For the better part of three days, the Federation Starship Katana slowly pushed itself through space using only short impulse bursts and the subsequent inertia it offered, utilizing the ship’s RCS thrusters to perform whatever minor course corrections were necessary to maintain the necessary trajectory in its route. What details that sensors were offering were minimal, and yet equally fascinating. In a universe where all galaxies, solar systems, stars, planets, moons, asteroid and nebula had seemingly converged into one massive space-time singularity… there was one single anomaly.

An anomaly which, after three days of travel, the Katana was now in orbit of.

Ordering the main view screen on, Captain M’rayr Eisovo clutched his arm rests as he pushed himself out of his command seat. His one eye studied the object meticulously. On first glance, it looked like a moon. But the array of towers, docking bays, weapons, and sensor platforms suggested that it was much more than that.

The Caitian felt a shudder up his spine. They were the last beings in known existence… and now there was something… else.

Predictably, Q was no where in sight to enlighten the crew of the Katana or its commanding officer.

“What are our sensors telling us, Mr. Ch’ziqis?” M’rayr asked without taking his eye off the main viewer. For the moment, those defenses appeared to be inactive. At the very least, this ‘moon’ had yet to regard the Katana has a threat. It would be best if M’rayr didn’t give it any reason to. It was for that reason that he’d ordered no active scans to be initiated. Passive scans alone would have to yield what answers they could glisten from this… thing.

Kenzie watched M'rayr's reaction; his quick stiffness. She herself felt the tension in her shoulders. This moon with its defenses was worrying to say the least. Kenzie wasn't sure Katana could stand up to a full scale attack at present.

Lieutenant Ellis felt very uncomfortable in this moment. His right hand hovered over the phaser and torpedo controls without a care of how little use they would be in this situation. He would await any command from the Captain to defend this ship in a heartbeat.

Bringing the Katana to a stop, Hayley was in awe of the , well, whatever it is in front of them.

Annette couldn't believe what she was seeing. When she started with Starfleet she knew she would witness amazing things but nothing like this. She wondered how something so grand could be so eerie at the same time.

M'rayr's brow furrowed even further. But at least it seemed as though Katana wasn't in danger of being fired at anytime soon. He studied the pot-marked features of the moon from the view screen, looking for a way in. Massive, it looked dense as well. Even an impact crater from what must have been something quite large hadn't gotten through to the core. The Caitian turned to his navigator. "Lieutenant Collins, bring us to within two-thousand kilometers," then to his Chief of Science. Tal was untested; like a quarter of Katana's crew, she was from this universe... not theirs. "Science. Can you locate a means of getting inside?" He asked.

Tal saw the anomaly through sensors alone, she hadn't glanced up at the viewscreen with the rest of the crew. Yet she wasn't gleaning much information. It was big and round. And old. She might not be able to see into it from the passive scans alone.... but she did find a way to walk in. "The crater, sir. There is a large metal sheet... possibly a hatch. I am reading atmosphere behind it."

"Recommendation for or against transporter usage, Commander Zhuri?" The Caitian asked next.

Arivek's head snapped up when he heard his name. "Umm..." he hesitated for a moment. "Against. At this point, we're not certain how the physics laws here will affect our technology, especially technology that hasn't been tested. It would be unwise to risk lives using it. The shuttles aren't a much better option, but would be our only alternative."

The thought of having his molecules dispersed over space-time wasn't appealing to M'rayr. Given Hayley's ability to pilot the Katana this far out, using a shuttlecraft seemed the best option to him. He thought hard on exactly how he wanted to handle the investigation of the moon. Getting Janeway back was a priority. But it would all be in vain if they couldn't find a way home. Relying on Q as a mode of transportation was not an option.

Then the Caitian looked to his XO. Kenzie was growing on him. But he still knew very little about her.

Better for me to go, then, he thought.

"Lieutenant Collins, can you bring a shuttle close enough to that hatch to deposit an away team?" He asked.

Hayley hesitated for a moment. She knew she could but now there was another voice. The voice of doubt telling her that she couldn't--that she would get everyone on the shuttle killed. "S--sure, yes I sir," she replied.

The Caitian nodded. "In that case, I will lead an away mission into the moon, where we will attempt to locate Admiral Janeway before returning to the ship," pointing his gaze to some of the senior officers amongst his staff, he began to call out names. "Lieutenants Ellis, Collins, Ch'ziqis, and Chief Styles. You will be joining me. Since we have no idea what we will find inside, ensure that you are well equipped." The Caitian thought further on it. "Lieutenant Ellis, please inform Lieutenant Kiska, and Ms. Graves to join us." Kiska was a security officer, and Annette was a diplomatic officer. If something was inside that moon, the experience of a diplomatic liaison might be needed.

Daniel nodded. He tapped his combadge and said, "Ellis to Lieutenant Kiska and Ensign Graves. Please report to the Shuttlebay."

"On my way Lieutenant" Annette replied. As she made her way to the Shuttlebay, Annette hoped this mission would be a little less dangerous then the last mission that she participated in, but she knew with Q in the mix the chances of that happening was nil.

"Commander Simpson will be in command of Katana. We still need a way back to our own space-time. I am unwilling to rely solely on Q for this," he said, shifting his gaze between Kenzie and Arivek. "Study the ship's sensor logs. Find something. In addition to that, make certain to monitor the away team. We have no idea what we are heading into. We could find something... unexpected."

"Actually..." Arivek interrupted. He wasn't sure if this was a good idea but he had to ask. He had to do it. "Permission to join the away team. There's a lot of technology over there and you'll need someone who can understand and interpret it. I'm the best you've got."

It took M'rayr a moment; Arivek's question had come across as a complete surprise. Particularly since, as far as M'rayr knew, his Chief Engineer had no means of leaving the ship. Not even a mobile emitter. Then M'rayr started to take notice of how Arivek no longer had the subtle glow of an artificial projection -- the minute nuances where holographic technology just didn't get things right were totally absent. "Under traditional circumstances, I would agree." M'rayr tilted his head, his ear flicking haphazardly. "However, under traditional circumstances... you would be prevented from doing so. What has changed, Commander?"

Arivek stared at M'rayr. "Do we have time to waste, Captain? Who knows how long it'll be before this entire place goes up in smoke?" The hybrid man really didn't want to answer that question, especially in front of the entire Bridge, so he did everything he could to side-step the Caitian's inquiries.

"Fair enough, M'rayr responded, nodding.

"Can I join the away team sir?" Ensign Bennen Khai asked as he had came to the bridge to deliver a padd to Arivek about a few things the engineering crew had completed.

The way M'rayr saw it, the more personnel they had on the moon, the better odds of success. He had some concerns about leaving Katana so short-handed in regards to a command staff, however. Kenzie would be the only leader on board. It was why M'rayr was having some reservations into allowing Arivek on the away team as well. If anything, Arivek was experienced... even as a leader. His knowledge and familiarity with Katana's systems would do well for him to stay. But he was right in that his experience could also be extremely helpful on the moon.

Turning to his First Officer, the Caitian posed a question. "Will you be able to handle everything on board with a skeleton command crew, Commander?"

Kenzie looked around just the slightest bit dismayed at the number of people captain on the away team. The Katana was already running on a skeleton crew. But, the more quickly they were able to find Admiral Janeway, the better. She gave the captain a curt nod. "Yes, sir," she said.

M'rayr would be trusting her with his ship. That in itself was enough.

"Then, Commander Zhuri, Ensign Khai, and the rest of alpha team, report to the shuttle bay. We depart in one half hour."

It had been a busy few hours. Between gathering exactly where it was that Katana had been deposited by the omnipotent being called Q, addressing some of the various damage reports to come in during its journey, and heading up an effort to find a way home, M’rayr was feeling exhausted. Even an extra-large mug of Raktajino had failed to adequately bring him up to anywhere near 100%. So he started relying on stim packs. Fast acting and potent, they were doing the job well, even though M’rayr knew he couldn’t rely on them for very long.

Headings towards sickbay where his new CMO was tending to one of the few moderate injuries taken, M’rayr caught sight of Kenzie coming around the opposite end as they approached sickbay. Nodding curtly, he waved her to enter first.

Kenzie nodded in acknowledgement and entered ahead of M'rayr. Luckily, there had only been minor injuries when Q dropped them into this emptiness. If Q had been a mortal being and not vindictive, Kenzie would have liked to slap him in the face. But, given Q's tendencies toward transformations she didn't feel that would be a good option the next time she saw him.

Austin, still dealing with his own emotional state, had shoved that aside while he moved around sickbay. Q had flung the Katana into the end of the universe, and there were some injuries associated with that. At the doors opening, he saw the command team walk in. He told the nurse what should be done then gave the patient reassurance she would be okay. "Captain, Commander," he addressed once he was in front of them, "what can I help you with? Are you okay?" He gave each a cursory glance to make sure there wasn't any surface injuries.


"I believe both myself and the captain are fine," Kenzie replied. Maybe a little frustrated, but physically fine, Kenzie thought to herself. "We actually came to check in on Lieutenant Zanaar."

Austin nodded. "Lieutenant Zanaar is stable," he said. "The hit to the head was quite severe, but treatable. She came in with a concussion which I treated, right now she is just resting."

If the circumstances had been different, M'rayr would have been inclined to continue allowing Zanaar to rest and recover. But the Katana needed its Chief of Science up and working if they were going to have any hope of exploring this region. The Caitian stifled a cough. "Is she fit to return to duty, Doctor?"

Amid squawks of protest, Tal appeared, pulling on her blue uniform jacket. She shrugged off the tricorder-wielding nurse who was trying to order her back to a biobed and flashed the two command officers a winning smile. "Ready and willing to return, sir. If they'd let me go," she gave Cadwell a pointed look, "it feels like I've been 'under observation' for hours."

M'rayr studied the Andorian officer closely. She seemed sturdy enough, and it wasn't as though Andorians weren't known for being resilient. Once she met his satisfaction, M'rayr accepted the fact that there was little to nothing he could do to force doctor Cadwell's approval. Looking to his Chief of Medical, the Caitian raised a brow. "Your recommendation, doctor? Lieutenant sh'Zanaar will have her hands full, but the fact of the matter is that we need her expertise on whatever it is we're dealing with."

Kenzie looked hopefully at Austin. Considering they didn't have a full crew aboard, the Captain was absolutely right that they needed Lieutenant sh'Zanaar's expertise; science was spread pretty thin.

Austin stood there, contemplating his next words. Typically captains or executive officers tended to not listen to one word their medical officers said, but it was important to still give the recommendation. "As light duty as possible," he said, directing the comment to his superiors. Then to the science officer, "you feel dizzy, or see spots, or your antenna ache or hurt for any reasons, I want you to come back."

Tal gave the doctor a quick nod, "Of course!" Though she hoped her upcoming return to duty was anything but light. She felt she'd been sitting around far too long as it was. Tal was more than ready to go.

Gazing out the station's best viewing area, Commander Salacia looked wide-eyed in astoundment. “Remarkable” she said in a near gasp that came out more like a soft hissing than anything, but agitated or startled she was not. The USS Katana sat there undergoing the last modifications to her latest 2393 refit after returning from long shakedown mission under the command of departed Captain M'rayr Eisovo and his First Officer, Commander Kenzie Simpson. The USS Katana was receiving the bells and whistles for her next voyage and Commander Salacia would be taking part on these voyages as the starship's new First Officer.

She had read up the historical starship as soon as she received her orders to report to the starbase. Reading the earliest mission reports of Captain Dylan McCarthy all the way through to the latest two Commanding Officers, Captains Kerouac and Eisovo. To be a part of this crew was more than rewarding, it was quite an honor. Though the whole bits and pieces of technobable about the advanced Engineering and Operation technology and systems that were being installed went over her head when reading about them, Salacia knew enough to remember about the advanced sensor pallete, upgraded deflector, and several other newly refitted or updated parts and pieces. The Commander was glad though that there was already a Chief Engineer aboard the USS Katana, one that had been serving aboard her for quite sometime that could explain everything to the new Captain better than Slacia could.

However, when it came to the changes and improvements made to the security and tactical systems, that much, Salacia could talk about all day long. Then of course, there was the whole matter of the Intelligence Department. Salacia was quite pleased to see that the Department was remaining aboard the Katana, and further more that the Intelligence database was being given accurate and up to date information. The starship was an interesting one, having crossed over from an alternate universe and was slightly dated as far as technology went. It took some time, but the starship was finally brought up to date and adjusted to be at peak performance in the here and now.

Salacia was caught in a bit of trance looking at the gorgeous Intrepid-class refit, but she was quickly ripped from her fantastical state back into the business of reality around her. There was a lot of talking and murmuring of people passing by behind her and from the promenade beneath, but what had truly ripped her away was the sound of a man. A wolf whistle from the man behind her, quickly alerted her to a intrusive presence which she mentally kicked herself for not having noticed sooner. She was a Starfleet Security Officer turned Intelligence Officer and she was snuck up upon by some bum of a man. Her otherwise calm green face turned slightly more serious as she took offense to the sexist whistling.

She turned sharply and quickly, meeting the man's gaze, though Salacia had to look down on the man even more so than usual. He was peculiarly short for a male human. “Excuse me?!” she said, hissing agitated. “I will not be addressed by that sexist tone in your misogynistic whistle, nor is my appearance any of your bloody concern” she added defensively.

The man looked at her a bit taken a back and let out a scoffing chuckle as he retrieved a small thin and white cylindrical object from his jacket. “Don't flatter yourself, darling. You sure the hell aren't my type” slid in in between his pursed lips. “Don't suppose a gal like you has a lighter?”

A what? she thought to herself as she starred blankly down upon the man. “Not your type?” she replied, nearly insulted. “I'll have you know that my wife found me to be the most beautiful creature in the galaxy” she added flicking her tongue as the man dug around his pants pocket and pulled out a small silvery device and gave it a flick. A tiny flame lit up and he held it towards the white thing hanging out of his mouth. The combination of the two together caused grey smoke that was absolutely disgusting.

The man winked at her and continued to produce the grey smoke. He looked out the viewing area and pointed to the Katana. “That, my lady, is the most beautiful thing in the galaxy. You, however, are of course attractive...but not my type” he added shaking his head.

“The Katana? Yes, she is a beautiful starship. I'm assigned to her as the new First Officer” she said openly, trying to be friendly and attempting to tolerate the disgusting scent of the object in the man's mouth. She glared at him. “Why, because I'm a Selay woman?” she asked mildly offended and anticipating the usual prejudice.

He put out the cigarette and chuckled. “Oh no, I don't mind you being a Selay. In fact, green is my favorite color. It's the woman part that rules you out...and the fact that I'm quite taken by a young science officer” he said. “Congratulations on the Katana by the way. She's one of the best starships there is” he said before walking away.

Salacia was left confused by the man's words. He spoke like he was intimately involved with the starship and there was something about his face...she had seen that face before. The man was long gone and blended into the crowd of people by the time the light bulb went off and she remembered. Oh my she thought to herself, embarrassed by the way she had spoken to the man. “Captain!” she called out looking over the balcony railing to see if she could see the man, but she could not. Like the fading scent of his cigarette, the man was gone.

Nearly a dozen souls on board made a difficult fit for the Type-Eleven shuttlecraft, especially with all the scientific and defensive gear they were carrying. But navigating the perilous laws behind this new space-time required an expert pilot – and the Katana had just one. Lieutenant Collins was already behind the helm running pre-flight checks. M’rayr, as big a cat as he was, tried not to be too terrible a burden on the rest of the away team.

Lieutenant Ellis sat beside Collins in the only other available chair in the cockpit. In his mind, unless the Captain decided a different approach was necessary, Dee needed to be able to defend the shuttlecraft should anything happen. In the short period before needing to board the shuttle, he took a moment to search the computer banks for anything similar, with the only result being an encounter the Enterprise-D had with a Dyson sphere. If anything, he was glad the shuttle was small. Far more conspicuous and maneuverable. He at least hoped he wouldn't have to try the phasers...

He tapped his comm-badge. “Shuttle Masada to the bridge. We are a few minutes from being ready to depart, Commander. Status on the…” M’rayr’s voice trailed. Calling the structure outside a moon was like calling the Intrepid-class starship a boat. The definition hardly suited reality. “… artifact.” M’rayr finished, the word not sounding any better than its predecessor.

Tapping her badge to reply, Kenzie said, "Status unchanged." The moon, or whatever it was, didn't seem to actually do anything. Yet, at least.

"All systems green," Arivek said over his shoulder to M'rayr, trying his hardest to hide his smile, but most likely failing. To say he was excited for this was an understatement.

M'rayr nodded over to Hayley. "Prepare for departure, Lieutenant. Take us out when you are ready." He said, turning back to the overcrowded cargo area. This was going to be one hell of a first-time mission for the largely untested crew.

Hayley nodded and sighed as she applied power to the engines. "Aye, sir." As they cleared the bay doors, she initiated a pulse burst from the engines and them shut them down. The trip was slower than she'd like but it was the safest way to travel in subspace.

As Annette looked out of the shuttlecrafts's windows, she got a closer look at the moon and instead of feeling excitement she felt this sort of dread in the pit of her stomach. She always hated going on missions with limited intelligence and with Q in the mix, there was no telling what was waiting for them at their destination. Annette just hoped that they found Admiral Janeway quickly and everyone returned to the Katana in one piece.

"I think you can give it a bit more, Hayley," Arivek stated, scrutinizing the readings that were scrolling over his screen.

Hayley shot an annoyed look at Arivek--she hated back-seat drivers. She kept quiet as she turned back and focused on the flight course. Yet, despite her annoyance at Arivek's comment, she knew he was right--the shuttle could handle more. Why was she holding back? She was a much better pilot than this. Her hand hovered above the throttle. She closed her eyes, 'come on, Hayley, you're better than this. Just a little more,' she comforted herself. "Increasing speed," she reported as the shuttle closed in on the giant sphere. "Scan for a nearby airlock."

Arivek began the scan, "Not seeing anything obvious, but there is an odd contraption at heading 0 mark 32. It looks to be a mechanism of some sort and could be their form of an airlock or docking port. I think it's worth checking out."

Hayley nodded and changed course. A few moments later, the shuttle closed in on the supposed airlock. Hayley looked at the mechanism. It looked compatible with the shuttle's airlock system. She brought the shuttle around and began the docking procedure. Soon, the computer accepted the docking rig's parameters and sealed itself to the sphere. "We're docked," Hayley reported and she placed the engines in standby mode.

"All systems look good," Arivek said, as his stomach instantly tied itself into knots. He actually felt the shuttle dock with the station. For some reason, his holomatrix kept most of the ambient movement to a minimum where he didn't feel them, but this time, it was real. "Ready?" he asked, looking up at M'rayr.

"We have no way of knowing what is on the other side of that door," M'rayr said, speaking to everyone in the shuttle. It was precisely for this reason that he'd ordered the away team to be armed. "Move carefully and methodically. Our first objective will be to recover Admiral Janeway. Secondary objectives are to find a means of using this... structure, as a means of returning to our own space-time, and to gather as much information on who built it as possible. I want everybody here to return safely to the Katana, so be alert, mindful, and careful. Any question?"

"None." Brennen replied, he was setting his phaser as engineers don't usually get to use them.

"Get her back to the ship?" Marek asked, his rifle at the ready and an expression of restrained excitement at being useful.

M'rayr nodded as the rear hatch opened, revealing a large cavern of what looked to be rock with three visible passageways moving deeper inside the structure. There was very little indication of technology here. Only a few consoles that were unlit for the time being. "That is correct," the Caitian said, surveying his surroundings. The passageways worried him. Any one of them could lead to, or even away, from Admiral Janeway. They'd have to explore both. But that meant splitting up. "We'll need to break into three teams," sighed M'rayr. "Two to explore those tunnels, and one to remain here... both to secure the shuttlecraft, and to study whatever might be on those consoles."

"I'll examine the shuttle if that is okay?" Bennen asked with a smile.

"Whose going into the tunnels? Cause I'll take point. If that is okay?" Marek said though added the question a moment later, forgetting that initiative was not always appreciated in Starfleet. It was encouraged in the Star Navy.

"I'll join you Lieutenant" replied Annette as she checked her phaser setting."I wouldn't be much help with exploring what was on those console anyway."

"I'll stay with the shuttle with Ensign Bennen and keep the engines ready in case we need to make a quick escape," Hayley reported.

Arivek stood up, strapping a phaser belt around his waste, "Mister Lovok," he said, looking at the Romulan, "It is customary for the highest ranking officers to take lead of teams. Most likely Captain Eisovo will lead one team and I will be leading the other. But you're more than welcome to join my team in the tunnels." He picked up a phaser rifle and held it firmly in his hands, enjoying the touch of the cold metal against his skin.

M'rayr nodded, but gave a sympathetic smile to the Romulan. "Commander Zhuri is correct, Mr. Lovok. Commander Arivek, please take a team through the left," he pointed towards the right side. "I will take the right side. Communication checks every twenty minutes." The Caitian checked his away team.

Ellis adjusted his grip on his phaser rifle as he took a couple steps closer to the Captain. No matter the dangers before them, his duty was to protect the crew of the Katana, starting with the Commanding Officer. "Captain," he said coolly, "I would advise caution. Giving our difficulties with sensors, we should use pattern enhancers, or emergency beacons as bread crumbs, just so we can at least find our way back."

"Commander, Captain, I understand and yes of course you both are correct. However, I would like to say that I didn't say Lead, merely requesting to go first unless taking point means leading a team?" Marek asked confused. "I had thought they were two different things."

Bennen rolled his eyes as he spoke up. "Who is leading the third team sirs? The one dealing with the console."

COMMAND NOTE Due to abrupt unforeseen changes in the command and managing operations of this ship/simm, the mission "Phoenix" has been effectively ended on spot.

After leaving the Captain's Ready Room, Daniel took a few minutes to study his station on the bridge. He'd served many a shift on the Stormshaman's bridge before, and while he'd loved the Galaxy-class ship, he fell instantly in love with his Intrepid-class station. It was taller, for one, and he no longer had to hunch over the controls, and there was a stool for when the shift would drag.

Yes... he could get used to this.

Dee made a quick work of customizing the controls, opting to center sensor readouts in the center. Phaser and torpedo controls were divided by the readouts as were his security and communication functions. He'd likely make other adjustments as his tour continued, but for now it was an excellent place to start.

He also took a moment to study his department's manifest. Very few of his team were aboard the Katana, leaving the duty of keeping her secure to Starbase security. Dee cared little about this. This was a time to enjoy leave. For now anyway.

The lieutenant was quick to notice that one of the personnel on board was listed as the Assistant Chief. Time to get settled in, he thought as he moved for the turbolift and tapped his combadge. "Lieutenant Ellis to Lieutenant Kiska. Meet me in the Security Office."

Prior to the message she'd just received, Leryssa had been sitting alone by herself in the Katana's mess hall. Her cup of Deka tea sat on top of the table she'd been sitting at in the far back corner of the room, Completely forgotten and untouched since she'd replicated it only a moment or so ago. She had talked with Ensign Kadan Storm, Her now ex-boyfriend. He'd told her that he had been reassigned to another posting, and she could not join him. Even though she really wanted to.

The two of them had only been dating for a few weeks, but Kadan was the one who decided the relationship between them wasn't meant to be. Leryssa had calmly suggested to him that they should end their relationship with the Bajoran Separation Ritual, and Kadan actively, yet solemnly agreed to participate in it. So, Just a few days before Kadan was about to leave the Katana to join his new posting, Leryssa, Kadan, and his sister Konora- Who had been chosen by the both of them to witness the ritual firsthand- decided it was best to complete the ritual before both Kadan and Konora left the Katana together.

Once the ritual was finished, Kadan had left Leryssa alone, and she stayed in her quarters for almost two whole weeks after he was gone. Sure, She reported to her duty shifts early or on time, but she never spoke to anyone, Not even to the counselor, or to the captain himself. Sighing, Leryssa tapped her combadge, "Acknowledged." She answered before standing up from where she'd been sitting at the table, and moved to exit the mess hall through its double doors. Making her way through the corridor, and entering the turbolift on her way down to the security office.

Daniel had stepped out of a turbolift on the other side of the corridor. Silence gripped the hall, just like it had the rest of the ship. He could even hear his own footsteps above the whirring of the air circulation. As he approached the security office, he spotted a nearby turbolift open, depositing a Bajoran woman wearing support gold. He was barely able to spot the single and hollow pips on her collar. "Lieutenant," he nodded at the woman as neared the office's entrance.

Leryssa gave the man a silent nod, Though she didn't really feel like talking. She allowed the lieutenant to enter the security office first, and followed him in shortly afterwards. Noting the two solid pips on his collar, Which clearly indicated that he out-ranked her, Leryssa cleared her throat, "You asked to see me, Lieutenant...?" She went silent again, Wondering if the lieutenant would actually introduce himself before ordering her around.

Dee's left eyebrow shot up. For some reason, he hadn't expected the woman to be the person he wanted to meet with. And, as trained as he was, he was certain the eyebrow arch was not the only tell his body revealed in surprise. "Lieutenant Daniel Ellis," he said to her. "I apologize, Miss Kiska. And I hope I didn't take you away from anything."

Leryssa shrugged, "Not at all." Her response wasn't a total lie, However. She'd still been feeling a bit upset after Kadan had left her, and she tried her best to cope with the ordeal, But it left her feeling empty and alone. As of this very moment, Though, Leryssa just wanted to be left alone. Even if she didn't exactly show it.

"Good." Dee looked around, taking a mental inventory of what was available to him. "How long have you been with Katana?" he asked, right before gesturing to a seat beside a console. It wasn't much of an office, but as the ship was mostly vacant, there was little need for privacy.

"Several months now." Leryssa answered with a shrug of her shoulders, Which indicated she had to think back on the question to make sure she'd correctly calculated all that time spent onboard the ship. Though, She didn't take the proffered seat beside the console. Instead, She remained standing. "I was directly assigned here straight out of the Academy after I'd graduated." She added shortly afterwards. Leryssa pondered whether or not to tell the man the rest of story of what had happened during her first assignment on the Katana, but then debated that it would be best to leave that part of her past alone for now. After all, She wasn't sure whether or not he'd be interested in hearing it from her.

"This universe or the... other one?" Dee asked, fighting the urge to cross his arms in front of him. He felt he needed to appear open to her presence as she seemed to be withdrawn or otherwise distracted.

"The other one." Leryssa clarified. "To be honest, I don't think I'd want to know what the records say about me in this universe, That's why I never really bothered to check them." She pursed her lips together in a sort of frown, "I'm not sure what effect it would have on me if I learned something about myself that I might not like." Leryssa added, Not really speaking to Daniel directly, but just normally speaking out loud in general.

"Probably for the best then," Daniel said, noting her frown. "To not know about your alternate self. Besides, all that matters to me is you. The Leryssa Kiska standing in front of me." He smiled. "I need your help, Lieutenant. You know the Katana and its quirks and her captain. I fully intend to defend her, no matter the cost, something I'm sure you're willing to do as well."

"Of course." Leryssa answered, returning the smile that Daniel had given her. "Though, To be honest, I don't really know the captain very well. I haven't really spoken to him much since I first arrived on board the ship."

He nodded. "We should probably change that at some point." He fell silent for a moment, wondering if there was anything else he should ask her. "I don't want to take up too much more of your time." Daniel rose from his seat and nodded at Leryssa. "Good day, Lieutenant. I'll check in with you soon." At that, he disappeared into his new office to review the personnel files. He had much to do.

ON:

Austin Cadwell slammed his fists against the top of the desk.

He was hurt!

He was sad!

He was angry!

Stefano hadn’t been gone all that long, so it all still stung. However, what stung the most is he had not even heard from the man. It was his assumption, and it was a pretty good bet, that the relationship was over. It was over, and he didn’t even get a choice in the matter. Stefano was supposed to be different, he was supposed to not be like that others. They both had the same past experiences with relationships; both were burned in the past. It seemed that Stefano was just like the others.

But, Stefano wasn’t supposed to be like the others.

Austin wrung his hands to help shake out the pain that was resonating in his hands, wrists, and forearms. The pain made him feel something, because when the hurt, sadness, and anger had temporarily gone away, he felt numb. That numbness was just as bad, or even worse then feeling the range of negative emotions.

He paced his quarters, only clad in his underwear; he shivered as a slight chill ran down his spin. It wasn’t cold in his quarters by any means, but he was tired, and when he was tired he felt cold. He hadn’t slept a full nights sleep since he found out Stefano left. Maybe it was because the bed now felt empty. For months, he and Stefano had been sharing a bed, though they hadn’t shared quarters. But every night, either he went to Stefano’s quarters, or the other man came to Austin’s.

The irony was that now Austin’s quarters were previously Stefano’s. Just like, the irony wasn’t lost on him that he was now the CMO as well. It had been a couple of weeks since Captain Eisovo had given him the position, and it still hadn’t sunk it that the position was his. However, he would give it back in a heartbeat if it meant Stefano would come back.

Austin stopped the pacing, turned and looked out the large viewports (a perk of having the quarters of a department head), and sighed. He folded his arms over his chest, essentially hugging himself. He frowned as he looked out into the darkness of space. How many light years was he from Stefano now? Was it just a few, or hundreds? “Where are you?” Austin called out, his tone meek, and soft.

This was a major part of the issue Austin was having. There seemed to be no closure in any of this. Stefano left, without a trace, or even a good-bye note. It was even worse that he had found out through Eisovo, which hurt even more. The memory of that meeting was drummed up in his mind. It was a memory he thought of often, it also often plagued his dreams. He also had dreams where Stefano was standing there hand out and ready to grab, but the man’s hand was just out of reach. No matter how hard Austin had tried, he could never grab the other man’s hand. It would be one of those dreams where he would wake up, sweating, and gasping for air.

Tonight was one of those nights.

“Computer what time is it?” he called out.

“The time is oh-two-three-three hours,” the computer said in its feminine yet monotone tone.

“Damn.” Austin reached up and ran a hand over his face. He was tired, and the last time he looked in a mirror, he looked it too. He had to pull himself together, he had a job to do, and he couldn’t make any mistakes in his job. He had worked too hard to get where he was at, he couldn’t let anyone down.

“Your personal life cannot interfere with your professional life.”

Those words meant more now than anything. And so far, his personal life hadn’t affected his professional life. But, he knew if this kept going, it would and he couldn’t have that. “I have to see someone, talk to someone.” He shook his head at that; did he really want to see a counselor over this… this nonsense? How come he couldn’t handle this? What was wrong with him? It wasn’t like he hadn’t loved someone before.

But Stefano was different…

But why? Why was Stefano different?

Austin had a lot of reasons why, but were they the correct reasons. But for Austin it came down to the fact that Stefano was supposed to be the one. He felt it from the moment he met the man, he knew. That had never, ever happened before. Though, it seemed he had been wrong about the other man. That thought just caused his stomach to tighten, and the anger once again flowed freely.

It really came down that he was mad at himself, he was angry because he had finally allowed himself to feel something for someone and it crumbled at his feet. The anger quickly dissipated, but it was immediately replaced with sadness, which then came the loneliness.

“I have to sleep.”

For a few more moments he stood at the view ports, then turned away to head toward his bedroom. He crawled back on to the big bed, and drew his knees up into a fetal position. Despite feeling chilled, he didn’t pull the blanket over him. Instead, he grabbed the pillow that Stefano would use, and hugged it to his chest. It wasn’t often he had a weak, and vulnerable moment, but he was.

The tears then began to fall…

OFF:

The whole welcoming aboard the USS Katana process that Commander Salacia had started to be given, triggered her to kindly dismiss and wave off the hour long formalities. “Simply see to it that all my personal belonging are brought aboard and have them brought to my quarters” she said to the Quartermaster who had met her and was going to give her a brief tour and lead her to her quarters. When the quartermaster questioned her about the tour, she shook her head. “Just handle my belongings. I'll take the grand tour on my own, and direct me to the whereabouts of the Chief Engineer” added Salacia.

She was pleased to be informed that the Chief Engineer was in Main Engineering overseeing the last few steps in the installation of Katana's new sensor pod, the same type and design that Starfleet was presently putting on all the Luna class starships. Katana was not a Luna class, but rather a refitted Intrepid class. The technical side of it was not Salacia's forte, but she had been briefed and knew enough about the sensor pod to know they were roughly compatible and with some minor tweaks, the Luna type sensor pod could be easily installed onto the Intrepid-class Katana.

Commander Salacia knew hardly anything about the Chief Engineer of the starship. What she did know was that he was a hold over, a veteran. The Chief Engineer had served under the commands of Kerouac, Eisovo, and Mewolith would make the man's third Commanding Officer aboard the starship. The Quartermaster had referred to him as Commander Zhuri which at least gave Slacia the ability to prepare herself for either a Lieutenant Commander or someone who was equal in rank to her.

When she arrived in Katana's engineering room, she looked around and saw a lot of young faces at work. There was an engineering abuzz with personnel working on several projects. She had no time to track down this man. The Captain would be arriving shortly and as First Officer, Salacia wanted to be ready for that. “Excuse me” she said firmly, and a few faces looked in her direction. Some looking rather surprised to see a scaly green skinned reptoid in a Starfleet uniform. “I need to speak with Commander Zhuri” she said aloud, waiting to see who spoke up or approached her.

"I'm Commander Zhuri," came a voice from behind the woman. A few moments later, a cerulean-skinned man with slightly darker blue spots down the sides of his face stepped into view. "How can I help you, Commander?" he asked, handing a PADD to a nearby Ensign and sent him on his way.

Salacia extended her scaly green arm and her long somewhat claw like digits. "Commander Salacia, First Officer of the USS Katana as of today" she said introducing herself. "I came to see how the instillation of the luna class sensor pod was going. I wanted to ensure they would be ready by the time the Captain arrives" she further explained.

Arivek glanced down at the woman's hand, and hesitated for a moment before he took it and gave it a firm shake. "Welcome aboard, Commander. The installation is going well."

"That is excellent hear. I would like to see how things are going if you-" The Commander began to reply, but the subtle commotion around her when a strange walked in caused her to excuse herself. She proceeded to handle the situation.

Farenia had wandered onto the ship with little difficulty, showing the guard at the docking gangway a PaDD with her orders and getting a crisp salute was the highlight of the trip so far. She did get several strange looks though - likely due to her attire. She was dressed in her desert robes and with her hood pulled back, she looked like a sightseeing Vulcan on holiday. If Vulcans ever went sightseeing or went on holiday, that is. She preferred inspecting places like this though. No pretenses, no formalities... Just her staring into the slow blue glow of the warp core. Which is where she was when someone finally tried to determine who she was and why she was there.

Not knowing anything about the Commanding Officer she would be serving under, Commander Salacia approached the robe figure. Who the hell runs bloody security on this ship? she pondered as Salacia walked up to the warp core hissing quietly. Salacia had made it more than an effort to know Katana's history, she had read several logs form previous Captains. Initially mistaking the woman for a misguided Bajoran fanatical, Salacia place her hand on the woman's shoulder "If you are seeking the Orb, it is no longer aboard" she commented.

When the Captain turned, Salacia saw the woman's ears more clearly. However, she knew not to presume the woman were a Vulcan. "My apologies, I thought you were Bajoran" said the Commander. "Perhaps you took a wrong turn. May I help you find something?" asked Commander Salacia.

"Yes, I'm looking for my quarters and I seem to have gotten lost," Farenia said, her best Vulcan expression on her face as she offered Salacia a PaDD with her orders.

Salacia looked over the PaDD thoroughly. Meowlith, Farenia. Captain, USS Katana... The tall green skinned reptoid read the information, but kept it to herself. "I see" she replied simply. The Commander could respect the woman's sense of humor albeit Salacia had not felt such a sensation to laugh in a while.

The Commander smiled slightly and gave the woman a pleasant nod. "Commander Zhuri" she said looking at the man and gesturing towards the Captain. "Meet Captain Meowlith...Captain, Commander Zhuri, ship's Chief Engineer" Salacia added, introducing them to one another.

"A pleasure to meet you," Farenia said addressing Arivek and offering a handshake. "I've heard a lot about you and look forward to working with you."

Arivek took the woman's hand, "A pleasure as well, Captain," he replied, deciding not to comment on her last statement.

Salacia took a deep breath and returned her attention primarily on the Captain. "We were not expecting you for another half hour, Captain. I had wanted to meet you as soon as you came aboard. My apologies for not being there" said Salacia. "I'm Commander Salacia, your First Officer" she explained more thoroughly.

Farenia offered a handshake to Salacia as well, a brief grin cracking her seemingly Vulcan demeanor. "My shuttle came in early so I decided to give myself a tour. It's actually my first time aboard an Intrepid class, if you can believe it."

The Commander nodded. "I believe it, Captain" she replied simply. "She's a fine vessel...or so I've been told. We are finishing up the last of our updates for this refitting. How much do you know about the ship itself, Captain?"

"I've read the official reports. She came from a different universe and brought a rather interesting crew with her. We're also having a sensor pod installed from a Luna class as per my request for our first mission." Farenia replied as she glanced back at the warp reactor.

The reptoid flickered her tongue and smiled. "Well read, Captain" replied Salacia. "I had just come down here to see how the installation was going, Captain" said the Commander. She was about to turn the conversation over to the Chief Engineer, but took a moment to speak with the Captain. Is she the type to go by Sir or by Ma'am? pondered Salacia. However, the Commander decided to just go neutral. "Captain, you also have a visitor aboard."

"A visitor? Who is it?" Farenia asked idly.

Commander Salacia was unsure how to explain to the Captain of her 'guest' that had simply flashed their rank pips and name around, marching their way through the Katana and taken refuge inside the Captain's Ready Room which Salacia knew Captain Meowlith had not been to yet. "A very persistent Starfleet Captain" Salacia replied simply. "I didn't feel it prudent to have security detain him...and I did not to end up in the Brig myself" explained Salacia.

"Hmm... I'll have to head up there and see who it is." Farenia mused. Perhaps one of the prior captains? Unlikely, but a possibility... "How is the installation of the sensor pod coming, anyway? Are all the ODN connections lining up?"

Arivek raised an eyebrow. It wasn't often that a Captain knew anything about Engineering systems. "They are indeed," he replied, taking a PADD from an Ensign who had walked up. He tapped at the interface and handed it back before shooing the young man away.

"Excellent. I was worried that the flex in the arms was too much torsion and the forward interconnects wouldn't line up right. I think the real trick though, will be readjusting the warp field projectors to encompass the extra height to the ship. It has its own deflector grid and shield matrix, so that shouldn't be an issue as long as they get enough power." Farenia had an odd sort of smile on her face now as she ran simulations in her head. Shaking it off, she continued. "Sorry about that. I was an ops officer before command. Well.. I was often on loan to Starfleet Intel since I'm good at playing Vulcan, but my heart lies with Ops and Engineering."

"Impressive," Arivek replied, controlling his urge to roll his eyes. At this point, the woman was clearly showing off, and he was not amused. "You will have a status report by the end of the day."

"Thank you," Farenia replied, smiling at Ari. "If you'll excuse me then, I need to see who's in my new ready room." With a nod to each of them, she headed off out of engineering, calling back one more time before leaving. "Oh and if you see a purple tree with something that looks like big boobs, that's our new counselor."

Commander Salacia had remained silent as the two conversed. It allowed her to pay more attention to the Captain's history and previous work in Operations and also allowed Salacia to get some sense of the Chief Engineer's personality. The two both seemed very professional, well educated, and knew far more about Engineering than she ever would. "I'll meet with you later, Captain. I have some matters to attend to myself" said the Commander as she waited for the Captain to leave Engineering.

Looking over her shoulder as she watched Farenia leave, the Commander waited. She then looked back at the Chief Engineer and flicked her tongue slightly and narrowed her eyes, a small smirk formed. "If it makes you feel any better, I'll do my best to keep her out of Engineering" said Salacia.

Arivek looked at the reptilian woman and did his best to control his annoyance with her as well. The last thing he wanted to do was stand around and gossip about the new Captain. He didn't know this woman and didn't trust her any farther than he could throw her. "Is there anything you need, Commander?" he asked, trying to change the subject.

Salacia shook her head. "No...not at all. I prefer not to be near any of this technological mess" quipped the Commander. "This is not my territory" she added swiftly.

"Then have a good day," Arivek said, nodding his head to the woman as he turned and walked away.

Captain Kristopher Kerouac of the USS Camelot was not on the crew manifest for the USS Katana and with good reason. He had his own command to take care of in the form of the Camelot, but he had some business to attend to aboard his former command, the Katana. There were people to see and things to do, and when he had learned that Captain M'Rayr had disembarked from the Katana, Kerouac had taken the opportunity to seek out the Katana's location and dock at the same starbase.

He came aboard with ease despite not having the proper 'paperwork' to be aboard. When you have four solid pips and a reputation to uphold, talking your way through standard procedures came with the territory. It also helped that your name once was etched into a plaque that decorated a very important door on said starship's Bridge. Kris had to give the new First Officer credit though. She had cut him off on his way to the Bridge and gave him a full screening to ensure he was who he said he was and after several minutes of waiting for what Kris felt was an unnecessary delay, she let him go.

Kris knew his way around the starship though it did look slightly different than it had under his command. He saw a couple of familiar faces among the lower officer ranks and some enlisted personnel, but nobody he was too familiar with. However, he did have a peak at the manifest and noticed that Lieutenant Collins and Commander Zhuri were both aboard still.

The starship had a peculiar odor to it, one Kris had gotten used to when he was in command, but had apparently lost his tolerance to after being away from it for so long. A very pungent and stagnant odor. Caitian he thought to himself as he crossed the Bridge and entered the Ready Room which had an even stronger presence of the odor. "Son of bitch" said Kris shaking his head as he waited in the Ready Room. "What did M'rayr do in here? Mark the damn place with his scent or just live in here doing nothing?" said Kris as he walked over to the replicator.

He managed to get a canister of spray to consume the unwanted odor and leave the room smelling fresh like flowers. "Better than nothing" he said as he took a seat at the Captain's chair. It was the same chair he had sat in as Captain of the Katana, but it was at the wrong height and felt incredibly awkward. I had this thing perfect...well perfect for me at least thought the Captain as he waited for the new Commanding Officer. Killing time, Kris looked through a stack of PaDDs that were on the desk, waiting for Captain Meowlith's eyes.

As she entered the bridge, a security guard stopped her and after looking over the PaDD with her orders, he reluctantly let her get off the turbolift dressed in her desert robes and obvious civilian clothing. At least her antique phase pistols were in her luggage being transported over. He might not have allowed her to pass at all if she had them strapped to her waist.

Finally getting to her new ready room, she recognized the man sitting in her chair from the file she'd received on the Katana. Then the smell hit her... It was like a chemically flowered litterbox. Good thing the rest of the ship didn't smell this bad. She suddenly hoped her new quarters weren't so bad off. "Captain, Kristopher Kerouac, I presume. I am Captain Farenia Meowlith and I believe you're in my chair." Farenia spoke in her best Vulcan accent as she stood with her hands clasped behind her back. She loved throwing people off like this since her people looked and even scanned as Vulcan. It was even more convincing as she had had her tribe's ritualistic beads and scars removed that marked her as a Vulcanoid Rigelian.

Kerouac looked at the woman and scoffed. "My chair, his chair your chair...it's a communal chair" replied Kerouac as he politely surrendered the seat. "She's all yours now. I was just sitting in her for old times sake" added the Captain as he walked over to the food and beverage replicator and ordered himself a cup of Vulcan spice tea. "Your presumption skills are good but your routine needs some work" quipped Kris.

He gestured towards the stack of PaDDs on her desk. "My first suggestion is to get yourself a good Yeoman. They aren't as easy to find these days" he said with a chuckle. "You can drop the Vulcan foreplay" he said with a smirk. "It's entertaining, but I was already given a rundown on you...Rigelian if memory serves me" added Kerouac after taking a sip of the tea.

"V'gelnian, yes." Farenia didn't expand upon the race name being Vulcanoid Rigelian in simpler terms. Rounding the desk, she took one look at it and decided against sitting in it. "Remind me to run a baryon sweep through this entire office. It looks... and smells... pretty bad."

Kris chuckled "Like a barnyard...I know" commented Kris with a simple nod. "That's the scent of your predecessor. He was a Caitian. He was my third First Officer...I went through them like they were going out of fashion" joked Kerouac.

"I'm sorry if my arrival caught you off guard" said Kris apologetically. "I had some personal matters that I wanted to take care of aboard my former starship and I also wanted to have a chance to meet the Captain who will be taking this lovely lady into the stellar nursery."

"I was forewarned of your arrival. So what's this personal business, anyway?" Farenia said as she headed to the replicator as well. And her normal drink wasn't in the database yet... Sighing softly,she punched up a cup of chicken broth and settled for that instead.

"Interesting drink choice" commented Kris in regards to the scent of avian broth. "My personal business? A few things actually. For starters, there are several members of the crew aboard that served under me. I have not seen them in over a year and I would like the opportunity to do so" explained Kerouac. "Also, under Captain Eisovo's command, two members of my crew died in a shuttle crash. They were romantically involved and expecting parents. I am raising their daughter...I came looking to get some of their personal belongings for my daughter. Something she can hold onto and help her understand who her biological parents were."

"That is a noble cause. We launch tomorrow though, so you don't have much time." Farenia said, sipping her broth and sitting on a part of the couch that wasn't too bad off. "So I hear you have a new command already. That new experimental Manticore class."


Kris nodded "Aye, I do, Captain" replied Kris, thinking about the Camelot. "She's a damn beauty that Manticore class, but this starship...the Katana will always have a special place in my heart" he admitted. "I'll be sure to get what I need and meet with my friends before you are underway" added Kerouac.

"I have some time left before I get tossed off this starship" he joked a bit. "If there's anything that I can help you with, please ask. Some of your Senior Staff were my Senior Staff, and I know a bit about this starship and her voyages. I'd be honored to answer any questions that you may have."

"That's an offer few get." Farenia said with a smile, sipping at her broth. "What can you tell me about the ship itself then? Outside of official reports, that is."

Kris smiled "A hell of a lot" he said with a good chuckle, finishing his cup of tea and placing it back on the replicator pad and activating the recycling function. "You know the Katana is not originally from this time period and is not from this universe either. What I can tell you is that you can push this starship beyond her so called 'breaking point' and she'll tolerate it enough to get you through the toughest of situations" stated Captain Kerouac.

He pointed to the desk "Underneath the desk to your right is a mounted phaser holder. I recommend stashing a phaser there at all times" said Kris. "I don't know what they did as far as changes since my removal, but during my time, I extended the Mess Hall by taking out the Captain's private dining room. Your quarters should also be significantly larger than standard with a walk in wine and liquor 'closet' that I also had added during my tenure as Commanding Officer" added Kris.

"We've reversed engineer Borg technology before and made use of it aboard the Katana. In theory, I think with the right people, you can take just about anything and apply it to this starship" offered Kris. "Ah and don't forget about the Captain's yacht. She can come in handy at times."

"I thought the office was a bit smaller than it should be." Farenia said with a chuckle. "I might have to modify the phaser holder to hold my phase pistols. We'll see about that though. As for Borg tech, there's little chance of that where we're going. We're more likely to see Iconian tech."

"Happy Huntings" said Kris with a chuckle. "Iconian technology sounds fascinating and I believe you have an excellent starship to carry out your mission of exploration and discovery in the stellar nursery, Captain" added Kerouac with sincerity. "The Camelot is heading out through the quadrant as well, but we are heading for the Delta quadrant borderlands."

"I wish you luck as well. You're not likely to see anyone on this side of the galaxy for some time heading out there." Farenia finished her broth and set her cup aside. "From what I've heard of the area, you're also likely to run into a lot of Borg."

The Borg thought Captain Kerouac, allowing himself to absorb the thoughts associated with the cybernetic collective minded creatures that caused many of starfleet officers nightmares. "My encounters with the Borg in the past have been few and far between. The Katana never directly encountered them under my command, though we did find bits and pieces of a ship on an alien planet in the Gamma quadrant" stated Kristopher. "We no doubt will find ourselves up against the Borg and who knows what out there, but my crew will be ready and my starship can handle it" added Kerouac confidently.

He smirked and winked at the new Commanding Officer of the Katana. "Sure, it will be quite the journey and we'll be heading well outside Federation space, but fortunately we won't be entirely on our own. The Camelot will be venturing into this darkness with a few other starships" explained Kerouac. "Personally, I would have loved to have the Katana with us, but her quest to the stellar nursery is set in stone."

"It seems that way," Farenia said with a grin. "But if you need anything just send a message and I'll do what I can. The USS Hera will be a sort of mobile port of call for us for a while if you can't get in touch with the Katana."

"The Hera?" said Kris with a bit of a hard swallow. No thank you thought the Captain with a nod. "I know the starship and her Captain. She and I met once" he said, leaving those details out. "The same goes for you. If you need anything just drop a note...we'll get it eventually."

"Thank you, I will." Farenia replied with a soft smile, having already realized that the Hera was where Kris was court martialed. That kinda stuck out in his records and the logs. His reaction was better than she expected.

Kris nodded "Of course" he said as he headed towards the doorway. "If you'll excuse me, Captain. I'll be on my way to get those personal belongings."

"Good luck and please don't steal too many of my crew." Farenia said with a grin. As soon as Kris had left, she started the programming for a baryon sweep of the office.

Starfleet had this rule about reporting in to either the commanding officer or first officer when you were newly assigned to your posting. It was a rule that Clio found strange and distasteful, as if Starfleet thought the only way she could do her job was if she talked about it first and had permission. It didn't help that the first officer was Selay, a species that often strongly resembled snakes, one of the few fears she was still unable to shake despite all the childhood therapists saying she'd grow out of it eventually. Despite spending nearly an hour trying to convince herself that Commander Salacia was not, in fact, a venomous animal that was going to bite her, she just couldn't work up the nerve to approach the Selay woman first.

But then it had taken another hour to come to terms with being such a chicken before she could work up the nerve to approach Farenia either. But now she had crossed the bridge and was outside the ready room, about to ring the doorbell, feeling like everyone present was staring at her. Brushing that feeling off, she gingerly tapped the button to announce her presence.

"Come in," Farenia called out, the doors opening immediately. "Ah, excellent. I've been hoping to see you soon. Please have a seat.Can I get you something to drink?"

Venturing inside, Clio shook her head slightly as she found a place to sit. "Thank you, but no." At least, not yet. Maybe she'd accept later if this forced meeting went well.

"Welcome aboard the Katana. Mind telling me a bit about yourself first? Beyond your personnel file, that is." Farenia said with a straight face.

"I'm not sure there's much else to tell." Farenia was a strange woman. She appeared Vulcan in some respects but not in others, which meant that Clio was having a hard time figuring out if she was being messed with somehow. "I don't have much of a personal life. No time for it in my field."

Farenia grinned softly, giving in to her urge to not be stoic. "Of that we can agree. Hopefully we'll have a bit more free time than your past assignments. Intel is a demanding field, but since we're heading into unexplored territory, you might not be as useful as an Intel officer as perhaps... An away team commander?"

"So you're not Vulcan. I didn't think so with a name like Meowlith but you never know these days. People are weird." That explained some of the 'messing with you' vibes that Clio had picked up. If she had to guess, she'd say V'Gelnian simply because Romulans generally weren't this friendly to her. But it was what Farenia had said that stuck in her mind. "Me? Commanding an away team? Are you sure you've read the right file?" She laughed a little at her own expense, a sad and somewhat hollow sound. "I can learn a lot about someone from meeting them as a member of an away team, but leading one... most commanders wouldn't trust me to take the role."

"I'm not most commanders. I've danced with crime lords and hotwired a warp core. I've had love affairs with smugglers and blown up a small moon. I've taken interest in you and I want to see your leadership skills under pressure. According to your records you're a very unusual person. I like unusual people." Farenia spoke rhythmically, almost lyrically.

"Unusual doesn't begin to cover it." Clio nearly always carried a background anxiety with her, but some of it melted away with the realization that this ship was not going to be like the others. Here, she already seemed to have the captain's trust, just for being dissimilar from everyone else. "It seems we share parts of our resumes then. Dancing with crimelords, toying with smugglers, and blowing things up. Although I get the feeling you did those things because they were fun."

"One thing I've learned is that if you're not having fun doing your job, it's time to switch careers. Hence why I said yes to Starfleet Intel after joining as an Operations officer. And now I'm captain of a starship. I intend to have more fun, whether our XO will allow it or not and I'd like to share that fun. If you're willing, that is." Farenia confidently replied.

"I'm willing. In the spirit of keeping things interesting." Despite her nerves, Clio found herself liking Farenia, also finding that they seemed to be kindred spirits of a sort. She'd never understood why so many in Starfleet thought work had to be boring in order to be worthwhile.

Farenia leaned back in her chair with a grin, but it faded shortly. "The bad news is that I can't do anything about making reports more fun. You'll have some interesting memories, for sure, but reports are still reports." Farenia definitely liked this Clio. She seemed to be loosening up a fair bit, too, which was good. She just hoped she wasn't painting too sweet of a picture for her possible future partner in espionage.

"Just because my last posting was as an assistant department head doesn't mean I'm not familiar with those reports. I headed a department before I went to that SERE facility. Quite familiar with the hassle of paperwork." That was in her file, of course, but Clio thought she should bring it up anyway. She knew a lot of people would assume that Starfleet thought she wasn't fit for the department head role, which was the farthest thing from the truth. "And no, I don't like filing reports. No one does, but without them there's no point in what I do."

"That goes for most departments, I think." Farenia said, nodding knowingly. "Welcome to the team, Lieutenant Clio. It's a pleasure having you aboard."

Clio smiled slightly. "It's Lieutenant Eneas, ma'am. Though I can't expect you to know that as my people aren't often encountered by Federation starships. There's a long history as to why, but I won't bother you with it now." She wasn't especially fond of the story anyway, as she felt a lot of Cervan history painted her people in a very bad light.

Farenia's expression soured slightly before she continued. "Now for the point of your last psych eval... I brought an interesting counselor with me so I hope you and her get along well. And I don't recommend her tea... but please don't tell her I said that."

Psych eval? Clio sank a little in her chair as that particular bit of her file was brought up. She wasn't fond of most counselors in general, and the last one had been borderline evil and prejudiced during every appointment. "I... can see why you might think that necessary."

"If it's any consolation, I still think Vicky is the craziest person aboard. She turns into a tree when she sleeps." Farenia was as reassuring as she could be, but she doubted it helped much, if at all. "And her report won't change my opinion of you."

"Turns into a... she's a shapeshifter?" But not a Founder. They turned into puddles of goo to regenerate and didn't call it 'sleeping'. Still, the idea of a shapeshifting counselor was incredibly strange. Clio wasn't sure what to think about it, though she did know she didn't have a choice in the matter of meeting Vicky.

"An Allasomorph. Her people are quarantined and only eight are ever allowed off their planet at any time. She has special disposition to be in Starfleet and can legally be recalled home at any time, but her... Clan... Is kind of outcasts of her society. It's the purple, I think." Farenia replied.

"A purple Allasomorph. That's... different." But not terribly threatening, as long as Vicky didn't turn into that weird alien bear thing the Allasomorphs became sometimes. Clio could probably deal with the purple and the whole 'being a tree' thing."

Farenia nodded. "It's either the purple or that she's a pacifist. I swear, she once cut her hand open to prove that she bleeds and freaked out really bad because she'd never seen her own blood before. Probably the dumbest thing I've heard of her doing."

"Okay, that's pretty dumb. But I can see the logic in it, if someone thought she was a Founder." Clio nodded slightly, having her own 'not nice' impression of the Founders that had colored her view of most shapeshifters. "They're the only shapeshifters most people are familiar with."

"Sadly so," Farenia said, leaning forward and resting her forearms on her desk, hands clasped in front of her. "I think you two will get along well. She did her first tour and training cruise on the floating sanitarium, SS Sanity's End. I assume you've heard of it?"

"Who hasn't? I'm pretty sure Starfleet's tried to send me there a time or two, and not as a member of the crew." Clio scowled ever so slightly mentioning it.

"I'm sure several of this crew have reservations there, including myself." Farenia said a bit sourly.

"Oh good. It's not just me then." Clio brightened ever so slightly at the news that she was in good company here. "I won't lie... I do have problems. I won't burden you with them, but I can at least warn you... your counselor's not going to give me a clean bill of mental health. Not by a long shot."

"And if our counselor didn't have some degree of diplomatic immunity, guess which ship she'd still be on. And not as crew." Farenia countered. "I'll bet she does give you a clean bill of health."

"I guess we'll see what she says then." Clio shrugged lightly. "Since we're barely underway I don't imagine there's a ton of intelligence work to be done. However, I do need to make sure the offices and other work spaces are set up the way I prefer them."

"Then I wish you luck. If you need anything, please don't hesitate to come see me or Commander Salacia." Farenia said, wrapping up the conversation.

"Thank you, I will." Taking that as her dismissal, Clio got up to leave. If her previous assignments were any clue, the intelligence suite was likely to need a lot of work.

Not having been left much choice in the matter, Clio decided that her inspection of the intelligence suite could wait until after she'd at least met this very strange counselor that Farenia had been telling her about. She hoped it wouldn't turn into an impromptu appointment, but she also knew that such things had a way of becoming therapy sessions whether she wanted it to happen or not. At least Vicky's office/cabin had been easy enough to find. With a light sigh, Clio tapped the doorbell button and waited.

The door opened immediately... to an unoccupied room. The main area was well furnished at least - there was even a big purple potted tree of some sort. Which then dissolved and reformed into a humanoid woman. "Hi, I'm Vicky," the person said cheerfully, motioning to the various seating. "Please, come in and make yourself at home."

Even having been warned that Vicky liked to pretend she was a tree, Clio took half a step backward as the door closed behind her, causing her to smack into it just after it shut. Apparently knowing that Vicky was an Allasomorph and not a Founder wasn't enough to keep her instinct to run away fully in check. Trying to pretend she hadn't just done then, she did go further into the room and choose a soft cushioned chair to sit down in, looking around for any other furnishings that might suddenly change shapes.

"Don't worry, we're the only ones here." Vicky said with a soft chuckle as she headed to the replicator. "Can I offer you some tea? Or something else?"

"Maybe something with ginger in it." Clio wasn't really thirsty, but a drink would keep her occupied. And maybe keep her from panicking the next time Vicky changed forms.

"Ginger..." Vicky tapped at the replicator for a few seconds before pulling a ginger beer and a glass of water from it and heading over to her guest, offering the bottle to her. "This says it has ginger in it." she said cheerfully.

Clio grinned a little. "Yeah. That'll work, thanks." Taking the bottle, she popped the cap off and let the carbonation settle a bit before taking a sip from it. "I'm sure by now you've either read my file or be told by Captain Meowlith to expect me."

"And yet in reality, I have no idea who you are." Vicky said with a cheerful smile. Sitting down and sipping her water, she stared at Clio expectantly.

"...none at all?" That was unusual. Typically Clio found that her eyes alone gave her away... at least to anyone who'd so much as glanced at her file.

"I could ask the computer if you prefer not to make introductions. Should I be familiar with you already? Have we met before?" Vicky pressed.

"No, it's just... well." Clio paused for a moment, putting her thoughts into words. "Most of the time, people figure out who I am pretty easy. Silver eyes are incredibly uncommon in the Federation, so I'm... unique. I guess I never met someone who was just as unique and therefore didn't immediately pinpoint me as the 'strange' one." She chuckled weakly at her own expense. "Lieutenant Eneas Clio, Chief Intelligence Officer. And according to Captain Meowlith... the second craziest person on the ship."

Vicky peered at Clio a bit closer. "Yeah, you do have silver eyes, don't you? Interesting. Lieutenant Eneas Clio... That name does sound familiar but I've been looking over so many files lately..." Vicky shook her head and leaned back in her seat. "Sorry, did you need me to do an eval? If you're the second craziest person aboard, who's the first? The Captain?"

"You are, apparently. And it was Captain Meowlith who broached the subject of evaluations. Personally I find them to be a waste of time for everyone involved." Clio took a sip of her soda, reflecting on the numerous evaluations that had marked her as 'unstable' or just plain crazy.

"Then let's not waste time. How about I just do something crazy and mark you off with a generic report?" Vicky was the craziest person on the ship? Ridiculous... It was the rest of these crew that were crazy. Them and their solid bodies doing strange things...

Clio raised an eyebrow at her. "You know nothing about me other than what I've told you. Which isn't much. For all you know I'm a serial killer with a penchant for torturing my victims."

"Are you?" Vicky asked, her eyebrow raising as well.

"No. But I have killed several people over the course of my career. Some during the war, some after. Not something Starfleet likes to acknowledge, despite it being Starfleet who gave me orders and license to do so." Clio leaned back in her chair, more at ease with Vicky than she had been with previous counselors. "Some I enjoyed. Others I did only because I had to. My life comes first. Or the lives of those who came into the fray with me."

Vicky nodded thoughtfully. "It seems that violence is an integral part of the greater galaxy for various reasons. If it was authorized and ordered by your superiors legally, then I have no right to judge you on these actions as it was the origin of the orders that is responsible for those deaths."

"That seems fair. I suppose I should also tell you that it's part of who I am. My people have an innate thirst for combat, which honestly makes Fleet life harder than it would seem. Holograms aren't enough to quell it, and there aren't many bold enough to step into a ring with someone like me." Clio's tone was matter-of-fact, just stating simple truths. "Things tend to get complicated when that need isn't met. Worse when that and anxiety come to a head together."

"And I'm a pacifist. It seems the galaxy loves diversity. Many of my people would love to fight you, I'm sure. Just to test their mettle or yours." Vicky said calmly. "What do you do when that need rises?"

"That depends on whether or not I have a sparring partner available. Best way to vent it is to use it, and like I said... the holodeck just doesn't work. Meditation helps a little... or beating the tar out of a sandbag. Most starships don't have that sort of thing in the gym though." Clio couldn't think of why starships wouldn't have sand-filled punching bags. She thought they'd solve a lot of conflict when in such close quarters with other people. "I've lost control a handful of times, usually because I couldn't get away from wherever I was at the time. But when that happens, I'm more apt to hit a wall than a person."

"That's good at least. And according to your own estimation of your race, you sound pretty normal to me. You don't kill other sentients for sport so that's a big plus." Vicky replied.

"For a pacifist, you are surprisingly okay with the idea that one of your shipmates has murdered people and would do so again if need be." Clio found that both a bit odd and extremely comforting.

Vicky grinned at that. "Another aspect of my pacifism is avoiding conflict with others by accepting who they are and not trying to apply my own values to them. I mean please don't hurt me, but you are you and not me."

Clio nodded a bit. That made sense enough to her. "The other thing you need to know... I wasn't kidding about the anxiety. I've always had it in one form or another but it got bad - really bad - after I participated in the SERE training. I can usually handle it, but I'll need a new script for lorazepam. The replicators here won't honor the one from the Banshee. I already tried."

"I'll get that transferred over to my name after you leave. Try it again later today and it should work. Do you want to talk about your anxiety now? I'm available pretty much any time if you need someone to talk to." Vicky spoke reassuringly, wanting to help with an actual problem. Anxiety was something pretty much everyone she met tried to avoid and she'd do just about anything to help with it.

"I'm not sure there's much you can do. I'm hardwired to be a bit high-strung, and I can't exactly talk about the trauma I faced at the SERE camp. It's all classified, and frankly you don't want to hear it. Not because it makes me look bad or anything... it's just... well it's awful." Noticing that her hands were shaking slightly, Clio tightened her grip on the cold soda bottle. "I've never done well with crowds. That's the easiest way to set it off, drop me in a crowded room with no way out."

"I'm still here to listen, none the less. Just the two of us in a room that you can leave at any time." Vicky reassured her as best she could.

"That... helps, actually. You wouldn't believe how many counselors in Starfleet won't let you leave a session early." Clio rolled her eyes, clearly not impressed with the other counselors she'd spoken with.

"There are regulations and whatnot... Mandatory things that I tend to not adhere to. If you feel better after five minutes, awesome. If you need me for twelve hours straight, I'm here for you." Vicky said with a soft smile.

"That works for me. Thank you." Clio was finding that Vicky was definitely not like other counselors she'd dealt with in the past.

"Now then... As for the official stuff, I'm afraid that you've forced my hand. I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to give you a clean bill of health." Vicky said a bit more seriously. "You'll just have to try harder next time to prove that you're not sane."

"Your definition of 'sane' must be different from Starfleet's." Clio wanted to be surprised, but Farenia had warned her ahead of time that Vicky was different. "But I appreciate it anyway."

"Actually, I use the exact same definition. My outlook on it is just different. In our conversation I've concluded that other than anxiety, you are of sound mind and body within the scope of your race's mental profile. By that qualification, you're perfectly sane." Vicky said seriously. "Also, I have a confession. I did read your profile. I just ignored what most of it said because I prefer to make my own judgements on how to help you. I'm not here to judge you yourself and if I take everything I read about people to heart, I'm judging them before I even meet them and I really don't like that."

"I think I can forgive that particular lie, considering you make far more sense than any counselor who's pinned me as unstable or just plain nuts." Clio hadn't thought about it, but it was probably more that they'd been comparing her to the rest of Starfleet. Not to her own people. To humans and Vulcans.

"Thank you," Vicky said, bowing her head respectfully. "Is there anything else you wanted to talk about?"

Clio shook her head slightly. "No, I think I'm okay for now."

"Then if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go back to sleep if you don't mind. It may be the middle of the day, but I have some night shift people visiting the next few nights." Vicky said, standing and taking a step towards her grow lamps.

"I didn't realize you were napping. Sorry." Taking her soda with her, Clio got up and slipped out the door.

Bridge

Farenia settled into her new command chair for the first time, making note of the claw marks on the arm rests. She'd have to get them fixed later but for now, the Katana had a mission to get underway. Pressing the intercom, she started with a ship wide announcement. "Attention all hands, this is Captain Farenia Meowlith speaking. As your new commanding officer, it is my great privilege to announce our impending departure from spacedock. Please resume duty locations at this time and prepare for some exploration. Meowlith out."

Shutting off the intercom, Farenia studied the viewscreen before proceeding. "All stations report in when ready."


Security

Marek was down in the Security office and was going over the latest reports from Starfleet Security and his own people's Security Command, since he is still in the Star Navy he could be recalled at any moment. If he was not up to date on the happenings in the Empire he'd be useless. Of course he was not going to share them with his Starfleet colleagues as it was classified.

Leryssa was also in the Security office, Mostly in the armory section, Checking and re-checking each hand phaser and its rifle counterpart. She'd already sent her report to Lieutenant Ellis' station on the bridge since she knew he'd be there.

"Hey," Marek said to Kiska as he entered the armoury. He had come to clean his weapons.

Leryssa was busily checking the last phaser rifle, When she heard the greeting, "Hi." She responded without even looking up from her work inspecting and recalibrating the rifle she'd held in her hands. The light mocha-skinned Bajoran woman was just about finished with the recalibration of the rifle's power cell to maximize its efficiency, Just like she'd already done to the rest. Her hands were moving rather swiftly and expertly as she worked on the rifle.

"Damn, looks like you beat me to the job of weapon cleaning. Any you haven't done yet?" Marek asked as he came to stand by her side.

Leryssa shook her head, "Nope. This is the last one." She answered, Gesturing to the one she was still working on.

"What you got to do now?" Marek asked.

"All of these rifles and phasers will need to be taken to the holodeck to be tested one by one." Leryssa replied without missing a beat. "To make sure they're all working perfectly. I don't want to have our security teams getting caught in the middle of a phaser fight with a malfunctioning weapon in their hands."

Khaiel was on drills with a security team.


Engineering

Bennen was performing maintenance duties on the equipment in the engine room.


Elsewhere

Vestara was busy running around sorting out new crewmembers' quarters and allocation of where cargo should go, the distribution of said cargo was the supply officer's job.

Annette was in her quarters reading the latest diplomatic reports from Starfleet.


Bridge

"Engineering is ready when you are," Arivek stated from the Engineering console on the side of the bridge. Normally he would stay in Engineering, but he felt that for the moment, his place was on the Bridge.

Lieutenant Daniel Ellis, who had stepped onto the bridge just half an hour ago, looked up from his console. He knew that the Katana was receiving a new command team though he hadn't yet the chance to meet them. "All tactical systems are go, Captain. Security teams have confirmed the airlocks are closed and all crew is aboard."


Sickbay

"More changes," Austin mumbled to himself as he entered the main sickbay ward from his office. First Stefano left without warning, which still left him sad, and with sleepless nights. Then the whole command team up and left. He had contemplated leaving himself, but he also knew that the new command team would rely on some who were familiar faces on board already. However, it was the way things went in Starfleet, though he didn't have to like it. He reached up and tapped his commbadge, then called out. 'Sickbay to Bridge, we are good to go down here. Supplies are all secured, and medical staff is ready to go."

Bridge

"Flight Control and Navigation is green across the board, Captain," Hayley reported from her station. Lately the Katana was spending more time in dock than in space, which annoyed her to no end.

Commander Solacia, setting next to the Captain, was looking down at the readouts on the screen near her. "Anticipated crew compliment all reported in, Captain" said Solacia. "Departments standing by" added the First Officer.

"Excellent. Captain Meowlith to station control. Katana requests immediate departure clearance." Farenia said, pressing the comms button.

After a brief pause, control responded. "Katana, Control. You are clear for immediate departure via gate one. Safe journeys."

"Thank you Control." Releasing the comms, Farenia gave her first official order. "Helm, one quarter impulse. Take us out."

Hayley nodded. "One quarter impulse, aye." Her hands operated the controls as the ship glided forward, beginning to clear the space dock.

From her seat, Commander Salacia watched the helmswoman go to work, operating the controls with ease, a gracefulness much like that of an artist's paint strokes onto a canvas. "They said you were the best at what you do, Lieutenant Collins...let's see it" commented Salacia with a small smirk.

Turning to Salacia, Farenia had to comment. "No one reminded me that by regulations, we're to use maneuvering thrusters only while in spacedock. I'm not sure if I should be proud or upset." She didn't give it much more thought though as she turned back to the viewscreen and gave her next order before anyone else could speak. "As soon as we're clear of the station, bring us to two nine one mark seven four and plot a course for the JFS four seven stellar nursery. Warp four. Keep an eye on the pod's structural integrity and we'll crank it up from there."

Commander Salacia looked over at the Captain sitting next to her and gave a nod. "I'll be sure to remind you of absolutely every rule and regulation from now on, Captain" the Selay woman said in a pleasant hiss.

Farenia chuckled softly. "Please don't."

Any further conversation was forestalled by an incoming transmission from spacedock. "Katana, control. We're picking up a distress signal and we're requesting that you render aid. Coordinates and info incoming."

"Roger that Control. We're on our way." Making sure to click that comm line off, Farenia issued new orders. "Helm, set course to the origin of the distress signal, warp nine." Then she busied herself with reviewing the distress signal on her terminal. A smuggling ship? The SS Venture's Bounty was notorious in this area of space and it only spelled trouble if it was transmitting a distress signal.

"Should we sound yellow or red alert?" Dee asked, his hand hovering near the controls should the order be given. He also was ready to bring the shields and other defenses online, wishing he had a bit more time to figure out how badly the new Luna pod would affect his phaser fire radius.

Commander Salacia looked at the Captain, observing her as she read through the information. The Selay spoke up to answer the man. "Yellow alert" responded Salacia. She was First Officer of this starship and her own tactical experience was gnawing at her to answer the man. She felt her decision was the correct one, but she looked at her Captain for approval. "I don't feel going in on red is necessary...yet at least. We should be on an elevated alert and proceed cautiously" offered the Commander.

"Agreed. We're pretty far out anyway." Farenia said as she continued to focus on the distress call.

Dee nodded, instantly pressing the button. The alert panels sprung to life with a sharp yellow glow.

"I wish this was more than an automated distress signal. We could use some information on what we're getting into." Farenia commented, frowning slightly as she stared at her monitor.

"The shields are causing a slight phase variance in the new sensor pod," Arivek stated, pulling up a report on his console. "Shouldn't be anything to worry about. I'm diverting main power back to the primary sensor array just in case."

"Sounds good," Farenia said as she glanced up at the viewscreen. "Let's try and figure out the source of that while we're on our way."

Hayley hated the Intrepid carrying that new sensor pod, it would cause a slight hamper in the Katana's maneuverability due to the extra weight as she increased the ship's speed to warp 9. "We're on course and at Warp 9, captain," she reported.

"Excellent. Steady as she goes." Farenia remarked as she glanced over at Salacia. "Your thoughts Commander?"

Salacia responded by looking at the Captain in return. "Heading in cautiously on yellow alert at warp 9 sounds reasonable. If this truly is a matter of individuals in distress, then, we should inform Sickbay to be ready" offered the female Selay.

"Indeed," Farenia said, nodding and typing out a message to sickbay to be ready.

An Hour Later

Soon the ship was moments from arriving at the location of the distress call, which had long since stopped. There had still been no contact, so the Katana was still en route.

A beep on her console alerted her to the imminent proximity of the Katana to their destination. "We've arrived at the specified coordinates. Dropping us out of warp," she replied as the streaking stars on the view screen stopped and the image of a destroyed ship hull surrounded by floating ship debris surrounded the dead ship.

As the ship left warp and the image of the remains of the Venture's Bounty came onto the viewscreen, Farenia's heart sank. The modified insignia class cargo hauler was little more than a few floating melted pieces of debris. She doubted even the Borg would destroy a ship this thoroughly. "Scan the area for whatever did this and see if there are any lifesigns or escape pods."

Hayley kept the Katana moving and away from the debris as to not interfere with maneuvering or sensor scans. "They must have really pissed someone off," she commented.

"Or had something of value" commented Commander Salacia. The Selay First Officer was mildly disturbed by the sight, the cargo hauler had looked as though it were torn open, ripped as if it were no match for whomever or whatever had done this to them. "Captain Farenia, was there anything of significant value aboard the cargo hauler...anything to merit an attack like this from pirates or raiders?" asked Salacia.

"A known smuggling ship like this would have more than a few enemies. The only way to find out is to see if there's even a backup log left to tell us. If they had gotten off their emergency log probe, we'd have picked it up by now." Farenia said as she stood and took a couple steps forward. "Full sensor sweep for any functional computer equipment, please. And prepare an away team. I'm guessing they'll need EV suits."

Commander Salacia gave a quick nod. "Aye Captain" said the Selya woman as she quickly drafted an away team in her head, running through options. "Ellis, Collins, Chi'ziqis, and sh'Zannar" the Commander said aloud.

Daniel instantly nodded. EV Suits meant bringing along the magnetic phaser rifles. He doubted any surprises had been left behind on that poor ship, but to beam aboard without taking precautions was not his style. Knowing that he'd soon be following the XO off the bridge, Daniel tapped a button he'd programmed to contact Lieutenant Kiska in the event he had to abandon his console. Hopefully she'd get the message quickly to come up to the bridge.

Security Office

Leryssa was still in the Security Office, inspecting the last phaser rifle; However, The light mocha-skinned Bajoran woman didn't get to finish the inspection when the padd that rested on the bench she'd been sitting on, Began buzzing and beeping beside her. Drawing the young woman's attention to it. Picking up the still-buzzing padd, Leryssa thumbed the control, Activating the padd and entered her security code, Effectively ending the buzzing and beeping tones and allowing the message to be displayed on the padd's screen.

Upon reading the message, Leryssa immediately put down the last phaser rifle she'd been inspecting, and stood up to move towards the security office's doors, "I've gotta get up to the bridge. Seems like they need me up there to replace our Chief Security Officer at Tactical while he's on an away mission." She told Marek, "Guess the phaser tests will have to wait a while.." She glanced at him, "Unless you'd like to test them all in the holodeck and record the results of their performance and efficiency for me?"

Marek smiled. "Happy to, see ya later." The Romulan gave a little wave before going to pick up all the weapons, then thought it be better if he put them in a carrier. He went to get one in the armoury section.

A moment later he was putting the rifles and pistols into the carrier then headed to the holodeck.

Daniel stepped into the transporter room and was not surprised to see that he was the first to arrive. Just like the rest of the Away Team, he was required to change into an EV Suit. Even as he put it on, Dee couldn't remember the last time he had to put one on. It had to have been a couple years. Thankfully, he didn't have any trouble putting it on, though he felt it was a little tight around his waist. He'd need to take up some extra running when he came back.

In his left hand, he cradled a powered-down phaser rifle. Hand phasers were too small for a gloved hand, and this rifle was specifically designed for EVA use. Dee sincerely hoped he wouldn't have to use the rifle, but it was a necessary precaution. Hopefully, this would just be a short jaunt focusing just on information gathering.

Second to arrive was the woman leading this away team, the Selay First Officer of the USS Katana, Commander Salacia. She walked into the transporter room with an EV suit already on and a small hand phaser. A tricorder was also present around her waist, strapped and secured in a specialized holster. "Lieutenant" she said addressing the man as she joined him on the transporter pad. "Modifications were necessary for my 'unique' anatomy" the reptilian explained as her helmet piece was shaped differently than Lieutenant Ellis'.

"I see you've brought a rifle" she said, observing the man's choice of weapon. "Good selection" she added with a small smile from within her helmet.

"Good luck holding onto that hand phaser," Dee noted, nodding at the weapon holstered at her waist. "And thank you, Commander." Though his rifle was powered down, he still kept it pointed at the floor.

Salacia smiled in a subtle nature. "Sticky hands make it easier to keep a hold of all things" she replied simply.

Hayley entered with her EVA suit donned and a Type 2 phaser holstered at her waist, wondering why she had been chosen for this Away Mission. They weren't taking a shuttle so she didn't see the need for a helmsman on the mission. She thought back to the conversation she had with her mentor, Ben Hoskins--he had told her that death lurked around every corner for a starfleet crewman or officer. 'Death smiles at everyone. All we can do is smile back,' she recalled his saying. "So am I going to fly something over there or am I here simply for my dashing good looks?" she joked.

"Lieutenant Collins, you are a Starfleet Officer. Your position as a helmsmen does not always dictate your presence on an away team. The departmental color you don on your uniform tells me that you have had necessary command training in your studies and as a helmsmen, you no doubt have some survival training and at least basic level technical training" said Salacia.

"So I'm here for my dashing good looks," Hayley replied with a smile.

"I know I'm not here to look pretty," Dee simply replied. He hadn't interacted with Hayley much, or with anyone else in the crew for that matter.

Environmental suits. Clio didn't know a single person in Starfleet who actually liked the things, but she'd always found them especially bothersome. They were heavy and bulky, huge hulking masses of fabric and armor that were great if you didn't mind moving like a turtle and not being able to feel thing things you were holding in your hands. And fabulous if your work was limited to holding a rifle or poking at a computer terminal. They just didn't work for the sorts of tasks she was usually asked to do. Too heavy and restrictive... and yet Starfleet had rejected every design in recent years that would make environmental suits more friendly to intelligence personnel, insisting that the standard design was more than adequate.

The best Clio could do to make the damned thing workable in any fashion for her was to replicate one with a closer fit to her measurements and as little armor on the gloves as she could legally program for it. The resulting suit was lighter in weight, but still far more restrictive than she liked. Her dislike for the required garment was plain as she joined the team, the compulsory pulse rifle slung over her shoulder but her other more personal armaments cleverly hidden beneath the environmental suit's armored plates.

"If that is everyone" said the Commander as she stood ready on the transporter pad. "Entergize" she commanded as she watched the transporter operator work the controls and the room around her soon begin to fade. Their arrival point was a weird one, but Salacia was ready for it.

The Commander felt herself get a little bit dizzy and disoriented, but she was all together in one piece. Small miracles she told herself. "We have a job, let's get to it!" she ordered.

Hayley materialized to floating debris, weightlessness and staring into the face of a lifeless corpse that had been exposed to space. She let out a startled scream and pushed the corpse away as she stepped backwards.

Dee instantly trained his rifle in the direction of Hayley's scream, and paused when he determined that she'd been startled by a dead person. He activated the light on his rifle and began to shine it around. "Looks like this section fully decompressed before the crew could be sucked out."

Hearing a scream, Clio too had whirled to face whatever threat they'd beamed in to face, only to find nothing but a floating corpse. Rolling her eyes, she looked away from where Dee's light was pointed, peering through the darkness to see several more bodies nearby. "Not sucked. Blown... and regardless of how fast an area decompresses, the bodies should be blown out. Decompression didn't kill them. Loss of life support did."

"Then we certainly shouldn't linger," Dee commented, gently pushing aside a floating corpse. "Someone must have been very interested in this ship, and we should find out why."

"Agreed. We should get moving." Personally, Clio wanted to know what was so important that these unknown assailants had killed an entire ship's crew.

Commander Salacia was in agreement. "Onward we go, ladies and gentlemen" she said shaking her head. "Whatever sparked their interest in this ship, hopefully we can find some clues as to why."

"The bridge should be this way," Dee remarked, stepping to the front to lead the way. If there were any surprises, he'd make damned sure that the XO wouldn't be on the receiving end. As they journeyed deeper into the ship, past more floating bodies and debris, their surroundings seemed to get darker and darker. Finally, they arrived at the bridge. A console or two flickered, but damage, debris, bodies, and blood floated everywhere around them. It seemed that there was indeed a story to tell.

As Dee moved to the front, Clio quietly slipped to the rear to cover the team from there. It seemed everyone on this ship was dead, but she wasn't about to take the chance on letting someone sneak up on them.

"Let's get what we came for and get out of here," Dee said, beginning to walk around the bridge to check for anything that could harm the team.

Salacia nodded in full agreement. She followed Dee cautiously "Let's get this over with. The sooner I am out of this suit, the better. I feel like a live sardine stuck in a can" she commented, shaking her head. "Whoever thought space walks would be fun was surely mistaken."

That's when the bridge's ready room door slid open silently, casting an eerie blue glow around the room and revealing something so alien it was hard to tell what it was. It was generally humanoid, but with the gangly legs and arms, it would be close to ten feet tall if it stood upright. It was also completely composed of blue plasma energy. It was definitely hostile though, as it raised one energy tentacle arm and fired some blue energy bolts at the away team, thankfully missing with the first few shots.

"Get down!" Dee shouted, squeezing off a shot from his rifle before glancing back to see where the XO and the rest of the Away Team were. To give them more time to hide, Dee took aim at the creature's tentacles, looking to disarm it rather than kill it. He fired a shot of heavy stun to see if it would have any effect.

Hayley ducked behind a console as a plasma burst narrowly missed her and struck the bulkhead next to her, leaving a deep scar in the process.

When Dee yelled for everyone to get down, Clio had already dived to the deck, neatly rolling into a well-shielded nook beneath a science console near the rear of this ship's bridge. Concealed and well-covered, she refrained from firing - or even speaking - as she peered out at the strange blue plasma being. In twenty-five years of service, she'd never seen anything like it. But they had come here to get information. Rather than venture back out into where everyone was fighting, she pried a panel off he bottom of the console and quietly plucked some wires free, using a little of the black ops 'magic' she'd learned over the years to wire her tricorder directly into the ship's computer.

The blue being was struck several times and while it looked like it was able to absorb the first couple hits, the next one after that actually blew a part of it into fading plasma streams. By this time it was leaking energy and starting to dissolve, but it was still able to shoot at the away team.

Dee managed to dodge another blast sent in his direction, but at least it seemed he was successful in drawing its fire. Keeping his posture still, Dee continued to fire quick shots, targeting all the while the tentacles which emitted the blasts directed towards the Away Team. One of his shots in particular passed right through the creature, blackening the bulkheads behind it.

Clio yelped as a bolt of blue energy slammed into the console next to the one she'd hacked into, a shower of sparks raining over her. The EV suit would keep them from burning her, but that didn't make it any less unnerving! She scooted a few inches away from where the bolt had landed, checking the progress of her information dump as she did so. "I need five more minutes! Keep that thing busy!"

The away team had that time. After another hit from the away team's phasers, the energy being sort of exploded, the fragments dissolving quickly.

"Who's got a tricorder?" Dee asked instantly. He hadn't brought one as he just performed his task, protecting the Away Team. Dee just hated he had to "kill" a new lifeform before getting a chance to say hello.

"Mine's hooked into this console," Clio responded in a mildly apologetic tone. Already, the plasma fragments were disappearing, and if she disconnected the tricorder, she'd lose everything.

"Collins? Commander?" Dee asked, shedding his cover and standing. He planned to visit the ready room to see if their attacker had any friends hiding inside.

There weren't any friends, but there was a sort of escape pod looking thing that had stabbed in through the hull and lodged itself in the ready room, crushing the desk beneath it. Now that its pilot was dead, it too was starting to disintegrate, bleeding off into the EPS system.

"Whoa," Dee commented, regretting bringing only arms at this point. "Tricorder!" he called out. But, he didn't need a tricorder to tell something wasn't right with the pod looking thing that had punctured the hull. There was an odd, almost fluctuating glow to it. If Dee could hear what was outside his EVA suit in the vacuum that commanded their environment, he'd swear that he could hear a whine or a pulse.

Clio's tricorder beeped, signalling that its information dump into the Katana's computer was finished. She quickly disconnected it and slid out from underneath the console, getting to her feet in a less than graceful manner. Dee's tone had indicated that he needed that tricorder rather quickly, but she wasn't going to be able to cross the bridge in that time, judging by how quickly the first creature had vanished. So she tossed it toward him instead, watching as it bounced and then skidded to a stop near his feet.

"Thanks," Dee said to the Intel Chief as he knelt down to scoop up the tricorder. His gloved hand made it difficult to manipulate the device, but he was able to activate it and begin scanning. "What the...?" he muttered. "The lifeform and the vessel is based upon some sort of energy..." He was the Chief of Security, not the Chief of Science, so he wasn't able to make heads or tails out of what he was seeing. They had to get this back to the Katana's computers.

As if on cue, the speakers inside his EVA suit were activated and the transporter chief's voice came through. "Away Team, stand by for immediate evac." Before any other further reactions could be made, the blue transporter beam caught the Away Team and translated them out of the derelict ship and back to the Katana.

Farenia had been monitoring the away team from the center seat when something popped up on sensors. Some sort of plasma energy signature approaching at high warp. Sensors also showed a single lifesign inside that plasma. "What in the hell..." she muttered right before it popped out of warp right in front of them. Standing, she took a few steps towards the viewscreen as what appeared to be a miniature sun had just warped in right in front of them. "Full sensors." was all she got out just before it sent out a shock wave, washing over the area and striking both ships hard, scorching both and rocking them hard.

"Plasma waves of unknown configuration, Captain. It's polarized our hull." One ensign called out. "They're charging another attack. This one looks a lot bigger."

Now back in her chair, Farenia was calling out orders. "Get the away team back here, now. Shields up. Red alert. Prepare a full spread of torpedoes."

"Away team is aboard, Captain." Another ensign called out, moving to the Operations station.

"Torpedoes armed and ready, Captain." came the call from Tactical.

"Fire," Farenia called out, prompting the release of six photons from the underbelly of the ship. The plasma entity swallowed them up and seemed to just grow stronger for it, but then the colors in the plasma shifted and it vomited out another wave of plasma energy. "All hands, brace for impact." she called, moments before the wave hit them, knocking the ship around a lot worse than before and breaking the derelict ship into pieces.

< Corridor outside Transporter Room >

The senior officers had ran off back to the Bridge, Marek, Khai and Bennen took a moment to orientate themselves before making their way to their duty stations. "Everyone okay?" Marek asked the other non senior officers after the impact had thrown them all to the floor.

< Bridge >

"Direct hit," Arivek called from the Engineering Station. "Port Hull section A through F is weakening, our shields are down. Nothing wrong with the systems, Captain, they just can't create a stable bubble."

"What's the status of engines? Can we get out of here?" Farenia requested, not sure they had any further options but to run. On the viewscreen, the plasma thing was building for another blast.

"Engines are fine, but I doubt we'll be able to create a stable warp field." Arivek ran a system test, "Impulse should be good to go."

"Helm, get us out of here, best speed. Evasive pattern tango delta three. Commander Zhuri, warp power as soon as possible please." Farenia ordered, the plasma thing firing again as the ship turned and headed away as best they could.

Before anyone else could reply, a squealing noise came over the intercom and an unknown language started being spewed from it. One bit kept being repeated though - it sounded like Drej, whatever that meant. Farenia held on tight to her chair as the next volley of plasma energy hit them. "Start work on translating that and get us out of here."

At the helm, the officer there was struggling to get them away, the impulse engines now partially offline. From one of the back Operations stations, another Ensign called out. "One more hit like that and we risk catastrophic systems failures."

"Commander Arivek, warp speed, please." Farenia called out, her nails now digging into her chair.

Arivek nodded without looking up from his console. "I'm going to have to take the shields offline," he said. "Rerouting the warp field projects through the shield projects." A few moments passed until the screen chirped a happy little chirp. "We've got them! Go now!"

Farenia sighed with relief as the viewscreen turned into the star streaks of warp speed. "Warp factor three, Captain. No signs of pursuit." came the call from the helm.

"Commander, I'll need repair estimates and possible countermeasures as soon as possible." Farenia said, pulling her fingernails out of her chair's arm rests.

"You'll have them within the hour," Arivek stated as he stood and headed for the turbolift.

The doors opened in front of the Chief Engineer, permitting Lieutenant Ellis, still clad in his EVA suit, to enter the bridge. "What happened?" he asked, moving to take his station. Dee started to take off his gloves so he could better work the controls if needed.

Clio was close behind Ellis, nimbly slipping past him to her station despite the bulk of their EVA suits. Reviewing the sensor data, she couldn't make much sense of it. "What the hell is that thing?"

"That's what I want to know. Start language analysis and see if they at least identified themselves." Farenia demanded as she filtered through damage reports.

Dee pulled up the sensor logs for himself. "Whoa," he muttered, not recognizing at all what he was seeing. He immediately echoed the Intelligence Officer's sentiments.

"I'm not sure this is a language." Nothing the strange ships had sent registered as words when displayed as text, so Clio pulled an earpiece from a storage box on her EVA suit, placing it in her ear to listen to the recordings without subjecting the entire bridge crew to whatever sounds this species had made. Greeted by what sounded like screeches and clicks rather than words, she listened carefully, modulating the signal and seeking out any sort of variances within the tones.


< Engineering >

At this time Bennen had made it to his duty station and was working on the shields along with other systems. "What the hell!" He cursed as he saw the emitters were online and the shield bubble should be deployed. He tried remodulating them, no effect well for the frequencies he was trying. "I hope the chief's on his way down here." He muttered.

Arivek grumbled to himself as three different system reports were handed to him at the same time. He took them and glanced over each of them. So far, none of them had good news. Whatever was out there, whatever hit them, it left the ship in a world of hurt.

"I still haven't received a status on the warp engines," he called out, unsure of what team he tasked that to.

Walking towards the Warp Core, he threw the PADDs down on a nearby console. The Ensign knowingly took the PADDs and deleted their contents, placing them back in storage for the next use.

Arivek leaned on the railing and sighed. Today was not going very well.

The man turned as he turned the doors of Main Engineering open with a swish. And his annoyance level grew the moment he saw Captain Meowlith walk through the doorway.

"Captain, how can I help you?" he asked, taking a few steps towards her.

"Commander, I came down personally for a status update on our engines. From the look on your face, I'm betting you don't have good news." Farenia said as she stoically walked up to the man. "Do you have any good news at all?"

"I would rather you not ask me that right now," Arivek stated as he was handed yet another PADD. More bad news.

"When would you rather I ask then?" Farenia asked simply.

How about never, Arivek thought to himself as he glanced at the PADD. With a sigh, he handed it to the Ensign behind the console to recycle it. "Honestly, I don't know, Captain. Weapons are minimal, we have no shields, the bussard collectors overloaded and the plasma coils ran so hot that they warped the hull around the pylons. At this point, I can't get them to move and if they aren't in an upright position, I can't give you a stable warp field."

Another crewman handed the Chief Engineer a status report. "Oh, great," the hologram said, throwing his hands in the air. "Apparently the magnetic constrictors reversed polarity and threw the dilithium matrix out of alignment. With that off, I can only keep us on main power for a few hours before we'll have to revert to emergency reserves."

Farenia knew better than to offer to help - the rest of the ship needed her as well and her place was to oversee the whole ship. She still felt like Arivek was being overwhelmed though. "Please place a priority on keeping power on. Do you want me to have Ops send over some more bodies? I think security has a few engineering augmentees as well."

Arivek hesitated for a moment as he thought about it. "Yes, actually that would be great. My crew is working as fast as they can, but there's only so much we can do at one time, and we're on a time crunch."

Walking over to an engineering console, Farenia logged in and pulled up the duty roster, sending out the orders to activate all engineering augmentees in both security and operations. "You should have thirteen more people within half an hour. Is there anything else I can do to help?"

"I know you're busy but," Arivek groaned internally. "I could use a more experienced Engineer to assist with aligning the dilithium matrix. If you have the time?"

Farenia paused a moment, thinking. "I don't know the systems on the Katana half as well as you do and most of my career was working with older mark 9 warp cores, but if you need me I have time."

"The Mark 12 cores are different, but dilithium matrices aren't very unusual from each other," Arivek stated as he grabbed an Engineering kit. "The problem is, they're a very sensitive system, so it's not something taught at the Academy. Most training is on-the-job specific and all of my department who had that experience has been transferred. I haven't had the chance to train anyone yet. And now is not the time for training."

"That was an issue we had on the Lusanka. We couldn't keep anyone well trained in the centaur class long enough." Farenia said as she followed Arivek over to the dilithium chamber. "Every six months half our plasma injectors would depolarize for no reason and we'd have to spend hours training people just to get them online."

Arivek opened the hatch that led down to where the dilithium matrix was housed and slid down into the jeffries tube. "That sounds like a hassle. With an ongoing issue with that system, I'm surprised the Captain didn't fight to keep trained Engineers on staff."

"Being an escort for a podunk starbase put us at a pretty low priority. Most of our crew were often pulled for other duties elsewhere in the fleet for months at a time. Even I spent half my assignment on loan to Intel." Farenia explained as she followed Arivek into the tubes. "Besides, over three years, we had eight different commanding officers. We lacked continuity on all levels."

"We've had a similar issue on the Katana," Arivek stated, stepping aside for Farenia to join him where the dilithium matrix was housed. "Once Captain Kerouac was removed from Command, we haven't had much in the way of stabilization here either. I'm one of two remaining senior staff officers from that time period." There was a sadness in Arivek's voice as he spoke of the old crew of the Katana. Those who endured the trip from their own universe with him.

Popping open the magnetic restrictors casing, Farenia kept chatting, checking the diagnostic readouts as she did so."I had read reports on this ship having traveled from another version of reality. It's sad how everyone was split up like that. On the bright side, your friends have advanced this reality's understanding of many subjects, as I've heard. Perhaps someday soon even you can be reassigned if you'd like."

"Maybe someday," Arivek stated, running his fingers along the side of the matrix housing. "I rather enjoy being on the Katana though. It's like...home."

Farenia noticed that look and knew it well. She'd felt the same about the Lusanka after a while. Smiling, she brought them back to the task at hand. "So can we repolarize the restrictors while the core is online? only half of them report to be reversed."

Arivek nodded, "Yea, should be fine. Once they're polarized, we need to make sure their polarity remains stable so as not to pull the matrix off kilter again. Once they've been stabilized, we can get to the dilithium matrix."

Farenia started the procedure to repolarize the first one. Thankfully this was one procedure she knew by heart and should be the same as her other ships. "That's one done. Point zero zero zero 3 - well within tolerances but let's see if it drifts."

"Nice job, Captain," Arivek said with a smile. "I have restrictor number two completed. Point zero zero zero four. I'm glad to have someone on board who knows how to do this."

"So am I," Farenia returned, flashing the blue man a smile. "Number seven isn't accepting the repolarization. I'm starting a diagnostic on it."

"We don't have much time. If the diagnostic is inconclusive or shows a larger problem with the restrictor, I'd rather just swap it out for a new one and keep it pushing." Arivek waved a circular instrument over the next restrictor in his queue. "This one is polarized. Just one to go."

"Do we have any in stock? Diagnostics report that it's cracked internally." Farenia reported, the diagnosic scrolling on the tiny screen.

"We do, actually," Arivek said as he sent a message back to his assistant to bring a new one down. "Actually, the Intrepid Class carries an inventory that includes the parts to construct an entirely new warp core if needed. So I'll just take one from the back-stock and we'll have it replaced when we resupply next."

Farenia started the procedure of removing the broken restrictor, soon having pulled it from the housing with a small force field taking its place for the time being. "That's good to know. I'll expect miracles from you in the future. You know, I had to replace one of these at warp four once. Don't ever look in there when you're at warp - you can go blind."

"I have a feeling that even being near it would cause my matrix to destabilize." Arivek chuckled but then realized that this woman most likely wasn't aware that he was a hologram.

"I hadn't thought about that..." Farenia muttered, her curiosities about Arivek resurfacing. "Your file says you're a holographic copy of a real person or something. I'll admit that I didn't understand half of it, but as far as I'm concerned, you're as real of a person as anyone else aboard. I am curious though... Do you sleep?"

"No I don't," Arivek said in reply, taking the part that his assistant had just delivered. "I will deactivate myself for a few hours. Andy said it would be good for stabilizing my matrix each night. But other than that, I do not sleep."

"That sounds like every captain's dream. A Chief Engineer that never sleeps." Farenia said with a wry smile and a shake of her head as she prepped the socket for the new part. "Don't let me take advantage of that though. Especially if we run into those energy beings again. Ok, it's ready for the new one."

Arivek moved forward and slid the new part into place. "Don't worry, Captain. I know when I'm not to be bothered," he said with a smile.

Running a quick alignment on the new part, Farenia nodded. "Point zero zero zero. Can't get better than that."

"The beauty of brand new equipment. Give it time, it'll fall in line with the rest." Now that the magnetic constrictors were all aligned, it was time to tackle the dilithium matrix. "Does it make you uncomfortable?" he asked, a bit surprised at himself that he voiced such a question.

Farenia shook her head. "Considering this looks like a totally different alignment system, I should be, but I think I'm more relieved. I'm used to pulling the whole drawer out and rough tuning it enough that the fine tuners could take over."

"I meant about me," Arivek said.

Farenia looked at Arivek curiously. "Why would you make me nervous?"

"I've had my fair share of odd looks around the ship. When my program was first installed, quite a few people had a hard time adjusting to it." Arivek began to scan the matrix. "Every time we get a new group of people on board, it happens."

"I'm sorry about that. You would think that members of Starfleet would be used to great diversity." Farenia said, running through the diagnostics still on the screen.

"Holographic rights are still quite polarized in the Federation. If it weren't for the specific nature of my past, I wouldn't be allowed to serve in Starfleet as an officer."

"Not surprising. The EMH on this ship is about four years more advanced than the current Federation model. I can only imagine how far from that you are, being a copy of a real person." Farenia stated. "Plus you brought an android with you. She's moved things forward by years just being here.

Arivek smiled, "And I miss her like crazy. Her and her wife were instrumental in my development."

"I hope you get the chance to see them again soon." Farenia said, smiling back. "I have to admit that I'd love to meet them as well."

"They were...impressive," the hologram stated. He began to get a bit choked up as he remembered the gift Maica gave him. Her own holographic imager that would allow him to leave the security of holographic emitters for short periods of time. He sighed and cleared his throat, "Anyway, I need you to reset the gyrodine relays on the matrix while I sync the particle emitters."

Starting the reset, Farenia was done pretty quickly. "These reset pretty fast..." She wanted to say something more about the couple, but she honestly only knew what was in the official reports so it was difficult.

"Luckily, they do. The particle emitters are now in sync." Arivek took out a tricorder and scanned the system. "I think we're ready. We just need to do a system reboot of the monitoring algorithms for them to acknowledge that the matrix is realigned. Once the system recognizes it, we should be good to go."

"Excellent. Unfortunately I'll have to get back to the bridge soon. We're having a staff meeting in a couple hours and I'll need you there." Farenia said checking the status readouts one last time.

Arivek nodded, "I should be able to handle the rest. Thank you for your assistance, Captain." The two officers climbed out of the junction they were in and found themselves back in Main Engineering.

"I also have this." Arivek picked up a PADD a nearby Ensign was working on and handed it to the woman. "This the repair schedule. It's been updated to take into account the extra hands you've allocated. We should have no issues remaining to this."

"Thank you, Commander," Farenia took a look at the schedule, committing the important parts to memory before handing it back. "And thanks for the chance to get my hands dirty. It's been far too long."

Arivek smiled at the woman, "You're welcome anytime."

The Katana had hidden in the shadow of an ice giant to conduct repairs and analysis on this new enemy and while Farenia wasn't happy about it, it seemed they had little to go on so far. This meeting would determine their next course of action and with any luck, Lt Clio had at least been able to figure something out about them.

Walking into the conference room, Farenia nodded to those assembled and took her seat. What's the status of repairs. Will our shields hold next time?"

"Repairs are still holding to the schedule I sent you earlier today," Arivek stated in reply. He looked at the PADD in his hands. "As for the shields, I can't promise until I know more about what it was they were hitting us with."

"If it's anything like what we encountered on that ship," Dee added, happy to have been freed from his EVA suit, "then it's some kind of energy. We encountered a lifeform on the vessel," he explained. "It attacked us on the bridge with some kind of energy pulse. It seemed to absorb phaser fire for a bit, but I was able to damage it before we beamed back."

Arivek became slightly annoyed, "If you have sensor data, that would have been great to have a few hours ago," he said to the man. "I need to know what we're dealing with."

Nodding, Farenia addressed the entire room. "What do we know about these energy beings? Do they have a language we can translate? Can we reason with them? Other than plasma energies, what are they? How can we defend against them?"

Someday, commanding officers would learn that five questions at a time was far too many if they wanted detailed answers. "All good questions, but unfortunately I don't have so many answers as you might like." Clio slid a PaDD onto the table, one which contained all of her notes so far. "They do have a language, which the computer is still analyzing. It's not one I'm likely to be able to learn... it's highly unusual. Which also means it will be difficult to reason with them." Clio knew that no one wanted to hear such news as 'there is not much we can do', but she couldn't offer much else. "We were able to hold one off with phasers, but it was alone. If it had friends... we likely wouldn't have made it back."

"So they can be killed at least? Can we formulate a defense?" Farenia insisted.

Clio stared at Farenia for a moment, wondering just who she'd been talking to less than a minute ago. "I don't know. We killed one of their soldiers, with sustained phaser fire from three directions at once. Come up with a way to do that with an Intrepid class starship, and we might have a chance with one of their ships. Besides, if you read my report, you'll find that we mostly saw that phaser fire pass straight through the thing. I doubt even Lieutenant Ellis could tell you what it was that he hit when the alien was destroyed."

"Lieutenant Clio is correct," Dee confirmed. "By the time we could get a tricorder on it, the creature had completely dissipated."

"It's Lieutenant Eneas." Twenty-five years - twenty-nine if you included the academy - and people were still getting it wrong, and Clio's frustration with that fact was rather readily apparent.

Dee's gaze fixated on the Intelligence Chief for a few moments. An expression of surprise was not on his face, but to him, she appeared human. He was not aware of her heritage, much less her species' customs. "We didn't get much of a chance to study the creature during the attack," Dee stressed. "We were providing cover fire while Lieutenant Eneas was downloading the ship's logs."

Someone remind me to promote her. Farenia thought as she interlocked her hands in front of her to hide a smirk. "Regardless, we need at least some form of shielding that works against these things. Would infusing the metaphasic shields with antiproton particles help any?"

"Maybe. It works for defending against Romulan plasma weapons." Clio wasn't a scientist or a tactical specialist, but plasma was plasma. It all acted basically the same, as far as her experience could tell her. "I guess it can't hurt to try." While no one in the room looked actively surprised by her sudden - and possibly a little too vehement - correction of Dee's honest mistake, she did think she felt some confusion in the room. Her right hand went to her ear, finding it covered by her hair. Oh, right. Quietly, she tucked her hair back to reveal the delicate Vulcanoid point atop that ear. She knew she probably ought to apologize, but the conversation needed to move forward.

Clio's action did not go unnoticed by Dee. The pointed ear told him more than her words could, but it still left him wondering more about her people. He made a note to do some studying when he got the chance. Turning back to the conversation at hand, Dee said, "Antiprotons are a good first step. I can also look into modulating the phaser arrays."

"I wouldn't recommend that just yet," Arivek stated, his annoyance with the new senior staff members was beginning to mount. "With the state we're in, an antiproton burst could destabilize the power grid."

"And another attack from that alien ship could destroy the ship itself," Dee fired back at the Chief Engineer, ignoring their respective ranks for a moment.

"You're both right. And we have to do something before those things come back and blow us out of the sky." Clio let out a frustrated breath, leaning forward on the table. She'd been listening to that Drej gibberish for a good while before this briefing, and her head was still throbbing despite an ill-advised double dose of hydrocortilene. So she paused for a moment before looking up at Arivek, the one person in the room she couldn't read except for his tone of voice. "Metaphasic shielding of some sort is our best option against plasma-based weaponry. Only one in this room who can get that done is you, so I suppose we're open to suggestions."

Arivek stared at the woman. So far he was not a fan of the way she spoke to people, including both himself and the Chief Tactical Officer. "I see no reason we can't do the upgrade during our repairs." Ari looked at the Captain, "Shouldn't put us behind on the repair schedule either."

"The Katana is the same class as Voyager, and Voyager managed to adapt their shields to metaphasic shielding while trapped in the Delta Quadrant with far less resources than we have available to us. It shouldn't require an actual upgrade... the hardware is capable of it. It's the system that needs programming." Clio didn't care for the way Arivek was staring at her, and frankly she didn't care if he liked her or not either. She'd been in Starfleet long enough to learn that people weren't going to like her, regardless of how likable she'd tried to be in the past.

Hayley shook her head in disbelief. The assembled group sounded more like bickering children than senior officers aboard a Starfleet vessel. She felt tired, as she imagined they all did. "You all sound like a bunch of children," Hayley pipped up. "Arguing won't solve anything." She looked at the captain. "We need time for the spook to analyze the data from our encounter. I can help Arivek down in engineering with repairs and the upgrades needed. Until then, we should run at low power status to help us remain undetected with sensors in passive mode."

The First Officer finally broke her silence on the matter "I am in full agreement with Lieutenant Collins. Squabbling and arguing in this fashion will not get us anywhere. We must examine all the resources we have on hand, the resources that we can easily acquire, and work together to find solutions to the problems we face" she said calmly.

"The USS Katana may be an Intrepid class just as the USS Voyager was. However, our most major difference is the Voyager made heavy use of Borg technology for about half their time in the Delta Quadrant. They also had a large compliment of Maquis crew. Gorilla warfare and resistance fighter tactics all aided the crew of the Voyager. Perhaps, that is something to take into consideration?" offered Salacia.

Arivek sat back, ignoring what the First Officer was saying regarding gorilla warfare. "I've already examined the resources and I've already agreed that the shield modifications are fine to do." He looked back at the Intel officer. "So how about we drop the attitude, Lieutenant. As I stated, the shields will be reprogrammed as you've asked. Is there anything else I can do for you?"

Commander Salacia looked at the Chief Engineer. "I don't know about anyone at this table, but you could do me something and leave your attitude in Engineering" the Selay First Officer said. "Your previous First Officers may have allowed you to speak in that tone whenever you felt like it, but I will not."

Arivek mulled over what the woman said for a few moments. But in the end decided now was not the time to have an argument with the XO, so he remained quiet.

"I've heard no squabbling, nor fighting. Just people blaming others for it. That stops now." Farenia said as she leaned forward, her hands clasped on the table. "This is a constructive discussion and heated or not, it's a lot more productive than I had hoped. We're all tired and on edge, so I expect some harsh words, but the entire crew of an insignia class smuggling ship was slaughtered for unknown reasons and we almost were as well and that... That doesn't sit well with me. We had an agent aboard that ship." Farenia paused a moment to let that sink in. "Any chance we have of living rather than being turned into slag is a chance I'll take. Now, If we still had an Operations Chief, I'd set them on the task of reprogramming the systems. As it is, Lieutenant Commander Eneas, I'll need you to fill that position for the time being. Work with Commander Arivek on that and coordinate manpower in Operations accordingly." Then she realized she'd not quite promoted Clio yet. Oh well. Might as well do it anyway. "And see me after this meeting - you're out of uniform."

"I've done Operations work a few times under- wait, what?" Clio blinked, stunned momentarily into silence. "That... won't be a problem."

"Excellent. Now does anyone else have anything constructive to add?" Farenia asked, looking around the room meaningfully. After a few seconds with no response, Farenia stood up. "Then you're all dismissed. Everyone have some wine and get back to work. That's what i'll be doing at least..." And with that, she walked out of the briefing room.

Very rarely did a lieutenant in Starfleet remain that rank so long as Clio had, but she'd long ago given up hope for any further promotions. She'd stayed with Starfleet because it was the life she knew, not because she expected any further advancement. Now, she was concerned that this might all be an elaborate joke. She didn't know Farenia very well, and she certainly didn't think she'd done much to impress anyone on this ship. In fact, she was pretty sure she'd pissed them all off and wasn't well liked. So she didn't have high hopes of this being real when she went to meet Farenia in the ready room. Never a fan of waiting around on the bridge with people staring at her, she jabbed the door bell button with her finger as soon as she was within reach.

"Come in," Called Farenia, prompting the door to open. "Excellent! I've been expecting you. Please, have a seat." She was sitting at her desk with a small black box and several PaDDs in front of her - most of them with clearance locks flashing and the information displayed for all to see.

Clio gave the array of PaDDs a somewhat reproachful look, though she didn't say anything about it. It was just a pet peeve of hers when people unlocked the PaDDs and left them unsecured like that. Information could be so easily stolen; she'd taken advantage of enough non-Federation captains who did the same when she was undercover. Her gaze lingered briefly on that tiny black box, which at least made the idea of a promotion more concrete. Still, she was hesitant and tentative as she sat down, not entirely sure she believed it quite yet.

"I've been reviewing your classified records and found some very interesting things." Farenia said, locking a couple of the PaDDs and picking one up to read on it some more. "Do you know what I've discovered?"

"I'm sure you've discovered a lot of things." None of them good, Clio suspected. "I'm a murderer, a serial hacker, and - occasionally - a drug dealer. I've been responsible for coups and riots on multiple planets. Hell, I've participated in interrogation sessions that clearly amounted to torture." Granted, the torture sessions hadn't been her idea and she'd resisted them, even in the SERE camp where it was all supposedly play-acting. "I'm not the sort of person Starfleet wants to admit is in their service."

"Neither am I, really..." Farenia muttered. "I was impressed with your work with the Paragus 3 fiasco. I was there as well and I can't think of any way it could have been worse." Sliding the PaDD she had been holding over to Clio, she picked up another one and started looking it over. On that PaDD was a combined report of all accounts and towards the top were both of their names.

Wordless at the moment, Clio picked up the PaDD that had been slid over to her. Sure enough, right at the top it read Eneas Clio, Farenia Meowlith, along with a handful of other names. "We'll I'll be damned. I never thought I'd actually meet any of the other operatives who were at Paragus during that mess."

"It's a small galaxy after all." Setting that PaDD down, Farenia reached for the small black box. "Eneas Clio, due to what I consider meritorious service in the line of duty under insane circumstances, I hereby promote you to the rank of Lieutenant Commander with all the rights and responsibilities thereof." With that, she opened the box and slid it across the desk to Clio. "You have my congratulations and condolences."

"You were serious." Feeling a bit shell-shocked, Clio picked up the tiny box and looked into it. Resting inside was a solitary black pip, one she'd become pretty sure she was never going to see. "Thank you. It's been a long time since anyone cared to value the work I do."

"That's normal in the Intel field. I'm just lucky to have been an Engineer and Operations officer for a lot of it." Farenia replied. She too knew a thing or two about redacted information and the lack of recognition that goes along with it.

"Doesn't mean I have to like it." Still a little shocked, Clio took the little black pip out of its box, slowly affixing it to her collar beside the two gold ones already there.

"This is true. Hopefully you won't have to much longer though." Farenia said with a sly grin. "Do you have any questions for me?"

Clio shook her head slightly, somehow keeping from wincing at the increased ripples of headache pain that still wouldn't go away. "Not at the moment, but if I have any I'm sure I'll be able to find you."

Farenia nodded at that, noticing the increased pain Clio seemed to be in. "Yeah I generally don't wander too far. Do you need anything for that headache?"

"I already took two doses of hydrocortilene, but I appreciate your concern." Clio hadn't thought she'd been that obvious, but she also wasn't used to working with someone who shared her background in intelligence either. "I'll be fine."

"Fair enough, but if you need anything under the table, let me know. I have a few things I'm not supposed to." Farenia replied. "If there's nothing else, you're dismissed. Let me know if you find a way to communicate with these things."

"You'll be the first to know." With nothing further to add to the conversation, Clio quietly left the room.

After her quick meeting with Farenia that had culminated in a surprise promotion, Clio wasted little time in getting down to main engineering to see what she could do about helping Arivek reprogram the shields. With her, she carried a PaDD with the details of an old Romulan program, the one that the Enterprise-D and Voyager had used to produce metaphasic shielding. She still had every confidence that the Katana and its engineering team could duplicate the results, but she wasn't quite sure how Arivek was going to feel about Farenia shoving them together to work on this project. She hadn't been able to get any sort of 'reading' from him during the briefing, so she didn't know if she was walking into a hostile situation or not.

Engineering was a busy place when she arrived, with most people who passed her by only giving a cursory glance to her collar. No one challenged her presence, but no one offered any help either, leaving her to find Arivek on her own in a sea of gold-collared uniforms.

"You seem lost, Lieutenant," Arivek said as he whisked on by the woman. He went straight for the warp core diagnostic station and initiated a level 3 self-diagnostic subroutine.

"Hardly. I do know my way around an engine room, and it's lieutenant commander now if you don't mind." Even without any of the usual telepathic background information, Clio could tell that Arivek didn't like her, but she didn't need him to like her. She was only here because Farenia had told her to help with the shields. At least she knew now that this was, indeed, an unfriendly environment at the moment. Following him over to the diagnostic station, she held the PaDD out for him, with the Sunseed file already open. "Captain Meowlith did tell me to help you, and since I don't have the exact calculations used on the Enterprise-D or on Voyager, I thought you might like to see the original source material. Unless you'd prefer to do it from scratch, which will take a helluva lot longer." She didn't like him any more than he liked her, but she was careful to keep her tone as neutral as possible.

Arivek gave the woman the side-eye before looking down at the PADD she was holding out to him. After a few moments of no movement, he finally reached out and took the PADD, gently. "I'm not a fan of non-Engineers poking around in the ship's systems," he said, absently, glancing through the document. "I've been on this ship for quite a while and no one knows her better than I do."

"I have engineering cross-training. Did you really think Captain Meowlith would send me down here if I didn't have at least some clue what I was doing?" Clio understood not liking to have other departments poking around in your territory. If Farenia hadn't specifically told her to help, she'd have just sent the file via the computer.

"Whether you have experience or not, you're still not part of my department, part of my team." Arivek grumbled for a moment.

Clio looked at him for a few seconds, starting to wonder if all of this abrasive 'go away' attitude really just came down to that. "Your team isn't familiar with Sunseed. I am, and when we're finished installing and tweaking the program to fit, I will happily go back to my little cave of an office to catch up on the mountains of actual intelligence work that need to be done. Because I don't have a team, nor do I have anyone on this ship with the appropriate training to help me. Now, are we going to start working on this or would you like to glare at me some more and hope I disappear?"

Arivek looked up from the PADD, trying to decide whether to put this officer in her place or not. She certainly didn't have the rank to talk to him like that, though he was being a bit mean. "If you could disappear without me having to waste my time glaring, that'd be splendid." Arivek rolled his eyes as he brushed past her. "How many people do you need?" he called over his shoulder as he stepped into his office.

"Yeah it would be nice if people just vanished when we didn't want them around, wouldn't it?" Those words had stung a bit, and there was a definite depressive tone to Clio's response. "I don't need anyone until the program has been loaded into the shielding system, and even then I could probably figure out how to tweak and tune the program without anyone else's input. But I did think it would be nice to have some help from the ship's engineering expert so I could get it done faster." And go back to where there was no one wishing she'd go away.

Arivek poked his head out of his office door, "Are you coming or what?" he asked, starting to get more annoyed.

Clio had come as far as the door by that point, taking half a step back when Arivek poked his head back out. "That was the plan." She actually wasn't so sure she wanted to be in a small office space with him at this point. He wasn't very friendly.

Arivek went back into the office and sat down behind his desk. "We'll upload the program here. My console has global access to all of the consoles on the ship, so it'll make it easier. That way we don't have to pop over to a bunch of different ones." Behind the man sat a massive MSD of the ship, mirroring the one found on the Bridge. With a press of the button on his desk, a screen rose from the mahogany wood top. "Once it's loaded, what's the next step?"

"Reconfiguring the calculations to match the specific emitters and the dimensions of the shields when they're online." Clio's voice went a little dull and somewhat muted as she realized they were going to practically be on top of each other working on the same console, but she joined him at the desk anyway, though she chose to stand rather than sit. "And we'll have to test it, though I'm not sure how we can do that without leaving the nebula."

"We're definitely not testing them in this nebula," Arivek said, allowing his annoyance to come through his voice. "Even the regular shields could interact negatively with the gasses in this nebula and run the risk of overloading the EPS relay network. But if you really want to do that, I'll run up to the Captain right now and let her know."

"That was the point I was trying to make. I'm not an idiot, and this isn't my first proto-star nebula. I'm well aware of the dangers they pose, but we also can't leave the nebula until we have a chance at surviving a second attack from that alien ship." Clio reached over and detached the datachip she'd taped to the PaDD Arivek now held, plugging it into the console's chip interface. After a moment, an on-screen prompt came up... written in Romulan. "Well. I can read it, but I'd rather have it in English." With a quick glance at the console's working surface, she tied in the universal translator, and the text on the screen shifted to say Loading... before it flashed to Sunseed Initialization.

Arivek looked at the woman like she was a complete idiot. "I know what the fuck you were saying, Eneas. I was merely pointing out how redundant it was to tell the Chief Engineer about a potential risk to the ship systems." Arivek sighed as he tapped at the console. "It's uploading the algorithms now."

"I have had about enough of your attitude," Clio snapped back at him. "What I was looking for was a suggestion as to how we can test the damned thing, not a lecture about how you already know how dangerous nebulae are or how you know the ship better than I do. And frankly, I don't care whether you outrank me or not. What I care about is finishing this project so I can get out of here and away from your sarcasm and obvious hatred!" If she didn't need to see the screen to know what the program was doing, she'd have moved to the other side of the room, just to get a little space.

Arivek's first instinct was to yell, which was odd as Ari wasn't exactly the yelling type. But she certainly did have a way about pressing his buttons. But instead of yelling, he merely sat there in quiet, his eyes not leaving the console screen as the bar slowly filled in that represented the program download. For a few moments, he was mesmerized. Not by the pixels on the screen, but by the way this woman had just spoken. "How..." he cleared his throat, and continued in a gentle voice. "Have you ever implemented these shields on a Federation vessel before?" he asked, still not looking up at her.

Clio took a moment to breathe and get her temper back under control, looking down at the desk instead of at Arivek. "Twice. Once during the war and again just last year."

He only nodded in reply.

"Neither of those ships was an Intrepid-class. Hell, they weren't even close... but I think the Banshee had the same shield system as the Katana." After another moment or two, Clio looked up at Arivek, who was now very quiet. "Look, I don't know what it is that I did or what it is about me that bothers you so damned much. But if you could just... put it aside long enough to get this thing set up, I'd appreciate it."

Arivek stood and waited for the woman to step aside.

Not quite sure where Arivek was going or if she should plan to follow him, Clio moved out of his way.

"Come," Arivek stepped out of the room and went directly across the hall to the main R&D lab, a place he didn't allow a single person to enter anymore. As the two stepped in, the light came on and Arivek looked around at all the consoles that were now collecting dust. "This was Andy's lab," he said, swallowing hard. "She was one of the first people I met coming aboard the Katana two years ago. My program had just come online and I was so confused as to who or what I was. This was where she gave me the gift of physical touch again. And her wife" Arivek chuckled, "Her wife was the most beautiful and fantastic being I'd ever met. She was giving and self-less."

Arivek took a step towards the Lieutenant Commander. "The woman who's job you now fill was a good friend. She and the love of her life were expecting a baby. Right outside this doorway," he said, pointing back towards Main Engineering, "This is the place where I first met Captain Kerouac, a man who left the most disgusting taste in my mouth. But that's also the place I would eventually realize I was in love with the man." Arivek didn't realize that now he had begun to cry. "And Jenni..." He breathed hard. "Jenni was my best friend. She knew me better than anyone."

He wiped the tears from his cheeks with the sleeve of his uniform. "You don't realize that this ship isn't from your timeline. The crew who came to this universe with me has been scattered across Starfleet. They were my family. They are my family. So you'll have to excuse me, Eneas if I don't just accept you and the rest of the new crew with open arms. To you, this is just another billet on your service record, but to me, this is an invasion of my home."

"You're mistaken. I am familiar with this ship's history," Clio said quietly, looking around the abandoned laboratory. "At least you have a family. A home. People who care about you. I don't. There's not a soul on this ship or any of the others I've served on who cares enough to miss me. So you'll just have to forgive me if I can't feel sorry that your friends aren't here."

"Had. Had a family." Ari scoffed at her. "And maybe if you weren't such a pain in the fucking ass people wouldn't be so put-off by you." He walked out of the room. "You walk around here and sit in meetings pretending that you're better than everyone. And you seem to demand respect from people who don't know you enough to respect you. Let's take that show in the briefing earlier. Having never met you, how do you expect Dee to know what to call you? And you just claw him open right there in front of everyone. That was disrespectful, not just as an officer but as a fellow being. Was that necessary?"

"Okay, had. I never had any of that, and don't you go saying it's because I think I'm 'better' than anyone here because that's the farthest thing from the truth. All you people are the same. You judge me before I even speak because I'm different. I think differently than you do. I stand and walk differently. And you all interpret it as attitude." Clio followed him, but at a distance. "And so far as correcting Lieutenant Ellis, I can't help that. I've been correcting people on it for my entire life... it's reflex by now. And disrespectful? No. If I'm being disrespectful you're going to see something a helluva lot more volatile than that. That was frustration and pain, not that any of you cared to notice or ask."

"I never judged you!" Arivek yelled, throwing his hands in the air. "I had no ill-feelings for you until you pulled that stunt!" He sighed, rubbing his eyes. "I know it's not easy having to correct people on your name. But it's an honest mistake. 95% of the known galaxy uses the typical first name - surname standard. Why would we assume you're any different without prior knowledge? You could have said something without humiliating him in front of the staff."

Clio winced at the yelling, retreating just a little further away from him. "Are you actually listening to anything I say or just finding more excuses to not like me? You accuse me of things that aren't true and then start in on me for being honest about what really happened. Just like everyone else. You claim non-judgement, and yet here you are... judging." She shook her head slightly, holding back the sigh that wanted to escape. She should have just kept her mouth shut and finished installing and configuring Sunseed. It would have been easier to let him continue being a jerk. "My head hurts, I'm nauseated, and your yelling is not helping. I get it. You think I'm a bitch. Can we maybe stop talking about that and go see if Sunseed is ready to configure?"

"I don't..." Arivek sighed as he took a step towards her, lowering his voice. "I don't think you're a bitch. And I'm not trying to judge you. I just want you to remember that you're part of a team now. And the team watches out for each other and cares for each other. We're on the same side, Clio. It's going to take time for you to make friends and to feel loved. But it's not going to help if you shut everyone out or alienate yourself from them." He hesitated for a moment, but reached out and put a hand on her shoulder, giving her a smile.

"I have tried for twenty-nine years to make friends. People don't like me. It doesn't matter how nice I am to them." Clio glanced at Arivek's hand resting gently on her shoulder. It was strange to have someone not be outright afraid of touching her, and she wasn't sure how to feel about it.

"You can't give up, though," Arivek said, talking to both himself and to the woman in front of him. "Everyone is different. You can't stop giving them a chance. The moment you do, you become alone forever."

Clio just looked at him for a second before a very small smile forced its way out. "Well then. You can't give up either. Your friends have new assignments. Doesn't mean you can't call or make new ones."

Arivek smiled and shook his head, "I'm not the one who feels alone."

Clio did not like sickbay. She'd spent far too much time in sickbays and hospitals 'recuperating', and she hated to be reminded of it. However, it had become clear that her usual stash of hydrocortilene wasn't going to cut it, and she didn't have any sumatriptan stashed away. It didn't seem like she had a choice. So it was to sickbay she went, but to her surprise it was mostly empty. She didn't even see the usual sickbay staff running around, and she was starting to wonder if she'd taken a wrong turn and ended up in some secondary medbay used only for emergencies. "Um... hello?"

"Please state the nature of the medical emergency," The EMH stated cheerfully as it came online on its own.

An EMH? Was that the only doctor this ship carried? But not one of the usual ones. This one was... friendly. But Clio didn't have a good track record with holograms today either. "I'm not sure it's an emergency, exactly."

"Nonsense!" the EMH exclaimed as he stepped over to a biobed and inventoried the tools next to it. "Everything is an emergency, no matter how small. Now what seems to be the trouble? You're not bleeding or limping... Does your head hurt? Or maybe you're bleeding internally? No, your uniform looks clean." Patting the biobed, he continued. "Hop up here and we'll see what we can do for you."

"My head's killing me and I'm about to throw up." It was in no way an exaggeration either. She'd gotten used to keeping a handle on it, but it was always a losing battle in the end. Clio figured she'd better be up front about it. Sitting down, she slid as far back on the biobed as she could without her feet leaving the deck. Just in case.

Picking up a tricorder, the EMH scanned her head and hummed a few times before closing it up and prepping a hypo and a few tools. "Part of your cerebrum is insanely inflamed. I'll have to do more than give you a hypo. Please lay down and you'll be as good as new in no time."

"I assume in the temporal and occipital lobes." Clio didn't really want to lie down. Doctors typically wanted their patients to lie flat on their backs, and that position tended to make her feel worse. The EMH hadn't really given her a choice though, so she gingerly did as he asked.

"Indeed." He started by gently giving her a hypo. "That'll help with the pain and nausea while I work." Then he busied himself with placing a rather extensive neuro-processor on her forehead and moving a cone shaped tool with a blue light on it around on her head while monitoring the scans on the biobed. "Just a few minutes more..."

"If that was hydrocortilene, it's not going to help." The neuro-processor was inoffensive, but Clio reflexively shied away from the blue light on whatever tool it was the EMH was holding.

"Far from it. It's a mixture of metorapan and bicaridine." Continuing to work, he smiled as the readings slowly started looking better. "If this doesn't have you feeling better, not much else will."

"Okay. Bicaridine usually helps." And her head did feel somewhat better, even if her stomach didn't yet. "I don't suppose I can get a script for those?"

"Only if this persists. I already hand out enough of it like candy. Any more and I'll run out." After a few more seconds, the EMH clicked the tool off and set it aside. "And that should take care of the inflammation. Let's give you one more hypo. This may cause drunkenness so light duty for a few hours, ok? And no piloting shuttles." As he spoke, he loaded up a hypo with an ampule with more red and yellow warnings on it than there was room for. "Ready?"

"I have a history of migraines. At least once a month, sometimes twice." Clio eyed the hypo that the EMH was holding up, wondering what all those warnings meant. "What's in that?"

The EMH smiled reassuringly. "A mixture of nanopolymer electrolytes and nodalyptan - some of the latest and greatest fresh out of Starfleet Medical. With any luck, it'll reinforce your neuro pathways to keep the inflammation down and you won't have migraines again in a very long time. You'll also have to eat something with it. Do you like sandwiches?"

"I'm... not sure I can keep anything down yet." Clio sat up a little, wondering where this miracle drug had been for most of her adult life. The thought of not having to deal with the migraines for a while was appealing, but she still felt mildly queasy. A sandwich was probably the last thing she wanted.

"We can wait a little bit, if you prefer. As the only attending physician aboard, I'll be here whenever you need me." the EMH replied with a soft smile.

"I think I'd rather wait, yeah. Still kind of nauseated." Clio sat up the rest of the way, grateful her head had stopped throbbing at least. "I have a lot of work to do and I'm supposed to be on the bridge soon..."

"Just let me know when." he said as he pulled the devices off of Clio's forehead. "Is there anything else I can help with while you're here?"

"I'm a little dizzy, but I think it's from the bicaridine. I think I'll be okay. Um... thanks." Clio eased herself up off the biobed, pausing to see if the mild dizziness faded or stayed the same.

The EMH kept an eye on her as he cleaned up the area and stored everything away safely. "You are very welcome."

She felt a bit wobbly but otherwise stable, so Clio tentatively headed for the door to leave. When she didn't immediately fall on her face, she relaxed slightly and left, hoping not to have to return too soon in the future.

Farenia hung her head and tapped her comm badge. she had unfortunate news to report and two people that needed to know about it ASAP. "Commanders Zhuri and Eneas, report to my ready room immediately." She expected expedience on this matter and with the expedient method of which her XO had been transferred and the loss of a shuttle from that... Well, today wasn't looking much brighter...

It didn't take long before the chime rang at the woman's door.

"Come in!" Farenia called, still scowling at her desk terminal.

The doors opened and Arivek Zhuri stepped through the doors. "Yes, Captain?" he asked, concerned by the obvious frustration in the woman's voice.

"If you need to sit down or get a drink to receive bad news, I recommend you do so." Farenia shot back. "And how... right... hologram... you probably just transferred yourself to the bridge emitters."

"It seemed incredibly urgent," Arivek said, tilting his head slightly as he transferred his weight from one foot to the other.

Farenia looked up at the blue man and just came out with it. "Commander Salacia just received emergency transfer orders and has already left the ship. You're my new XO."

"Holy fucking shit," the man said, staring at the woman with his mouth hanging open in shock. "She-She's gone?"

"Seventeen minutes from signing the orders to flying out the shuttlebay." Farenia replied. "Gone."

"So who's going to...?" Arivek stopped, he already knew the answer to this question. The Captain had already told him. "Me?!" He shook his head, "No, no. There has to be a mistake. I'm just an Engineer."

Farenia leaned back in her chair and paused for a moment. "You're the highest ranking person aboard other than myself and you have the qualifications. For now, you're both XO and Chief Engineer. Just guess who the new second officer is."

Clio had been less than three steps outside of sickbay when the call had come through, and since she wasn't a hologram she had to take the long way 'round and actually use the turbolifts. As such, she arrived a few minutes after Arivek had, though she wasted no time in ringing the door chime. Something in Farenia's voice had sounded extremely urgent.

"Come in!" Farenia called, knowing full well whom it would be but watching Ari's face to see how he'd react to this next bit of news.

When Clio went inside and saw Arivek already there talking to Farenia, for a fleeting moment she wondered if this was over the disagreement they'd had only a short time ago, but the looks on both their faces spoke to something a bit more important than squabbles between officers. She looked at each of them in turn, not sure she was going to like what was coming next. "What's going on?"

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Arivek asked, throwing his hands in the air. While the two were able to end their conversation without killing each other, they certainly weren't friends by a long shot. "She just got here!"

"So did I." Farenia shot back before addressing Clio. "Commander Eneas, due to the sudden transfer of our XO, Commander Zhuri is now our new XO. As the third highest ranking person aboard the ship, that means you're now Second Officer. Congratulations on receiving a fourth job aboard the Katana."

"What?" Clio's feelings on the matter clearly echoed Arivek's, though possibly for slightly different reasons. This had to be some sort of a joke! "I'm the newest officer on the ship... I barely know anyone here. Hardly anyone knows me.... and are you serious? I can barely handle the three jobs I'm already doing!"

"Fine." Farenia turned back to Arivek. "Commander Zhuri, you're now acting Ops Chief until we get a new one. Now both of you have three jobs."

"God dammit, Eneas," Arivek said, shooting the woman an angry look.

"Shut up, Zhuri. This isn't my fault." Clio knew it was really Starfleet Command who had forced the decision, but she couldn't help glaring at Farenia a bit.

"Yes, it is," he said, continuing to glare at her. "Second Officer is a formality, you don't have to actually do anything. And for Science, you just scan shit and oversee the people doing research, how hard can that be?" He crossed his arms in front of his body. "Try juggling to Engineering and now Operations, oh, and now I have to babysit all the Department Heads."

"Operations is just Engineering for the ship's software! You're already trained on how to do all that! And Science... if you'd ever manned a science console, you'd realize it's not that damned easy!" Not to mention she had no people in her primary department, and Clio didn't even know if the science department had a single officer at all. "There's a lot more to it than just 'scan the nebula and see what's in there' or 'oh let me read this research paper'. It's damned hard to keep all that shit straight, especially when you aren't familiar with it!"

"Oh and since our XO can't go on away missions, Commander Eneas will have to take sole responsibility for them. That also means you'll be the ship's diplomatic voice." Farenia added, smirking slightly. "So that's... Three jobs for Arivek... and five for Clio..."

As Farenia cut in with more responsibilities she was suddenly responsible for carrying out, Clio gave her a 'deer in the headlights' look before suddenly laughing at the thought. "Diplomatic voice? Have you met me?"

"She's going to piss off every species we meet. Might as well kiss the Federation goodbye because Everyone will be trying to declare war on us after she talks to them," Arivek said, rolling his eyes.

"Unless we find a mobile emitter, that's how it stands. And the last time I checked, Starfleet hasn't been able to replicate the one from the twenty ninth century." With those words out, Farenia reached into one of the drawers of her desk and pulled out a flask. Popping the top open, she took a long swig of it.

Arivek stared at the woman, his mouth open in surprise, "You decide that now is the right time to be drinking?" And then it dawned on him. "You're already intoxicated aren't you." He leaned on the Captain's desk, "You're drunk and making silly decisions. Is any of this true? Is the Commander actually gone or did you just do this to teach us a lesson? Because it's not funny!"

Farenia put the flask away and glared up at Arivek. "Computer, please locate Commander Salacia."

After a friendly and cheerful chirrup, the computer responded. "Commander Salacia is no longer aboard. Her last known location was shuttlecraft two."

Arivek looked away, feeling ashamed of the accusation he had just made. He stood upright and took a few steps back, saying nothing.

"I'm not sure I understand. Just like that she's recalled and gone... he gets her job, I get his, and everyone is just supposed to be okay with it?" Clio wasn't sure she was comfortable with that concept.

"We don't have to be ok with it, but that's what the mission demands so that's what we do. Simple as that. If I could magically conjure a new XO out of a holomatrix, I would. But I can't, so this is what we're doing." Farenia explained.

Arivek pointed a finger at Eneas, "Don't even think about it," he said.

Clio blinked at him, not entirely certain of what Arivek was implying at first. Did he honestly think she had the skill to manufacture a first officer hologram? No, that was just silly. "Oh, please. If I could magically conjure holographic officers, I wouldn't be here."

"Note to self, start figuring out how to magically conjure up holographic officers," Arivek said.

"Note to self, create a holographic clone of myself." Farenia shot back. "Do either of you have any other complaints that I need to address?"

"No." Clio's tone was dark, but the look she shot at Arivek was darker. She knew just who he meant to replace if he could somehow conjure a hologram to replace them.

"No ma'am," Arivek replied, not bothering to return Eneas' dirty looks.

"Then you're both dismissed. I'll send out a crew wide message a bit later about the changes." Farenia declared.

With a nod, Arivek turned and walked towards the door.

Clio let Arivek walk past her before she too turned and went toward the door to leave.

After having had several probes launched to the site of the attack they had undergone, Farenia was sitting in the command chair watching probe telemetry scroll past her console when something curious flashed up. Was that a warp trail? Punching it up, she sent it to Clio's console. "Commander Eneas, what do you make of this? It looks like a bit of a warp trail from a ship like ours, but it was obviously made after we left. Scavengers perhaps? Or someone else replying to the distress call?"

"Scavengers, most likely. No one else out here is really the type to care about distress calls." Clio looked at the trail signature, finding a few similarities to Federation warp engines but not much other useful information. "Something with a warp drive similar to ours but not entirely Federation. Probably civilian."

"They might know something about these energy beings. Can you trace a path back from that point?" Farenia said as she punched up some more sensor readings.

"Maybe." With no science or operations officers on board, their responsibilities had fallen in Clio's lap alongside her unexpected promotion, and her console was getting a bit crowded with all the extra information and resources she had to keep available. She'd expanded her territory over to the vacant Science II console, but it still wasn't enough. So she had to shuffle a few things around before she could try tracing the warp trail away from their current location. A path appeared, which she sent to Farenia and Hayley. "I can't promise complete accuracy, but that's as close as I can get."

"Good enough. Let's see where it leads. Set an intercept course, warp six." Farenia ordered.

"Aye, captain," Hayley responded as she entered the commands into her console and engaged the warp engines.

-=Thirty Minutes Later=-

They had lost the trail as it entered a rather vicious mutara class nebula. Farenia knew shields and sensors would barely work, if at all, and even the navigational deflectors would have limited functionality. She was determined to head in though, the remnants of several impulse trails leading in and out of this particular spot superimposed on the viewscreen. "Fortune favors the bold. Lieutenant Collins, take us in, one half impulse. Commander Clio, I want all sensors to full. Commander Arivek, please close the bussards and vents. I don't want any of this gas keeping us from making an escape if we have to."

"Eneas," Clio corrected automatically, in an absent-minded tone. To correct people was reflex by now, and it was out of her mouth before she realized it probably wasn't the wisest thing to do at the moment. "I'm doing my best with the sensors, but these mutara nebulae... they're pretty brutal."

Collins nodded as she engaged the impulse engines. "Not brutal--fun," she grinned as the rolled the Katana hard to port to avoid a static discharge.

After a few minutes of all but flying blind into the soupy nebula mix, the ship shook a few times from turbulence, then broke into a sort of spherical area with minimal gasses. What was inside that sphere took everyone's breath away. It was a massive cobbled together space station several times the size of earth space dock, covered in glittery rust and old ships they couldn't identify. Even in such a state of decay, it was obvious that life abounded in this place as ships moved cargo and zipped about their business.

"Now you're just overcompensating for something," Collins remarked at the structure but was still amazed at it's size. It was the size of a small moon.

"Impressive," Dee remarked, beginning to look at what he could on the sensors for himself. Even in this artificial pocket, their sensors were still sketchy. What he cared about was if any of those ships wanted to be hostile. He didn't want the first news of a battle to be an impact on the ship's hull.

Other than a low whistle of appreciation for the massive structure, Clio had mostly kept her thoughts to herself. That is, until a blinking light on her console and the distinct sound of a requested channel for communication squawked out. "Um... we're being hailed."

"On screen," Farenia ordered as she stood to address their caller. "I'm Captain Farenia Meowlith of the USS Katana, a ship of the United Federation of Planets. To whom am I speaking?"

The figure on the other screen nodded politely. It wasn't a race that Farenia recognized and since the universal translator had some trouble at first, it was likely not in their databases either. After a few more words though, it cleared up. "Welcome victims of the Drej. I am the parliamentary body for this refuge. We've picked up signs of their weapons on your hull and welcome you as kindred spirits. Please make yourself at home here as this has been a safe haven for many thousands of years."

"Thank you for your kind offer. Can you tell us anything about these Drej? Do they attack people like this often? Why haven't they attacked you here?" Farenia queried.

"We will answer all of your questions in time. Please, for now let us just rejoice in this meeting and celebrate, even if only briefly." Bowing again, the alien cut off the comm link. Moments after that, a small encrypted data packet was sent to the Katana with meeting arrangements.

"Form two away teams. I'll lead one. Captain's prerogative. My team will act as the public distraction while Commander Eneas's team acts more surreptitiously. Commander Arivek, You'll be in charge while we're away. Keep a transporter lock on us at all times." Farenia ordered. "Lieutenant Collins, bring us to within docking distance but don't actually dock and keep an eye out for anything suspicious."

"This is already suspicious. They haven't told us anything that makes me believe they're actually going to help us." Clio knew that not everyone on the bridge shared her experience or her caution on the matter, but she had to say something. "I'll know more once I'm over there. And I'll take Lieutenant Iniya... her shapeshifting abilities might come in handy."

"A good idea. Plus her psychology background will help." Farenia said with a nod. "And take Crewman Dedjoy with you. She could use some time away from the science lab."

"Can do. But she'd better know how to fire a phaser. Last time I took a science lackey who spent all day in the lab, they got killed." It wasn't a particularly nice memory or nice thing to say, but Clio wasn't shy about things like that.

Dee listened intently to the exchange. He was relieved to hear that he wasn't placed on Commander Eneas' team as his first responsibility was to the Captain and the First Officer. "It would be wise to take someone who can handle a phaser," Dee pointed out to his superior officers, knowing it would likely be rejected. The last thing he assumed the Intel Chief would need is a large Away Team, but it was still his duty to make the recommendation.

"Which is why you'll be coming with me. Vicky may be a pacifist but I think Crewman Dedjoy might surprise you."Farenia said with a lopsided grin. "My team will meet in transporter room one in ten minutes. Commander Eneas, have your team ready to beam out at the same time."

"Of course. Standard misdirection." Clio sent messages off to Vicky and Crewman Dedjoy, with explicit instructions to be in transporter room two in ten minutes.

Hayley brought the ship to the designated docking port. The guidance system from the station was crude but it was still effective as she powered down the engines and fired the braking thrusters, bringing the ship to a halt. "We're in position, Captain."

"Excellent. Keep the engines warm please." Farenia said as she and several others filed into the turbolift.

Clio had intentionally gone to transporter room two early, deciding to wait there for Vicky and Crewman Dedjoy. Their mission parameters were simultaneously simple and complex. Collect information on the 'Drej' without anyone realizing that was, in fact, what they were doing. With that in mind, Clio had swapped her uniform for something more casual, jeans and a lightweight sweater, with instructions sent to the others to dress similarly. Farenia was the official face of this operation; Clio's team wasn't meant to look remotely Starfleet. That did not, however, mean she was going unarmed. She assumed her teammates would know to at least bring a phaser, and she had a phaser hidden at her waist as well as a number of small knives hidden in whatever convenient places she'd found in her outfit. Anyone looking at her would assume she was unarmed and harmless.

The ten minutes she'd given Vicky and Dedjoy was quickly running out, and she glanced at the door with a hint of concern. If they didn't synchronize their beam out, the people on the station might realize two teams had been sent instead of one.

Vicky and Crewman Dedjoy arrived at the same time. While Vicky was still in uniform, the crewman was dressed in a blacked out catsuit of some sort and had not one, but two tricorders on her belt. She also had a small phaser and several pouches on that belt. "An away mission to a station. Thank you for this opportunity, Commander. I won't let you down." The crewman said as she reported in with Clio. As for Vicky, she noticed she was overdressed, and just morphed her clothes into something resembling a combination of the other two outfits.

"You're welcome." Clio checked her watch and ushered them onto the pad. "Coordinated beam out with Captain Meowlith's team. You have about fifteen seconds to get in place."

Vicky and Dedjoy clambered up into place on the transporter pad just in time. "I hate these things..." Vicky muttered as the transporter's sparkle effect washed over them.

"Suck it up." Clio wasn't sure whether to use their last names or first names, so she just left their names out altogether for now. Once they'd materialized, she looked around where they'd ended up, an abandoned section of the station near where all the shops and gathering places were. "Anything we find might be useful. Don't brush anything off, no matter how silly it sounds."

"Like this graffiti?" Dedjoy asked, pulling out a tricorder and scanning a slightly glowing blue spray painted vaguely humanoid figure.

Vicky was edging closer to a closed down store, looking over the empty stalls where she assumed fruit once rested. "The existence of produce stands indicates that there may have been farming on this station at one point... I wonder if there still is. And commander, please call me Vicky while we're here. I understand now that covert is part of our mission here."

Dedjoy looked up from her tricorder for a moment and stammered out an introduction as well. "Ah... um... my people only use one name unless we earn a second. I'm just Dedjoy. Just like seventeen generations of women before me."

"Clio. Not 'commander'. We aren't in Starfleet, capiche?" Clio took note of the glow-y graffiti and long forgotten fruit stands, which both spoke to a much higher population in the past. It was odd how empty this part of the station was. "Once we get to what passes for civilization here, start mingling." Her sensitive ears having already heard some faint but distinct sounds that generally meant people, Clio headed off down one of the corridors, still looking around.

The two other women followed along, trying to stay quiet. Vicky failed though as she was looking up at a billboard of some sort and tripped over a stack of empty crates. muttering a bit, she apologized to the crates and restacked them.

Dedjoy looked around scared, then realized no one was there to even notice them. Moving closer to Clio, she brought up the subject of the tricorders. "These tricorders are Starfleet issue... Should I have not brought them? Eh... Clio?"

Clio neatly suppressed the impulse to roll her eyes, though she was pretty certain she'd made sure to tell them this mission was covert. And one of them had brought Starfleet issue tricorders without disguising them. "Just... if anyone asks, you stole them from some idiot who set them down and turned his back."

"Roger that," Dedjoy replied, returning to scanning everything.

By this time, Vicky had made her way to the end of the street and was looking out at the people walking and shopping. There weren't many people, but there were enough for her to get a good read on how hard life was in this part of the station.

The station was oddly sparsely populated, even as they moved closer to the population center. Not a soul seemed interested in talking; most just hurried by, minding their own business. Clio watched them all without being very obvious about it, until she heard a small group of men talking about the Drej. She caught a few words, mostly "Drej" and "ugly plasma bastards" before they noticed she was listening. Then they quickly moved off.

Dedjoy was less than helpful as she tried talking to several people. No one seemed interested though. Vicky, on the other hand, had studied several of the locals and had morphed to mimic one of the more common races of the local populace. Except her hair and eyes were purple... People still avoided her, but at least she could attempt to mingle and heard more than the others. Moving back to Clio, she reported her findings. "Apparently, the farms three levels down have had catastrophic water failure and a lot of people have moved to other geofronts. That's why we're not seeing many people. There's also supposedly no one left that knows the systems there so repairs are expected to take a few cycles. And replicated food seems to garner disdain by the locals."

Not to be outdone, Dedjoy reported back as well. "I've discovered that this part of the station is close to ninety thousand years old and most of it is composed of a silicate-duranium alloy I'm having trouble analyzing. Also, the building materials of the structures within this area are closer to three hundred years old and seem to be made of carbon based plant fibers."

"All I've heard was a few scattered curses about the Drej. Nothing concrete." Clio hadn't known that there were civilizations using duranium ninety-thousand years ago, and the station certainly didn't look that old. "Is there anyway we can help these people? I'd hate to leave them struggling to survive out here."

Vicky had a response already formulating. Unfortunately, it wasn't entirely good. "I'd get with the Captain about that. I'm not even sure if our engineers can sort out their systems so I'd hate to promise something we can't deliver on."

"I'll ask her when we get back. Nothing about the Drej from anyone you talked to?" It didn't seem promising that they'd find anything here about the blue plasma creatures, but Clio thought it was worth asking anyway.

Vicky shook her head no. "I overheard someone talking about a bloody documentary in relation to the Drej, But that's it."

Dedjoy piped up at that note. "I found a somewhat working data terminal about a block back. We might be able to get at least some public information from it. Perhaps even this documentary."

"Better than nothing. Let's try it." Clio indicated that Dedjoy should show them where she'd seen the console. She figured that she could get it working more than just partway.

Leading the group back to where she found the terminal, she pushed aside a stack of empty crates that had been sitting in front of it and started scanning. The screen flickered a few times and showed a sort of static and bars pattern that shifted occasionally. "The datalink is active at least."

"That's all I need. Watch my back." Clio got down on the floor and slid underneath the terminal, carefully manipulating the loose wiring to see if she could clear up the picture at all. "Let me know if it clears up any."

Vicky actually looked around the area and watched for other people whereas Dedjoy literally watched Clio's back. She was the first to see the screen flicker to life though, the screen showing some blue and amber circle based operating system. "It's cleared up."

Clio slid out from underneath the terminal and scrambled to her feet before tapping gingerly on the screen to sort through what they were able to access. "Not a whole helluva lot here. Mostly shipping manifests, farming almanacs... and a single folder marked 'Drej'." Curious, she opened that folder and selected the video file inside.

The video started playing, going over facts and history about the Drej. The narrator was dry and boring, but there was still a lot of information doled out. Fortunately, this was the same video that the other away team had been introduced to by their welcoming party. facts and history.

Even Clio, a member of a species who considered war a form of art, found these 'Drej' to be distasteful. But she took one of Dedjoy's tricorders and uploaded the video to the Katana's computer for future reference without much commentary on its content. "Never thought I'd meet a species that makes my people look genuinely friendly."

"An entire race that just wants to exterminate all other forms of life..." Vicky muttered, wondering how anyone could be that xenophobic.

Dedjoy was still staring at the screen, but she could get out a response. "Your people have to be at least somewhat friendly to be in the Federation. These Drej...I doubt they could even be reasoned with."

"The Cervan Empire is not a member of the Federation. It's a long story, and one better suited for some other time." It was rare that Clio found herself so unsettled by another species and their lifestyle, but the Drej... well they weren't like any other species she'd met.

"You're in the Federation, even if your people aren't. Still friendly." Dedjoy insisted, still trying to wrap her head around what she'd learned about the Drej.

Then Vicky interrupted the other two."Sorry, but I think I hear sirens of some sort. Do you think it's a bad thing?"

"...most likely." Now that Vicky mentioned hearing them, Clio couldn't mistake the distinct sounds of some sort of alarm. "We should get back to our beam out point. Just in case."

Before they got more than a block away, the sirens stopped and there was the distinct sound of weapons fire not far from them. Both energy based and projectile based. Scanning the area, Dedjoy commented. "It's less than two blocks away. I'm picking up weapons discharges as well as a large stockpile of kemocite. Likely enough to take out most of this geofront."

"Our orders are to observe, not to get involved in a turf war." Clio's natural instinct was to find out what was going on, but she started urging Vicky and Dedjoy back toward the beam out point. "If they do have that much kemocite and we stay here... we're toast. We're leaving."

"Roger that," Dedjoy replied as they made their way back to the beam out site. it didn't take them long, but just as they got there, an explosion ripped through several buildings, causing an air burst to flow through the area. Both Dedjoy and Vicky were knocked over as debris came flying down from the explosion. Then there was a sound similar to that of a freight train.

Clio felt the explosion rip through her left ear drum even as it sent her tumbling to the deck and bits of debris bounced around her, some of it striking her and the others. "Shit!" Somehow finding her comm badge inside her sweater, she squeezed it and hoped they'd actually be able to hear her. "Eneas to Katana! Get us out of here!"

Either they'd heard her or the sound of rushing air had clued them in because a second later the transporter beam grabbed Clio and her team, depositing them in one of the transporter rooms. Clio could feel a slow trickle of blood escape from her damaged ear, but the first thing she did was look to see if Vicky and Dedjoy were at least in one piece.

Dedjoy had been knocked unconscious but otherwise seemed to at least be alive. There was blood trickling from her nose and ears, but she was breathing just fine.

Vicky... She was in the process of morphing into her tree form. Big brown pot... purple leaves... big boobs... She shook her branches a bit but otherwise... Well, who knows with her people.

Dedjoy was breathing and Vicky was... shapeshifting. Good enough, Clio could live with that. "Get medical up here," she said to the somewhat shell-shocked transporter tech. She figured she could make it to sickbay on her own, but Dedjoy clearly wasn't going to be walking anywhere.

Within moments, holographic medical orderlies materialized and begun the process of prepping all three for an emergency transport to sickbay.

Farenia and her team wasted no time in beaming over to the meeting location. She was immediately reminded that her tetanus shots were almost due from the sight that greeted them. If the outside looked rusty, the inside was more so. Thankfully it looked like clean rust, if there was even such a thing. It was her, Lieutenant Ellis, and two random security officers for this detail and they were greeted by the same alien as they met on the viewscreen. "Welcome to our humble home, Captain. Please, make yourself at home here as well. We have a small documentary video on the Drej if you'd like to view it at your leisure. We also offer you what food and refreshment we can provide."

Farenia smiled and stepped forward in greeting. "Thank you. It's a pleasure being here. So those energy beings are called the Drej? What is it that they want?"

"The total destruction of all matter based life. They've been at it for thousands of years. But please, I'll just end up reciting the narration of the video. We can send a copy of it to your ship as well if you like." The alien man replied.

"They must be pretty bad at their mission," Dee remarked, thinking of one Drej's horrible aim on the derelict ship. "We should get a copy, Captain," he suggested to Farenia. "It'll supplement what we have already."

"On the contrary," the man began gravely. "They've completely annihilated over a thousand worlds and hundreds of races in this area of space."

Farenia looked around grimly. "And this is a safe haven, it seems. I assume the mutara nebula effect disrupts their physiology."

"It does, thankfully. That's all explained in the video. And where are my manners... I've introduced myself in position but not personally. My name is Gavino. Would you like anything to eat or drink?" The man known as Gavino motioned off to a table at the other end of the meeting hall covered in various produce and drink bottles.

Dee thought he could fancy a drink, and a glance out of the corner of his eye told him Petty Officer M'tara thought so as well. Alas, protocol was protocol, and his first duty was to the Captain. He would follow her lead in this matter.

"We'd love to partake of your hospitality. You'll have to excuse us for scanning everything to make sure we won't have any adverse reactions to anything. It's standard protocol for situations like this." Farenia was as diplomatic as she could be and from the cheerful nod from the man, it looked like she'd been successful. Pulling out a tricorder, she headed to the buffet and started running it over the table's contents. Pointing to a group of berries that her tricorder flagged, she warned the away team away from it. "Tricorder says that has a deadly toxin in it. Trace amounts, but enough to make us sick. The rest is ok and the glass bottles have something resembling ale."

Not one to refuse protocol, Dee nodded and smiled at Gavino. The security chief turned and nodded at M'tara, granting her permission to go first. After she'd selected a red-tinted drink, Ensign Porter was the next to choose. Both officers had poured small amounts, just enough to be polite and not enough to dull their senses.

Dee approached the table after both officers had pulled away. He selected a green-tinted ale and poured himself a small amount. "Captain?" Dee asked, gesturing to the assortment to see if she wanted a drink.

Farenia scanned for a few more seconds before pouring something blue that seemed to glow. Then she took a sip of it. It burned like molten durasteel going down but it had a minty aftertaste that reminded her of home. "You've got to try this." she declared to the rest of the away team. Never mind that it was around 140 proof. She then picked up something resembling a sandwich and took a bite.

That's when Gavino started up the video playing on a nearby screen, the narrator droning through facts and history.

Dee stood there, rarely sampling his drink as he listened to the narrator's dull voice. The information was quite astounding and he wondered what Commanders Eneas and Zhuri would think about missing this. One thing he knew for sure was that the Katana was surely outmatched. In this moment, he was both thankful and regretted that the sensor pod had been placed above the primary hull. They'd be able to get some more detailed readings on their next encounter, but it would definitely hinder the phaser firing arcs due to the Drej's fast speed.

When the video finished, Dee asked Gavino, "Are there any known defense methods against this Drej?" He didn't want to admit they had something up their sleeve, but he did want to see what would be volunteered.

"Very few, unfortunately. We have sensor masks so they have trouble detecting our ships and we have the nebula we live in. Some of our ships are able to collect some of the nebula gasses to use as a defense when they go out on scouting and resource gathering missions. We've been working on a phased energy carrier beam for those same gasses, but it's untested as of yet. We also have sensors tuned to their energy patterns so we can scan for them from outside their range most times." Gavino explained as he too partook of some of the refreshments.

About then a muffled explosion could be heard as well as a deep vibration in the deck plating. Gavino excused himself and headed to a nearby terminal to investigate and soon returned to the team with a grave demeanor. "It seems that a turf war broke out in one of our lower geofronts. When authorities intervened, a large stockpile of explosives was set off. We lost a lot of atmosphere but the emergency EM fields are up. I just hope they hold throughout repairs.

Farenia glanced to the other team members. Clio's team was supposed to have gone to one of the lower areas of the station and that worried her. "Is there anything we can do to help? We don't have many resources compared to a station this size, but I'm sure we can assist with repairs at least."

Gavino nodded appreciatively. "We'd be very thankful if you could. it'll take us several days just to bend the hull plates back into shape. We've lost the ability to reshape them as needed and can only replicate them in relatively small quantities, you see."

Tapping her comm badge, Farenia hailed the Katana. "Meowlith to Katana. I have a large scale engineering job for you. There was a large explosion and it ruptured the hull of the station. Can you use the Katana to try to at least bend the pieces back into place and gather up any fragments?"

While waiting on the engineer's response, Dee gestured to the two guards to take a position near the door, just in case the turf war decided to come in their direction.

After a few moments, the Engineers voice came through, =/\="Aye, ma'am, we'll get right on it."=/\= he said before the line was cut off.

Dee approached Meowlith as the comm was silenced. "Captain, we may want to return to Katana. There's no need for us to get caught in... whatever this is... should it make its way up here."

Farenia nodded, taking the suggestion under consideration. "Mister Gavino, if there's anything else we can do, please let us know."

"Thank you. We'll let you know. And thank you for your assistance. If it's ok, I'll be sending a lot of our data on our experimental systems over to your ship." Gavino smiled cheerfully and headed back to the terminal.

Tapping her comm badge, Farenia called for a beam out. "Farenia to Katana, we're ready to beam back." A few seconds later, the away team dissolved into the transporter sparkle.

Arivek walked into the Intelligence offices, one of the few places on board he still had't been to. But something was sitting right with him about the situation they were in, and he needed help. Thankfully, Lieutenant Commander Eneas was on an away mission, which meant that he didn't have to go to her for information. But somewhere around here she had an assistant, a new gentleman that was brought on board during the XO's transfer.

Ari founded a corner and almost ran into someone. "Hello there," he said, taking a few steps back. "I'm looking for Lieutenant Dexter."

"You found him." Mark looked down from his PaDD to discover the face of the XO. "How can I help you?" He asked. Mark hadn't bothered to meet the senior staff in person, honestly he didn't care. But he had memorized their files, so had names and faces tucked away in his eidetic memory.

"I know you're new on board, so you're not as familiar with what's going on." Arivek handed the man a PADD. "But I need you to review what we know about these people we've met. Something doesn't sit right with me."

Mark took the offered PaDD with a nod. At least it would give him something concrete to do, and keep his mind occupied. "I'll let you know what I find."

"Thank you, Lieutenant. Please report directly to me when you have something." Arivek said. He crossed his arms and leaned against the bulkhead. "So tell me, how are you acclimating aboard?"

Again, Mark nodded. He looked at the size of the data. "I should have something in about twelve hours." He'd done the math in his head, he could go through that much data visually in about ten, then a couple of hours to put the pieces together, twelve was a good estimate. "And I'm acclimating just fine, thank you." Mark replied. His tone completely neutral.

Arivek raised an eyebrow. "Just...fine?" he asked.

"Yes sir, just fine." This time there was a bit of an edge to his voice. He wondered in an offhand way how much trouble he'd get in if he suddenly cut the holodeck emitters in the area, and if it would be worth it.

"Is there an issue, Lieutenant?" Arivek asked. He may not be telepathic, but it was obvious something was wrong.

"No sir." Mark waved the PaDD he held in a vague manner, eager to change the subject and shut the man up. "I better get to this."

Arivek sighed. "Aright then, thanks for looking into this for me. You have two hours."

Mark snorted. The man could demand knowledge in two hours if he so pleased, but he wasn't going to get it. Commenting on the matter wasn't going to do any good though. He was no green cadet that needed to prove himself, nor did he have any desire to try and please or make a good impression on his new XO. He'd do what was asked of him to the best of his substantial ability, and that would be that. "Sir" He simply nodded, again in a completely neutral tone.

"I'm headed to the Bridge, you can find me there," Arivek stated as he turned to leave.

"Understood." Mark replied. He headed to a nearby console to start on his reading.

Clio had stayed in the transporter room until transport to sickbay could be arranged, though to her minor irritation they'd had to beam Dedjoy and the Vicky-tree there so the transporter tech had also beamed Clio to sickbay instead of letting her walk there herself. She had insisted to the medical orderlies who greeted them that she was not nearly as injured as Dedjoy and to tend to the wounded crewman first. She was starting to regret that insistence now.

Fully deaf in her left ear and most definitely sore from the pressure wave and flying debris, Clio almost thought that being unconscious would be more bearable. But she waited - patiently - on a biobed while the EMH and his team examined Dedjoy and gave the Vicky-tree exasperated 'how do we examine her like that' looks.

The entirely holographic medical staff rushed to take care of Dedjoy, catching an aneurysm in the process of forming due to the massive concussion and working on keeping her from bleeding too much. The EMH was working hard at it as two orderlies scanned Vicky repeatedly. Vicky just shook her branches at them a few times and that was it when they tried coaxing her back to her humanoid form.

Then an orderly approached Clio and started scanning. "May I ask what happened that gave you three these injuries?"

"Away mission to the station. Information gathering. Something exploded next to us and the section decompressed." Clio thought her voice sounded so odd when she could only hear out of one ear. "How's Dedjoy?"

"Alive, thankfully. Clots were starting to form in her brain from the concussion but we caught them just in time. It seems you have a concussion as well, but are in far better condition. We'll have a lot of work to do on that ear though." The holographic orderly replied.

"She was closer to the source. I mostly got hit with the pressure wave." And if Clio had been leading them from the front, it would be her lying in the operating suite. She couldn't quite shake the feeling that maybe she'd done something wrong. "I've ruptured that ear drum before. I'll be fine."

The orderly nodded, focusing her scans deeper on the offending ear. "We might still need to replicate the more tender bits and graft them in place. I'm picking up a lot of old scar tissue so the Doctor will probably fix that as well. We've all been briefed on Lieutenant Iniya's unique physiology, but we're not programmed to treat plant based life forms. Is there anything you can do to help?"

"Um, I can try." Clio slid off the biobed, wobbling a little bit as she stood up. She was dizzy, that was certain. But she carefully made her way over to where Vicky-the-tree was, ignoring the rattling branches. "They can't scan you like that, you know."

The rustling branches stilled as it seemed tree-Vicky was thinking. after a few more moments, she started morphing back to her humanoid form, revealing the actual damage that had been done to her. She wasn't bleeding from any of her orifices... No, she was bleeding all over from cuts all over her skin and large purple bruises were forming all over her exposed skin. Finishing her transformation, she lay there on the floor shaking and panting.

Clio slowly lowered herself to the floor, trying to keep her head from spinning. "I'm sorry," she said quietly. "If I'd thought it might be dangerous, I wouldn't have asked you to come."

Vicky smiled weakly as the orderlies lifted her and settled her onto a biobed to await her own surgeries. "I would have gone anyway. Did we get what we needed at least?"

"I think we did." Clio stayed right where she was on the floor. She knew better than to get up by herself; she was too dizzy for that - and getting queasy on top of it.

As the two orderlies on Vicky started treating her as best they could, the orderly that had been helping Clio helped her up and back onto the biobed. She then gave Clio a heavy dose of painkillers and anti-emetics in a hypo, then started working on her lesser cuts and bruises with a dermal regenerator. "Please stay still. As soon as the other two are stabilized, the doctor will be treating you and you don't want to aggravate your injuries."

"Stay still? You clearly don't know me very well." Clio did have to wonder though just what injuries they were so worried about that they were telling her to be completely still. "I've been down this road a hundred times. You can tell me what it is you've found."

"The fluid in your inner ear that gives you balance on the injured side has been ruptured and you're likely to fall," the holographic orderly declared, still working on the lesser injuries and leaving the major ones for the EMH.

"...oh. Yeah, I'll stay here then." While Clio had never damaged her ear to that extent before, she had no desire to add 'undignified fall' to today's events.

After a few more minutes, the EMH and two orderlies stepped out of the operating area, a hover cart with a sheet draped over Crewman Dedjoy. They were solemn as they transferred her to a stasis tube and filled out cursory paperwork. They then moved to focus on the baffling Vicky.

Oh no. Clio propped herself up partway, watching as the two orderlies pushed Dedjoy's body into stasis. She'd gotten that poor girl killed, and they'd only just met.

Thankfully, the EMH was more able to help Vicky. Pulling a large lamp-like set of poles out of an equipment locker, he set them up in a corner. "Lieutenant Iniya, if you would please resume your tree form, a few hours under these specialized regeneration lights should have you back to new." With the help of one of the orderlies, Vicky was able to take to her feet and transform once again, the lamps clicking on and washing her with light and radiation similar to the output of a dermal regenerator.

Satisfied with how that was going, the EMH stepped over to Clio and looked her chart over. "Ruptured inner ear, is it? Thirty minutes and I'll have you as good as new. Do you have any questions or comments for me before we begin?"

The EMH was, of course, standing on the side she was deaf on. For once, Clio was thankful for all the times she'd inadvertently damaged her hearing since they'd given her some degree of lip-reading ability. "What happened to Dedjoy?"

The EMH was somber as he set her chart aside and moved to her other side to set up some equipment. "We caught the first aneurysm just fine and thought she'd be ok. But then bruising in the brain set in and we couldn't keep up with the clotting that was forming after that."

"Damn." The first away mission she'd been allowed to lead, and it had to end like that. Clio looked away from the EMH, not really looking at anyone or anything. No, she was just thinking that if she'd done the one thing away team leaders always did - walk in front of the team - Dedjoy would be alive.

As the EMH finished up with setup of his equipment, he glanced up at Clio and realized something. "I take it you were leading the away mission. I'll have to recommend a few visits with our counselor. Once she's healed up and back on duty, that is..."

"I was, and I don't expect there will be too many more of them in my future after this." Seeing the counselor was almost laughable. Clio didn't think Vicky was going to want to counsel her after this. "How long is it going to be to fix my hearing?"

"About thirty minutes," the EMH said patiently. He then moved back to her deaf ear and began working, starting with applying a device that produced a localized nerve anesthetizing field to numb the area. An orderly stepped in to hand the doctor tools and to relay messages if need be.

"I need something for anxiety then." Clio knew most people wouldn't find thirty minutes to be a long time, but her heart was already racing. There was no way she could be still for that long.

"What normally works for you for anxiety?" the orderly assisting asked.

"I take lorazepam." Clio knew most doctors didn't like to jump directly to a sedative like that, but they did ask. "I'm not on a daily medication for it. Only as needed."

As the orderly prepped a hypo and gave her a good healthy dose, the EMH started working.

After the two away missions had left, things seemed peaceful on the Katana. A few ships got near the Katana and scanned her, but everyone pretty well kept their distance either out of fear or respect. After a while though, there was a large explosion inside the station. One of the lower geofronts had been breached and vented a large amount of atmosphere before emergency fields had been able to temporarily seal up the rather large, gaping hole well enough to at least keep the air in.

Shortly after that, as small craft scattered to either get away from the explosion area or to rush to assist, Farenia's voice came in over the comms. =/\="Meowlith to Katana. I have a large scale engineering job for you. There was a large explosion and it ruptured the hull of the station. Can you use the Katana to try to at least bend the pieces back into place and gather up any fragments?"=/\=

Arivek nodded, forgetting for a moment that the Captain couldn't see his face. "Aye, ma'am, we'll get right on it." When the comm line was disconnected, Arivek turned his attention to the Ensign sitting at the Helm. "Ensign Reyas, bring us within 2000 kilometers and hold us steady."

"Aye, sir," the young man said as he tapped at the console panel.

The Katana slid forward slowly, coming awfully close to the hull of the station.

"Lieutenant Barryhill," Arivek looked back at the Ops station. "I want you to use our tractor beam to push the hull back into a semblance of the shape it was in before. Use an inverted polarity on the beam to give it the push."

The Lieutenant had a look on her face that she already knew how to set the tractor beam to push instead of pull, but she was smart enough to not say anything. With a quick 'yes sir', she set the tractor beam and began to do as she was asked.

As the Katana's tractor beam pushed along the Station's hull, nothing seemed to happen

"Sir, the hull isn't budging, and the tractor emitters are rising to dangerous levels," she said, ready to turn them off.

"Keep going, Lieutenant. Give them more power," Arivek stated, looking at the readouts on the center console.

"But, sir, more power could overload the emitters," the Lieutenant replied.

Arivek looked up at her, "I'm well aware, Lieutenant. But they'll be fine."

Barryhill clearly wanted to object again, but she didn't.

The blue beam coming from the Katana widened a bit as a burst of energy was sent through. For a few moments, nothing happened, until finally the metal began to twist back in on itself towards the station. After a few minutes, the hull fragments were bent back into place, leaving only the areas with missing hull still open.

"Good job, Lieutenant," Arivek said as he stood and walked back to the MSD, giving a look over the major systems.

"We've down out three EPS relays in the tractor beam emitters," the Lieutenant stated, obviously quite proud of the mishap and the ability to throw it in the Commander's face.

Arivek gave the woman a side-eye, "Three relays are easily replaceable. In the end, that's worth what we've done to help these people. A small price to pay for assisting where we can," he said to her. "Now, transport the hull debris to cargo bay two. Set up a level three containment field around the cargo bay. I don't want germs getting out," he said with a smile as he returned to the Captain's chair.

It wasn't long before Farenia returned to the bridge from the transporter room. "Report. What's the situation?" She requested as she took a standing position in the middle of the bridge and stared at the viewscreen.

Arivek quickly moved out of the Captain's chair, coming up to stand beside her. "We've retrieved the debris fragments, they're in cargo bay two. We've done what we can do with the tractor beam. We could potentially do more with a micro-phaser beam, but I'm too concerned about re-igniting whatever made the hole in the first place."

"A wise move. It seems the extent of what we can do is about at an end then. The transporter chief told me the other away team is in sickbay. They were practically in the explosion." Farenia was a bit softer with her words now. "Run an analysis on those fragments for now. The rest of the repairs will have to be done by the station's maintenance teams."

Arivek nodded. "I'll be down in Engineering," he said.