prior to this, She had weakly attempted to teach Kadan the words to both the Bajoran Death Chant and the Bajoran prayer that followed it whilst the both of them had been trapped in her quarters during the USS Katana's transwarp fiasco, and the both of them had been injured pretty badly from it. She'd hoped that Kadan would never, Ever have to, Or even want to recite either the Death Chant or the Bajoran Prayer for her; Or both, That is, If she didn't survive her injuries. Leryssa didn't want to cause Kadan that kind of pain to have him break down and sob endlessly as he'd recited both the chant and the prayer for her, or to have him fly into a tremendous and uncontrollable fit of rage day after day if he ended up losing her right now, or vice-versa for her if she'd lost Kadan in the same situation or a different one. Since he'd only just asked her to go out with him, and she'd said yes. It would even hurt, Much less, Kill her to have to leave him like this. And it would definitely kill Kadan to not have her by his side anymore as well.

Besides, Leryssa didn't know very many of the crewmembers on the Katana, Since this was her first Security assignment straight after she'd just graduated from the Academy and was also promoted to Ensign right after, Before she was even assigned as a security officer on the Katana. She wasn't sure how'd they would all react if she'd died. Although, The crewmembers she'd only just met during her time on the Katana, Were part of the Katana's senior staff- Her boss in Security, Nathan Tonkin, The Katana's Caitian Executive Officer, M'rayr Eisovo, The green-skinned android- What was her name? Oh yeah, Maica. Leryssa didn't officially meet her, But she did do a mission with her to help save someone named Andrea Carter, Another person Leryssa hadn't officially met yet either. There was also the strange-looking Legashi woman, Cho-ren Vara, Or whatever her name was, and last but certainly not the least, The Chief Intelligence Officer, Jhu t'Dharvanek. And Jhu was pretty scary-looking. Leryssa only admitted that observation quietly to herself, She didn't even dare mention that observation aloud; Since she did not want to think about how that woman would react if Leryssa'd disobeyed a direct order from her. She'd probably skin Leryssa alive with her bare hands, and Leryssa had heard all of the rumors about Jhu's scary attitude from the rest of the crew- It was at least five or ten times worse than a Klingon's, At least that's what they'd told her.

All that aside, Leryssa was starting to slowly become accustomed to being part of the crew, Even if she was just a lowly security officer. As she lay unconscious on the biobed in Sickbay, She began to see an image begin to form in her mind. The image began to appear fuzzily at first, Then started to clearly form bit by bit, Piece by piece within her mind as the seconds passed. Soon, Leryssa would start to see herself standing in the direct center of what looked to be a large, Circular, Ornately-decorated and sun-lit, Multi-windowed room; And a small crowd of people all stood around her in a circle in that room, All dressed in various clothing that could be determined to be Starfleet uniforms, Bajoran and Terran outfits, and other similar outfits like that. The crowd of people all stood around her and stared wordlessly right back at her as she stared at each one of them.

Some of them were familiar to her, Where others, Were not as familiar. Leryssa wondered whether or not that what she was seeing was real, An illusion, Some sort of vision being induced by the Bajoran gods, The Prophets, Or their demonic counterparts, The Pah-Wraiths. She even wondered if this was some sort of cruel trick being played upon her by a telepathic species trying to screw around with her emotions or her thoughts, or trying to control her in some way. Though she was not completely one-hundred percent sure, "Is this real, Or is it a dream?" Leryssa asked aloud as she glanced at her surroundings and the people still standing around her. If she had any fear building up within her right now, She certainly did not show it on her face.

One voice spoke from the shadows of Sickbay. "The Child awakens" it said in the humanoid masculine whisper. "The child lies still, wandering and searching" the voice added, stepping out from the shadows, revealing itself in the form of Captain Kristopher Kerouac. "You are a child of the Prophets. Speak to us child" directed the voice.

Leryssa didn't know what to say as the form of Captain Kerouac approached her from the shadows, "I've heard of this sort of thing happening to other Bajorans, But I've never actually had this happen to me before." She started to speak, Her voice barely faltering as she did, "However, I'll admit that this is all a little strange to me. Am I alive?" She glanced to the rest of the crowd before turning back to the captain's form, "Or am I dead, and is this my interpretation of the Celestial Temple, or is it yours?" She asked as calmly as she could manage. "Are you really the Prophets themselves, or their evil counterparts, The Pah-Wraiths?" She had to admit she was highly curious to know who the crowd of people were around her, and what was going on.

"You still live. For now." The new voice was feminine, and soon a second distinctive form joined the one that resembled Kris, this one having taking the form of Commander Jhu t'Dharvanek. It did not answer Leryssa's other questions yet.

Leryssa nearly jumped in surprise, but managed to remain perfectly calm and stood very still when she heard the words of the second voice that had spoken. She also noticed that the form of Commander Jhu t'Dharvanek had appeared, and was now standing beside the one that had taken the form of Kris. So, I'm not dead. Leryssa thought without saying a word, "Why am I here?" She asked as she gestured at her surroundings; Then glanced back at the two beings that had seperated themselves from the crowd, Which still stood in a circle around her. Albeit, Feeling a little skeptical, If not still curious of what she was currently experiencing.

The entity which had taken Kerouac's form stepped forward once again and looked at Leryssa. "Why are you anywhere?" countered the being. "To what purpose does your life serve? Child of the prophets or slave to the pale skinned masters. You resisted. You fought" said the entity.

"What is that supposed to mean? What did I fight, or resist?" Leryssa shot back, Glancing at the entity who still looked like Kris. What are they talking about? What pale skinned masters? She thought to herself without saying a word. This arguing was getting her nowhere, She needed answers. Answers to questions she didn't quite understand.

"Your people" began the entity. "They fought the serpents that plagued their land. Drove them away, back to where they came. The prophets were pleased."

That statement clarified one question for her, But she had quite a few more to ask, "The Cardassians are serpents, Yes." Leryssa answered truthfully, "They not only killed many of the Bajoran people during what we call the 'Occupation', But they also killed my birth parents when I was five years old." She explained as calmly as she could manage, Though her voice slightly faltered during her explanation, "Before that happened... My... My birth mother tried desperately to hide me from them, For she feared that they would would kill me too..." She paused for several seconds, Thinking back to the day when she had lost her birth parents, "After they killed both her and my birth father. I tried to fight the Cardassians myself; But I was too weak and helpless. Too young even, To try to stop them. So, I did what I thought was right at the time..., I... I ran away." She glanced at the crowd around her before glancing back at the two entities that still looked like Kris and Jhu, "Those 'serpents' as you call them, Chased after me to attempt to kill me, But they failed to do that because a Human Starfleet Security Officer had saved my life and killed them first. If that's what you call 'resisting', Then yes, I resisted the Cardassians." Leryssa added without missing a beat. "But why bring that sad memory forward? It's the past, I have a new family now. A Human family." She shrugged as she continued her speech, "Sure, They don't really understand much of the Bajoran rituals or our very nature, or even our entire culture. Neither do they know about the Prophets or Pah-Wraiths themselves either. But the Humans are my family now."

"Children should never have to fight," the image of Jhu responded. "To run was your proper choice."

"When one thread is extinguished, another arises. You have a purpose, and aware of it or not, you needed to survive. And thus you escaped from the fangs of the serpents." A new voice appeared, from an image of a wiser, somewhat older Kadan.. "Even now...you need to survive..."

"How?" Leryssa questioned this new voice, She'd gasped slightly in surprise when the new being took the form of Kadan, Her new boyfriend. Though, He looked somewhat older than the real Kadan, "How am I supposed to do that?" She rephrased her question as she looked at him, "What about the Katana, My friends, My adopted Human family?" She glanced once again at the crowd, "What's going to happen to them if I don't survive?"

Yet another figure stepped into view - this time the ship's green skinned android diplomat, Maica. "We do not understand. If your existence ends, why would you show concern for others? Would it not be better if their existences ended with yours?"

Then someone else stepped into view with Maica. It was that Lagashi woman. She seemed to be scoffing at Leryssa as she spoke. "All events are connected in a way she doesn't understand. Is she strong enough now? Will she survive?"

"Now wait just a minute." Leryssa snapped sternly at the fourth being that had taken Maica's form, "If you're saying that I care more about my own existence than I care about any of theirs, You're sadly mistaken. I do care. I'm a Starfleet security officer, It's my job to care." She then turned to the fifth being, Who had just now taken Vara's form next, and it too had joined the form of Maica, "What do you mean 'all events are connected'?" She was confused at this, "How is this possible?" She added in a questioning tone.

"All things in the universe are connected to each other in an endless circle." The being that had taken Jhu's form spoke plainly, as you would to a child. "What happens here affects people elsewhere."

The being in the form of Kerouac nodded in agreement. Locking its eyes on the Bajoran woman once more with a piercing gaze. "The effects will be felt across the galaxy...space and time. You have traveled far child, causing tears and fissures in the fabric... you have not come alone. Many have followed, souls will be lost and civilizations will burn. In darkness they wait. In darkness they hunt."

The form of Maica spoke again. "You are linear. You will not understand until the events have unfolded before you. Will you do what is needed before then?"

"I do not know what is needed for me to do." Leryssa admitted aloud, She then glanced up at the beings who'd taken the forms of Kris, Jhu, Vara, Kadan and Maica, and she'd asked them point blank, "What must I do if I cannot prevent any horrible event from ever happening? What if I can't prevent them from happening to myself, or to those around me? What if I'm not strong, or even brave enough, To prevent them from happening?" This was the question Leryssa was afraid to ask, But she'd asked it anyway; It was already too late to take it back now.

The entity in the form of Kerouac circled around the woman, hissing and speaking in the Bajora language in an archaic an ancient form of it. He stopped and faced her once more, face to face. His voice deepened speaking something she could understand. "DEATH is known. It is constant and it approaches" the entity said.

Leryssa stepped back involuntarily, She wasn't afraid, But the entity's words somehow disturbed her. "Who's death approaches? Are you saying that mine is approaching, or someone else's entirely?" She glanced over at the entity who had taken the elder form of Kadan, and gestured towards him. Using that entity's current form as a reference to her question, "Kadan's?" She then glanced to the other entities around her and gestured towards each of them as she questioned the form of Kris, "Vara's? Maica's? Or Jhu's? Who's death are you referring to?" She asked without hesitating. Truth be told, Leryssa didn't really want to know the answer to that question. It made her sick to her stomach thinking about it; But then again, She felt that if she knew that answer, She might try to prevent it from happening to either of her friends or colleagues.

The Federation starship Katana, having repaired most of the immediate damage wrought on by the Scimitar, was at Blue alert. Captain M’rayr Eisovo, sitting at the Captain’s Chair, watched Evora fill up most of the view screen ahead as Hayley Collins brought the Intrepid-class explorer out of its stable orbit onto a landing vector. The Caitian furrowed his brow once the Katana came over the ocean. Should something go awry, a water landing would be possible. And the Federation relief force overhead was already watching the Katana’s progress, which meant that rescue would theoretically be swift.

The Caitian felt much more at ease once he saw flat land again. The Evoran’s second most populated capital lay two-hundred kilometers to the east. While M’rayr had expected to see a glistening metropolis, he instead saw desolate ruin; the scale of Lidno’s wrath of upon this planet was untold. It would take the Evorans decades, if not centuries, to rebuild. What a waste, M’rayr thought, particularly of how every alternative which could have presented itself was instead ignored. Millions of people were dead, hundreds of millions were now homeless and unsure of when their next meal would come. The Federation would do everything in its power to assist… but rebuilding an entire planet was no easy task.

The path to healing would be a long road.

The Katana would be grounded for the next week or two, undergoing more repairs. He deliberately chose an area far enough from the major population center so as to avoid unwanted attention, while keeping the Katana close enough to be able to transport stocks of replicated foodstuff, construction materials, and other much needed supplies to the city.

This crew needs a shore leave opportunity, M’rayr thought next, thinking about how hard the Katana’s crew had been pushed in the last few missions. With its course to the Delta Quadrant still part of the plan, he’d need to look at possible rest stations that might fall under their trajectory. It didn’t have to be Risa. It just had to be something.

There was a rocking sensation, and M’rayr found himself being drawn back into the moment. The landscape was no longer moving. Hayley Collins, despite her unexplained attitude as of late, was still a proficient pilot. The blue overhead lighting blinked back to white.

“Eisovo to Zhuri,” M’rayr said after touching his comm-badge. “The Katana has safely landed. Please begin damage assessment and provide me a report and estimate time for all needed repairs when possible.”

Rising, M’rayr looked to Jhu. “You have the bridge, XO.”

He needed time to think, to plan, and to prepare…

Austin Cadwell had mixed feelings about being on the Katana. He missed the Forester the moment he stepped off the Sovereign-class vessel. He missed it even more so now that the transfer was complete. He would try to stay in contact with those who had become his friends over the years, but it wasn't going to be the same. It truly never was. Nevertheless, he made sure that pessimism or cynicism didn't creep up into his thoughts. He was an optimistic and positive person. He saw each new experience as a learning one, and took it head on. But, he had been on the Forester for a very long time, he believed that he would spend the rest of his career there. That was optimistic thinking on his part, for whatever reason it didn't enter into his mind that he might be transferred. Though, that was a real possibility for any Starfleet officer.

He just hadn't been thinking, because he had gotten way to comfortable. He had formed a life on the Forester, he was settled, and he considered the starship home. Now I'll just have to make a new home, Austin thought to himself as he entered sickbay. He had been on Katana for a couple of days, but this would be the first time he would get to meet his superior. He had done some studying on the current CMO and was pleasantly surprised that the two had nursing in common. That was an extremely positive thing to see.

Once enveloped in the department, he did a quick look around to see the man he was looking for was in his office. His long legs moved him to the office in just a few strides; he stood inside the frame of the open entrance, and rapped a knuckle against the duranium frame to announce his presence.

The sound of knocking pulled Stefano from the journal article he was reading. It was actually a very interesting piece from the Federation Journal of Internal Medicine about a new drug combination therapy that was proving useful in the treatment of emergent autoimmune attacks. But he'd have to get back to the article later. He looked up at the visitor in his doorway. "Can I help you?"

Austin nodded. "Lieutenant Austin Cadwell," he said, "I'm your new head nurse." A genuine smile formed on his lips, but he made no move to enter the office since he wasn't technically invited in just yet. He was looking forward to talking to the other man, especially since he felt the two had a few things in common. He couldn't say how well they would work together just yet, but still the working relationship looked promising.

"Of course," Stefano said, getting to his feet. "Have a seat?" he offered, motioning towards the two chairs opposite his desk. He hadn't looked at Cadwell's medical record, but Stefano figured the newest member of the Medical staff to be around his height of 1.96 meters. Despite their similar heights, Cadwell appeared to carry a bit more mass than the Chief Medical Officer, but not much. He probably spends more time in the gym than I do, not that that's hard to do, he thought.

"Thank you," Austin said as he crossed the threshold and settled into one of the offered chairs. His demeanor was relaxed, he certainly wasn't nervous meeting the man who was now his superior officer. He had enough years under his belt as a nurse and a Starfleet officer to be not only confident in his abilities, but be confident around those offers who were in superior positions.

Stefano considered the dark haired Lieutenant. Cadwell was attractive and well groomed. He sported a rather dashing beard, which was a favorite of the Chief Medical Officer. "Welcome to the Katana," Piccoletti began. "You're joining us from the Forester, yes?"

Austin nodded. "I am," he said simply. At that, memories - both good and bad - surfaced. He truly did miss his old assignment, more so then he let himself let on.

"How long were you stationed there? And what brings you to Katana?"

"I was there for nearly eight years," Austin replied. Eight years, he thought to himself, it truly was a big chunk of his career. He had learned so much from being posted to the Forester. "As to what brings me here, I had been informed I was to be transferred here. The reason was that the Katana was in need of a seasoned head nurse. I suppose I happened to be that person, and well... here I am." Once again, a genuine smile crossed his lips. "Though the transfer took me by surprise, I am happy to be here." Which was the truth to an extent. He would go wherever he was needed, and it was important that he remembered that.

"I hope it won't be too much of a change leaving a Sovereign-class to come here." Stef smiled at the new Head Nurse. "Despite the smaller size of our facilities and staff, I'd put this department in the top ten in Starfleet. With you joining us, we might break the top five. Glad to have you aboard."

He picked up a PADD from his desk, consulted it's readout before tapping a few controls and handing the device over to Cadwell. "This has all the information you'll need about our department. Roster, staffing rotation, special policies and procedures." He handed the junior Lieutenant another PADD. "On here you'll find pertinent information about regular health issues among members of the crew. Just so you are up to speed when they come in. Of course, you'll want to familiarize yourself with the crew's medical records at some point. Until you have time to do that, this will give you a decent synopsis."

"Any questions?"

Yes, would you like to have dinner with me? Austin thought. He gave a quick glance to the PADDs before looking back up at the CMO. "I appreciate the information," he said. He was glad to see everything so organized, and he would devour it in no time flat. "But no, I don't have any questions at the moment. Though, if I do have any, I'll be sure to ask."

"Please do. My door is always open," he replied, his bearded face showing his sincerity. Stef paused for a moment, his mind searching for a way to extend their interaction. Despite his natural shyness, Piccoletti felt particularly compelled to engage Cadwell in conversation. Then it hit him.

"I like to sit down with members of staff individually, over drinks or a meal, and really get to know them. It's a way for me to get to know the medical team as well as giving the staff a way to raise issues, informally." His eyes examined Cadwell. Stef was hoping for some visible sign that the other man was interested in such an offer. I hope I'm not barking up the wrong tree, he thought.

"Perhaps you'll be free later today?"

Austin smiled at the offer, and he briefly thought that maybe the CMO had read his mind. It was certainly a nice gesture, one he didn't want to pass up. He found the other man handsome, he wasn't going to deny that. "I'm free after sixteen hundred," he said. He would want to freshen up and change into something that wasn't a uniform.

"Great," Stef replied. I hope I'm not coming across as too eager, he thought. "You've been assigned quarters already? If not, I can point you in the right direction," he offered.

"I have," Austin replied. "I was actually lucky enough to get quarters on deck four." He knew, from looking over the specs, that officers quarters were on a few decks, he was glad to get onto a deck that was close to sickbay as possible. Even though Katana wasn't a large ship, it still could take a few seconds to get from point A to point B. In a medical emergency, he was glad it would take a few less seconds to get to sickbay. "But, I appreciate the offer," which he did.

Stef shrugged. "Can't blame a guy for trying, can you?" He glanced quickly at his schedule to make sure he had some free time that evening. "Are you okay eating in my quarters? I'm not a fabulous cook, but I can use a replicator," he teased.

Austin chuckled lightly at that. "Sure, that would be great," he said, then added, "as long as you let me return the favor sometime and let me cook for you." Cooking was one of his more latest passions, he had a bit of a natural knack for it. He knew he could procure at least some fresh ingredients on the Katana.

"You cook?" Stef replied. "It's rare to find a decent cook these days. Seems like I'm getting the better end of this deal." He flashed a quick smile. "1830?"

"1830 would be perfect," Austin replied. It would give him enough time to freshen up, change, and maybe find a bottle of wine to bring along as a token of his appreciation to being invited to dinner. He had brought over a half a dozen bottles from his previous assignment. "I look forward to it."

=====

Stefano had, foolishly, decided to get a run in before dinner. He had a collection of running holodeck programs, covering a variety of locales and difficulties. Today, he'd opted for a half-marathon through the streets of colorful homes on the Amalfi Coast in Italy, his native land. He took a more leisurely pace than usual so he could take in the beauty of the small, pastel-hued fishing villages. When he finished his run, he realized how late it was and hurried back to his quarters to shower and change before Lieutenant Cadwell arrived for dinner. Walking into his quarters, he picked up a towel and wiped the sweat from his bare chest while kicking off his shoes. Crossing into his bedroom, he stripped off his socks, shorts, and briefs and tossed them into his hamper. "Computer, start the shower, forty degrees Celsius," he said aloud, pulling off his green headband and sending it flying into the hamper with his other running gear. He stepped into the shower and savored the sensation of the hot water striking first his back, then, as he turned, his face and chest. He could feel the water rolling down his body and lost himself of the white noise created by the overlapping sounds of the water being pushed through the shower nozzle and the water cascading off his skin and onto the shower floor. He lingered in the shower long enough to wash the sweat from his body and face and to shampoo and condition his hair and beard.

Once he finished rinsing himself off, he turned off the water and grabbed a bright red towel from the nearby rack. "Computer, play music. From Earth's baroque period. Thirty percent volume." As the instrumental music began to play, Stef dried himself with the plush red towel. As he searched his closet for clothes to wear, he intermittently hummed along with the orchestral sounds emanating from the speakers in his quarters. He finally settled on a casual pair of off-white linen pants and a long-sleeved, lightweight, sky blue cotton v-neck shirt.

Since he was free after 1600 hours, Austin decided to start to study up on the PaDDs that Lieutenant Piccoletti had given him, instead of doing his workout. His workouts were very much apart of him, his way to relax and unwind, but work came first and foremost. He certainly had enough time to go to the gym, but the sooner he tackled the information he had before him the better. After more than ninety minutes, Austin yawned, rubbed his eyes and stretched. Looking at PaDDs, with their bright block lettering, could be hard on the eyes. He stripped out of his uniform and tossed the multiple piece uniform onto the bed. He would deal with it later. His regulation socks, underwear, and tank top went into a basket that he kept in the corner. He started the shower, making sure the computer made the water nice and hot. He stepped in and about 15 minutes later he stepped out, wrapping a towel around his waist.

He stepped up to the sink, brushed his teeth, ran some styling product through his hair, and the final touch was just a dab of cologne. Once done with that, he moved the few strides back into his bedroom. He pulled on a fresh pair of underclothing, then settled on a pair of heather gray slim fit trousers and a lavender and gray v-neck sweater, then he finished off the outfit with a pair of black boots. He grabbed the bottle of pinot noir off the dining room table and headed out. It didn't take him long to get to the quarters that belonged to the CMO. He looked down at himself to be sure he looked fine, then reached out and rang the chime.

When his door announcer sounded, Stef had just finished his grooming. He crossed the living room, the walls of which were decorated with several maps and shelves full of printed books, to the door and touched the activator. The doors parted to reveal Lieutenant Cadwell. "Come in," he said, motioning with his hand. "I can turn the music off if you want. Or maybe you'd prefer another genre?"

As Austin stepped over the threshold, he held up a hand and shook his head. A smile crept up onto his lips. "The music is fine," he said. He wanted to compliment the CMO on the way he looked, the outfit he chose had complimented his lean figure quite well. The sky blue v-neck long sleeve t-shirt had been a nice contrast against the man's light olive skin. Austin wasn't really a man who noticed other people, it wasn't because he was oblivious or anything, it was mostly because he was a focused individual. Work always came first. But with Stefano Piccoletti, there was something that just clicked inside him. He felt the attraction immediately, which was something very rare for him. His smile broadened as he handed over the bottle of real wine - not replicated - to his host. "For you," he said simply.

Stef took the bottle from Cadwell. He looked at the label. "Thank you," he replied. "I haven't had a good, real pinot noir in a while." He placed the bottle on the table and went to grab his corkscrew. "Have a seat. Can I get you a glass?" he asked, standing in front of the small cupboard where he kept a set of wine glasses.

"Sure, thank you," Austin said as he moved to the couch, then lowered himself onto it perching on the edge, elbows on knees. His gaze swept the other man's quarters, they were much more homier then his own. Though, he hadn't really taken the time to settle in either. If he was going to eventually cook for the other man, he would need to be settled in. His gaze fell onto the shelves of books, and before he realized it, he was back on his feet moving toward the books. "This is quite an impressive collection," he said as his blue eyes scanned the various titles.

Smiling, Stef shook his head slightly. "It's not that great of a collection. A good collection would have some of the greats: In Search of Lost Time, Ulysses, Don Quixote, War and Peace. My tastes are not that refined." He walked over to one shelf and removed a book. "Moby Dick. One of the few 'greats' that I own. I've only read it twice." He placed the book back in its place. He paused, staring at his bookshelf. Crossing back to the table, he poured two glasses of the wine Cadwell had brought. He took a deep breath and then picked up the glasses and handed one to Cadwell. "To your health...." He stopped and a slightly puzzled look crept across his face. "May I call you Austin?"

Despite what Stefano had said, Austin still found the collection of books impressive. It wasn't everyday that he came across shelves of the written word, these days, most people had PaDDs instead of books. He turned back to the other man, and took a hold of the offered wine glass. "Of course you may," he said, raising the glass slightly. "May I call you Stefano?" he queried in return.

"Please do. Stef, actually. My friends call me Stef." He took a drink of the wine. It was pretty good. Refreshing to have real wine. He enjoyed the real stuff rarely as it was often hard to get a supply. He did keep a few bottles in his quarters, as well as a small collection of liquors. "It's not presumptuous to call you a friend is it?"

"Not presumptuous at all," Austin said. He sipped at his own wine, savoring the taste. Though he had stored a few bottles, he hadn't had a good glass of wine in a while. Though, he didn't have anyone to share it with either. He studied the other man for a moment, trying to figure him out. He wasn't quite sure if Stef was treading lightly, or holding back? Was the other man just shy? "Shall we sit?" he asked breaking the silence before it became awkward.

"I'm sorry," he began. "I haven't been on a date in a while. I promise that I'm not usually so awkward."

Austin shook his head. "No need to be sorry, Stef," he said saying the man's given name for the first time since they met. "I'm in the same boat you know, I haven't been on a date in a quite a while myself." He reached out, and placed his hand on Stef's forearm. "I'm glad you invited me over."

Even through his sleeve, Stefano could feel the warmth of the other man's hand. "I am too," he responded quietly, suddenly uncomfortable about where this evening would lead. He had thought he was ready, but this felt different than just another date.

"Perhaps I should get us some food," he said, starting towards the replicator.

Nodding, Austin stood as well and moved the few paces to the dining table. He gingerly put his wine glass on the table, and placed his hands on the back of the chair he stood behind. "What's on the menu?" he asked in hopes to make casual conversation. He feared that he was making Stef uncomfortable, or nervous, or.... something.

"Well, I'm going with what I know: Italian," Stefano answered, his face brightening up at the thought of the meal. He turned towards the replicator. "Two plates of Piccoletti-Six." The replicator quickly materialized a plate covered in food. The smell started to fill the room. He removed the plate and a second one materialized. He carried them both to the small dining table, setting them on the placemats he'd laid out earlier. "Garlic and herb encrusted chicken breast, gnocchi with rosemary cream sauce, and oven roasted Brussels sprouts with a balsamic drizzle."

"Looks and smells delicious, Stef," Austin commented as he pulled out the chair he had been standing behind, and slid into it. His blue eyes swept over the dish, it certainly looked appealing. The smell of garlic and rosemary tickled his nostrils, and he almost giggled with anticipation to eat such a fine looking meal. He just hoped he wasn't drooling.

"When I headed off to the Academy," Stef began to explain, sitting down across from Austin, "my mother had a bunch of her family recipes programmed onto an isolinear chip so I could have a taste of home where ever I went." He took a bite of the chicken. His tongue came alive with the garlic and herbs, and he reveled in the moistness of the meat. "It's not as good as home-made, but it's pretty damn close." He watched Cadwell take his first taste. "I hope you like it."

Austin smiled. "I'm sure I will," he said as he cut into the chicken breast. He slid the fork into his mouth, and he hummed in pleasure as the flavors crossed his palate. After he chewed and swallowed he said, "This is really delicious." He stabbed a brussel sprout with his fork, before before he slipped it into his mouth he added, "Remind me to thank your mother."

A wave of anxiety washed over Stef in that moment. He had just met this new, very attractive, man and already he was talking about meeting Stef's parents. Calm down, he told himself, you're over thinking this. Relax. Enjoy the evening. You don't put yourself out very often. And look at him!

He mustered a smile. "Maybe you'll get the chance someday." He took a sip of wine. "So, Austin, what do you like to do when you're not on duty?"

Cutting into the chicken breast again, Austin paused as he gave the question some thought. "It sort of depends on my mood," he said. "Cooking has been the newest hobby, but it just depends. I guess you could say I want to be able to experience all that life has to offer, I feel life is an open book with blank pages and that it is up to you to fill those pages." He shrugged. "Though my career has filled up a lot of those pages, and I wouldn't trade that for anything in the universe."

He was captivated by Cadwell. Beyond his pleasing appearance, his easy going nature was very inviting. "That sounds like a very liberating viewpoint," he began. "And I know what you mean about nursing. From a young age, I knew I wanted to work in medicine. Nursing always felt like the right fit." He collected a gnocchi on his fork and let a drop of the sauce drip off before putting the morsel in his mouth. He wanted to learn more about his new Head Nurse, but was hesitant to push the conversation further for fear of having to reveal things about himself that he found it difficult to discuss.

"Are you seeing anyone?" he said, which he didn't realize until after the words had escaped his lips.

Austin picked up his wine class, but before he brought the rim to his lips, he answered, "I'm not." He took the slightest of sips, then withdrew the glass from his lips and set it back on the table. "It's been quite sometime since I've been in a relationship actually." He held the stem of the wine glass between his thumb and forefinger, twisting it slowly. "How about yourself?"

Shit, he thought. "It's been a little while for me too. I...," he paused a moment to consider what to say. "I have been avoiding relationships actually." He looked down at his plate. His relationship history caused him some level of embarrassment, largely due to his own poor handling of them. "Odd I know."

There was something lurking there, but Austin had was careful not to push. "I don't," he shook his head, "think it's odd." Which, he didn't. There was a time he avoided relationships, sometimes they were hard work, sometimes they were heart breaking. "Relationships can be tricky at times, and not to mention hard work. However, if it's hard work then it probably isn't meant to be to begin with." He offered a sympathetic smile now. "Though you never know, sometimes the person you are meant to be with is sitting right across from you."

What is he saying? Is he actually interested? "That's a good way of looking at it. For me, I've gotten burned a couple of times, guys who I thought I'd spend the rest of my life with, but then things fell apart. I suppose I have let myself get discouraged at the prospect of long term relationship success." He drank more wine. "I'm sorry for dropping this on you. I promise I don't normally unload so much of my own baggage. Especially on a first date." He quickly corrected himself, "I mean, upon first meeting someone."

Austin raised his hand slightly and shook his head. "Please Stef, no need to apologize. I completely understand," he said in his most understanding tone. Everyone had been there concerning relationships, though it seemed to affect Stefano deeply. "Maybe it just means, despite us just meeting, you feel comfortable around me. Plus," the small smile returned, "I don't mind calling this a first date."

He could feel his mouth form a smile. Even though he'd only known Austin for a few hours, he felt a connection with him. "To a second date," he offered, raising his wine glass.