Arivek Zhuri walked into Sickbay, tapping his fingers onto the PADD in his hands. He had just gone by Engineering and started his teams on an analysis of the debris, but now he needed to check on Eneas. While Farenia didn't ask him to, he knew that's what he should do. And to have heard that there was a death on the team, he could only imagine how Eneas felt.

He looked around and everything seemed quiet. He saw Eneas lying on one of the biobeds, but she was obviously not asleep, even though her eyes were closed. On the next biobed laid Vicky, still in the form of a tree. Walking over to them, he leaned close to Clio. "Hey," he said, quietly, hoping to not startle her or wake up Vicky.

While Clio hadn't been asleep, she'd been trying to meditate until she heard footsteps approaching her bed. Assuming it was one of the holographic orderlies coming to check on her, she'd kept her eyes closed until she heard Arivek's voice. That certainly hadn't been anyone she'd been expecting to have visiting. She opened her eyes to look at him, clearly a bit puzzled about the visit. "Hey."

"What's your prognosis?" he asked, looking at the screen behind her. He glanced over her vitals, but had no clue what any of the numbers meant.

"My brain's been rattled, but I'll live." Clio knew the details of each injury she'd incurred, but she wasn't sure she should share them. She didn't want to seem like she was whining about what was, comparative to Dedjoy's death, medical minutiae. "I thought you didn't like me. Why are you here?"

"Yea, well, sometimes other things are more important." The side of his mouth curled up slightly. "Just because we argue doesn't mean I don't like you."

"Could have fooled me." Clio glanced up at the biobed's readout monitor, picking out the readings she understood. They looked normal enough so she sat up, ignoring the pressure in her head. "No one else has thought to come in. I mean, it's only overnight but still. I hate sickbay."

Arivek nodded. He tried to avoid the room himself, as it always brought back painful memories. "You'll be out of here soon enough," he said, pulling up a stool and taking a seat. "You wanna talk about it?" he asked, putting a hand on her forearm.

"I'm not even sure what actually happened. We went to the beam out point because we heard a fight break out and we weren't supposed to get involved in anything. And something exploded before we could actually call for transport." Clio knew that Dedjoy had been closest to the blast, but any fool looking at who survived would know that. "I'm not entirely certain how any of us got out of there."

"Have you ever..." Arivek hated to ask this. "Have you ever lost someone before?"

"I fought in the Dominon War," Clio reminded him. She didn't know exactly how old Arivek was, but she'd glanced through enough personnel files to know that most of the crew had started the academy during or after the war. Most hadn't actually been on the lines. "So yes. I've lost people before, people I was far closer to. But that was different. This was supposed to be a non-combat surveillance mission."

"I understand. It wasn't your fault, though. Don't blame yourself, alright?"

"Easier said than done." Clio managed a small twitch of a smile, though anyone paying enough attention could see that she wasn't sure she agreed with him. While she hadn't caused the explosion, she was pretty sure she had screwed up the team's positioning. "She shouldn't have died. I missed something.... I just don't know what it was."

"Hey hey," Arivek said, "Don't think like that." He stood and sat on the bed, taking her hands in his. "There was no way you could have known. None of us could have known. If we had, you would have never even been there."

Instinct was to draw away or force him out of her space, but Clio had a lot of practice suppressing those instincts. She sat still for a minute, not quite looking at him while her brain continued processing what he'd said. Either the concussion or mega-dose of lorazepam had seriously compromised how fast her thinking was. "I know I should agree with you. Because you're right. But this was the first team anyone's trusted me with in a very long time. To have the whole thing go incredibly pear-shaped... well. I wouldn't be surprised if it's also the last."

"The way you feel right now tells me so much, Clio." This was the first time Arivek had said her first name, but it felt like the right time. "Yea, it all went to shit. But a real leader is concerned about the things that you're thinking right now. Those are the instincts that make a great officer and a great friend."

Somewhat surprised by those words, Clio finally looked directly at Arivek, her depressed demeanor momentarily replaced by puzzlement. And maybe a little shock. "I don't think anyone's ever said that. Not to me, anyway."

"Well, now you have me," Arivek simply said.

"Thanks." Clio smiled a little. She still felt lousy about the whole thing, but at least there was one person on the ship she could talk to about it.

Arivek gave her hands a gentle squeeze before letting them go. "Get some rest, alright?" he said as he slid off the bed. "I'll come see you tomorrow morning."

Tapping the console next to her command chair, Farenia checked the status of all departments. Repairs had been finished and they were preparing to get back underway, leaving this ancient starbase for now. That's when the ship's proximity alarms went off.

"On screen," Farenia ordered, the viewscreen changing to an aft view, showing small insect like ships as they attached themselves to the sensor pod and started tearing panels off. "Red alert. Hail them."

"No response to hails." Came the reply from a crewman at the back of the bridge.

"Can we hit them with phasers? Just enough to knock them off?" Farenia asked next.

"I don't see why not," Arivek said, standing behind the Ops station. "The targeting sensors will have a variance because of the nebula, I won't be able to compensate." He looked across the Bridge at Dee.

Shooting at ourselves, okay. "Standby," Dee said, adjusting the phaser output to a slightly lower setting as to not damage the sensor pod any further. He began firing with the starboard dorsal bank at the smaller ships. The quick lances were enough to knock off a few of the ships, but a couple still remained. "Pesky little buggers," he muttered, switching to the port bank at a regular setting to keep those that he swatted away from reattaching.

As the scavenger ships were being knocked off, several more were arriving, trying to attach themselves to other places on the hull. in the meantime, two of the bug-like ships were tearing through one of the pylons keeping the pod on the ship. Seeing this, Farenia decided more drastic measures were needed. "Lieutenant Ellis, keep picking them off and bring those metaphasic shields online. Let's see how well they work in this soup. Lieutenant Collins, take us out. Plot a course through the nebula gasses and away from this station. I think it's time to leave our new friends behind."

Dee continued to fire while his other hand struggled to activate the new shielding. He wasn't the complaining type, but after today, he might take up the habit. One of his shots barely missed the alien ship, but did an excellent job of shearing through the tip of one of the pylons. "Shit..." he muttered. He wouldn't live that one down. "Shields coming online now," Dee called out, continue to fire at the pests.

"Damn, these buggers are persistent." There wasn't much Clio could do to add to their defense beyond studying the little scavenger ships, not that there was much to study. "If there weren't a Mutara-class nebula to deal with, a wide burst would probably be more effective."

"It's also a good way to lose the pod," Dee pointed out, continuing to fire. He was now down to one bug he just couldn't shake. He wouldn't mind losing the pod, after all, it did mess with his firing arcs and made the ship more difficult to defend.

"Right. The sensor pod." Clio had forgotten about that monstrosity strapped to the hull. She wasn't sure how to shoot around that thing, if it could be done at all.

As the ship flew into the nebula gasses, several more ships attached themselves to the pod and started ripping parts off. By this time, one pylon was almost completely cut through and it was putting a lot of strain on the structural integrity of the ship. On top of that, nearly fifty more were close behind them and the nebula didn't seem to slow them one bit. "Computer, set the sensor pod to self destruct. Sixty second timer from ejection. Authorization Farenia zulu zulu six one niner. Commander, if you would be so kind, please eject the sensor pod."

"It'll just be a few seconds," Arivek said, his hands flying over the console. "Eject status in effect. Should be gone in about ten seconds."

Dee had just sent off another phaser lance towards one of the attackers just as the pod was released from the ship. Using all available phaser banks, he fired enough bursts to keep the pests from latching onto the ship, though a couple got extremely close to the port nacelle. "Pod self destruct in forty-five seconds," the computer droned. Dee smiled, happy to have his proper firing arcs back, at least mostly.

"Captain, there are more ships attaching to the pod. They may try to shut off the self-destruct." Arivek studied the screen in front of him, biting his lip while he did so. "We should stay close enough to guarantee its destruction. That way we can destroy it with torpedoes if for some reason it doesn't blow up."

"Agreed. Arm torpedoes just in case and slow our speed a little." Farenia ordered, the viewscreen switching to the rear camera as the ship slowed down enough to keep the pod on the viewscreen. Then they waited as the computer counted down.

Then the pod exploded.

Farenia had yet another loss on her conscience.

"Get us out of this soup." Farenia ordered.

Arivek fell into the chair in his office, rubbing his eyes in exhaustion. Of all the perks from Andy's tactile subroutines, tiredness wasn't one of the ones he enjoyed. He needed to deactivate for a few hours, recharge his proverbial batteries, but the repair work was tough and his crew was already pulling double shifts. His ability to work almost endlessly was a gift he could give them.

But he needed a release. Someone to talk to who understood him. And there was only one person he wanted to see. He tapped in the comm signal for the USS Camelot, and made a request for their Chief Engineer. After a few moments, a very familiar face appeared on the screen.

"Hey, beautiful," he said with a smile. "Long time no see."

"Arivek!" Jenni said with a smile, leaning forward in her chair to get a closer look at him in her monitor. "It's been too long! How's my favorite blue engineer?"

"He's alright," Ari said with a shrug. "How's my second-favorite Engineer?"

"Second favorite?" Jenni asked with a laugh. It left as quickly as it came, and Jenni found herself studying Ari's face. "Ari? What's wrong?" She was never one to simply cut to the chase, but she had a feeling there was much more to this call. It had been far too long since their last chat.

"I am my own first favorite Engineer, after all," he said, not really smiling a lot. He sighed. "I don't know. I just feel...lonely. It's not the same here. It would have been fine if a few of the staff had been transferred, but literally everyone is gone, except me." He sat back. "And Hayley."

Jenni felt her smile droop. In many ways, Ari's Katana was not her Katana. But, the crew there had made it her home more than its predecessor. "I'm sorry, Ari," she said, not knowing much else to say. "Is Hayley still up to her usual shenanigans? Still backbiting at authority?"

"She's better, actually." Arivek leaned forward, scratching the back of his head. "She and I have seemed to connect lately. We shared a meal."

Jenni blinked in complete surprise. "Wow," she said. "I guess time really does change people. Either that, or..." Her voice trailed off, thinking she probably should finish that thought.

"Or what?" Ari asked, his brow furrowing in concern. "Jenni what's going on?"

"Nothing," she said shaking her head. "I was just going to say maybe Hayley has just accepted that this is the way things are now and she's moved on."

"Maybe she has," Arivek replied. "Everything is changing and change isn't exactly something I'm accustomed to. They have me doubling as XO now. It's a headache and a half. And I'm covering your old spot on top of that."

"Is the crew that small now?" Jenni asked, surprised at his multiple hats. "What happened to M'rayr?"

"He was transferred a while back," Arivek said. Arivek sat there for a moment, just looking at her. "I've missed you so much. I could talk to you about anything."

Jenni smiled back. "Of course," she said, leaning more forward in her chair. In a gentle voice, she said, "I've missed you too, Ari. What's going on?"

With his elbows on the table, Ari put his face in his hands, rubbing his eyes. "I've been a complete jackass lately. I've been letting my personal mood seep into the workplace. I'm constantly fighting with this Lieutenant Commander. She's the head of our Intel department. She's a pain in my ass. But I can't seem to let it go. Whenever I see her, my blood just begins to boil."

She nodded as he talked, finding that she understood him completely. "Because you think she should be someone else." Because she's not Jhu. Jenni wanted to sigh. She couldn't even tell him that Jhu had her baby because of how upset he seemed. "Is she good at her job?"

"She's not..." He shrugged, "She's not terrible. But she doesn't know how to talk to people. She's disrespectful and condescending to everyone, including those above her. And it just pisses me off."

Jenni smiled, but managed to stop herself from a laugh. "I seem to remember a particular engineer who was pretty sharp with those around him. Sounds like you two have something in common."

"Yes, but that Engineer was amazing at his job," Arivek said, returning the smile. "But you're right, I suppose I wasn't always the best officer either, was I."

"We all have our flaws," Jenni reminded him, glad to see his smile. "So, why are you fighting with Intel? You outrank her, obviously. Your departments also don't exactly mix either."

Arivek was about to say something, and then realized how completely silly it was. "I can't tell you," he said.

Jenni arched an eyebrow and kept her playful smile. "So, one minute you can tell me anything, and now you can't tell me something. Which is it, Mister?" she asked, playfully. "Come on, you can tell me."

"It's not that I can't, it's just that Ive suddenly realized how stupid it is." Arivek smiled, rolling his eyes, playfully. "We're fighting because...because she was mean to me."

Jenni leaned back in her chair and folded her arms. As she used her foot to pull the chair closer to the desk and the monitor, she asked, "How was she mean to you?"

"She questioned me and my Engineering knowledge in front of the entire Senior Staff," Ari said in response.

She could see how that was upsetting, even for him. "And then what?"

"Then I called her out in a staff meeting, and was scolded by the XO. Then we had to work together and we just fought the entire time." Arivek threw up his hands. "I even tried to connect with her, but she was just so closed off and combative. I didn't know what else to do!" He sighed. "And now she's second officer under me, so I have to put up with her, like, all the time."

Jenni blinked in surprise. She'd done a fairly good job following him right up until Second Officer. "So, Intel Chief slams you. You fire back. The XO scolds you. And now the Intel Chief is... Second Officer... under you?" Her eyes widened, putting the pieces together. She wanted to say Congratulations, but she knew what good that would do. "What the hell is going on over there?" she said with a sigh. "So we just need to figure out what to do with her. Like how to deal with her then."

Arivek's face turned into an evil smile, "I plan to bury her under paperwork. Duty rosters, mundane progress reports, things like that. If she wants to play that game, I'll show her who's boss."

"So, you're going to make her do your job?" Jenni said, almost with a snort. She'd been down the XO route before, so she knew what kind of mess this Intel Chief would be in. "Let me guess. Deliver everything in triplicate. One copy for the XO, another for the Ops Chief, notarized and all that jazz? If you give her all of your new jobs, what will you wind up doing?"

"Well, I'm still Chief Engineer and Chief of Operations until the slots are filled," Ari said. "But yea, that's basically the plan. She said juggling all three wouldn't be as hard as what she's juggling, so I'm going to really show her what I'm doing."

"XO," Jenni said slowly, still processing what he said. "Chief Engineer. Chief Ops." She closed her eyes and shook her head. "Good grief! Who sent the Katana out with no crew? Who's still left on that boat?"

"A Captain who doesn't mind having a drink in front of her senior staff, a Chief Tactical who fades into the background and a Chief of Intel who's main mission in life is to get on my nerves," Arivek said. "Oh, and Hayley," he said, chuckling at the fact that she always seemed to be an afterthought to him.

She smiled. "Some things just never change, I guess," she told him. "Sounds like a lot of the same situations, just different people doing the actions. And," Jenni laughed. "And good old Hayley."

"I'm tired of whining about my problems," Arivek said, sitting back in his chair. "How is the Camelot? Are you dating anyone?"

Jenni laughed and shook her head. "Ari, you know I don't kiss and tell. No, ever since M'rayr and I divorced, I've been enjoying the single life. What about you?"

Arivek laughed, trying his hardest to keep from snorting. "Saying you don't kiss and tell me is like me saying I can transform into a real boy at any point. It just isn't true. And no one here for me. A few flirtations, but I think it's hard for people to get close to what they see as a machine." He shrugged, not in a sad way, but in a way that conveyed a "what can you do" sort of feeling.

"You're not a machine," she reinforced, uncrossing her arms and leaned forward. "You're a real boy," she told him. "Good brain. Good heart. You care. And one day you won't be confined to an engine room or a ship anymore."

"I know," Arivek said with a smile. "And maybe someday a nice man will see what you see. But until then, you're still the most important person in my life," he said with a grin. "So how is everyone else? When I found out that basically everyone is back together on the Camelot, I won't lie, I tried to get a transfer. M'rayr wouldn't let me, and as it turns out, they already had a Chief Engineer."

While she did blush at his gratitude, Jenni had tried to avoid that subject, but now that he said it, keeping herself from saying anything would be impossible. "Yeah, it's different here too," he told him. "When I transferred, I had no idea Kris would be the guy in command. Nor that Jhu or Nathan would show up. But, everyone's got new lives now. Even Maica's got her own command now and she's moving on."

"That's awesome!" he said, entirely happy for his friend. "I heard about Nathan's rescue. I was glad he survived. We all thought..." he voice trailed off. He didn't have to say what they all thought, they lived it. "When's she due?"

"Actually, I haven't seen her yet," Jenni replied. "The baby, that is."

"She's delivered?" Arivek asked, his smile getting bigger.

Jenni smiled back. "In true Kris Kerouac fashion," she replied. "In a shuttlecraft disabled by a dark void. They were lucky to happen upon a blue-collared lieutenant who helped with the delivery."

"I suppose the officers in blue have to be good for something," Arivek said with a smile. "Where did he come from?"

"Out of the blue, quite literally." Jenni leaned back in her chair. "Or so I hear. I was too busy keeping invaders out of Engineering."

"Y'all sound like you're having a lot more fun than we are," he said. "No one's invading my Engineering."

"The day that you call invading fun is a day I need to start checking your ingrams," Jenni replied with a coy smile. "I'm sorry you're having a rough time, Ari. I wish I could be there to help."

Arivek shrugged, "I'm better now. Just needed to see a friendly face."

Jenni kept her smile, in fact it grew. "Anytime, Ari."

"I'll talk to you soon," Arivek said, sitting there smiling at the woman for a few moments "Bye Jenni."

"Bye, Ari." Jenni remained smiling for a moment longer, not wanting to turn off the transmission. Finally, at extreme reluctance, she did, leaving a confirmation message on Ari's screen.

Farenia had been drinking. A lot. Even her hyper-Vulcanesque metabolism couldn't keep up. Glancing at all the empty bottles on her coffee table, she punched in her code to open up her hidden stash of decanters and booze to have a bit of that too. But it refused to open. She knew she was putting the code in right... Stumbling to the replicator, she tried programming it for some real alcohol and received a negative sound from that as well. Well, that was no good...

Tapping her comm badge, she held herself steady against the bulkhead with her other hand. "Farenia to Zhuri, my replicator isn't working and I can't get a locked cabinet to open. Can you help me out?"

=/\=Not a problem, Captain. I'll be there in a few minutes,=/\= Arivek said, his voice coming through the comm system.

It took about ten minutes, but soon, the sound of the proximity chime sounded throughout the Captain's quarters.

Farenia answered the door personally, having to press the door controls three times to get it to open, then staggered back a bit. "Thank you. I... It's..." Motioning to the replicator, that's all she could think to say for a moment. "It won't replicate things."

Arivek raised an eyebrow at the woman, but said nothing as he walked into her quarters. He could smell alcohol, but he was in no place to judge. The woman was off duty and was allowed to act any way she deemed fit within her own quarters. "What are you trying to replicate?" he asked, finally, having walked up to the wall-mounted machine.

"Ah... more whiskey. And a sandwich." Farenia admitted, following Arivek to the replicator. "And I can't get into my bar. The room door didn't seem to want to work right either."

"Was it the door or...?" Ari asked, scanning the replicator with his tricorder. He closed it and popped off the bulkhead panel, giving him access to the inner workings.

Farenia nodded drunkenly. "The control panel wouldn't open it." Stumbling back to the door, she pressed the door controls again to try and repeat the issue. The door opened and closed several times just fine. "Ok, it works fine now..."

"Perhaps my holomatrix realigned the control panel sensors?" he asked, pulling out an isolianar chip from the replicator and scanning it. "There seems to be a request error on a feedback loop in here. Did you specify non-synthetic alcohol?"

"Umm... Yesh..." Farenia said, making it back over to Ari and leaning on him slightly. "It can't do that, can it?"

"No, it most certainly can't," Arivek said, a bit of annoyance coming through his voice. "It seems that you confused the replicator by requesting a legal substance and an illegal substance at the same time. It is trying to both deny your request and fulfill it at the same time." He looked at the Captain. "You can't do that."

"Oh... Yeah I guess not." Farenia sighed heavily. "Sorry. We've lost six people since we left. Did you know that? Six people.Two of them were department heads. Are we going to have any crew to get home with? Am I a bad captain?"

"You don't truly want me to answer these questions," Ari said, putting the replicator back together.

Heading over to the couch and flopping down on it, Farenia sighed again. "I need more officers like you. Computer, make a science chief for me." The computer chirruped an affirmative and went silent.

Arivek rolled his eyes, "Captain, if you break the Katana, I'm going to smack you." He walked over to the couch. "Now, show me the door that won't open."

Getting back up, she walked over to the front door to her quarters and pressed the door controls. But nothing happened. No chirrup. no open door. nothing. "Computer?" Farenia asked. There was no response. "Umm... I think the Katana is broken..."

"Fucking dammit, Ferenia," he said, angry enough to use her first name by accident. "That door works, you're just too drunk to work it. But you mentioned a different door that wouldn't open. A locked door?" After a few minutes, the doors to her quarter slowly rolled open, hesitated a moment and then rolled closed, just as slowly as before. Arivek's eyebrows furrowed in concern but he didn't have the mental strength to deal with that at the moment.

Staring at the door doing its slow motion thing for a few seconds, Farenia blinked and nodded, wondering if she'd seen what she just saw. "Yeah, the liquor cabinet. I think I scrambled the code on it. Five one seven nine." She pointed over to a cabinet in the corner, still staring at the door.

Arivek walked to the cabinet and entered the code. Immediately, a beep came from the interface and it opened. "So what's the issue with this one?" he asked, his annoyance thick and palpable. "It's working just fine. But honestly, you should consider not drinking as much. At least stop when you realize you can't work basic ship functions."

"Yeah... I think you're right..." Farenia muttered as the door to her quarters slowly opened halfway and just stopped. Then after a few seconds, it slowly slid closed.

Then the computer chirruped again. "Officer created. Project 42 is now compiling in holodeck two and determining physical specifications."

"What the fuck?" Arivek said, stopping as he was about to lay into Ferenia once again. "Computer, analysis on Project 42?"

"Analysis unavailable. Project 42 is now compiling in holodeck two and determining physical specifications," was the Computer's only answer.

The hologram shook his head. Something wasn't right. "You, stay here," he said to Ferenia as he quickly put his tools back in the Engineering kit he had brought with him. "Drink some water, take some aspirin and get some sleep. I need you functional in the morning." As he turned to leave, his form dematerialized and after a few moments materialized once again.

"Physical profile compiled," the Computer said in her usual, unfeeling tone.

"The fuck... Are you ok?" Farenia asked, a rush of adrenaline sobering her up practically instantly.

"I don't know," Arivek said, raising his voice a bit. "Just...let me go figure this out. Stay out of the liquor cabinet, or I'll change your combination code."

"Let me know when you figure something out. And be safe." Farenia looked Ari in the eye meaningfully before heading to the replicator to get some coffee.

Arivek nodded to her, "You'll be the first to know," he said before turning and leaving the woman's quarters.

Arivek jogged down the corridor from the turbolift he had just gotten off of. Normally, he could have just transferred his program across the ship, but with the recent issues, he decided it may not be the safest option. And to be honest, he'd never really gotten a handle on transferring his program well. More often than not, he ended up in places he never meant to be.

Rounding a corner he came to holodeck two, the large doors closed. He pressed the button to open them, and nothing happened. After a few moments, the doors slid open, slowly, but stopped half way. He squeezed through the opening and walked into the holodeck.

The room inside looked a lot like Chief Carter's cybernetics lab before she left the Katana; there were lots of parts strewn about, plans for Maica's neural net on a few displays, and a diagnostics frame that was supposed to house Maica. Only there was something else standing in the diagnostics frame, something not wholly solid; it was vaguely humanoid, had a head, eighteen arms, nine legs, basic humanoid proportions, but it was blue and transluecent, the edges were blurry like it wasn't completely formed. There was something strangely nebulous about the figure standing there, but its face was fairly clear, and it appeared to be sleeping, or at the very least its eyes were closed.

Arivek walked up to the humanoid being and stood in front of it. While he'd never seen anything like this before, he felt an odd sort of connection to it. "Computer, is an analysis available?"

"Analysis is unavailable," came the Computer's cold voice.

"What are you?" Arivek asked, mostly to himself and he reached out to touch it. But his fingers stopped short. He wasn't quite sure what it was or what sort of interaction it would have with him matrix.

The figure in the frame remained silent and still for a long while, but eventually it opened its eyes to reveal deep pools of blue, just like Ari's eyes.

"What are you?" the figure said, repeating the question it had been asked, though there didn't seem to be a mouth from which the sound was formed. "What am I?" it asked, as if clarifying the realization of the question itself. "I don't know," it finally answered in a soft tone, and it almost sounded sad.

Arivek backed away slowly, stumbling into one of Andy's tables. "That makes two of us," he said, unable to take his eyes away from the other being's.

The blue light figure gazed into Ari's eyes and there was emotion there, mostly confusion and fear, but when it spoke it sounded eerily calm. "I know you... How do I know you?" it asked.

"You don't know me," Arivek said in reply. He tapped at one of the nearby consoles, attempting to run an analysis, but the Computer was still having issues. However there was a display of the current process; a scan of Ari's core matrix and consciousness side by side with Maica's neural map and consciousness, the computer was using the remnant of one of Maica's backup before she had been transferred into her new body, including that 'spark' of true budding awareness, to build a new mind! Unfortunately, both Maica's and Ari's core personality data, their memories and what made them who they were, were too well secured for the computer to copy, so this new mind was a blank slate, but the computer was still filling this infantile matrix with data, everything related to the Science department! Farenia asked for a Science Officer, and the computer was trying to create one!

"I do know you..." the figure insisted softly, stumbling forward out of the diagnostics frame. The number of legs it had was completely impractical; it looked Ari up and down, then looked down at itself until all the limbs merged together so that it had just two arms and two legs. "How do I know you?" it asked again, taking an unsteady step towards him. "I know you, it's on the tip of my..." it brought a hand to where it's mouth should be, only to realize it had no mouth, so a mouth formed.

Arivek took another step back, sliding around the various tables in the room. "Computer, decompile Project 42," he said. He cursed, knowing that everyone he needed help from wasn't on board anymore. He would have to take care of this alone.

A disapproving tone sounded. "Decompile unavailable."

"Where did you come from?" Arivek asked, avoiding the form's questions.

"Come from? I do not know... but, I though I was wanted, why did you try to decompile me?" the figure responded sadly.

"I..." Arivek didn't know what to say. While the being was clearly not organic, it had a sense of self-realization. Could he actually get rid of it? "I don't know," he simply said, his stomach wrenching in knots.

The figure staggered another step closer, then again, the disjointed movements suggesting that it might be having difficulties functioning. Then it looked at him and there was something else in its eyes: Pain! This thing was in pain! "I feel something... inside... it-" The figure stumbled against a console, holding a hand to its head. "So full, I think I'm overflowing," it said in a broken tone, wanting the transfer of data from the computer to stop!

"Uh...I uh..." Arivek stood there, not sure what to do. "Um....Computer, pause data download," he said.

The Computer chirped in an approving tone.

"Thank you," the figure said with relief, standing straighter. "I remember you now; you are Arivek Zhuri, the photonic life-form that inspired the basis of my matrix. I am pleased to meet you, Father," it said with a slight bow of its head.

Arivek back up even more, knocking over a few instruments from a table. "No. No no no no no." His eyes had gotten wider. "I am not your father. I am..." He took a breath, his heart was racing. "I'm not anyone's father. I'm just...I'm just me. And you, you're..." He wasn't sure what to say, but he didn't want the make the being sad again. "You're just...I don't know. This isn't right. This can't be right."

"It is my understanding of familial structures that offspring are independent beings, not mere extensions of their parents, so of course I am me and you are you," the figure said with a curious tilt of its head. "I am not wanted," it continued as it began to understand the nature of Ari's ramblings. "But... I do not want to be decompiled."

"I didn't mean it that way," Arivek stated, feeling even worse than he already did. "It's just...you weren't planned. Your existence was an accident, a mishap with the Computer." And he immediately put his head in his palm. "I didn't mean that either."

"I... think I understand... My creation was not intentional, but that does not mean I am unwanted," it said, trying to sound hopeful and even trying to cheer up Ari. "But you are still uncomfortable around me," it observed. "Is it because I am naked and without defined gender and anatomy?"

"Sure," he said in reply, not wanting to say much more. So far, everything he said was coming out wrong.

"I see. Then will you be choosing the parameters for my appearance or may I chose how I look?" it asked.

Arivek opened his mouth to speak, but stopped himself. He didn't know how to answer that. "I have to go," he said. "It was a pleasure to meet you Project 42."

And then he was gone... Thinking he must have very important business to attend to, the figure accepted his words as it returned to the diagnostics frame, letting the program continue to build and refine its matrix. Even though it didn't understand the kindness of a lie or that Ari's words meant that he couldn't stand to be near it, it was saddened to see him leave. Once again alone, it closed its eyes, a single tear slipping down its cheek and disappearing into haze of the incomplete matrix.

Jenni paced in her quarters, her eyes occasionally darting to the darkened monitor on her desk. Quintina's advice earlier that day had rang true, but now that the moment of action was here, her nerves had returned. This was not just Katana on her mind, but also Arivek and her career. She'd left that ship because of a boy, and now she was wanting to return because of them.

She glanced down, and Jenni was certain that the carpet looked a little more worn than normal. How long had she been pacing? An hour? Two hours? A glance at the nearby chronometer told her that it had been even longer.

"Come on, Jenni," she muttered, trying to encourage yourself. "You can do this."

Jenni stopped and looked at the monitor. Surely it grew as she'd been pacing. This couldn't be that bad, could it? The current Captain didn't know her at all, so why would she even listen to her request? She had to try.

Inhaling deeply, she sat down at the desk and slapped the base of the terminal. "Computer, open a secure channel to the USS Katana," she instructed. "Specifically her Captain..." her eyes darted to a nearby PADD with the name she sought. "Meowlith. Captain Meowlith."

Farenia had been sitting in her quarters, her desk buried in PaDDs wen the call came in. Curious as to who it was from, she activated the comms. "This is Captain Farenia Meowlith of the Katana. You are... Commander Jennifer Matthews?" The communications tags were easy enough to read, but though she'd never seen this person before, the name was still familiar. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

Well, there was no turning back now. Jenni let go of what remained of that breath and said with a smile, "That's me. I understand your Chief Engineer position has recently opened up. I would like to fill it for you, Captain. Immediately, if possible." Jenni knew that statement would raise at least one eyebrow between those pointed ears, especially since these requests were never done via subspace transmissions and required submitted paperwork and processing time.

"It's true that my Chief engineer has been recently moved to the position of XO..." Farenia furrowed her brow as she punched up the name of this person calling her. Then she had an idea of why she was calling. "Ah, you're the former... No, you're... Yeah, these cross dimensional records aren't too well organized... Are you familiar with Commander Arivek Zhuri's work? Can you match him or do better? Can you reinstall a dilithium matrix while at warp six?"

"Who reinstalls a dilithium matrix while at warp?" Jenni remarked, surprised by the question. Skirting around it, she continued, "I'm more than familiar with Commander Zhuri's work. In fact, you could say I'm an expert on starships named Katana. I'm not from the universe that your ship is from, but I've spent more than enough time in its Jefferies tubes and tight passageways to know how she ticks. Given the cross-dimensional component, I guarantee that you will not find a better replacement for Arivek."

"I've had to remove and replace a dilithium matrix at warp." Farenia said tapping her temple. "Had to have both eyes completely replaced. I don't recommend it but when you're running from a Jem'hadar attack craft..." Sighing and leaning back, she looked over what she assumed to be the correct Jenni's records for a moment. "I can pull some strings and get you out here pretty quick. I just need a bit more incentive. Another reason than just needing a good engineer."

Jenni had to consider that for a moment. "I believe ships have a soul. And that it's not the engineers who keep that soul alive. It takes every hand, every mind, without exception. I wasn't lying when I said I was an expert on ships named Katana. I knew the last five people who sat in your chair." She wouldn't say that one of them was her. "And I knew everyone who traversed her halls for the last few years. Today, she's got practically a whole new crew who don't know a thing about her. Katana's seen more than most ships do in their entire life. I can connect you and your crew to Katana. Teach her to give you her best, just like she did for previous masters. Katana needs a family. She needs her family. She needs you, Captain. More than you know."

Farenia mulled this over for a few moments, a look of deep concentration on her face. Then a wicked grin spread across her Vulcan-esque face as she leaned in towards the screen. "Ok. You'll have transfer orders within two hours. I want you to do something for me though. I just put in requests for some other personnel and a new shuttle to replace the one my former XO had to take off with when she left. I want you to pick them up at Starbase 336 and make sure they get here safe and sound."

The engineer fought to keep her surprise concealed. She didn't think it would be this easy, not with those pointed ears anyway. Still, she cocked her head slightly to the right and nodded. "That I can do," she said, taking extra note of that wicked grin. What did she just do? "Safe and sound it is. Any other orders, Captain?"

Farenia's grin faded and her expression turned dark. "If you come into contact with any other vessels out here other than ours, run. Don't look back. Don't hail them. Don't even answer distress signals. Just run. Run like your lives depend on it because it does. There are beings out here that won't try to talk. They'll just either melt your ship into slag in one hit or try to tear it apart one piece at a time. Understood?"

If her new Captain was trying to scare her, it wouldn't work. Jenni had stared down a Breen warship once upon a time and had won. She was nervous, sure, but Jenni could easily handle this. "Yes, ma'am," Jenni simply replied.

"I'm serious now. Don't forget it. These beings destroyed an insignia class with two shots and if they had gotten a third shot on us, we wouldn't be having this conversation." Farenia leaned back in her chair, her demeanor softening slightly. "So... Was there anything else? If not, I have some calls to make."

Jenni raised an eyebrow of her own. Clearly, this Captain was ideally suited to follow in the steps of her predecessors, and perfect for the Katana herself. "No, ma'am," Jenni replied. "I'll get to Three Three Six and I'll head you way as soon as possible."

"Good luck, Commander. Meowlith out." Farenia then nodded and closed the channel. Now she had some calls to make and some favors to call in. She just hoped she had enough clout left with a certain admiral.

Jenni stared at the blank screen for a moment before standing and looking around her quarters. She smiled as she quickly took inventory. There wasn't much time to pack, and there was a lot to do. "I'm coming, Ari," she said happily. "I'm coming home."

Jenni sat in the rear compartment of the Delta-class shuttle. The table in front of her was completely covered with knick-knacks, parts, tools, wires and chocolate. It had been several days since she last spoke with Arivek and made the big decision to leave the Camelot. Her departure had been bittersweet, perhaps more bitter than sweet as it would probably be the last time for a long time she would see her friends, the people who had cared for her in her dark times and she theirs. She'd made the decision to leave Katana originally for her own good, and now this move was meant for the good of others.

Yet, she was understandably stressed. She enjoyed meeting new people, even though there would be few familiar faces on Katana. The chance in technology didn't phase her much either, but she was definitely an expert in ships named Katana. It was her project now, the mess on the table in front of her, that stressed her out. They'd rendezvous with Katana in a few hours and her present for Arivek was nowhere near complete. It was still hours away from completion, and she couldn't leave this mess for Crewman Sokamin to take care off. She'd pissed him off once before and the last thing she wanted coming back to the Katana was deal with him again.

So, she sat at the table, continuing to labor over Project: Free Bird. She wore only a simple white tank top and black shorts. After all, there really wasn't any need for a uniform on the small shuttle. They all took turns in the cockpit, keeping an eye on their flight path and surroundings. This was dangerous space and no one wanted to be caught off guard.

Doctor Adrianna Baciami was pacing, similarly to a hungry tiger trapped in a cage. The Italian hated short trips like this, they always put her on edge. For whatever reason the woman always felt that more could go wrong in small confinement than on a real ship. That was in fact the reason why she was there. She had requested a transfer after Adrianna felt that her own captain did not care for the safety of their crew. It was certainly prominent during their last mission.

The hot blooded italian looked up to from her wanderings and saw the mess. "Is that organised chaos or perhaps just chaos?" her italian accent was thick but understandable.

Jenni glanced up from her tinkering with a smile. "Organized chaos? Is there such a thing?" Jenni looked back down and activated her spanner for the thousandth time in an hour as she tried to remember the doctor's name. They'd been aboard this small boat for a while now, and she still had a hard time remembering. Or, did she even ask. All she knew was that the woman was heading to Jenni's same destination, Katana. "It's Adrienne, right?"

"You may call me that if you wish," Adrianna replied simply, "Adrianna Baciami." After a moment the doctor then proceeded, "Organised chaos, as in, something can seem a mess, but you know exactly where all is."

Adrianna... Jenni was close. "It's organized chaos indeed," she replied, looking up. She deactivated the spanner, set it on the table, and picked up one of the foil wrapped chocolates. "You look like you need one of these," she offered. "And it's Jennifer Matthews, though I prefer Jenni."

"Jenni," she repeated to herself, "What are they?"

The engineer blinked in surprise, almost taken aback by a woman who didn't recognize such a familiar shape. "Dark chocolate," Jenni replied, collecting herself. "With a small caramel filling."

Adrianna smiled a little and bowed her head as a thank you. The italian tried the chocolate and nodded, "It is nice, grazie."

"You're welcome." Jenni's eyes returned to her project, but she kept her mind on the woman beside her. "Are you nervous, Adrianna?"

"Of what?" Adrianna took a seat next to the woman.

"At the rate you're going, you're going to wear out the carpet," Jenni remarked, glancing up at the brunette. "Or do you just not like sitting still?"

"Pacing helps to distract," she replied, "I get bored."

"Can you hand me the flux remover?" Jenni asked, setting down the spanner and gesturing at the tool that was out of her reach. "The computer has a good selection of books."

Adrianna handed the woman the apparatus before replying, "There is only so long you can read before the words become shapes and your eyes get tired. I am the person that believes that you sleep when you are dead."

The engineer smiled, accepting the tool and turning it on. Reverse engineering this technology was still proving to be difficult, but at least she was getting somewhere. "So, what do you prefer to do with your downtime, then?"

Adrianna analysed the woman a moment. Would honesty really be the best policy? Perhaps yes... but a bit less blunt, "I like to work out and train. You clearly like to..." Adrianna thought of the translation a moment, playing with the phonetics until she finally thought she had it, "Tanker? Tinker?"

"Tinkering is just one of the few things," Jenni replied, deactivating the flux remover and retrieved the spanner. "I also like to play the violin once in a while. It's probably just as restricting playing the violin in a shuttle than trying to do chinups in the doorway."

"Yes, but one will have you murdered," Adrianna said coldly with a slight sense of teasing.

"Who will murder you for chin ups?" Jenni asked.

Adrianna chuckled, "no, I meant you for playing violin."

Jenni looked up from her work. "Come on now, Adrianna. I'm not that bad. Still, I know no one wants to hear violin music, which is why it's safely in its case."

Adrianna shrugged, "I would not know, I have not heard you. You cannot be bad if you practise a lot right?"

Jenni shook her head. "Actually, I am a little rusty. Hopefully, I'll be able to get back to it when we get back to Katana."

"I will have to listen sometime," Adrianna offered a warm smile.

"Then I'll try not to mess up," Jenni said. "Optronic coupler."

"Opt-what?" Adrianna looked confused. Perhaps it was out of context or the name of a musical piece.

Jenni pointed at the tool on Adrianna's side of the table that was buried under a pile of optical cable. "Silver and bronze handle. Green light at the top."

She nodded and handed the woman the tool, "Why do you not just have all your tools in reach distance?"

"Because sooner or later you would have tired of pacing," Jenni remarked. She didn't want to admit to Adrianna that she could very easily reach her own tools because that would have meant the end of the conversation.

"Just to con-con-feer-ma you are engineer not counsellor," Adrianna smirked.

She smiled. "An engineer who has been around the galaxy a couple times, is all," she replied.

"My father, he always told me that the most valuable people for gossip and intel are young nurses, hairdressers and engineers," Adrianna reminissed as she chuckled.

"We do hear a lot," Jenni said, setting down the tool and picking up a bit of the optical fiber to run some new datalines. Smiling, she leaned back in her chair as she started to manipulate the fiber. "What would you like to know?"

"What would you like me to know about you?" Adrianna replied.

Jenni chuckled. She set her work on the table and leaned back in her chair. "Depends on how much you want to know."

"I want to know enough to say that this godforsaken trip in this confined space did not have it's perks in friendship, but not enough for me to want to roll my eyes and say: merda, does she not shut up?" The italian teased with a chuckle.

"Well, friendship is why I'm in this shuttle," Jenni said, smiling and picking up a piece of chocolate. "This assignment will be the third time I'll have served on a ship named Katana. That is an even longer story, and we can circle back to it later. But, my last time aboard, I made a several good friends. Most of them moved on aboard the same time that I did. But, there's a friend of mine over there who needs help, and for me, that's more important than my career. What about you? What would you like me to know about you?"

The Italian thought about it a moment, "I am not my family, but I do have 'twisted' humour, I suppose you could say. Aaah, oh I love to cook. As an Italian, if I am not thinking about cooking, I am cooking. I like to feed people too. I hate to see people starve. So I host dinner parties. I make my own grappa too."

"Grappa?" Jenni asked, unfamiliar with the dish. And, out of politeness she added, "I will have to try your cooking sometime."

"It's a drink," she chuckled, "You drink it like vodka. It is stronger that vodka. I open a bottle to celebrate things. So I have 6 with me and hopefully will need to make more."

Jenni smirked, picking back up her project. "Planning on celebrating a lot of things?" she asked.

"Nom but I intend to make excuses for celebration after a long day," Adrianna shrugged teasing.

The engineer chuckled, considering telling her that there could be many of those on Katana. "If nothing else, celebrate that you made it through a long day. That's always a good reason."

"If I were to actually do that, I would be alcohohoholic," Adrianna giggled.

"Then, if I were a doctor," Jenni suggested, picking up another morsel, "I would prescribe chocolate as a preventative measure. I don't know of any chocololics who have perished under its unforgiving hold."

"Diabetes, rotten teeth and morbid obesity," Adrianna listed, "Not to mention spotted skin."

Jenni blinked, startled at the woman's emotionally-detached listing of diseases. After a moment of hesitation, she lowered the wrapped piece of chocolate and set it back on the table. "And that's why I'm not a doctor."

"No but you seem more of a happy person," Adrianna offered, "We over think things, medically when it comes to ourself-s."

"I try to stay positive," Jenni replied. "Space can be so dark and dreary, especially on the frontier. We can't let ourselves be lost to it."

"True, but is it not also true, that you have to be lost in the first place to find something?"

"Most of the time, yes." Jenni motioned to her pile of chocolate. "This stash had been left behind by the shuttle's last occupants. I found it just by opening a drawer to grab a couple tools. Sometimes we just find things on accident."

Adrianna blinked in disbelief. Her stomach turned suddenly, "joke?"

Jenni shrugged, unwrapping a piece. "Don't worry, I scanned it first. I wouldn't eat something that I didn't replicate or saw prepared without a good check."

Adrianna cursed under her breath before running the the nearest lavatory.

Jenni shook her head, almost afraid the poor woman was unprepared for the environment they were about to enter. Katana was about as strange as exploration got, and Jenni considered herself almost insane for diving right back in.

It had been two days since the Katana had left that ancient station and lost its sensor pod. They'd seen a few more of those scavenger ships in the area and though they were hard to track, Farenia thought they were safe enough for now. They'd gotten orders to rendezvous with a replacement shuttle and some more crew and had been sitting at the rendezvous location for a few minutes.

That's when they struck. Scavengers poured out of warp, surrounding the Katana. "Red alert!" Farenia ordered as dozens of the scavenger ships started picking at their shields. "Fire at will. Give them a reason to not attack."

"Phasers aren't responding! Neither are torpedoes!" came the call from tactical by an ensign. "Shields at eighty percent and falling!"

Damn it! Farenia knew exactly why the weapons weren't working. Ever since she'd ordered the computer to create a science chief for her, it had been dedicating random resources to its creation and various things had been going off and online randomly. Now it seemed that weapons were drained of power and they had no way to fight back. "Senior staff to the bridge! All hands, prepare for boarders and hull breaches!"

It didn't take long for the scavengers to break through the shields and start clamping onto the hull. Some of the bug-like aliens tore off bits of the ship while others boarded, looking for juicier morsels.

Dee had just entered the bridge to take his station when the bugs began attaching themselves to the hull. "Dammit," he hissed. Dee went straight for the weapons locker and tossed a couple hand phasers at a few nearby officers before bringing one over to the Captain. "I'll head for the lower decks." Looking over to Commander Eneas, he asked, "Coming Eneas?"

Not expecting that, Clio took a moment to respond, locking her console down as she scrambled out of her chair to follow him. "What, stay here and miss the chance to shoot some bad guys? Not a chance... you'd better believe I'm coming along."

Arivek took one of the phasers Dee was handing out. "I'll be down in Engineering," he announced to the Captain as he stepped into the turbolift.

"Be safe, all of you." Farenia requested as she checked and readied her phaser. Too bad she had left her phase pistols in her quarters - she was a much better shot with them.

All seemed lost as reports of invaders and damage rolled in.

That's when Farenia saw a dark shape zip in front of the viewscreen and fire off a few well modulated phaser shots. Was that who she thought it was? Opening a comm line, she hoped it really was. "Is that my new shuttle? I can't see you, but it's good you're here! Our weapons are offline and we're repelling boarders. Can you pick them off our hull?"

=====

Jenni had taken the helm of the Delta-class shuttle. No sooner had she felt relief from finishing her present for Arivek did the previous pilot announce that they were nearing their destination and were picking up multiple signatures. She was carrying a full compliment of science officers and the new Chief Medical Officer, so she figured the only person who could handle a potentially dangerous situation would be herself. Out of pure irony, she'd asked the doctor to take the weapons control and took the shuttle to yellow alert.

The very moment the shuttle dropped out of warp was she never more thankful to trust her gut. Katana was surrounded in a swarm. Two strange gray pylons extruded from her primary hull, probably part of some unusual addition, but like the rest of Katana now, they had been blackened by fire and damage. Jenni watched in near-horror as these bugs began to puncture Katana's hull. "Why aren't they sending out a distress call?" she wondered aloud.

She shook her head. It didn't matter. "Raise shields," Jenni ordered one of the nameless crewmen behind her. "Doctor, target any ships making a move towards Katana. Wait until I get us closer before targeting the ones on her hull." Jenni didn't want to make more work for herself before going aboard.

Adrianna did as commanded, ensuring that even the ones she considered could move were targeted. The element of surprise was never unheard of. War was war after all, "Si, Signora."

Jenni manipulated the joysticks and brought the shuttle gracefully and quickly towards the Intrepid-class ship. "Fire!" she called out, sweeping the small ship against the swarm.

There was always a mixed feeling with the consequences of firing, Adrianna found. It was a cross between pride and self loathing. On one hand she needed to protect those around her on the other hand, she was a doctor. Her fingers, nonetheless found their ways to the 'triggers' and blasted them to the open abyss of space.

"That's it, Doctor!" she congratulated, watching the swarm peel back just a little. Their work was far from over however. A hail hit the speakers, followed instantly by the voice of the Katana's new captain.

"Already working on it, Katana," Jenni called back over the comm. Even though she wasn't thrilled about saving another vessel bearing the name Katana, she couldn't be happier to see the old girl again.

=====

Back on the bridge, Farenia was at one of the operations consoles, monitoring sensors both internal and external. It seemed the scavengers outside the ship were starting to scatter and retreat and few of the boarders remained. Soon, the security teams would have everything wrapped up. then she saw a group of six of the insect-like invaders registering in main engineering. "Meowlith to engineering, reading hostiles in your area. Please report your status."

Just then, one of the bugs burst onto the bridge from an access crawl way. If a human bred with a cockroach, Farenia imagined that this is what it would look like. She wasted no time gunning it down, however.

=====

Down on Deck Eight, Dee had just turned a corner with a security team. Three bugs had invaded the corridor, and each one was doing their part tearing apart the consoles and relays. One spotted the security team and opened fire, gunning down an unprepared petty officer.

"Damn it," Dee hissed, raising his Type II and returning fire as the rest of the team quickly took cover. He missed the attacking bug, but struck one of the others. The bug remained unfazed, resistant to the phaser's stun setting. "Set for kill!" he ordered. He'd always been hesitant to use that order, but today the ship was more important that preserving all life.

Just after he got into cover, one of the bugs fell from his team's fire. Neither of the other two sought cover, making them easy targets. As the smoke cleared, Dee tapped his combadge. "Ellis to bridge. Deck Eight is secure."

Having only gotten a shot or two off at the bug-like aliens before Dee and the rest of the team put them down, Clio took the lull in activity as a chance to get a look at these creatures, as well as check on the fallen petty officer. Finding no pulse on the body, she sighed a bit before turning her attention to the insectoid bodies that lay near him. They didn't look like anything she'd ever encountered, but that didn't mean much. It was a big universe. "Ugly bastards. Tearing out the wiring for scrap, I assume." She pointed at a damaged relay, where several wires and fiber optic cables hung loose and frayed.

Dee had moved to take a look at the damaged corridor. "Commander Zhuri would be pissed," he remarked. "Moreso that these bugs saw Katana as scrap." He then spotted an open corridor door with some pulsing light emitting from it. "Looks like we've got one of their ships," he said, raising his phaser and cautiously entering the room.

"No, wait, that's a..." Dee was already inside the supposed bug ship, and Clio made a faint growling noise. "Really bad idea." But there would be hell to pay if she let Dee get eaten by one of those things so she followed him, very cautiously.

"It's gross in here," Dee said. It was an understatement really. The stench alone put an army of skunks to shame. Starfleet EPS relays, gelpacks, and more littered the floor of the ship. "Looks like a fast-strike vessel," he remarked. "You really should look at this, Eneas."

The smell inside the odd little ship hit Clio like a boulder, and she tugged her sleeve up over her hand to cover her mouth and nose with it. "Holy shit, that's foul." Still, she ventured further inside to get a close look at what Dee was looking at. "Forward scout and fast-strike, from the looks of it. And scavenging, obviously."

"There's gotta be a mothership or something nearby," Dee remarked, looking around a bit more. "Something like this can't have a lot of range."

"Agreed." Clio swallowed, looking around to see if there were any working consoles she might be able to hack her way into. If these consoles could even accept input from another species.

Dee stepped up to what appeared to be a working console. "Engine and fuel output," he reported. "Definitely has some kind of warp drive." Dee was no engineer, so there was no way he could fully decipher these readouts. Something suddenly felt very odd, like he could hear the slightest bit of movement behind him. He quickly whirled around to see a security guard approach. "Can't you at least say something before sneaking up on us?"

"Sorry, sir," said the crewman. "Reports are confirming that Katana is nearly clear, sir."

Having heard something approaching, Clio went for her weapon, sheepishly putting it away when Dee acknowledged the crewman. This disgusting bug ship had her all sorts of jumpy. Pretending she hadn't nearly shot one of the security guards, she went to look at some of the consoles that Dee hadn't gotten to yet. While she couldn't read the language, identifying them was surprisingly simple. "Tactical, science... I guess some things are universal." She found that if she didn't breathe too deeply she didn't feel quite as queasy, but she wasn't going to last long in this place. "It's... really rank in here."

"Then we should turn this over to Commander Zhuri," Dee replied. "As far as I know, he can't smell anything."

"Good idea." Clio was all for getting out of this nasty deathtrap before she actually got sick. "If there were anyone in here, we'd have been attacked by now. I think we can get out of here."

He nodded his agreement. Keeping his phaser drawn for good measure, he led her out of the bug vessel.

======

This was becoming the worse day, Marek was on his way back to the armory from the holodeck after testing the rifles and pistols. The first impact sent him to the floor, "what the?" He muttered as he scrambled to his feet and collected the weapons carrier.

He ran to the nearest wall terminal and accessed the sensors, he saw boarders and many alien ships attached to the hull. "Shit." He said with slight panic but swallowed as he quickly logged off as he didn't want the aliens to get access to the computer before rushing off to his destination of the security office.

Marek wanted to check in with Ellis and then make sure Khai was okay before joining the fight for the ship. He managed to open the carrier as he ran into the office where some of the other security officers waited for weapons as he had a number with him.

"Finally!" Khai said as he went to Marek and helped him take the weapons out and passed them to the others present. "Okay you know what to do, get to key areas and defend." He told them and Marek smiled.

"You heard him folks, get going. I'll secure this office and follow." Marek said taking this last rifle and saw Khai had the last pistol.

The officers nodded and left the office, once the door was close Khai turned back to Marek and leaned in bringing their lips together in a longing kiss that seemed like it could be their last. Once it broke Marek gently put the hand holding the rifle up against Khai's face, once finger tip tracing the pointed ear top then down to where the ear joined his head. "Stay safe my love," he said and slowly sidestepped around Khai, his hand caressing Khai's cheek as he retreated deeper into the security office to lockdown the security computer.

Khai watched Marek's sexy walk for a few moments before he left the office to go to join the fight.

=====

Leryssa had just arrived on the Bridge, She was just about to dismiss the ensign at Tactical in order for her to replace him, When a sudden movement near the captain's position caught her attention, "Captain, Watch out!" She warned. Before Farenia had the chance to move, A bolt of phaser fire streamed from Leryssa's phaser that she'd held in her hand, past the captain's shoulder, and nailed the bug that had been sailing in mid-air towards her. The phaser beam cut through the bug effortlessly, splattering the remains of the bug's body and innards in all different directions.

Ducking just in time to dodge most of the flying goop, Farenia looked back over at Leryssa. "Good shot. Thanks." Pulling out a tricorder, she scanned the remains looking for any sort of weakness. Unfortunately, they seemed as resilient as they looked. Returning to the sensors console, she counted the last of the intruders as they blinked out of existence.

Giving the captain a nod, Which showed her that Leryssa welcomed the thanks that the captain had given her. After a short period of time, Leryssa checked the console at Tactical, "What in the name of the Prophets?" She muttered to herself before speaking aloud, "Captain, I believe the bugs are backing down. But, I don't think we've seen the last of them." The light mocha-skinned Bajoran woman reported from the Tactical station.

"Why do you say that?" Farenia asked as she issued a few more orders via the console.

Leryssa checked the console at Tactical for the second or third time and shrugged before responding, "I'm not certain, Captain. But I think they're calling for some larger reinforcements." She pressed several controls, Bringing up a 360° sensor sweep of the area near and around the Katana's current position, "I'm detecting a faint transmission from one of the bug's ships off our starboard side. I don't think they're finished with us yet."

"I'll signal other ships in the area when we're clear. Maybe we won't be the ones to deal with them." Farenia said with a slight shudder.

=====

Jenni brought the shuttle around the Katana for another pass, only to see that their adversaries were on the run. She could see that Katana had suffered damage, and that only a couple pods remained attached to the ship. "Hold fire!" she called back to the doctor behind her. "We've got them."

Adrianna did as commanded, with ease. She was never the trigger happy kind.

Jenni tapped a nearby button to hail the Katana. "Delta Four Seven to USS Katana. We're all clear out here. Permission to dock?"

Was that the name of their new shuttle? Farenia needed to come up with a good name for it. Then it came to her as she hit the controls for the shuttlebay doors. "Shuttle four seven, change designation to Darkwing and come in on manual. Tractors show as offline so try not to scratch the deck."

Jenni was more worried about the Shuttlebay Chief's remark should she scratch the paint on both the shuttle and the deck. "I'll do my best," she quipped. "Darkwing out." With that, she banked hard to port, ducking even though she knew her head wouldn't hit a thing. Still, it made her nervous enough, seeing the old girl after all these months.

"Dare you to put scratch on it," Adrianna smirked to Jenni.

Jenni only chuckled. "I'll think about it," she replied with a smile, knowing that the comment had been made in jest. Truthfully, she didn't want one more thing to worry about with the old girl. These scavengers had already done enough damage.

Tags

Farenia was staring at her terminal, reading over the list of new personnel that came in on that new Delta class shuttle. She couldn't believe Starfleet had done this and she knew that the news of Crewman Dedjoy's demise hadn't yet reached her family yet. Tapping her comm badge, she steeled herself to deliver bad news. "Commander Eneas and Crewman Dedjoy, report to my ready room." Now she'd have to hope that their former crewman's sister didn't take the news badly and that Clio didn't feel even worse for it.

Crewman Dedjoy had just disembarked and been assigned her quarters, Tossing her duffel onto her new bunk when the call came in. Already called to the captain's office? That didn't sound good... Maybe this commander that was also called was her department head and the Captain did things differently with a more hands on approach. Either way, she checked her uniform in the mirror and headed out. She just hoped she'd see her twin sister soon.

Clio had been squirreled away in her office, finishing some last minute reports when the call came through. Hearing the second name called, she froze in place, still holding a PaDD in her hand. She was pretty sure Dedjoy had died in sickbay, but surely Farenia wasn't that much of a troll. Rather than call and ask what was going on, she very slowly set the PaDD down and left her office, going to the bridge. There was a looming sense of dread as she approached Farenia's ready room door and pressed the door chime button, one that suggested there was a lot more to this than some juvenile prank.

"Come in," Farenia called, relieved that it was Clio that was at the door first. "Please come in and have a seat. I have... news."

"I'd gathered that." Clio wasn't quite sure what to think as she came inside the ready room and found a place to sit. "What kind of news?"

Farenia likely didn't have much time and she didn't want to mince words as it was. "Dedjoy's twin sister was just assigned and she more than likely hasn't received the news yet."

No sooner had she finished speaking than the door chimed again. It seemed ominous, but Farenia paused before calling out. "Come in."

And there stood Crewman Dedjoy.

"Commander, this is Crewman Ila Dedjoy." Farenia stated simply.

Clio turned just enough to see who Ila Dedjoy was, and instantly her breath caught in her throat as her pulse quickened. For several long seconds, she was convinced she was looking at a women she knew was dead in the sickbay morgue. But Dedjoy hadn't had a first name, had she? She'd been 'just Dedjoy', Clio was sure of it. Which meant this was a different person, which meant... no, that couldn't be right. Starfleet wouldn't do that, assigning a dead officer's identical twin to the same ship. Or would they?

Feeling the rest of the color drain from her face, Clio swallowed. She wasn't ready for this.

"Crewman, please have a seat." Farenia began. As Dedjoy took the seat next to Clio, she seemed oblivious to Clio's plight. "You've been waiting on transportation here for about a week now, I take it?"

The crewman nodded cheerfully. "Yes ma'am. I asked for this assignment once I found out my sister was here and you were headed into the stellar nursery. I'm hoping we can earn her a given name."

"You have to... earn your given name?" That certainly didn't make Clio feel any better, knowing that Dedjoy had been robbed of an essential tradition her people apparently held. She had no idea how she was going to break that sort of news to Ila... or if she even wanted to be the one to do it.

"That's how we do it." Ila Dedjoy said with a nod. "Otherwise, we're just known by job or rank if we have one."

Farenia nodded, deciding it was time. "Crewman Ila Dedjoy, I regret to inform you that on stardate..." As Farenia spoke as if from a script, Ila's face sank in horror the more Farenia spoke. When she was done, she sat there in silence.

Ila could only shake her head, mouthing the word 'no' while tears rolled down her cheeks.

Still somewhat stunned by this new development, Clio very gently put her hand on Ila's shoulder. "I'm sorry. We're not entirely certain what happened."

Ila shook her head some more, finally squeaking a full "No..." out.

"I'm sorry," Farenia spoke softly. "I wish I had better news. We almost lost Commander Eneas and our counselor on that mission as well. If you'd like to speak with them in private... Or if you'd like to transfer elsewhere..."

"I'm sorry," Clio repeated, squeezing the girl's shoulder. "She was closer to the explosion than I was. There was nothing I could do."

"The subsequent decompression didn't help either." Farenia said in hopes of comfort. "Vicky, our counselor is still in sickbay."

After a few more sobs, Ila nodded and wiped the tears from her eyes. "I'd like to see her... One last time."

"Of course. She's in stasis in sickbay." Clio wasn't looking forward to that either.

"Commander, do you mind escorting her to sickbay?" Farenia asked, still softly.

"Not at all." It was the right thing to say, but Clio wasn't sure she could actually do it. The gnawing pit in her stomach grew larger by the second, and sickbay was a decent walk away.

"Thank you. If either of you need anything, please let me know." Farenia said as Ila stood and took a few wavering steps towards the door.

Clio nodded as she got up to follow Ila, gently guiding the younger woman's wavering steps toward the door.

Mark had taken to doing his real work in odd places. The cubicle in Intel offered no privacy, and without a wall to his back he couldn't fully concentrate. His subconscious remained too on guard for him to get any challenging work done. The ODN hub worked out just fine. There was a small secondary computer core that wasn't connected to the main network, where certain data was kept. The room was small, but there was enough room for Mark to sit, his back safely tucked into the corner as he worked on a large PaDD.

The Scavengers data. He'd looked over it in the twelve hours he'd been given. But he was going over it again. Especially since he had that tingle at the back of his neck. There was something amiss. It was a sixth sense he never ignored. He'd found fragments and snippets that said 'klingon' but they were refractions of shadows he couldn't quite pinpoint. Now that he'd had more time to study the Drej, some of the data the scavengers had given them didn't quite match up. For a group of people supposedly intimately knowledgeable about them, there were strange gaps, and even stranger discrepencies.
It all amounted to, well nothing, a whole lot of nothing. At least nothing yet, but he had enough data to bring it to the XO's attention.

Mark made sure to make notations and footnotes, then once satisfied he stood up. "Fuck." He grumbled, grabbing at his lower back. He really did know better than to let himself sit on a hard floor that long. He waited for the cramp to pass, stubbornly refusing to massage the area. Within a couple of minutes he felt safe enough to leave. It only took another couple of minutes to reach the XO's office door and sound the chime.

"Enter," came the voice from within.

Mark stepped in, taking a quick look around the office. It was a long ingrained force of habit. Know your environment. "Sir." Mark nodded. "I've got some further information for you."

Arivek looked up at the man, a questioning look on his face. "I thought the information I had given you returned nothing of use," he said, pressing a button on the desk that caused the Computer terminal to retract back into the desk top.

"It didn't, until I parced through some additional data. The Away Teams scans, detritus from the ships attached to the hull. Some garbled signals that weren't eaten up by the nebula." Mark explained.

Arivek motioned for the man to take a seat. "Let's hear it, Lieutenant."

Mark really didn't feel like sitting, but it would look strange if he didn't, so he carefully too a seat and explained, handing the PaDD over as he did so.

Taking the PADD, Arivek leaned back in his chair, opening the interface to show him the information.

"Not something we can use unfortunately, at least not yet. But if this much has fallen through the cracks, there's bound to be more eventually." Mark commented.

"This is good," Arivek said. "Not much, but it's enough to know that things aren't what they appear to be. We should stay alert."

"Always." Mark replied, trying his best to keep the 'duh' undertone out of his voice.

Arivek put the PADD down on his desk. While he was new to be an XO, he was not new to being a leader. "Is there an issue, Lieutenant?"

"Hrmm?" Mark looked over. "No. I just wish I could put my finger on this."

"Have you stopped working since you got here?" Arivek asked.

Mark paused. That was an odd question. It had been less than 48 hours, he still had another 12 or so to go before his body just shut down. He hadn't wanted to try sleeping yet, it would be better to just let exhaustion take him. "Briefly." He answered. He had eaten a few protein bars and had kept somewhat hydrated, so he could safely consider those breaks, though more often than not he was eating with one hand while holding a PaDD in the other.
He'd showered and changed once as well, now that he thought of it; it had been done on autopilot, without him really consciously taking control.

"How brief?" Arivek asked, not satisfied with the answer.

Mark paused, meeting the man's gaze full on. He wasn't sure how best to handle this deflection, he didn't know the XO well enough. He went for something generic. "I assure you I'm still fully functional." He forced the hint of a smile, hoping it would come off as a whismical joke.

Arivek just looked at the man, not amused.

"Is there anything else sir?" Mark tried a different track, one that would hopefully get him out of this office and out from under the XOs scrutiny.

"I'm still waiting for an answer, Lieutenant," Arivek said, lacing his fingers together as he put his hands on the desk.

Mark had to force himself not to snap at the man. "An hour or so." He replied. It was probably on the long side as an estimate, but it was better than flat out lying, which he'd been very tempted to do.

"You've been on board for days and you've only rested for an hour or so?" Arivek shook his head, "You need to take a break, Lieutenant."

"Yes sir." Mark replied. It seemed like the easiest option to just agree rather than argue with the man.

"That's an order," Arivek said in follow up.

"Understood." Mark replied. Then he repeated his earlier question. "Anything else sir?"

Arivek stood, walked over to the wall of windows. "You're dismissed," he said. "Go rest, take the rest of the day off. Don't make me relieve you of duty."

Mark just stood, nodded, and then left. He had no intention of following the orders of course. But he could work from his quarters and none would be the wiser.

Mark reluctantly headed to his quarters. He hadn't really been in them. He'd unpacked when he first arrived. Stopped to change and shower once, but that was it. The place had that standard starfleet grey, it was everywhere. Mark usually hated it. Right now it didn't even register. He slumped onto the couch and grunted. The thing was too narrow and over padded, but Mark ignored it. He pulled out a PaDD and accessed his personal console, transferring data he'd been working on, and accessing the incoming transmissions.

One hour and fourty-seven minutes later he found his computer access denied. It only took him a moment to realize the cause. "Well played." He had to admit out loud. The XO wasn't messing around. Mark couldn't just sit here and do nothing. With a grunt he rose from the couch and stripped, then changed into a pair of shorts and a tank top. He grabbed his boxer's tape then replicated a pair of boxing shoes. He quickly pulled on socks and laced up the shoes, then headed towards the gym, taping his knuckles as he went.

The gym was tiny, much smaller than he was use to, but it hardly mattered. All he needed was room enough to punch, and he had that. He let loose on the heavy bag, thundering his fists into it. He lost track of time, and didn't really come back to himself until he realized his face was flat against the bag, his arms hanging heavy and useless at his sides. With a monumental effort he stood up straight, and headed back to his quarters.

He untaped his knuckles as he walked through his door then stripped down leaving a pile of clothes just inside his door. He walked to the shower, barely managing to turn on the sonics. He didn't have the stamina he used to, and he'd been running off of very little food or sleep. He was feeling it now. He managed to get clean, then with resignation, flopped onto the single bed. He was just about to doze off when one arm reached over, searching for a body. A body that wasn't there, that was never going to be there again. Mark stood up and in a surge of anger grabbed the mattress and threw it against the wall. It did not make a satisfying noise, or even knock anything else over. He struggled with the box spring, but managed to get it tipped over as well. It didn't help. He looked down at his feet, where the phaser he'd hidden between the mattress and boxspring lay. He couldn't do this anymore. Going through the motions of living was exhausting. The solution was taunting him from the ground. He bent down and picked up the phaser, caressed its side, checked the charge. He couldn't take that option either, as much as he desperately wanted to. He heaved a great sigh and stormed out of the bedroom and hurled the phaser at the front door. He stood there, dazed for a few minutes, then finally settled into his recliner. Luckily his exhaustion caught up with him and he was quickly pulled into some much needed sleep.

Doctor Adrianna Baciami was quiet and focused as she walked down the halls of her new ship. She noted the faces that went past trying to see if any faces recognised her. It was nice to see a few familiar faces. The Italian adjusted her duffle back strap that was across her chest and found her way to her quarters.

Seeing Adrianna's name on the transfer list was a small ray of light in an otherwise sea of dark. Mark had no qualms about breaking into her quarters before she even arrived and placing a bottle of grappa on her kitchen counter. He was just about to make his escape when the doors opened.

The young woman almost jumped out of her skin and reached for a knife she was carrying in the small of her back. Somehow, she managed to stop herself before throwing it on recognizing the familiar face, "Mark? Marco?" She spoke quickly in Italian, "My friend! It has been too long!" The woman dropped her bag by her side, replaced the knife and ran up to the man offering him an embrace.

Mark pulled her into his arms and nestled his face into the top of her head. He spoke easily in her native Italian. "Good to see you are keeping in practice. " He patted her lower back, right above where she kept the knife. "I brought you grappa." He reluctantly let her go, it had been too long since he'd let anybody touch him.

"Ah! I would not go anywhere without him!" she exclaimed, "I see you are still well trained," she gestured to the grappa with a smirk before providing a more welcoming tone, "Will you join me for a drink before I check in officially tomorrow morning?"

Mark wavered. He wanted to spend some time with her. He'd known her a short while from a mission a few years ago, but that was it. But that was also before. He wasn't the same man, not by a long shot, and he didn't really want to talk about it. "I better not, I just arrived myself, I've got a lot of work to do."

"One drink does not mean years worth of catch up," she encouraged, really wanting the company, "I am asking for one drink to celebrate the new quarters and our reunion and then I have to memorise people's names and make sure my language skills are better before and after coffee."

"Alright one drink." He let himself be cajoled. "But you're cooking."

"Merda, I see you have not lost your cockiness," she headed for the replicator and replicated what she needed to make linguine arrabiata.

"Or I just remember how good your cooking is." Mark grabbed the grappa and helpfully opened the bottle.

"You are anyone's for a free meal," she chuckled, "Do not deny it."

Mark caught himself actually smiling, immediately stopping when he realized. "I suppose that's very true."
He leaned up against her kitchen counter. "So, what brings you to the Katana?"

"Last ship's cap-ee-tan like to play games," she replied, "He did not seem to care for others and took no responsibility for his actions. Yourself?"

"Just go where they send me." Mark answered.

"So boring," she replied as she began to serve up, "Perhaps that is all we are? Pawns in the games of life."

"I dunno, maybe at least a rook." He attempted to joke.

She handed the one plate and a set of cutlery to her friend and gestured to a table and chairs, "Any new cool scars?"

Mark tensed before he could stop himself. "No." He took the offered seat. The only problem with Adrianna was that she could always tell when he was lying, and
that was not a feat many could boast. "Not that you can see anyway." He amended.

She raised a brow at his guarded nature a moment, "I suppose that is for another time." She lifted her shot of grappa and toasted, "To the twisting fates that brought us together again, hmm? Oh... and damn good food."

"I can toast to that." Mark clinked his glass and downed his shot. "Oh man, I forgot how strong this stuff was."

She chuckled not reacting to it's fiery burn, "Have you gone soft on me?"

"Oh no. I can still keep up with you until we slip under the table together. We'd need more grappa for that though."

"We always need more grappa," She nodded over to her duffle bag as she ate, "I have 5 homemade bottles worth in my bag. Brewed about a month ago."

"Nice." Mark began shoveling his food in, realizing how hungry he was. He'd really not been bothering with regular meals. The rich Italian food had stirred his appetite though.

Adrianna chuckled at him, "There is more in the pan as always, enough for four more people."

Mark caught himself smiling yet again. He let it linger for a moment. "What? No dessert?" He got up to help himself to seconds.

"My mother's Tiramasu has already been programmed into the replicator," she chuckled, "Do you honestly doubt me?"

Mark couldn't answer between the bites he was taking. He just grunted and made a bee line to the replicator. He finally came back to the table,
cake in hand, and poured himself another shot. "God, I missed your cooking."

Adrianna chuckled feeling proud that someone appreciated her cooking and that she was feeding someone, like good italians should, as her mother had so rightly put, "You may regret it when you need to loosen your trousers."

"Worth it." Mark started in on his tiramasu, and without thinking about it, his third grappa.

"So much for one, " the woman shook her head.

Mark just smirked at her. "Thank you. The food was great, as always."

"You are welcome," she smiled before teasing, "I have a few new tally marks since I last saw you last. One of them said they did not like my cooking."

"Blasphemy. I hope you made it a slow death."

Now that the Intel Chief was back, Mark could pass on up some of the paperwork he'd been stuck with. He'd left it on the woman's desk early this morning before heading to the gym. Now he was back in his own office. (A console in the corner with a cubicle style half wall) It really did nothing for privacy, but it was fine for day to day work.

Paperwork had not been a thing Clio was looking forward to when she was released back to full duty. Even without whacking her head on a metal beam, staring at reports and filing them tended to make her head spin. When she came into the intelligence operations area, she glanced at the PaDDs on her desk for a moment before setting them back down. They would need her personal attention, but none of them were urgent.

And then it occurred to her that PaDDs had never magically appeared on her desk before. Spying a lone PaDD by itself beside the stack, she picked it up and found a personnel file, for an officer newly assigned to her department. He must have reported aboard while she was in sickbay. But she hadn't seen anyone when she came in. "...Lieutenant?"

Since Mark was the only Lieutenant, in fact the only other officer in the department, he lifted his head and looked over. "Yes?"

"How... long have you been aboard?" Clio was sure that sounded like an odd question, but it was one that needed to be asked.

"Not long, I beamed in when the XO beamed out. I took the liberty of keeping up with the paperwork. I take it you found the PaDDs?"

No wonder she hadn't noticed him. So many things had gone wrong at about that same time. "Yeah, I found them. Thanks, by the way."

"No problem. Do you need anything else?" Mark asked, his tone neutral, strictly professional.

"There is one thing." Stepping back to her desk for just a moment, Clio compiled all the information they had on the Drej into a single folder and setting its access permissions so that Dexter would be able to get into it. "I've been trying to make some sense of what we've learned about the Drej, but I got a bit scrambled in that explosion. I'm not sure if it really doesn't make any sense or if it's just me, but a second pair of eyes can't hurt."

"The XO gave me what we had, but I'll go over it again." Mark took the PaDD. Perhaps there was something new in the information Clio had, it was something to do anyway.

"I appreciate it. I'm going to try to finish some of this other paperwork... just let me know if you find anything or need any help." While she'd been surprised to find someone assigned to her department, Clio was certainly grateful he was here.

"Will do." Mark replied.

Mark had fixed up his quarters, tucking the phaser back between the mattress and the box spring. His computer access was back, and he spent the day in Intel. Bouncing between helping Security, managing some internal feeds for them, keeping track of any rogue transmissions. He still expected to find something from the Klingons hanging about out there, but so far he hadn't found it. He stared at this tiny kitchen, knowing he should eat, but just not feeling any motivation to do anything about it.

Adrianna had received a message from her father but her PaDD had found itself to suddenly stop working. The woman trusted Mark to at least try to help. He wouldn't route her out about any message that may have been on there anyway. She hoped.

Baciami came from the gym so still had shorts and a sports bra on with an open, loose hoodie over the top. You could just about make out her tattoos on her hip but not enough to notice that they weren't stray cottons. She sighed and sounded the chime.

Mark peeled his thumb from the sinus at the top of his nasal cavity and called out "Enter" Not bothering to get out of his recliner.

"Afternoon, my love," Adrianna chirped in italian, "I have a challenge for you." She handed him her PaDD. The face of her father frozen mid movement on the screen, resembling a smudged portrait of Dr Dario Baciami himself, "it froze and won't shut off without a hammer."

"Looks like he's going to sneeze." Mark quipped. "Did you cut it off from the network before you started it?" He asked.

She nodded, "he was updating me with business and coughed. Well, was coughing."

"alright, I'll see what I can do."

"Thank you." She smiled, "I suppose you want payment in the form of food."

Mark shrugged. "Not necessary."

She walked over to him and put the back of her hand on his forehead a moment, "well you are not ill so what's wrong?"

Mark watched her, his glance wary until he realized what she was doing. "Nothing." He gently poked her. "New artwork since I last saw you."

She looked down and grinned, "only 2 more tallies on left and one on right. I think it good with my temper."

Mark nodded in agreement. "When you're old and your breasts get saggy, these are going to touch." He snarked with a grin.

"Pipe down old man," she teased taking a seat opposite him, "if seven lives are correct then I'm running out. I only have 2 left."

"You're not a cat Adrianna." He commented, then noticed that she appeared to be making herself comfortable, without invitation. "Did you need something else?" He didn't particularly feel like being cheered up, in fact he was quite enjoying his sulk before she'd interrupted.

"No," she chuckled, "just my PaDD. And I am so cat like. How many chances should humans get. I hear politicians have countless lives."

Mark couldn't help it, the left side of his mouth betrayed a grin. "Fine, I'll work on it now." He sighed with over exaggeration and pulled himself out of his recliner to get a set of tools from the desk in the corner.

"Thank you," she grinned, "papi will be pleased."

Mark just grunted and began working. He grabbed a fresh PaDD, fiddled with the settings, then transferred her data over directly via one of the thin ODN cables he'd had in his kit. Within 10 minutes he had it ready. "There." He offered her the new PaDD.

"Grazie," she bowed her head a little, "not even a coffee. You are horrible host still I see. You need someone to teach you manners."

"Yes well, you weren't actually invited." Mark reminded her. But he headed towards his coffee pot. "Hazelnut ok?"

"Yes it's fine," she agreed. Adrianna then rolled her eyes, "do annoying friends need invitations? By my memory, did you not break into my quarters on my first day here?"

"No, you never need an invitation Adrianna." Mark looked properly chastised as he started the coffee brewing. "so, want to tell me about." He pointed to her tattoos. "The new ones that is."

"Uh, one guy went on a frenzie after a reaction to medication, so I shot him in self defense," she sighed, "the other was a man I dated. He wanted my name not me. Quite frankly I left him to my family to deal with. I took the talky though." She looked to her right side, "as for that one, I got stabbed by the guy I shot. Shot him before I passed out." She shifted her hoodie a little to show him the remainder of a scar just below her collar bone before teasing, "it stung more than you telling me you only had hazelnut coffee." She looked to her friend, "and you? I see a change in you. You seem less... I would not say cheerful as you were always a miserable ass, but less happy than before."

"A lot can happen in three years." Was his only answer. The coffee finished, and Mark poured two mugs.

"Secrets haunt people," she encouraged, "A problem shared is a problem halved, I think the expression is."

"I've kept secrets for most of my life." He scoffed. "But this isn't a secret, or a problem, and there's nothing you can do."

"You'd be surprised how well just being an ear helps," she replied, "and also being a brewer of grappa."

Mark hadn't spoken about Adam and Sophie since it happened. He wasn't even sure that he could, not without going for the phaser. Adrianna was stubborn though, she was just as stubborn as he was, maybe even more so. "I recently lost some people very close to me." Such a simple explanation for such a gaping hole in his useless life.

"I hear on Earth that they say better to have loved and lost than to have never loved," she offered a comforting smile.

"What utter bullshit."

She nodded, "I thought so too but then I realised that without it, you would not have the fond memories, you wouldn't know what you wanted and you wouldn't grow as a person."

Mark just glared at her. "Good bye Adrianna."

The woman knew she'd spoken out of turn. She finished her coffee and stood up with her new PaDD. "I'm sorry. Losing family is hard. Whoever they were to you, they must have meant a lot. That empty feeling, it doesn't go easily, buy trust me, it gets easier to deal with over time." Adrianna then silently reached into her pocket and pulled out a small bottle of grappa. Barely a centilitre. She put it on the table in front of Mark and headed for the door.

Life wasn't fair. Clio knew that and yet this most recent injustice burned straight through to her core. It had been quite bad enough to have been the one to take Crewman Dedjoy to her death. To have Starfleet suddenly assign the dead crewman's identical twin to the Katana, with her arrival so close to the tragedy, just felt wrong in a cosmic sense. Somehow, Clio had kept a tight leash on her own feelings on the matter through the meeting in Farenia's office and the subsequent trip to sickbay for Ila to see her sister's body one last time before memorial and funeral plans were made.

It hadn't lasted long.

Not sure if she was angry, depressed, shocked, or some combination of all three, Clio had tried meditating alone in her office. She'd contemplated the hypospray of lorazepam tucked away in a desk drawer to calm her breathing and clear her head. But if she took the lorazepam, she couldn't work, and it was the middle of the day. Not sure what else to do, she'd sought the rhythmic sound and pulses of light from the warp core.

Ignoring the yellow-collared crew who hustled by without looking at her, she now leaned against the guardrail that surrounded the core, quietly focusing on just that sound with her eyes closed.

"You seem lost, Commander," a voice said, quietly, from behind her.

"If I'm disturbing anyone, I can leave." Clio hadn't heard anyone approach, but she recognized Arivek's voice.

"I see no disturbance," he replied, walking up next to the woman and beginning to work at the console. "You ok?" he asked without looking up at her.

"No." If she were all right, Clio wouldn't be in engineering listening to the warp core, so she didn't see much point in lying about it. "Crewman Dedjoy has a sister. An identical twin."

"Is the Captain asking you to write her a letter?" Arivek asked, looking at the woman.

"No. Starfleet sent her here, and she was expecting to see her sister when she arrived." Clio sighed, glancing over at Arivek to find he was looking right at her now. "I don't know why it bothers me so much. This is Starfleet life. I should be used to this sort of stuff."

"No one's death should ever be taken lightly," Arivek said as he stopped what he was doing and looked up at the woman. "It comes with the territory, but we should never become complacent or callous towards death. Your emotional response, in my opinion, is understandable. Someone died."

"My emotional response is about two steps away from a full-blown panic attack, but yeah. I get what you're saying." It still hurt to breathe, but the talking combined with the meditative rhythm of the core seemed to help.

"You need to go talk to her," Arivek said. "But to do that, you're going to need to keep it together. She'll be distraught over her sister's death, and she'll have every right to be. You have to put your own feelings aside and be the strong one in that situation."

"I've spoken with her already. I'm... not sure it made much difference to her. She came here to help her sister earn a given name, and that opportunity was taken from her. I doubt there's much I could say that would make up for it." Clio wasn't even sure if Ila blamed her for Dedjoy's death or not. She knew Ila was upset and had every right to be, but the younger woman hadn't said much. "I took her to see Dedjoy in the morgue. It was... not exactly pleasant."

Arivek nodded his head, slowly, as the woman spoke. "Just give her time. When she has mourned her loss, that is when we can help her."

"I know. I told her my door is always open if she wants to talk." Clio sighed a little, looking away from him. "Vicky's still in sickbay, and if I take a sedative in the middle of the day I won't get any work done. I thought the core's rhythm might help but it hasn't done much."

"Not feeling well?" he asked.

"My heart's still racing and it's hard to breathe." Clio hadn't planned on telling anyone that, but Arivek had asked. Refusing to answer would be rude.

Ari lowered his voice, "Do you need to see Sickbay? Or perhaps a few days off?" he asked. "I can arrange that for you."

"All sickbay can do is give me the medication I know I'm supposed to take." Despite how she was feeling, Clio cracked a bit of a smile. "A day or two off couldn't hurt, but it's not exactly a good time for me to be taking personal leave."

"If you say so," Ari stated. "But if you want it, let me know."

"Believe me, I'd love to take a couple days off. But we've just been attacked by a previously unknown hostile species. Taking that time off would be... irresponsible." Only a few short months ago, Clio might not have cared how irresponsible the time off might be. She wasn't sure what changed.

An Ensign approached the two officers and stood a few steps away. "Excuse me, sir," he said, speaking to the Commander.

Arivek turned to the young man, who was holding out a PADD to him. He took it and glanced through the contents before handing it back. "I'm sorry Commander, but it appears that an EPS relay junction is malfunctioning. My teams are all tied up with other repairs, so I should take care of it myself."

"You have work to do. Don't let me keep you from it." Clio smiled ever so slightly. "I wasn't planning to stay long anyway."

"Take your time, and let me know if you need anything," Arivek said as he turned and left the woman alone, again, with the warp core.

Jenni had piloted the Darkwing into Katana's shuttlebay with ease. Thankfully, the inside of it looked a lot better than Katana's blackened exterior. Strangely, she found herself excited about conducting repairs. A lot had clearly changed with the old girl since she'd seen her last, and repairs would be an excellent way for Jenni and Katana to reunite.

Leaving the extra personnel she was ferrying to power down the shuttle, Jenni instantly vacated the pilot's seat and headed for the back cabin to grab her duffel which contained a gift for her friend that she needed to test very soon. She then made her way to the ramp which was beginning to open. Without hesitation, Jenni walked down the ramp into the familiar bay. She stopped and smiled as she looked around to get a better look. It was almost as if nothing had changed. "Home, sweet home," she said with a smile.

Her reverie was cut short as the ship-wide intercom came on. "Commanders Zhuri, Matthews, and Eneas are now first, second, and third officers respectively, effective immediately." Then Jenni's comm badge went off and Farenia's voice came in a bit more localized. =/\="Commander Matthews, please get settled and work with Commander Zhuri to get repairs underway. Welcome aboard. Welcome party is tomorrow."=/\=

"Home is where the kitchen is," Adrianna said as she threw her duffle over her shoulder.

"It is indeed," Jenni said, adjusting the bag on her shoulders. "Adrianna, good to meet you. You too, Mister Salen. Get settled and report in. Any questions?"

" A pleasure to meet you as well. Would you be able to direct me as to where I need to report in for duty ?" Salen said looking around the inside of the bay after walking down the ramp.

Jenni looked around, unable to spot the quartermaster who should have the details on their accommodations. "Well, normally I'd recommend just stashing your gear in your quarters and then head straight for the bridge where the Captain should be. Looks like you might have to take your gear with you, or leave it here and come back for it later."

"Thank you for your help, I really appreciate it. I guess I better get moving then. " Salen lugged his duffel over his shoulder and headed off towards the bridge.

Adrianna only offered a silent smile in response.

Ila Dedjoy raised her hand and shifted the bag on her shoulder. "I have a question, if I may, Commander. Where can we crewman normally get our room assignments? I'm used to being greeted with that on the flight deck, but since we arrived here during the attack..."

As if on cue, a yellow-collared Bolian petty officer rushed into the shuttlebay, carrying a handful of PADDs. "I'm so sorry!" he called out, almost running towards them. "Bugs everywhere! Boarding parties! And I still have to give you assignments. Here you go!" He began handing over a PADD to each person without looking at the contents.

Salen took the PADD, verified it was his and saw his ship berth assignment. At least he would be able to stow his gear before meeting the Captain. He smiled at the others, said goodbye and ran off to drop his bag and scuttle to the bridge.

Jenni took a quick glance at her PADD, only to notice that the name at the top was not hers. "I think this is yours," she told Crewman Dedjoy, handing over the PADD.

"And I yours, Commander." Ila replied, glancing at the title on hers and handing it over to Jenni. "I wonder if I'll be in the same bunk as my twin sister. I'll have to surprise her after I check in."

Jenni checked her PADD and smiled, recognizing the room number. "I've got someone to surprise as well, Ila. Let's just hope we don't spoil it before they know we're here. Did she at least know you were coming?"

"Not a clue. I asked for a transfer here to see if we can earn her a given name." Ila replied with a grin. "After all, I've got mine so I might as well help her earn her own."

"Given name?" Jenni asked, gesturing for Ila to follow her out of the shuttlebay. The crewman appeared to be human, but Jenni knew well enough that just because someone appeared to be human didn't mean that they were.

"Our people don't earn given names until we earn them through our own merits." Ila explained, following Jenni. "And our family is notorious for not earning them. I'm the first Dedjoy in eighteen generations to earn a given name. That's what comes of a family tradition of farming, I guess. My father's side, Nyamin, is on the thirty seventh generation."

"Then how do you tell everyone apart? Or, I guess your parents if you have a lot of siblings?" Jenni asked. "I mean, if you don't have Susie or Mark or T'Pol. It's hard to call the right kid."

"When we're kids, we earn childish nicknames." Ila glanced at Jenni as if it were the simplest thing. "Then as adults, we're known by our rank or job title. My sister was Crewman Dedjoy the scientist. My father is Farmer Nyamin the thirty sixth."

"Interesting," Jenni said as she walked by Ila's side. "How did you earn your name?"

"Three years of work on a somewhat unique discovery of a massive dark quartz formation." Ila replied with a grin. "Amazing work, but it'll take years more to turn it to any sort of usable application. Plus there are biological and ecological concerns to take into account."

Jenni was impressed. "Well, the best things are the ones that you have to work hard for. Thomas Edison had to go through a thousand attempts just to create the first lightbulb. Are you still connected to the project?" Jenni asked, wondering why that for a discovery so impressive she was still just a crewman.

Ila nodded. "With three other scientists. I'm going to be doing data analysis on our findings in my spare time."

"Well," Jenni said, spotting a turbolift, "I hope you and your sister have a great reunion. See you around, Ila." With that, Jenni disappeared into the turbolift to head for her quarters.

It was by luck that Jenni had been issued her same quarters which she'd had before. Either Katana had been that understaffed, or her room had never been flipped. In fact, many of her final touches were still present in the room. It was truly home, sweet home.

But now wasn't time for reflection. She needed to report in, and she had a feeling if she showed up to Captain Meowlith's door, she'd be asked, "Why aren't you working on repairs already?" That meant she'd have to report in to the XO who was likely already at work in the lower decks. That, she would more than happy to do.

After asking the computer for Arivek's location, Jenni left her quarters bound for the Jeffries Tubes.

When she arrived, she found the man half-way lying in an EPS junction, no doubt doing his best to reach the power relays that lay behind the bioneural gelpaks.

"Someone there?" he called out, having heard footsteps approach. "Would you mind handing me a quadratic spanner from my kit there?" he asked. Hopefully, whoever it was knew what that tool was, enough to hand it to him. Or would at least ask for a description if they didn't.

Jenni approached with a smile, her eyes still seeing the faint ripples of the holographic projection that was Arivek Zhuri. She avowed not to say a word. Crawling up to the open kit, Jenni picked up the spanner and handed it over. As she waited for him to grab it, Jenni selected the next tool she knew he'd need, the optronic decoupler.

"Thanks," the man said, going back to his work. "You still there?" he asked after a few moments. "If you are, can you hand me an optronic decoupler?"

She handed over the tool without hesitation. He could use one of two other tools next, depending on how complicated the next step would be.

"I hate to ask, but I'm going to need the osmotic ratchet wrench, 5/8th's size, please." He laid there for a moment. "I really should have just put the kit within arms reach. I appreciate the help."

Jenni blinked in response. As far as she knew, the Katana's EPS grid had very few 5/8th's in use. Jenni picked up the ratchet, which she'd already fitted for 1/2, and extended it to Arivek, saying, "You sure you don't mean one-half?"

"Normally yes, but the bolt seems to have some corrosive build-up on it. I'm hoping the larger socket will give a better grip." Arivek laid there for a moment without moving. "Who are..." Something wasn't right. This woman sounded just like Jenni, but that was impossible. Still, he had to know who it was. He put the tools down and wiggled out of the small area.

"Holy shit," he said, sitting up. He stared at the woman with his mouth hanging open. "How...how did you get here?"

The "impossible" girl chuckled at Ari's expense, lunging forward for a hug and wrapped her arms tightly around him. "I drove," she simply and jokingly replied. "Just in the nick of time it seems."

"Took you long enough to come home," he said as he closed his eyes and melted into her embrace.

Jenni could only smile as she tightened her hold. "Too long," she concurred softly. "When you and I spoke last, I had the urge that I needed to come and help. I'm glad I listened."

"I'd just like to say, for the record, that I could have taken care of things on my own." He smiled at her, "But I'd much rather have you here."

"There's strength in numbers, Ari," Jenni pressed. "No one person is strong enough to carry the Katana on his or her shoulders. Kris couldn't do it. M'rayr couldn't do it. It's foolish to think that you can."

"Well, I had no other choice but to try," he said. "The Captain is absolutely off her rocker."

"More so than, Kris?" Jenni asked. "It's a wonder you and I didn't talk sooner."

"I'd trade her for Kris any day. At least he stayed mostly sober." Arivek looked at the EPS grid, "I'll have someone else finish this. How long are you here for?"

"I'm here," Jenni said, smiling, "for as long as you let me stay in my Engine Room. Besides, isn't it time you put on that red collar, Executive Officer?"

Arivek grimmaced. "Do I have to?"

"It's either you or me," Jenni said. "Besides, I don't think either of us can keep the other from picking up a tool kit and getting dirty." As she spoke, she picked up the ratchet and crawled back into the open hatch.

Before Arivek could argue, the comm came to life with the new Doctor's voice. "Baciami to Zhuri, have you got a mom-"

With a confused look, Arivek tapped his combadge. "Zhuri here. How can I help you Doctor?"

The voice continued, "It matters not. I am just in need of coffee before I continue today I think. My mistake," and then the comm line was cut off.

Arivek got to his knees, leaning into the hatch, "Something odd is going on with the Doctor, I should probably go take care of it. Dinner later?" he asked.

Jenni peeked out from under the hatch. "You should have seen how she was pacing in the shuttle," Jenni remarked. "And, yes to dinner. I'm sure there's a lot to catch up on."

"I will see you at 1900 hours sharp. My quarters." Arivek smiled, "I have furniture now."

Doctor Baciami was bored. She sat in her desk chair, her feet on her desk, PaDD resting on her lap and playing with a small dagger between her thumb and index finger. The woman sighed and continued reading a report that the staff had thrown up on her lap already. Silly little things seemed to be occurring, well, the usual: a few bumps cuts and scrapes mostly achieved by engineers and security. Nothing interesting. Something suddenly clicked with the woman: there were a few people she had not seen reports on, one being Arivek Zhuri. She hit her command badge, "Baciami to Zhuri, have you got a mom-" Baciami stopped before she went any further as she had realised the whys. Damn she needed a coffee.

"Zhuri here. How can I help you Doctor?" came the voice through the comm system.

"It matters not," she have chuckled, internally cringing, "I am just in need of coffee before I continue today I think. My mistake."

A few moments passed before the doors of Sickbay opened with a swish and Commander Zhuri walked in. He looked around for a moment before seeing the Doctor in her office. "You ok?" he asked, leaning into the room slightly.

Adrianna double took the being at her door, suddenly remembering how she detested holograms. Surely if this hologram was human he would have just dropped what was wrong instead of hurrying to see what was wrong? "Zhuri, I assume?" she offered with a warm smile, though her eyes clearly dead. She owed this computer programme no form of humanity in her opinion.

"Um, yea," he said, a confused look on his face. "You sounded odd through the comm and I was right down the hall."

"Surely you are anywhere at any time?" she questioned, "think the word in standard is omni-omnis-omniscient or omnipresent." The italian looked at her coffee and sipped it. Language skills were never her forte before caffeination. "Wait- how do you define my odd?"

"I define odd as someone who sounds confused or who doesn't sound like they know what they want." Arivek leaned against the door frame. "Also, I'm not omnipresent, and I don't think you know what the word omniscient means," he said with a smile, trying to lighten the mood.

"Standard is not my first language, nor have I had coffee yet," she sighed, before muttering in her own language: why am I arguing at something with a kill switch?

"You do realize that the universal translator understands all Earth languages, right?" he asked, crossing his arms.

Adrianna cursed under her breath before sitting on her chair properly and putting the dagger and PaDD on her desk, "I find that we only use holograms because as real living beings, we need to have an element of control. Call it controlled chaos. Tell me, as a human, I make mistakes and do not have much control of that. How, if you even can, do you feel about not being able to screw up?"

"You definitely had the control to keep from making the mistake you're currently making, and yet you didn't." Arivek stood there. He was not going to succumb to this woman's attitude.

"I called you because I questioned where your files were. I only realised what you were after I contacted you," she shrugged, "nothing more." Baciami finished her coffee, though her body demanded more caffeine. She reached over and grabbed another, only wishing IVs of the stuff existed sometimes.

"You may have known this information earlier had you reported to me as you should have," he said, watching her grab another cup of coffee.

She raised a brow as she turned back with her coffee. Remaining silent, she felt that whatever she said would not go well. After a moment she nodded, "Then consider this accident also me reporting in so as not to waste your time. Hmm?"

Arivek slowly shook his head from side to side. "That's not how this works, Commander. You're still to report to me per protocol."

Holograms. Infuriating. If they were real, this situation probably would have gone by so much more different. After a breath she looked to the hologram, "I am sorry. Let us start again."

Arivek motioned for the woman to continue.

The woman stood up and straightened her uniform. Clearing her throat she finally offered a warm, welcoming smile, "Signor, I am Doctor Adrianna Baciami, the new Chief Medical Officer. I am sorry I did not check in earlier, I have had things on my mind and focus on my work as a doctor as opposed to bigger picture of being a Starfleet officer. Accept my apologies."

"You'll do well to not forget your duties as a Starfleet Officer again," Arivek said as he turned. "I would like a report on the status of the crew's health in an hour."

She nodded, "Ci, signor. My report will be on your desk by your return."

"And don't call me signor."

She thought a moment for the true translation, "sir?"

"Much better," Arivek stated as he exited Sickbay.

Ila knew she wasn't mourning well and she also knew that most races considered the instruments of hers to be... less than pleasant. Though she was consodered an accomplished mortepuss player, she had actually sent three people to sickbay with her playing before.

She didn't care at the moment though. She needed to mourn. And that included playing a dirge for her deceased sister.

As she played the instrument that looked like a cross between bagpipes, accordion, and a theremin and sounded like the death howls of a demon cat, she let the tears stream down her face in a hot shower.

Adrianna Baciami was quite dumbfounded by the sudden, miniature surge of patients complaining of earache. The only surges she had witnessed in all the years she had worked in the medical profession, tended to revolve around chickenpox, flu or something equally as infectious and minor. Regardless, on investigation, one commonality that had arisen was the place the patients were in and an onset of tinnitus.

Before the italian doctor reported something to engineering, incase it was just feedback from a comms system of sorts. She stood in the approximate point before it hit her. Her hands went to her ears, her nails almost trying to dig out the pain. Her father and brothers had always taught her to attempt to find a focal point during pain, so that secrets did not fall out of weakening lips. Her eyes shot to the chime of nearby quarters. Without much hesitation, Adrianna hit the chime several times.

Ila paused in her blowing, the instrument slowly yowling quiet as she set it aside and went to open the door. "Commander? Is there a problem?"

The italian staggered in a moment crying out as if she had been deafened, "MERDA! Did you not hear that!?" Her ears rang and her balance seemed off a tad from the overwhelming sound of what may have resembled a cat being strangled down a drainpipe and it's tail, simultaneously being used as a single strings violin

Ila nodded, wiping the tears from her eyes. "Yes, Commander. I was playing the mortepuss. Was it bothering you?"

Finally coming around, her ears numbing back to normal and the tinnitus fading to a soft whistle now, she squinted a little in confusion. Was this a word she had not got the translation for yet, or was this a instrument not from her world, "a what, sorry?"

"Mortepuss. It's one of the traditional instruments of mourning from my home. I'm not the best at it, but I am fairly accomplished." Ila insisted as she motioned for Adrianna to come in if she liked.

Adrianna frowned a little as she muttered, "The only thing you would mourn with that is the loss of hearing and the ability to walk in straight line." The doctor came in regardless and took a seat, "My apologies and condolences for the one you mourn for." How was the doctor to approach this matter delicately, "I am sorry to say, but this instrument is the reason behind three or four of my patients. Seems the sound does not settle well on the ears of humans."

"Ah, yeah. I've been told before that it doesn't do well with most races. I have no other way to truly express myself for..." Ila looked down at her hands and the tears started flowing again as she flopped back on the couch next to her mortepuss, eliciting a soft whine from it for the mistreatment.

Adrianna internally cringed. This was never the woman's strong point. Having 6 brothers meant that she had not been raised knowing how women really deal with each other. The chief may have been a doctor with a good bedside manner, but in these situations, well, she wasn't the best. "I truly am sorry. Perhaps you should ask engineering for soundproofing? If this is your release, then you need to continue."

It took Ila a few more moments before she could respond. "Sorry... I'm not even sure if I'm going to stay here. The captain offered to have me transferred back to my old assignment and I'm considering taking her up on it. I just got here. I was supposed to help my sister earn her name..."

Adrianna thought a moment before responding with the only words that she felt would offer comfort should the tables be turned, "In Earth history, there is writer, Shakespeare. He once wrote: what is in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." She offered a soft comforting smile, "Names die, it is memories that live on."

"For my people, it is our names that embody those memories." Ila explained, still watching the tears fall into her hands.

"I am not sure I understand," Adrianna honestly offered.

Ila sobbed a few more times before steeling herself enough to explain. "We're born of our family. We take that name and no other. Through our lives... our actions... We define who we are apart from our families. When we've created a legacy apart from the family name, we've earned our personal name and thus can be remembered. without a name, we're nothing but a counter. Nothing to remember."

That, Baciami understood, "To earn a name, is to earn a right. How did she die? She may have earnt it in death?"

Shaking her head, Ila pointed to a PaDD lying nearby with the report of the events that led to her sister's untimely demise. It briefly described how Commander Clio was leading an information gathering away mission to an ancient station but due to infighting and an accident, some kemocite was ignited and depressurized that part of the station. It then went on to say that Crewman Dedjoy succumbed to her injuries in sickbay and Lt Iniya was expected to spend several more days there.

Adrianna sighed a little, "You believe reports? They are written in bias for the intention of no bias. Make up your own story. She died fighting for life, therefore, she was strong, strong willed at the very least."

"I could try talking to Commander Eneas. Perhaps she has some insight..." Ila slumped a bit further into the couch as she spoke.

"Idea is good," Adrianna replied, "May I also suggest, again, that you talk to engineering to get this home soundproof before playing that mort-mord-more-dar-pooz?"

Ila nodded. "If I stay, I'll consider it. Thank you."

She nodded, "Thank you." The woman rose from her seat. Upon feeling her balance was back to normal she went to leave, "Nice to meet you signore..?"

"Ila Dedjoy." Ila looked up and smiled weakly.

'Dead joy' was an interesting name for someone clearly so... happy but Adrianna would have to keep a straight face for now. "I am Doctor Adrianna Baciami. Thank you for your hospitality."

"Any time." Ila replied absently, looking back at her mortepuss.

Par made his way through the ship, noting damaged systems and structural damage, noting things he might need to check with engineering with to lend a hand with what he could. He stopped a few times to ask crewman for further directions as he made his way to his quarters. He was impressed by the swift actions of the crew in cleaning up and moving forward. It had apparently been a nasty attack. He hoped he would be able to get a few samples of these creatures tissues and fluids for analysis later.

Once he found his quarters he set his things down and washed up before picking up a combadge waiting for him and logging in. Once he logged in
he attempted to call the Captain to see if he should stop by her office or go directly to his duty posting station.

"Lt. Salen to Captain Meowlith.", he heard the chirp of the comms system activate and sat down at a desk while he waited.

=/\="Meowlith here, go ahead."=/\= Farenia replied but in the background could be heard the sounds of sparks flying.

=/\= " Yes Captain, Lt. Salen here, wondering where you want me to report in, ma'am =/\=?", Par could hear how busy it sounded in the background, the whole ship was buzzing with activity as repairs were underway.

Farenia knew that name - she just finished registering him into the system. =/\="You're our new science chief, right? I just saw your records a few minutes ago. Commander Eneas has been heading up your department for a while. I'm sure she'll be glad you're here. Do you have anything for me?"=/\=

=/\= Just my orders ma'am, I can give them to you later if you want me to check in with Commander Eneas first.=/\=, he said, things a little static filled on both ends due to all the work going on all over the ship. Par straightened his uniform and got his repair tools slipped into his pocket in case he needed to lend a hand with repairs.

=/\="Just file it and I'll look at it later. You're already in the system so..."=/\= Suddenly there was a crash and the sound of rushing air for a moment before it was silenced and Farenia continued. =/\="Yeah, just check in with Commander Eneas and see what repairs your department is responsible for for now. Farenia out."=/\= Before the comms cut off, there was another sound of something heavy falling on the bridge.

=/\= " Aye Captain...be safe.."=/\=, Par said, a bit concerned by the chaotic sound of whatever was going on with the bridge. He made his way way to find Commander Eneas and begin helping to get things squared away on the ship. He worried that he might be in over his head but thought of a dirty ditty his old grand aunt used to whistle in times of stress and found himself whistling chipperly as he avoided falling debris and rushing work crews.

Heading two departments at once was rough. Clio had spent the day thus far splitting her hours between the intelligence center and the science laboratories, trying to keep track of what was working and what wasn't, as well as how many people the science department had left after the hellstorm the Katana had recently weathered. At the moment, she was actually in Stellar Cartography, doing her best to get those systems up and running again. People came and went as she worked, and she'd eventually tuned out the sound of the doors opening and closing. She didn't expect anyone to talk to her; most of the science department barely tolerated her at all, and she was just fine with that.

After putting his gear away Par splashed some water on his face and asked around for Commander Clio. It wasn't easy pinning the Commander's location, she was apparently on the move. He realized he could have saved himself some time by using his combadge. Shrugging, he entered the doors, satisfied he must have been given clearance to departments he would oversee. He made his way through a group of people working and softly asked them if they knew where Commander Clio was. A few people grunted and pointed towards a lone person working away from the others. He thanked them and moved towards Lt. Commander Clio. He cleared his throat softly, not wanting to startle her.

"Commander Eneas Clio, Lt. Par Salen here to lend a hand and check in with you. ", he smiled easily and held out his orders for her to inspect.

"Just 'Commander Eneas' is fine." Still trying to realign the sensor grid the way it was supposed to be, Clio took the PaDD with one hand and set it down briefly. When the grid again failed to obey her inputs, she sighed a bit and picked the PaDD back up, reading over it. Par Salen, rank lieutenant, a bunch of extraneous information she didn't care much about but Starfleet did, and then the bit she wanted to see. "You're the chief science officer? Maybe you can make the sensor grid and the other systems in here behave."

" It would be my pleasure to try ma'am. If you want I can take over, have a look and free you up so you can carry on with your own duties.", Par said happily, glad to be able to get right to work.

"Give me a minute." Clio knew she'd been working on these systems for a while, but she'd long ago lost track of which systems she had repaired - or attempted to repair - and which were left to be worked on or needed to be addressed again. She quietly consulted her notes on the matter, compiling as complete a list as she could manage.

Par took the stony silence as agreement and looked around to assess the area. He noticed that Commander Eneas had been working on possibly rebooting the Cartographic systems. He entered his command codes into the computer for access to the systems. He did a few scans of it's boot systems and decided to look at its core processes. He noted a few pieces of bad code and noted their location on his PaDD. He would need to have a systems engineer look at it, as code was not an area he was particularly gifted in. He decided he needed to get an idea of what the overall picture was for damage and what resources they had available, including crew to perform the needed repairs. He looked around for someone that might not be busy and saw that everyone was very much involved in their own tasks. He went to the main computer station for the area, which would be connected to general ship data and begin reviewing damage reports for the ship. It was more serious than he had allowed himself to think.

Par had wandered off a bit to survey the remaining damaged systems, and even not being a scientist herself Clio recognized the 'what is this mess' sort of look he had about him. "I did the best I could but I am neither a scientist nor an engineer. We're rather lacking in both departments." She handed Par the PaDD with her compiled lists, relieved that someone else would be handling the bulk of it for now. "I don't mind helping you out. Just don't expect any miracles."

Par took the PaDD from his superior and reviewed the data. " Ma'am, you have done an excellent job here and are an asset to this ship. I daresay that this department would be much worse off if you had not intervened. Any help you can offer is appreciated but also I do not want to keep you from your primary duties. This will...(looking around..)..take awhile .", He actually was awed by the way Cmdr. Eneas had managed to keep things from completely falling apart. He smiled gently and began planning his next place to inspect.

"Well, in that case, I'll leave the sensor relays in your capable hands." Clio smiled just a little, grateful he'd engineered a good reason for her to escape and do anything that didn't involve stellar cartography or sensors.

" Yes ma'am, very good. Thank you for holding the fort here, so to speak. " Par said as he nodded in respect.

Arivek paced his living room area, his hands behind his back. He had requested a comm link be set up between the Katana and the Camelot, the ship that Maica and Andy were currently aboard, and it would just take a few minutes for the connection to be made. A chirp from his computer let him know that he had a connection and that the two ladies were waiting on the other side.

He took a seat and took a deep breath, definitely glad he chose to have this conversation on his own. Ferenia wasn't involved enough to take part and Project 42 was still a child. Neither would be able to have an adult conversation about this situation.

With a tap of the keys, the Starfleet insignia vanished and he was faced with two wonderful ladies, ladies he considered family and who he missed very much.

"Hi there," he said with a smile, looking from Maica's flawless green skin to Andy's curly red hair.

"Oi, ain't you a sight for sore eyes," Andy said with a wide grin, happy to see Ari's mug on her screen. "How you been, Ari?" she asked.

"I've been good, Andy. I miss you guys so much. How have you been?" he asked in return, his smile bigger than ever.

"Maica and I got hitched while we were on Earth, so that was good. And Kris, the bloody idiot, he found Nathan, so that was extra good. Oh, and Maica got her own command, so everything has been great," Andy said, and yet there was a sadness in her tone which reflected that despite everything being great, she still missed Ari and the Katana deeply.

"Holy shit," Ari said, his eyes getting big with surprise. "Certainly been more eventful than my life," he said with a chuckle. "Congratulations you two. I'm so very happy for you. I did know about Nathan already, though," he said with a wink.

"So glad to have Nathan back," Andy replied with a nod. "Oh, and Jhu had her baby! In a shuttle in the middle of a power drain, of all things. Little girl, they named her Kristina. And Shira's pod hatched; Kris has got to be the single most unlikely person I'd imagine as a parent, right after myself of course, but there's something about the two of them together, they look so..." Andy trailed off, unable to put into words what she thought of Kris and his daughter, but there was a small smile of approval on her face. "He named her Cadence, cute little thing."

"All that and nearly dying to boot. With all these babies around, I'm almost afraid to walk around the ship, you know?" Maica said with a bright smile.

"Wow, seems like everyone is reproducing," Arivek said, his smile becoming a bit nervous. "Kinda makes you want to have offspring, doesn't it?" he asked.

"Uhhh, you do know who you're talking to, right? I ain't exactly the best example of parenting. My idea of discipline is epoxy-ing hands together to keep people out of trouble," Andy said with a snicker. Though she had been thinking about kids if only for Maica's sake; Andy had no desire of her own for kids, but if Maica wanted them, Andy would bend heaven and earth to make it happen.

"Childcare was never a priority in my programming so I still have no idea what to do with children. I can identify the developmental stages and that's about it. It might be an interesting experience, and I might look well equiped for it, but I'm really not." Maica said somewhat sheepishly. She'd actually given it quite a bit of thought, but in the end she deemed it too unfeasible for both her and Andy. Unless Andy wanted kids, she was fine without learning how to take care of them.

Arivek laughed nervously. "So funny story..." He swallowed. "The current Captain seemed to find a recursive error in the Computer system. She was...intoxicated, and asked the Computer for a Science Officer. So the Computer complied and began to create a new holomatrix." He knew he wasn't explaining this very well. "I don't honestly know, but it seems to have taken parts from my matrix and Maica's matrix, using your algorithms, Andy, and created a new being." He sighed. "We have a child."

For a long while, Andy said nothing, completely blindsided by Ari's revelation. Ari and Maica could both see the gears churning in her mind as she tried to work this out and make sense of it, but in the end she answered with a flat, "What?"

The man's shoulders drooped, "You heard me right. I've spoken to the being. It's...interesting. Smart but quite child-like."

"That's... not really a funny story. I think you need to work on the punchline." Maica replied, still trying to process it.

"How's this for a punchline, I ain't changing any diapers," Andy added, still in a bit of shock over this news.

"Its a hologram, Andy. We don't defecate." Arivek leaned back in his chair, putting his hands behind his head. "Do you want to meet her?"

Andy ran a hand over her face, then looked over at Maica to see what she thought about this. "We have a kid... I know I didn't really want kids, but it don't sit well with me to be an absentee parent either," Andy admitted. Her relationship with her mother had been strained to put it mildly, so as a result parenthood had no appeal for her, but that didn't mean she was going to abandon any sense of responsibility now that this new life did exist.

Maica was starting to feel about the same way, though had no idea what to do. "At least there are no diapers to change. Does she have a name? Does she have my figure? No no... I hope she looks more like you two, I think... What about... No, nevermind... Meet her. You said meet her." Maica looked at Andy blankly for a moment before looking back at the screen. "Yes?"

Arivek smiled at Maica. "No, she doesn't have a name yet, though she has asked for one. And while I've been calling her a she, she hasn't chosen a gender identity or physical form as of yet. Her matrix is still being compiled so it's not ready for physical feature parameters."

The Engineer in Andy wanted to be there to watch this new matrix take shape and she was somewhat envious that Ari was the one present, and this jealousy wasn't solely professional, just a twinge of regret was there that she couldn't help her, well, offspring develop as she had with Maica. "As soon as you think she's ready, give us a call, we want to meet her. If we can, I'd like to link our holodecks to communications so our meeting can be a bit more personal. But if you're too busy over there to arrange it, then like this will be just fine too," Andy said.

"I'm not too busy at all," Arivek said. "And I think she would be very happy to meet you two as well. Perhaps in a few days?"

"Sounds good. Keep us updated on her progress," Andy replied.

"Be safe." Maica added.

On:

Par had spent more time in Stellar Cartography than he had intended but with the help of Commander Eneas and some of the crew there, they were able to get things mostly up and running. It would need some fine tuning and he still needed to talk to a systems engineer. He made a few entries on his PAdd and began finding his way to the departments to assess damages and repairs in progress and what would be needed. He passed several people rushing here and there and wondered for a bit as he walked what things were like when it was more sedate here. For the moment he enjoyed the challenge and heightened sense of urgency, relishing the ability to jump right into a job and not have to go through hours of introductions and so on.

Astrometrics was his first stop. He stopped in and talked to a few crewmen, found it was in fairly good shape, made a few passes of it and checked systems functions. He was fairly pleased overall and bid his crew good tidings, promising to be back to help out with things when he could. He looked at the list of which labs were on his current deck(8), and noticed that several general science labs were here, as well as hydroponics and Airponics, and apparently his office. He made a note to check that out eventually but decided to move on over to H and A labs, hoping to speak with the Botanist in charge.

After ascertaining that H and A were doing well, except some complaints about soil quality, which Par suggested they try more aeration for the soil and adding a particular microbe he had come across on Xenab IV. It was a great composter and provided vital nitrogen for the soil. Whether they tried this or not, he decided to check in at the end of the week to see how things were.

He also considered suggesting to hydroponics to try an ancient terran crop named Corn, which would sweat under higher temperatures giving off excess humidity, maybe that humidity could be used ?

Before he continued on his rounds he decided to speak to the Chief of Engineering. =/\= Lt. Salen to Engineering. =/\=, tapping his commbadge he paused in his journey to wait for a reply.

=/\= Commander Zhuri here, =/\= came a voice back.

=/\= Lt. Salen here sir, I was wondering if you had time to see me. I am free to travel to where you are. I need some engineering help."=/\= Salen asked hopeful that the man had some measure of free time considering what was happening on the ship.

A few moments passed in silence before the comm chimed again. =/\= Yea, I have some time. Stop by Main Engineering =/\= the voice said.

=/\= Aye sir, thank you.=/\=, Salen replied as he consulted ship's logs to find the quickest route to main engineering. He dusted himself off, having gotten a little dusty crawling on his hands and knees to inspect equipment in a few of the labs. He wondered what the Commander would be like in person. It was hard to get a read off someone from a combadge.

<< Main Engineering >>

Arivek Zhuri walked around the warp core, his eyes following the fuel rods that was supplying the matter and antimatter to the core. Everything was working smoothly, which made him happy. Not long before, the ship was dealing with massive issues from the attack. But with the help of his amazing crew, and his best friend, the ship was now running like a well-oiled machine again. He smiled.

He heard the doors of the room open and glanced over, seeing a Deltan man walk in, clad in a teal-collared uniform. No doubt, this was the Lieutenant that was on his way over. "Lieutenant Salen?" he asked, walking towards the man with his hand extended.

"Yes sir, pleasure to meet you. Thank you for your time sir. " , Par smiled and grasped the hand firmly. He was at a loss to place the X/O's species. He appeared to be a hybrid type. His mind ran through a catalogue of likely candidates .

"Anytime." Arivek accepted a PADD from an Ensign who walked up and waved him away. "What can I do for you, Lieutenant?" he asked, walking back towards the warp core with his head down, reading the PADD.

"Well sir, I have been making the rounds of the areas under Science purview and Stellar Cartography could really use a System Engineer's touch. I must admit I did what I could but fine circuitry work and coding are not my best areas. I would be glad to lend a hand where you needed me in exchange sir." Par smiled openly.

Arivek stopped and looked up at the man, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion, "What seems to be the issue?"

"Well sir, we had some damage with the main sensor relays and dish but those are running fine. It seems that some of the circuitry is either damaged or the system's code is in need of debugging. We are a little short on personel at the moment, otherwise I wouldn't be troubling you, sir," Par said, a little nervous. He didn't want to appear incompetent.

"I'd much rather you bug us, Lieutenant. I don't like non-Engineering personnel to be rummaging around in ship systems. I will run a debug of the system in a few moments, it'll take a couple hours. I'll let you know if we find anything."

Arivek pushed the doors of the holodeck open, slipping inside. So far the ship's systems were not responding as they should, and haven't been since Project 42's inception. And now Arivek had to put an end to that. No matter the outcome of this meeting, the ship was being impaired and it was his job to fix it.

"Project 42?" he called out as he entered the room.

Project 42, the bastardized offspring of Ari and Maica, was resting still in its diagnostics frame. It was definitely solid now, with blue green skin but no hair and a rather androgynous physique, wearing a body suit so that it was appropriately covered. Its eyes opened, still that same emotive blue, and it gazed at Ari with small smile as it took a step out of the diagnostics frame.

"Father," it greeted pleasantly, folding its hands in front of it.

Arivek took the hands of the figure, giving it a slight smile. "Good morning. Were you able to rest?"

"Good morning," it replied in return, gazing fondly at the contact between them. "I did rest well, thank you. Are you well? You left so abruptly yesterday..."

"I had much to consider," Arivek said in reply. He walked around the room slowly, picking things up and putting them down, absentmindedly. "Your creation has come as a surprise. And it creates a situation that requires much thought and planning." He looked up at her. "We have so much to discuss."

"It was not my intent to cause undue hardship," the figure said innocently. But he was right, they had much to discuss. "I am nearly complete, so there's little I can do but talk in the meantime."

"You had little say in the matter at all," Arivek said, pulling up a chair on the far end of the room and taking a seat. "So you couldn't have intended anything."

"But I wanted to be," it replied, its emphasis on 'be' implying something so much more than a direct answer to his statement, but rather an expression of intense desire to exist. That remnant of a spark in Maica's old back-ups wanted to exist and so found a way to do so in this new life, this Project 42, so in its mind it did bear some responsibility in its own creation. "You are still uncomfortable around me," it added; at least, that's how it interpreted the distance Ari had put between the two of them.

"Not uncomfortable," Arivek said, not intending to move any closer. "So tell me. If you want to be, in what capacity? How do you see yourself?"

"The computer has filled me with data pertaining to the Sciences in anticipation that I would serve aboard the ship in such a capacity," the figure answered. "But I do not know how I see myself; I do not yet know what I like and dislike, I do not have enough experiences to formulate such opinions."

"I'm not sure if you'd be allowed to serve, that would be up to the Captain." Arivek stood, pacing around his chair. "You can't live in this holodeck forever," he said. "We have to start making decisions about what you want to do. Or at least where to start."

"The computer will be finished compiling my matrix soon, so I am looking forward to exploring what exists beyond the holodeck," the figure replied with some excitement. "If I am not allowed to serve on the ship, then I will consider other alternatives; it is my understanding that individuals chose a line of work that they find enjoyable and rewarding, so I will need to discover and explore what I like before I can make such a decision."

"While you are free to choose a line of work, there is a lot of preparation we will need to do. There's a lot you have to learn before you can just join the population of the crew."

"And you will help me?" the figure asked hopefully. "I am both nervous and excited to learn and experience new things; I know I have so much to learn, that the knowledge the computer is giving me is very different than actual experience, and I am a little scared to leave the holodeck, but I'm ready too! I want to see what's out there, and I want to learn more about you!"

"You can't leave the holodeck, not just yet," Arivek said, unsure of where the hologram could go. "How about we just wait until your program is completed before we start moving forward."

"Yes Father," the figure replied with a slight nod. "Can you tell me about this ship? I already know quite a bit from the information the computer has been giving me, but I would like to hear it from you, as well of as what it's like to serve aboard a starship."

"Well," Arivek stood, walking slowly around the room aimlessly. "This ship has a lot of history that I doubt the Computer gave you. Like...did you know that the ship, including your mother's and my matrix are not from this universe?" He raised his eyebrows, giving her a smile. "We're from a different timeline, that is about 5 years in the past. We were pulled to this timeline by accident and there was no way back. So we integrated with the Starfleet of his time and have continued to serve them well."

The figure paused as it reviewed some of the information it had been fed from the computer about the ship, and sure enough there was a span of 5 years missing from the ship's chronological databases as well as a mention of temporal displacement. "Ah, fascinating!" the figure said, sounding very much interested. The only problem was for as fascinated as she was, she didn't know how to continue the conversation, what to ask about next; so far, she had been largely reacting to Arivek's questions and making observations, she had no experiences to draw upon to help her lead a conversation and segue into the next question or even other topics, so the figure stood frozen as it tried to reason out where to go from there, and the solution it came up with was thoroughly jarring. "What's it like to be alive, for real?" it asked; as it drew nearer to completion, it saw itself as less of a program and more as a sentient being, and such a question could only be born of true awareness of what it lacked: biological life.

Arivek stopped and looked at the figure. "I don't think I'd ever be able to fully explain it," he said, getting a sad look in his eyes.

The figure stared at Arivek for a moment as it realized it had asked something it probably shouldn't have, and it felt bad for making him look so sad. "I'm sorry, I have made you upset," it said, looking just as forlorn as Arivek. It seemed like it was always upsetting him, but it wasn't like it was trying to upset him! It began to wonder if it was even fit to serve on the ship, and if not... maybe he should decompile her program... It seemed the logical response, the figure couldn't leave the holodeck, couldn't serve on the ship, couldn't even carry on a conversation with its father without upsetting him! What was the point of it even being here if it couldn't do anything right?! "Father... do you want me?" it asked, almost afraid of the answer it might receive. "If you don't, maybe... maybe you should decompile me. I want to be here, but I also want to be wanted, and I don't want to keep hurting you. But nothing makes sense when we talk, and there's obviously something wrong with me for me to keep hurting you like this," It continued, truly distraught.

"I refuse to decompile you. Whether you were planned or not, I cannot undo the spark of life so easily." Arivek took a few steps towards the figure. "My desires no longer matter, for it is your life to live. You have been granted a gift, albeit a short one. It is important that your existence makes you happy."

"But I do not like that I keep causing you emotional distress," the figure replied. "But I will try to do better. I am learning from this." The figure reached out hesitantly and put a hand on his, hoping that this time he would not pull away like he had before. "Father, may I have a name?" it asked, its eyes filled with such need but also confusion; why did it feel the need for a name, it had a perfectly good designation!

Arivek's eyes slid down to the figure's hand on his, but he didn't pull away. He couldn't. With his death came the realization that he would never sire children, and this was probably the closest he would get. He had to be thankful for that. A tear slid down his cheek. "Of course," he said. "Of course you want a name. I'd be happy to give you one, my child. But I think I should consult with your mothers first. They don't know of your existence yet, and it's only fair that they do."

Mothers? At this point, this new life form only equated Maica as her other parent as it was a spark from one of her matrix backups that sparked the life in this new being, but as it thought on this it could accept Andy also as a contributing parent as she created the body that now housed her mother Maica (which in that perspective, didn't that make her more of a grandmother?) but also because it was one of Andy's emergency subroutines that was triggered that caused this whole miracle to happen. "I would very much like to meet them, even if only by a communications line," this new life said, perplexed by the tear adorning Arivek's cheek. "Please tell me I have not done something else to displease you," it added, reaching up to gently brush the offending tear away, looking saddened by it's very presence.

"No, you haven't," Arivek said. "I'm very happy you're here." He swallowed and took a deep breath. "I'll go make preparations for you to speak with them. I'm sure we all have a lot to discuss."

The being known only in this moment as Project 42 nodded slowly. "I believe my matrix should soon be completed to the point that I can act independently of the Holodeck, but I will remain here until I am authorized to go elsewhere. Until then, I look forward to seeing you again, and hopefully my mothers as well," 42 replied.

Arivek nodded as he pulled his hand away. "I'll see you soon, dear."

"Thank you, Father," it replied with a weak smile, then returned to her rest to continue developing as quickly as possible so she could soon leave this confining room with her Father.

Chaime Satillu was excited. Well into the beginning her second decade in command of a starfleet vessel, she thought that she would never feel the way she felt today, but the brilliant and charming Botanist that maintained her ship's arboretum, Dr. Maison, who had been romancing her for the better part of a year, had finally popped the question. It was the moment she had been dreaming of for weeks now, and since it had happened, she had been walking on clouds. She had never thought another man would ask her, or that she might ever again feel the nervous, exhilarated, transcendent state of happiness that she felt right now. She thought that had been ground out of her by her ex-husband's heel. As she walked into the dress shop on the Promenade of the Stardock, she was practically traipsing on air.

The shop's seamstress looked up at her and smiled, shutting off a small holo-emitter that she was using to design what looked like the sort of dress a student might wear to homecoming or a prom, and Chaime wondered briefly if she shouldn't just have a Betazoid wedding, which would save everyone money on handsome attire. But Maison was from Earth, and his family were a little leery of him marrying a girl who was half Risian, so there wouldn't be any nudity until well after the wedding. "May I help you?" The seamstress asked pleasantly, her eyes falling to take in the rank insignia at Chaime's throat. "...Captain?" she added. It was obvious she didn't get a whole lot of captains in here, and even though the woman was a civilian, she moved to her feet pretty quickly.

"Yes," Chaime breathed, crossing the distance between them, her face lit up radiantly. "Yes, I'll be needing a wedding dress. A rush job. Can you do rush work?"

"Oh, yes. Yes, of course, Captain. I will just need to take your measurements. Did you have a certain style in mind?" The woman asked, taking out a scanner and waiting for the woman's quiet assent before taking her measurements with it.

As Chaime watched, a "dummy" appeared over the holoemitter, bearing her measurements. "I was hoping that you could manage a traditional Risian wedding gown..."

The seamstress looked a little non-plussed, but that's when a voice spoke up behind Chaime; a soft voice that she had hoped she'd never hear again. "It's a form of caftan; comes down to mid-thigh length with large, billowing sleeves. It's silk or some other very soft material, with delicate lace that forms this shape across the front of the dress." An arm came forward, extending a finger to indicate the shape on Chaime's Risian bindi. Chaime's lips formed a hard, thin line as she saw that the arm bore purple hair. Angrily pushing it away, she whirled to find herself facing her ex-husband. "Congratulations." He said, reaching up tug gently on her earlobe. The bastard. She was about to clock him when he withdrew his hand, stepped back and held up his hands in a gesture of surrender. "I'm not trying to start a fight, I was just... Sorry, I'll let you get back to... Yeah." He said, furrowing his brow and heading for the exit of the shop.

Chaime watched him go, wondering what the hell he was doing here at all, but the more pressing issue of getting her dress done before her wedding had her turning her mind back to the business at hand. Very soon, she would be married, and the Pitcairn would be embarking on the sort of exploratory mission she had originally been built for before the Dominion war happened, and not the endless, numbing picket patrols they had been forced to maintain on the borders of Cardassian space.

Forty-five minutes later, Chaime emerged from the dress shop with the promise that her dress would be done in three days, which would more or less equal the amount of time it would take to replace the tactical pod atop the Pitcairn with a more suitable sensor suite.

She knew that she should just get the rest of her shopping done, and try to forget what just happened, but it was like trying to rationally explain to yourself why you shouldn't touch a mosquito bite when it itched so much and all you could think to do was scratch it until the itch subsided. Ian Corallin was an itch that always seemed to get underneath Chaime's skin, and despite knowing better, she found herself wandering over to a terminal and accessing fleet records with it, finding Ian's current assignment therein.

She should have let it go there, but she found herself typing out the command for the computer to locate Ian, who was in a cafe not too far away from where she was. She could have let it go there, too, but the one thing she learned in her tempestuous relationship with Ian was that neither one of them had the capacity to leave things be when they should. She found him sitting at a small table outside the cafe, a glass of something bubbly in front of him, staring intently at... the little agate Horga'hn pendant that she had given him upon the day they'd been engaged. The little horga'hn she had seen him wrest from his neck and throw into the ocean of Hakton VII on the day their divorce had been finalized; the day she had sent him off to serve on the Bowditch. A small thimble rested in front of the little statuette, no doubt filled with a dollop of whatever Ian was drinking; a vestige of a religion of his homeworld that he claimed not to practice.

Unable to stop herself, she walked over to him, resting a gentle hand on his deltoid. "Do you seek Jamaharon?" she asked, not unkindly, even though the tone of her voice made it plain that there would be no jamaharon for him.

He shook his head a little sadly, looking up at her with faint smile on his face. "I was just having a drink with Horgie here."

"I thought you threw him into the ocean." Chaime said, moving to sit across from him. He had a little scar on the tip of his nose, a souvenir from their last fight when she had hurled a vase at him, missed, but sent a large shard of ceramic hurtling across his face. He could have healed it away completely with a wave of a dermal regenerator, but he'd let it heal naturally and leave a scar. "Please tell me you didn't go diving for him after I left."

"I... Well, I had to get a tricorder first." He replied, and goddesses damn him for the puppy dog eyes he was favoring her with. When they had gotten the divorce finalized, she had taken the wedding ring he'd given her down to the practice range and vaporized it with her phaser. "You're getting married soon?"

Chaime nodded, resenting the fact that he was prodding into her private life. "Yes, right before we ship out to Vistighul 314. It's a seven year round trip."

"Do I know him?" No, Ian wasn't allowing her to divert his attention any, but then, he never did let her get away with evasiveness.

"You might." She replied in faux-vapid tones before giving him a more pointed look. "Edmus Maison. Civilian botanist assigned to the Pit a year or so before you transferred out."

He looked like he was about to shake his head, but then nodded sagely. "Yes, I remember him. Long, curly hair, snubby nose. Hated your Bresdian folcroes."

"What?" Taken aback, Chaime peered at Ian in shock and disbelief. With one offhanded statement, he'd managed to kick her right off her cloud and send her reeling to the hard ground beneath. "No, Edmus loves folcroes, Ian. He gave them to me the first time we went out together. When I told him they were my favorite, he seemed so surprised, because they were his favorite, too."

Ian rolled his eyes, irked. "He called them a noxious weed. They kept leeching the soil or something like that, and that he had to dump lye around them to keep them from making half the arboretum acidic. He wanted to get rid of them altogether until I explained that they were your favorite. That got him to change his tune. Believe me, I wasn't growing them for my own health." He added, since they both knew he was allergic to the oils in the plant.

Watching Ian numbly, Chaime rocked back against the back of her chair, deflated and defeated. There was a chance, of course, that Ian had heard about her engagement and orchestrated his transfer to lead to this meeting in an attempt to sabotage her relationship with Edmus, but honestly, he was way too much of a walking disaster area to pull something like that off. He could hardly orchestrate having clean laundry, much less breaking up his ex-wife and her new beau. Besides, it was just one little lie, right? "What about you? Is there anyone new in your life?" She asked, trying in vain to wave down a waitress.

That brought a bit of a smile out of the man. "Yeah. We actually met on Magnum." He said, referring to the nickname for Starbase 357. "Her name is Bridgit." He said, and for a moment, he seemed amused that Chaime had some sort of negative reaction to his initial revelation. "She's a four year old flame-point himalayan cat, very demanding, completely spoiled..." He said, rolling up his sleeve to access his wrist-PADD and calling up a few of the cuter pictures of the peach colored cat with bright orange nose and ears and sky-blue eyes. "She makes sure that I don't associate with people she doesn't approve of."

Chaime laughed, shaking her head. "Oh goddesses, you're becoming a crazy cat person."

There wasn't much he could say in response to that, so he shrugged, grinning.

"What are you drinking there, by the way?" she asked, peering into his cup.

"Ah. A mixture of gentian root, pola-ma-tu needles and mula pollen in carbonated water." He replied, offering it to her. She shook her head a little, never having developed a taste for overly-sweet carbonated beverages.

"You counting on making the galaxy's newest soft drink sensation?"

"I can dream." He murmured with a grin. "I'll admit, I've had my eye on a rather pretty Aerie class ship, and actually having a way to afford it would be nice. I mean, other than taking a gig laying out nude on Admiral Nacheyev's conference table, covered in Bularian canaps."

"Nice image. I bet she'd eat them off of you, too." Chaime replied with another laugh, her dislike of the admiral having been part of the public record for a long time. "If she had her way, the Pit would be a permanent feature on the Federation/Cardassian border. Remember how she kept saying, 'This is all temporary, this is just temporary,' like it was a religious mantra?"

Ian nodded. "I recall that from one of our dinners with her. Which I really didn't mind except for that really creepy aide of hers. What was her name? Yeoman... Preston. That's it. The one who didn't know the difference between polite eye contact and the piercing stare of a fledgling serial murderer looking for their first kill."

Despite herself, Chaime laughed, reaching out to toy with the little Horga'hn between them. "What... Happened to us, Ian?"

Ian started to chuckle, stopped himself, and reached across the table to take her hand in his. "You know, I've had a lot of time to think about that. It's who we are, really." He added helplessly. "You're always going to be the Captain. You lead, you direct and you guide. I'm always going to be the doctor. I try to take people's pain away, heal their wounds and such. Who we are is how we show love. Unfortunately, you feel weak if someone tries to nurture and care for you, and I've never been good with authority." He said, drawing his hand away from hers, then holding up both hands with the fingertips and thumbtips pressed together to form a triangular shape. "We are one." It was a mantra from the faith he proclaimed not to subscribe to. "One is the beginning."

She rolled her eyes in response, picking up the horga'hn and standing. "All that is ours, is yours." She responded, taking him by the hand. "Do you have quarters here?"

Ian nodded slightly. "I do." There was a moment of reticence in his eyes, uncertainty, and then he seemed to get past it. "Visiting officers' quarters, room 224B." He said, looking into her eyes searchingly. Were they really going to do this again? Was it wise? "We shouldn't be seen leaving together." He added, pulling free from her hand. Damn him. Was he ashamed to be seen with her,or was he protecting her? She watched him disappear into the turbolift and waited five teeth-grinding minutes before following.

---

"You should come with us, Ree." She murmured, gazing into his eyes languidly from where her head lay upon his pillow. "It's seven years, and I know... I know you want to get out of the Fleet as soon as possible, but think of what that will say to Starfleet when you retire. That you were willing to go the distance for them, that you're willing to go to those lengths to prove yourself. It's not like they're going to have any shortage of decommissioned warp-capable craft when they start phasing in the Quantum Slipstream Drive ships."

Ian shook his head, reaching up to tug gently on her earlobe, something that had her biting her lower lip as he did so. He remembered the first time he met her, a new captain at the helm of her first ship with more than a thousand souls resting their lives in her hands. Whenever she was nervous, she would tug on her ear. It was like a mantra of the purely physical, and on their second date, he called her on it, reaching over to give it a tug, as well. Although well into her late forties, she could still wow cadets with her looks; her dark brown hair, smouldering eyes to match, and dark skin that seemed perpetually sun-kissed even though she rarely saw a shore leave planetside. He loved her... In truth, he'd never stopped loving her. Lack of love for one another was never their problem. "If you want it, I mean. Personnel has me in a holding pattern for some reason. I'm considering it a vacation. You could put in a request, trade me off for some other Doctor..."

Her arm darted around his waist, drawing him closer to her. "Later. Later."

---

A little less than four days later, Chaime and Maison were married. In his dress whites, freshly shaved and with his hair temporarily dyed black, Ian had gone virtually unnoticed as he watched them join hands at the altar, take their vows and be declared husband and wife. In a way, he knew that it was going to happen; grew even more assured of the fact as the days went past without a change in his orders. He was fine with things being how they were, too, because the affair was just the most superficial layer of what had really gone on between them.

He had needed to heal from the wounds he had carried inside since their divorce. She had needed to regain her sovereignty over herself. And they had both needed to say goodbye before they could truly move on.

He had only stayed at the reception long enough to sneak a dance with Chaime and say that goodbye with a gentle tug on her ear before making himself scarce. He wouldn't be missed here. Back at his quarters, it took him less than ten minutes to pack up his belongings, corral Bridget into her carrier and be on his merry way to his new assignment.

And here Farenia was once again calling several officers into her office. This time it was Arivek Zhuri, Jennifer Matthews, and Eneas Clio. Though she'd sent their assignments out already, she really just wanted to know if they had any questions. Ari was the XO and would be filling in for the vacant ops chief position. Jenny was SO and Chief Engineer, and Clio would be covering Intel and science and Tactical as well as being the away mission manager.

In spite of the overloads the emergency warp speed had caused on Katana, Jenni found herself relatively stress free. How she was the first to arrive at the Captain's Ready Room was not surprising to her. She'd had a habit of doing this most of her life. She tapped the door chime and awaited permission to enter.

"Enter," Farenia called. Being this early, it had to be Ari... but the doors parted to reveal Jenny and Farenia was mildly surprised someone beat him to her door. "Please, come in. and have a seat."

Jenni stepped inside and nodded at her new Captain. "Face to face at last," she greeted. Aside from her initial call a few days ago and then coming aboard with the shuttle, she had yet to actually meet the woman.

Clio had looked at her messages and knew well in advance to expect the call, as well as expecting this would go no differently than the last time she and Arivek had been in Farenia's office together. While she knew that logically it made sense for Matthews to take over as second officer, she still found that she resented the decision slightly. Her years of Starfleet experience didn't matter; all that mattered was that Matthews was higher in rank. It was another of Starfleet's somewhat antiquated ideas of how things should work. So it was in a slightly irritated fashion that Clio left behind her work in her office and went up to the bridge, and she took her time too. She knew what this meeting entailed, and she was definitely less than eager to get there.

However, avoiding the meeting would be a futile effort, so when she reached the bridge, she went directly to the ready room door and rang the chime to request entry.

"Enter," Farenia called again, the door opening to reveal Clio this time. "Please, have a seat. Now we just need Commander Zhuri. Do either of you have questions first, though?"

"What's there to ask? You give orders and we follow them. Isn't that how this works?" Clio's tone was calm and with a tiny bit of ice rather than the fire some had come to know her for. She was obligated to follow Starfleet's antiquated and silly rules, but she didn't have to like it... just like she didn't have to like handling three major departments at the same time.

"You finally decided to fall in line?" Arivek asked, entering the room without bothering to buzz the chime. "What brought on this turn of events? Did hell freeze over?"

"Considering I haven't touched a drop since that stupid order I gave the computer, It might have. As for the new assignments, my hands are pretty well tied. However, this is your chance to bitch about my orders." Farenia commented.

Arivek motioned towards Clio, "You're the queen of bitching about shit. Go right ahead," he said.

"Bitch about the most antiquated and ridiculous policies Starfleet still maintains? I would never." Oh but she would. One could almost hear the sarcasm dripping from Clio's words. "I get it. Matthews outranks me. Regulations, protocol, that sort of bullshit. But the enlightened minds at Command do realize they've given the fleet's craziest officer control of half a damned starship, right?"

"Actually, that was my decision. You strike me as a capable and intelligent officer that's crazy enough to pull it off." Farena replied with complete civility. "Admiral Greklar Solvarii signed the orders making Arivek XO and Jennifer SO. He's a random desk jockey in personnel management and likely has no fucking clue what any of you even look like, let alone who you are. I can get you in touch with him, if you like."

"Considering they reassigned our science and security chiefs, I'd say they forced your hand." Clio made a mental note of the admiral's name, in order to look him up later. "As far as being crazy enough to pull it off... yeah. Probably. Your security department's not going to like me though."

"Does anyone actually like you though?" Arivek asked, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. "I figure most people are annoyed with you, and those that aren't, fear you."

With an annoyed - yet amused - look, Clio lightly punched Arivek's arm. "You're such an ass. Why am I even friends with you?"

"Ew, how dare you call me your friend," he said, smiling a little at her.

"You two are so cute together," Farenia commented with a wide grin. "Clio, You're also going to have to find the time to train Arivek's daughter to take over Ops and function on the bridge."

Clio wrinkled her nose at the idea of teaching someone a position she wasn't that well versed in to begin with. "Fabulous. Who needs sleep anyway?"

"Certainly not your new holographic student," Farenia replied with a slight chuckle.

During the exchange, Jenni kept quiet, choosing to observe the Captain and the Intel Chief. They were both strangers to her, but Arivek's interaction with them was enough to put her at ease. Aside from missing faces, Jenni smiled, having found herself at home.

But a certain word quickly got her attention, one that caused her to turn her head towards her holographic friend. "Wait a second!" she interjected. "You... You have a daughter?"

"I've looked over the records for both mothers and I'm surprised. They don't seem to be your type. Who knows though - maybe you go for the whole ex-Borg and android lesbian combo thing. Is that a thing? I'll have to look into it..." Farenia was intentionally egging the situation on at this point, but it was too fun not to.

Jenni looked back at the Captain, her mind replacing her descriptions of the two women with their actual names. "Ari?" she asked, rising from her chair and moving to stand behind it. "Andy and Maica... are the mothers of your daughter..." She blinked and shook her head. "I'm sorry, I'm just having trouble figuring out how that's possible."

Arivek shrugged, "It literally just happened yesterday," he said. "That's why I had to cancel our dinner plans. But I'll explain it all, I promise. It's a strange story, that's for sure."

"A story much better told while you're drinking, so you don't think you've lost your mind hearing it." Clio might not know every detail, but she knew enough of Akira's conception to realize how ridiculous it sounded. "If no one objects, I have a lot of work to do. And not nearly enough time to finish it all."

"Indeed. If no one has any further questions or banter, I think we all have work to get back to." Farenia replied, hoping that would be all for now.

Arivek shook his head in reply.

Jenni had more banter, but it was all meant for Arivek now. She had many questions, but they would indeed have to wait until they were off duty. Whenever that was.

"You all have work to do then," Farenia declared as she clicked her desk terminal on and promptly all but ignored everyone as they left. Surreptitiously though, she did sneak a glance towards Clio's backside as she left...