Enalia wasn't ever sure it was a good time during refit to talk about a lot of things, but after launch, they were unlikely to get this opportunity for a while.

This was why she was in the new Intel Pod staring at the weapons storage. Nothing in here was on a manifest or even maintained by anyone, really. Officially, nothing in this room even existed.

Tapping her comm badge, Enalia braced herself for possibly the most serious briefing she'd ever given. "Commander Eneas and Crewman Dedjoy, please meet me at my location in the pod."

In the pod, huh? Currently investigating the location of her office, Clio tapped her comm badge to reply. "And what do you think you're doing in the pod without an escort? You just wait until I get my hands on you."

"Then you'd better get up here and escort me," Enalia replied, grinning wryly. Yeah, she was going to like Clio.

Then the reply from Dedjoy came in. "On my way, Captain." A simple and to the point response as expected.

"Woman, I am going to skin you alive." Wondering just what she'd gotten into when joining the crew of this ship, Clio cut the channel and hastily made her way to the turbolift, directing it to Enalia's location within the pod, which appeared to be weapons storage. A Nebula was a somewhat large ship, and the trip took a few minutes, though she was at least relieved to find Enalia hadn't moved from that location. In fact, she was easily in view as soon as the turbolift doors opened to let Clio out.

Ila joined them from the other direction a few seconds after Clio arrived. Then Enalia began the explanation of this room. "There are currently thirteen people on this ship with access to this room. It takes three command codes to unseal it. It has its own isolated power supplies and controls. This console and this door is the only way in. Nothing in here officially exists."

Pausing, a moment, Enalia stepped up to the console and placed her hand on the biometric scanner which displayed three red locks on the screen above it. "Computer, begin unlock sequence. Captain Enalia Telvan. Command code Telvan delta seven seven one." Once the first lock on the screen turned green, Enalia turned to Ila and she stepped up.

Placing her hand on the scanner, Ila entered her command code. "Crewman Ila Dedjoy Command code shadow three one one niner seven." Then she too stepped aside when the second lock turned green and waited for Clio.

Clio suddenly wasn't so sure she wanted to know exactly what was in this room if it required three command codes to even open the door. Feeling just a little hesitant, she placed her hand on the biometric scanner before addressing the computer. "Lieutenant Commander Eneas Clio. Command code Eneas zero alpha one tango." The third lock changed from red to green, and she took her hand off the biometric panel. "Do I even want to know what's in there?"

As the door slid open, Enalia glanced to Clio dead serious and walked into the room. "If you want to survive your next away mission you do."

Ila held a hand out, indicating that Clio should enter first.

Not sure what she was going to find, Clio hesitantly followed Enalia into the room, stopping short just inside the door when she realized what she was looking at.

The walls were covered in racks of various illegal weaponry as well as crates with even more. Things that made phaser rifles look like sticks in comparison. Everything from poison needle pistols to shoulder launched micro quantum torpedo launchers and a disruptor that was designed to leave a residual energy trace behind and vaporize the person a few days after being shot. The console in the middle of the room had a holographic display that could lay out anything and everything you could possibly want to know about the weapons in this room.

Enalia was at that console, looking up a weapon already. When she found it, she looked up to address the other two. "Ladies, welcome to the very last section thirty one armory in existence."

"Holy shit." It wasn't very professional, but it was damn appropriate in the moment. There were weapons in here that Clio had only dreamed of, and a few that were beyond even her craziest notions. Somewhat awed by the collection, she slowly joined Enalia near the console, where she could get a better look at all of the obviously illegal weapons. She almost felt like a child in a store full of toys!

Ila stepped up to the console and looked over Enalia's choice of weapon. "The needler. That's not a bad choice. It's easily hidden, silent, and fires a half inch poison needle. I've heard it can kill even an augmented Gorn with one shot."

"Let's hope it can," Enalia replied, hitting the unlock on that weapon rack and pulling the tiny chrome plated pistol out, holding it up for Clio to examine. "This is for you."

"It looks like something a kid would play with." The tiny chrome pistol was so small that when Clio gingerly touched it she was worried it might break. After a moment or two of contemplation, she carefully took the tiny weapon and turned it over in her hand. It hardly looked like anything that would be threatening. "What exactly does this do that my revolver wouldn't?"

"Can your revolver instantly kill fifty people with just a graze?" Enalia asked.

"Uh... no..." Clio suddenly had a lot more respect for the tiny pistol. "But this is so small to have that sort of power..."

Ila spoke up at that comment. "You would think not, but this is a design inspired by Borg technology. The magazine has fifty nanotubule needles, each filled with the deadliest neurotoxin known. The firing mechanism is a combination of pneumatic and magnetic emulsion, giving it the force needed to embed a needle in tritanium at fifty meters. Lab tests showed that it could embed itself far enough to easily reach bone in any test subject mockup."

A little shell-shocked by that information, Clio blinked and then slowly set the little weapon down. "That scares the shit out of me, and not a lot of things do that."

Enalia grinned wryly. "Would you rather I offer you a different weapon? I doubt I'll find anything less dangerous. Other than maybe the micro quantum torpedo launchers."

Ila spoke up with another idea. "Perhaps the phased graviton pistol?" Pulling up the controls and unlocking it, she pulled out a more traditional looking long barrel pistol with glowing blue vents and a rather large emitter aperture in front. She offered it to Clio while Enalia put the first gun away. "This little gem fires a compressed gravitational anomaly. When that anomaly hits a solid target, it compresses a half meter area so rapidly that a dull gemstone is created from the resulting implosion."

"I take it that one's not for use aboard starships." Turning a person into a gemstone... just the idea of it made Clio feel slightly ill. She'd done an awful lot of truly terrible things in her career, but never anything that compared to that. "I get that this is a really dangerous and possibly suicidal mission. But surely this is a little bit of overkill."

Enalia nodded and waved to Ila to put back that particular pistol as well. "I'd like to think so, but it's better to be safe than sorry. There's a nice transporter phaser if you'd rather beam things to the ship."

"I have a sinking feeling that it does more than beam things to the ship." The weapons were still very interesting, but the implications of using them were almost too much to justify their use at all. Clio didn't like the idea of using such violent weaponry... and she was Cervan. The women of her people were essentially goddesses of war. And while she hadn't been raised on that environment, she relished a good battle the same way any Cervan woman would. "Maybe the neurotoxic needles weren't that bad..."

"There's also the plasma energized mek'leth," Ila offered. "When switched on, the monofilament blade is sheathed in plasma that slices with ease and cauterizes the cut at the same time. It's probably one of the more humane weapons in here."

"What about that?" Prompted Enalia.

"An energized monofilament blade?" Clio seemed to perk up a bit, her love of bladed weapons suddenly shining through. "I know how to use a mek'leth. Let me see it."

Ila headed over to one of the cases stacked in a corner and unsealed one of them, revealing not one but two of the Klingon swords. She then motioned for Clio to help herself.

Clio went over to the case and peeked inside, carefully choosing one of the mek'leths inside. It had a decent weight to it, and as she handled it she could see that it was also very well balanced. Settling it into her hand, she easily found the activation 'switch' to turn the plasma monofilament on. Instantly the edge of the mek'leth's blade glowed brightly, the monofilament shining in an exquisite shade of lavender. Clio couldn't help but grin as she turned the device back off. "I like it. Am I even allowed to carry it on the ship though? It would be a real pain in the ass to have to come in here to get it every time I want it."

"Take the case with you and no one will realize until you pull it out for a mission," Enalia offered, pulling up the roster of weapons and marking the case as removed.

"Fair enough. I have a few secure places to stash it." Clio gently tucked the Klingon weapon back into its case and closed the lid before picking the whole thing up. The case was surprisingly easy to carry, looking far more substantial than its actual weight. "I imagine it won't be a secret for very long, but I'd like to try to keep it hidden as long as possible."

"Yeah, I agree with that," Enalia replied as she headed towards the door. "If there's nothing else that we need in here, I recommend we leave before we're missed."

"Agreed. Last thing we need is for someone to come snooping in here." Still a little unnerved by how severe some of the weapons were, Clio followed Enalia to the door.

Ila then ushered them out. Once outside, she placed her hand on the scanner once more. "Computer, lock." The locking mechanisms reengaged immediately, resealing the room.

"Enjoy your new toys," Enalia said to Clio with a mischievous grin. She then nodded to Ila and headed off towards the turbolift while Ila returned from the direction she came from.

"Thanks, I think I will." As Enalia headed for the turbolift, Clio decided to look at a few more systems in the pod, with plans to return to her office on deck thirteen in a few minutes.

All ships that carried an Intelligence department eventually ran into the same problem. When those Intelligence systems failed, who fixed them? They were classified, so generally the Engineering department wasn't allowed to work on them without special clearance. And yet, most Intelligence officers didn't have the technical training required to repair the equipment. Every Chief Engineer that Clio had worked with handled the situation differently. It was never a conversation she looked forward to having.

But with so much equipment that could potentially fail when they needed it, Clio needed a solution. So she went down to Main Engineering to look for Thex, who she hoped was more level-headed than some engineers she'd worked with in the past.

Thex was currently running a diagnostic of the warp core when she noticed the second officer enter. Handing the scan to one of the attendees she walked over giving her a warm smile. " Lieutenant Commander what can the grease monkeys do for you?" She asked politely.

"I have a bit of a problem that needs your input, but it's kind of complex." Honestly, Clio thought 'complex' was a bit of an understatement. "The Hera carries a lot of classified Intelligence equipment, and someone has to maintain it. The problem is, Starfleet Intelligence requires that all persons entering the classified area have to have specific clearances, and they're not clearances I'm allowed to just hand out."

" I have bronze level clearance from some intel assignments I was part off a year ago if that helps. " Thex replied leading the commander over to a quiet corner.

"That helps some, but what I really need is for someone in my department to be trained for the most common types of engineering problems." To be fair, hearing that Thex had some Intelligence background helped put Clio's mind at ease. At least this particular engineer might understand the delicate nature of her work. "Starfleet Intelligence has seen fit to teach us how to use such tools, but not necessarily how to diagnose and fix problems."

" Well i need to get the ships systems up and running so i don't have time to train someone up at the moment. In a week i should be able to start. What exactly is the problem i could maybe take you through the basic checklist." Thex replied calmly trying to be as helpful as possible.

"There's no rush. Everything is functioning fine at the moment, except for the occasional power system incompatibility. I know some very basic engineering, so if you could show me how to resolve that we'll be in good shape for a while." Clio kind of liked Thex, especially how the Andorian woman stood her ground and didn't drop everything for minor issues.

" Most likely it because of the buggy code that's been installed with the new upgrades. The ships been plagued with them. If you can keep a record of when it strikes I can see if it's related to the other hiccups the girls having. I'll set up some time in a week or two and I'll run through the basics with you and any of your staff that would like to learn. " Thex said pulling out a padd and bringing up her schedule.

"I thought it might have something to do with that. I'll keep track for a couple weeks and see if I can track it down more specifically. Thank you, and please... don't rearrange anything on your schedule. We can manage until you have time." Clio smiled a little, well familiar with the time crunch of trying to do one's scheduled work and squeeze requests in around that.

" Okay then. If anything else happens let me know. I should have the buggy code gone by the end of the week. " Thex replied putting the padd back in her pocket.

"Sounds good to me. I'll let you get back to work, but please... call me if you need anything." Happy that Thex was willing to work with her, Clio smiled a bit and then headed back toward the door.

" Will do. Maybe see you later for a drink?" Thex replied.

"Maybe, if you have time! Good luck with everything down here." It seemed that Clio had made a new friend during her visit to Main Engineering, and she left in good spirits. The Hera was most definitely not like other assignments she had taken.

" You to." Thex called after her as she returned back to work.

Stepping off of the turbolift, Lieutenant T'Pral Jordan hefted her duffel bag in her left hand as looked around. Many people--Starfleet and civilians--hustled about the area that was lined with various shops and restaurants. On the opposite side was a view of the shipyards. She crossed the corridor in a brisk, confident stride, soon reaching the viewports. Outside, worker bee pods and shuttle pods zipped by on their mission to repair, upgrade or complete construction of various starships now docked.

One bay held an old Excelsior Class vessel which she had always been fond of and was the class of her last assignment, the USS Excalibur. Another bay held an Intrepid Class vessel that was currently having a nacelle replaced. Finally her eyes came across an upgraded Nebula Class Vessel that bore the name USS Hera; NCC-79010, which would become her new home. She would be in charge of the safety of at least 700 individuals--foremost of which would be the Captain's.

"She's a fine ship," came a familiar female voice from behind her.

Turning swiftly, T'Pral met the face of her mother, Captain Melissa Jordan, who stood in a Starfleet Duty Uniform with greying dark brown hair. "Mother? Why are you here?"

"Just a quick layover for additional supplies and then I'm taking the Indianapolis out to patrol near the Briar Patch. Your father sends his regards and that he regrets that he couldn't be here to see you."

T'Pral nodded. Her father never did approve of her decision to join Starfleet, feeling her talents would be better suited to diplomacy, law, or even science like her younger brother. "I'm sure."

Melissa placed a reassuring hand on her daughter's shoulder. "I need to go soon but I want you to know that your father, brother, and I are proud of you. Your father may not show it but I can tell the way he speaks of you. Please be careful."

T'Pral allowed a small grin. "Thank you, mother. You do so as well." She then raised her hand, giving the Vulcan greeting sign. "Live long and prosper, mother."

Melissa smiled. For the longest time, she had had trouble doing the sign properly but she returned it. "Live long and prosper, dear."

T'Pral watched her mother walk away. She wished for a longer meeting but she knew her day was just beginning and it would likely be a long one as she stepped off to the nearest turbolift to report aboard the USS Hera.

Hello, I'm Allison, writing the role Chief of Security, and I just wanted to say hi to everyone. I am looking forward to writing with everyone! I'm usually always available for a JP as well.

--Allison

Thex smiled to herself as she read through the date on the padd she was reading. The ship's refits we're going well though judging by the mess of buggy code that had been reported she'd need to open up the main computers before getting the ship underway.

She guessed the Hera didn't like having her rifit done. She noticed that about ships. Some could take upgrades easily whilst others needed to be coaxed back into life. Maybe she should write a paper about it.

The turbolift stopping yanked her out of her thoughts as it shuddered to a halt. Tucking the padd into the leg of her tight fitting jumpsuit she stepped out and headed for the captain's quarters. It took the blue girl only a few munites before to arrive outside the captains quarters.

With the normal nervous that plagued her rising in her stomach, she pressed the door alarm. True she had called ahead to make sure the captain was free, but meet the new boss was always a nervous time for her. "Captain Telvan it's Lieutenant Thex sh'Zoarhi." She said calmly and politely.

Enalia was in her comfy chair, her feet kicked up with a book while Maica III cleared the table from dinner. "Come in," Enalia called, looking up from her book as the doors opened. Setting the book aside, she stood to greet her new CEO. "Lieutenant... I'm sorry, I'm not very good with Andorian pronunciations. How do you say your name?"

"Thex will do just fine captain. No one can get my last name right." Replied the andorian feeling slightly relieved. " it's nice to meet you Captain Telvan." She said offering her hand.

Shaking hands, Enalia motioned over at Maica III. "And this is my fiance, Maica. The pleasure is ours." With a nod and a smile, Maica greeted the Lieutenant. "Do you have any experience with Starfleet Intelligence or any of their special tech?"

"Nice to meet you Maica. As for you question captain, I have worked with intelligence before. Three decodings of classified Romulans probes, two Klingon probes and two undercover assignments." Thex replied proudly.

"An impressive resume to be sure," Enalia replied with a smile, motioning to a nearby seat, offering it to her guest. "The nacelles, reactors, and mission pod have all been replaced and there are still a lot of systems the refit crew are upgrading. The Hera isn't a normal Nebbie by any measure of the word. We launch in a week and I'll need you up to speed on every scrap of new tech that you can be that isn't overly classified and I'll need warp nine point six for seven days straight."

"Quite a challenge captain. I'll have to make sure the power systems are running flawlessly. As for the tech I'll make sure i have a strong pot of coffee and I'll be able to build it from scratch." Thex replied confidently.

"I look forward to the results then," Enalia smiled politely. Every engineer she'd known had said similar things and she expected a lot just based on Thex's records. "Is there anything I can do to help you out? Or just try to stay out of your way down in Main Engineering?"

"Well, you said the tech was new and given you'd asked me about intel i take it there some things most Starfleet vessels don't have. It would help to know if there anything you want me to keep to myself and not let my staff poke around in." Thex replied.

Enalia had expected this to come up eventually and was glad to get it out of the way early. "Yes, the classified areas are mainly the Intel offices and the Intel labs in the mission pod. You and your department should be cleared for everything else but for repairs in those areas, you'll need to coordinate something with Commander Eneas."

" Quite reasonable. I'll make sure they keep out of it. As for the rest of my job just keep helping if you think you can, but let me handle this girls running parts. " Thex said confidently.

"Engineering is yours Lieutenant Thex. My skills lie in piloting, command, and intel so you'll rarely see me down that way," Enalia replied with a smile. "Welcome aboard."

"Glad to be here captain." Thex responded. "If you don't need me for anything else I'll get down to main engineering and get to work."

"Please do so," Enalia replied, standing and motioning to the door. "Good luck."

"Thank you captain. I'll keep you informed." The andorian said as she stepped through the door.

[BRIDGE]

As the Hera moved through space at a whopping warp four, a call came in. =/\="Captain, this is Ensign Gestalt at Holodeck six. We're having a bit of trouble separating the entities in the holodeck from the background program. We could use the help of someone from the Katana that knew a bit about all this."=/\=

"Roger that. I'm sending them your way." Enalia replied to the call before nodding to Farenia and Jenni. "Do you two mind lending some help?"

Farenia nodded as she headed for the turbolift. "Not at all. Send a message to the Merlin though, if you could. Ask for Andy and Maica and explain the situation to them. We should be able to do a sort of telepresence setup with them and get their help too."

Jenni had been working to collect herself for the past few minutes, and somehow she managed to hear the call from the holodeck. Entities...? Her eyes shot open as her mind instantly thought of Ari and Akira. She hadn't even thought of the possibility that they would have to be pulled out of the ship's computer. Her heart sank further as she realized how much she'd forgotten her friends and had cared so much about the ship itself. Hopefully, this was a chance to correct a grievous error. She rose to her feet and followed her Captain into the turbolift.

[HOLODECK SIX]

By the time Farenia and Jenni arrived at the holodeck, Master Chief Petty Officer Andrea Carter was already present as a holographic projection, working with Crewman Greenfelt and Ensign Gestalt on an open panel to access the holodeck. The entire matrix was incredibly fragile at this point and they couldn't yet isolate the Zhuri's from the lab program, but the hope was that once they got inside the holodeck that they could piece the living entities back together, assuming they could even get inside without crashing the program.

"Jenni!" Andy exclaimed when she saw Jenni walking down the corridor with Farenia. She strode over to the woman to give her a hug. "I'm so glad you made it out okay," Andy said, her voice sounding raw, like maybe she had been crying. Then she stepped back to brief Jenni and Farenia. "Uh, Maica will be joining us later, she's a bit emotional right now and... if Ari or Akira are as bad off as I think they are, I don't want her seeing them that way. Besides, she's got a ship to run. Anyway, I think we've almost got the lab program stable enough to enter, but timing will be crucial once we're in there. We need to extract Akira and Ari as quickly as possible in case the program implodes. Hopefully once they're in a more stable environment we'll have a better idea of what's going on with them. We're getting intermittent life sign readings, sometimes we only see one signal, sometimes two, and sometimes we can't read them all..." Andy was trying hard not to sound defeated, but this was a deep hurt for her; she and Maica had just learned they had a daughter, had just met her, and now it was possible that she could be gone, along with Ari who they loved like a brother. She knew Jenni would be hurting over this loss as well, but Jenni was the only other person who knew the intricacies of Ari's code, he trusted so few to help maintain him, so Andy needed Jenni here now.

Jenni wished it was the real Andy, not just a hologram, but seeing her red-haired friend was enough. She instantly detected Andy's raw voice, and she was certain that the next Jenni voiced herself, it would be just as raw. She nodded as she joined the engineers by the door to take a look at what was going on inside the holodeck. "It's like their lifesigns are like frequencies. Merging, overlapping, and sometimes inverting the other," she remarked, trying to stay focused on the task at hand.

"That's what's been making this so difficult," Crewman Greenfelt replied with a heavy sigh. "But I think we've got the lab program as stable as we're going to get it; enter at your own risk," he cautioned.

"Alright then, open it," Andy said, taking a deep breath to steel her resolve. "And remember to keep the doors open so my projection can continue to run off the ship projectors, otherwise I could destabilize the program."

"Got it," the crewman replied with a nod, then sent the command overrides to open the door. The great doors parted and the Engineers could finally see the mess of what was left of the program. The lab was a disjointed mess, pieces phasing in and out, entire chunks of the room missing and displaying the holodeck grid, and what was left was just... wrong, misshapen and twisted. At first glance, neither Akira nor Ari appeared to be in the room, but Andy stopped short as she entered, seeing a coil of light through her eyepiece only that represented the core of what was left of Akira and Ari.

"Be glad you can't see what I can see," Andy said, looking visibly pained by what she was seeing. "It looks like they've sacrificed non-essential functions to preserve their core matrix, the essence of who they are, so there's no visual component left, just raw data," she explained as she circled an area that seemed to be otherwise empty, but she was simply getting a better look at this raw data floating in the midst of this broken program. "They are so twisted up in each other, I bet he was trying to protect her..." Andy had to swallow back the bile she suddenly tasted, even had to wipe away a stray tear that somehow found it's way to her cheek, then she cleared her throat and forced herself into action.

Protect her... Those two words echoed deeply in Jenni's mind. While she first nearly panicked at the sight of Andy circling the empty holodeck, she was proud of Arivek for not abandoning his daughter. She knew all too well how concerned he was as to Akira's existence, and his involvement with her moving forward. This was proof he indeed had a heart.

"Computer, recognize new command, Teleconference Exclusion," Andy started, doing her best to turn off her 'mommy' emotions so she could play Engineer for now.

"Command recognized, state parameters," the Computer replied.

"Isolate Communications hologram Carter Alpha One-Two and exclude from all holodeck related commands; treat entity as a biological entity," Andy rattled off, already having made a similar command prompt for her holodeck so it would know when and when not to act on commands.

"Parameters accepted. Run command?" the Computer replied.

"Affirmative," Andy stated, and the computer chirped in compliance. "Now, I need a bounding box," she stated, and again the computer chirped, with a blue wire frame cube appearing before her. She began to move the box and reshape it, adding new points to help the box fit around the swirl of data she saw. "Computer, render the data inside the bounding box as visible to biological entities," she said as she continued to work. The computer gave a long drawn out chirp as it struggled to comply with the command, but soon everyone else could see what Andy saw, a twisted swirl of light. Occasionally a second light could be seen within this torrent of data, but it was dim and fading fast, and in this form there was no way for anyone to know if it was Ari or Akira that was fading...

But now that the Zhuri matrix(s) were visible, Jenni and the crewmen were able to join in to lend a hand, reshaping the box to ensure that it contain every last wisp of data so it could be isolated from the rest of the broken program. Ultimately, it was up to Andy to ensure that they were ready to move forward as she was the only one who could see if there were any bits outside the bounding box, but once she was satisfied, it was time for the next step, and all they could do now was hope and pray that whoever was still alive in this broken form wouldn't give up on them now.

Jenni happily and eagerly worked with the other engineers to modify the bounding box, hoping with every adjustment that she'd see a shred of familiarity of two of the people she loved the most. She wouldn't give up. Not now.

"Computer, isolate data within bounding box, close everything else outside the box," Andy said. Again, there was another struggling response from the computer, but soon the fractured lab space disappeared so that all they had was the Zhuri matrix conglomerate and an empty holodeck grid. And of course the computer recognized the earlier command Andy had entered, so she remained in the holodeck as well. "Well that's one hurdle down, where do we go from here?" she asked, feeling more emotionally raw than she had been before; this was hitting her harder than she had expected and she didn't know how much longer she could hold herself together. She looked to Jenni to see if she was willing to take charge of the situation for a while.

"It's the data patterns," Jenni whispered. With a stronger voice, she offered, "Like DNA. The computer can't distinguish between the two matrices because there's too much of Arivek in Akira. The Katana's computer used a backup of Maica's matrix, Arivek's matrix and whatever you had lying around in the Engineering lab to create Akira. If Katana's computer could create life from the three, then we need the same raw stock in order to help the computer distinguish Akira from Ari."

"I made a lot of backups of Maica when her old body is failing, so there's no telling which one was use to make Akira, let alone if it was some sort of amalgamation to create the spark of true awareness!" Andy replied, running a hand over her mass of fiery curls. "But..." Andy looked thoughtful for a moment and then began making motions with her hands like she was at a computer terminal accessing information, which in her holodeck she was. "I do have some data on Ari's matrix from when I was helping him with his sensory upgrades, and then they sent me an image of Akira's matrix shortly after he informed us of her creation. Neither cover the full expanse of their matrices, but it might be enough to help the computer separate them. I'm uploading the data now," she said.

Jenni instructed the Hera's computer to create a computer workstation of her own so that she could monitor the data transfer. She also made sure each of the sample matrices were isolated before running a quick diagnostic so that the computer would know the differences between them. "That should do it," Jenni remarked.

As the computer began separating the two entangled matrices, it looked as though the efforts to untangle them were successful, but just as the two were finally starting to pull apart, and series of warnings and errors began to flash across Jenni and Andy's workstations.

"Fuck!" Andy blurted out as her fingers flew over her console to ascertain the problem. "We're losing one of them!" And right before their eyes, the light representing the essence of life for the smaller matrix dimmed and flickered out before either Jenni or Andy had a chance to stabilize it or halt the separation, leaving one sad and lonely matrix, rattled but stable, next to the lifeless stream of data that had just been extracted from it. "No..." Andy said, feeling like all the air had been sucked out of her; when this was all over, she was going to need a lot of alone time with Maica to even begin to deal with this. Alerts were still sounding off on their consoles, but Andy couldn't even hear them anymore; like an out of body experience, this all simply felt too surreal to be real.

"Shit!" Jenni shouted, seeing the same thing happen. Her fingers began to fly across the console, trying to undo what was just done. Sadly, very little was left. Tears welled up in her eyes. She didn't know who just died, but her gut already made an assumption. Jenni would refuse to accept that inclination as she did her best to help the computer reassemble the remaining matrix. "Integrity at eighty percent and rising!" Jenni shouted. "We should be able to reinitialize momentarily!" she called out to Andy, trying to make eye contact. "Andy!"

Jenni had to call her name once more before Andy finally snapped out of her daze. "Oh, r-right," Andy said uneasily once she realized what Jenni was trying to do. "Computer, create an avatar for the surviving matrix; humanoid, blue skin, gender neutral. We can fix the appearance once we know who survived," Andy remarked as they worked. The computer chirped in affirmation and created a blue humanoid form around the surviving matrix. "Integrity restored, initializing matrix now," Andy said, waiting with breath held to see who was going to wake up.

It took a while for the blue skinned hologram to do anything; even though Jenni and Andy had managed to stabilize the matrix, there was still quite a bit missing that the computer as well as the life within had to recreate to be able to function properly. Minutes ticked by and finally its eyes opened, only to fill with tears at the sight of the dead matrix still floating nearby.

"Father..." Akira said with a sob.

Jenni's heart sank. That one word from the matrix informed them all the unfortunate truth. "Computer," said Jenni, fighting back her own emotions. She knew she wasn't going to keep it together too much longer. "Apply these changes to the visual avatar," she muttered as she entered an image of Akira into the computer's active memory.

With her last bits of strength, she used her panel to collect the data that was once her best friend to save into a file. As she typed in Arivek's name, Jenni lost it, tears streaming down her face once more. First the Katana, now Ari. It only took a heartbeat to realize that someone else was affected more than she. And, with that revelation, Jenni abandoned her console and embraced Akira, offering a moment of comfort to someone who'd lost her father.

Akira held onto Jenni tightly as she sobbed. Andy didn't know whether she wanted to go scream or cry or just go catatonic, so she did the only thing she really knew how to do: she made an excuse. "I, uh, have to go tell Maica what happened," she said simply, wiping away tears in her eyes as her form blinked out of the holodeck.

Seeing one of her mothers disappear like that made Akira cry all the harder as she struggled to come to terms with what happened. She had been so scared, and even though Jenni was holding her she felt so alone now.

"Why did this happen?" Akira asked Jenni.

Jenni took a moment to glare at where Andy's form once stood. She only hoped that meant Andy and Maica would soon arrive. "Something happened on Katana," Jenni said, stepping back. Jenni pressed both of her hands on Akira's shoulders for no other reason but to keep herself steady. "The computer just stopped... We lost antimatter containment..." Jenni shook her head. "Katana's gone. There's nothing left. I wish I knew why."

Akira's lip quivered as she sniffled and nodded. "Father.... Father protected me as everything began to fall apart around us. I tried to get us out, I tried my best, I really did, but I couldn't do anything!" Akira said, trying her hardest to be brave, but by the end of her plea she couldn't hold back another pained sob. But then she remembered the remains of Ari's data that Jenni saved. "Can- can I have his data?" she asked.

Jenni nodded. She backed away from Akira and returned to her console. After having the computer replicate a data core inside the holodeck, Jenni transferred what remained onto the translucent cube. As she held what remained of Arivek in her hand, Jenni stared at the object for a moment. For the first time, she could actually touch her friend. In fact, it was rather depressing, knowing that Arivek had to die to return to some sort of physical form. Jenni returned to Akira and held out the cube.

It was then that one of the Hera's science officers came up to the until now silent Farenia with a PaDD. Nodding to the offer she took it and began reading the Hera's sensor logs regarding the incident. Stepping forward, she addressed Akira and Jenni. "The Hera got some good scans of what went wrong and it lines up with what we could make out on the bridge. Apparently, the EPS conduits that came from the universe that the Katana originated from started depolarizing and the quantum signatures started forcefully aligning with those in this universe. Being one of the largest, the one feeding the main computer went out first, causing a chain reaction. It doesn't help much, but... At least there's an explanation. I'm sorry."

Knowing didn't make any of their losses any easier, but the understanding that came from this knowledge would eventually give them the means to accept and come to terms it. Akira looked down at the little cube of data in Jenni's hands, all that was left of her Father, then she reached out and touched the cube, absorbing all the data into herself directly. She flickered out once as her matrix figured out what to do with this data, but she snapped back almost immediately, and though there were no changes to her appearance, there was something different about her now. She looked at Jenni with the same guarded gaze that was a trademark of Ari's features.

"I know you," Akira said to Jenni. "Or he did, quite well, and in two universes..." Akira closed her eyes, shaking her head as she resolved this dual sense of self that occurred from absorbing Ari's data. "He wanted you to know he was sorry for leaving, and for all the things he had trouble saying; you were a true friend, thank you."

Jenni could only offer a weak smile. She had no doubt that her words were genuine. "I have been," she said weakly, knowing that there was a bit of Ari still alive within Akira, "and always shall be your friend." True strength began to mount behind her smile. As with all children, there were hints of their parents in their mannerisms, emotions and actions. In this very moment, she saw a spark of Arivek behind Akira's eyes. His life was not lost, it was his sacrifice that opened a new universe for Akira to explore.

Mal walked through the corridors headed towards the temporary quarters shared by Aewia and her sister Nexi. He'd promised Aewia ice cream and he intended to deliver. He'd found the perfect place, one that mixed almost whatever you wanted in almost any combination into a wide variety of ice cream flavors. It was a favorite of crews passing through Utopia Planetia because it could accommodate a wide variety of tastes and preferences.

Mal was dressed in a simple Greco-Roman style tunic, the hem of which stopped a few inches above his knees. He wore a leather belt around his waste, from which hung a pouch that held whatever belongings he needed. He'd pinned his commbadge to his tunic over his left chest. The tunic was short-sleeved. It was a darker shade of burnt orange in color and trimmed in gold thread. From his neck hung one of his smaller flutes.

Arriving at Nexi and Aewia's door, he hit the chime.

Technically, Nexi wasn't bunking here. She was registered as bunking with Aewia, but instead she chose to retreat back to her personal runabout which was docked nearby. Although, as luck would have it, she did happen to be spending time with her sister, so when he rang the chime, both sisters were within.

"Please don't answer it, I don't wanna talk to goatyman!" Nexi groaned to her sister, flopping back onto the couch and shoving a couch cushion over her face to emphasize just how much she would rather die than to interact with the weirdo she sensed on the other side of the door.

"Goatyman! Goatyman! Goatyman!" Aewia sang giddily as she skipped to the door and pressed the door controls. "Goatyman! Yay!"

Mal heard Aewia singing and dancing her name for him through the door. When it opened he grinned broadly.

"Hello, young lady!" he said. "As promised, I am here to take you and your sister out for ice cream! I have found the perfect place, where someone with a creative mind like yours can get just about any flavor of ice cream you can think of!"

Aewia literally jumped for joy. "Yay! Ice cream!" She then headed into the bedroom to get Nexi's old jacket she gave her and slipped it on. "Sis, let's go get ice cream!"

"In good time, Aewia," Mal said. "First though, should we take your sister with us? It seems only fair. You did promise her she could come. What do you think?"

"I absolve both of you from any promises made to me regarding ice cream," came Nexi's muffled reply. But then the thought of Aewia alone on the station with some stranger and all the trouble they could into, she suddenly sat up and tossed the couch cushion aside. "Never mind, I'll go get my jacket," she said, then strode to the bedroom to get said coat.

"Take your time!" Mal called to her. He put his flute to his lips and began to play a tune for Aewia.

Aewia smiled goofily and happily wiggled to the tune.

As Nexi came back out with her jacket, she saw the two being goofy together and rolled her eyes, but then just the tiniest hint of a smile attempted to form at the corner of her mouth; at least Aewia was having fun, that's what was most important to Nexi. "Alright you two, let's go," she grumbled as she shrugged into her jacket.

Mal lowered his flute and stopped dancing.

"Certainly! We're ready when you are," Mal said. He offered his arm to Aewia. "Shall we?"

"Yes please!" Aewia replied, taking Mal's arm.

"Off we go!" Mal said as he escorted Aewia out the door and down the corridor. "So, what's the most bizarre flavor of ice cream you can think of?"

"Anything other than vanilla," Nexi somewhat grumbled as she followed along with the pair.

"Anchovy, peppermint, and hasperat with jalapenos on top!" Aewia called out proudly.

"Hmmm..." Mal replied. "I don't know about the anchovies. A friend of mine's wife went to eat anchovies one night and called a comm frequency she saw printed on the can. Men showed up and rolled her up in sheets of cellophane, flew her halfway around the quadrant and turned her into a bowling ball and the next time he saw her was on a holovid show about bowling. Ever since then I've learned to say 'No anchovies please' when ordering my food."

Aewia paused and looked at Mal in horror and shock, her eyes wide. "That's... Not even the Romulans would do something like that!"

"I know, I know," Mal said. "It's deplorable, but there it is. As I said, I've steered clear of anchovies ever since!"

After a walk, a chat, a turbolift ride, and some more walking, they arrived Raveri's Exotic Ice Cream Parlor. Inside were humans, vulcans, bajorans, tellarites, andorians...nearly every species in the Federation was represented. He led Aewia into the parlor, and walked her over to where the flavors and the toppings were.

"Here you are, my dear!" he said. "Have anything you'd like, as long as your sister is okay with it. My treat."

Aewia's attention was pulled to something familiar. A look of consternation crossed her face as part of a memory started to resurface. "That one," she said coherently as she pointed to a flavor called Toffee Crunch. "I remember that one. I want that.... in a caramel sundae... with extra nuts."

"Absolutely," said Mal. He gave the clerk her order. "And for me, dark chocolate fudge with chili peppers. Nexi, what can I get you?"

"Just vanilla," Nexi said, looking over all the different flavors and toppings with a hint of dislike. "You know what, let's go crazy, I'll try the vanilla bean in a waffle cone bowl," she amended a moment later.

"Your wish, my command," Mal said. He put in Nexi's order and paid for all three. He lead the two ladies to a table and a moment after they sat down, a waitress came over with their order. She gave the three of them their ice cream, setting Aewia's sundae in front of her.

"So," Mal said to Aewia. "What do you think?"

"I think I remember eating this with someone I cared about," Aewia mumbled before taking a bite. The taste hit her and a flood of emotions hit her, a few hot tears rolling down her cheeks as she took another bite. She then did her best to recompose herself and succeeded fairly well, one of her moments of clarity settling in and her old 'intel eys' coming back for a moment. "I had a fiance and we shared one of these before he went on a mission he never came back from. There was something else special about it too... but I remember that that was classified. I think the Captain should probably be told about it though." Looking up at Mal and Nexi with concern, she continued. "Does that make sense?"

"It's alright, kiddo," Nexi said, scooting her chair closer to her sister to put an arm around her shoulders. "And we can go tell Enalia what you remember; you wanna leave now or finish your ice cream first?" she ask, and her tone could almost be considered gentle.

"I'd like to finish and see if I remember anything else about Grenbol Two, actually." Aewia replied as she leaned into her sister and took another bite.

Mal said nothing specific about the information shared by Aewia. He'd ask Enalia to fill in the blanks for him later. Having Nexi try to chew him a new exit hole for 'sticking his nose in where it didn't belong', which was probably what she'd assume he was doing, would upset Aewia. If Nexi really lost control and pulled a weapon on him again...well...that could get messy and would upset Aewia even more.

"That's very brave of you, Aewia," he said, reaching out to give one of her hands a gentle squeeze before letting go to allow her to continue to eat her ice cream sundae unimpaired.

"And you know there's no pressure to remember," Nexi reminded Aewia. "Enalia appreciates anything you can recall, but you don't have to push yourself if the memories just won't come."

Aewia nodded as she continued eating. "Thank you. I also remember that he used to eat them all the time."

Nexi's expression softened as Aewia reminisced about her fiance. The memories and the emotions they evoked had Nexi looking sad, like she was suddenly realizing how much she had missed out on with her hard lifestyle. She had started to understand that feeling with Daln, but ultimately the two of them had decided to part way, but Aewia and her fiance, well they had chosen to commit their lives to one another, and suddenly Nexi wondered what it was like to have someone like that in her life.

"Do you remember his name?" Nexi asked.

Aewia shook her head. "Not yet. I remember that he was Trill and that he had these big strong hands..."

"That's good, Aewia," Mal said gently. "You're doing great."

Aewia nodded appreciatively. "Thank you. It's hard sometimes. Then it's hard other times in different ways." She then resumed eating on her sundae.

"It's alright, kiddo, it will come to you when it comes to you," Nexi replied. But Mal was right, she was doing good; it wasn't unusual for Aewia to have wild mood swings, either from the memories or the frustration or sometimes from a momentary relapse in her condition, but she was remaining calm and focused now and Nexi was so proud of her progress.

Enalia was grinning like a cat that had eaten a few canaries. She'd just approved a visit by Maica and Andy and invited them to dinner with herself and Maica III. Now she just had to get Akira to join them.

Tapping her comm badge, Enalia composed herself. "Akira Zhuri, you are formally invited to attend a dinner in the USS Hera's Senior Officer Mess at seventeen hundred hours this evening. Casual attire. Holographic versions of all foods will be made available for you. Attendance is mandatory."

Akira wasn't certain she was ready to deal with much of anything at the moment, but since the dinner was mandatory, she managed to pull herself from the diagnostics program that was running on her in the holodeck. The program was also working to rebuild essential functions that had been lost during the Katana's demise, but she was still capable of leaving and attending dinner. She didn't know much about what was and wasn't appropriate attire, so she was wearing a simple dress and leggings that had become her 'normal' attire back on the Katana, and at the appropriate time she made her way down to the Senior Mess Hall.

In the Mess Hall, Andy paced along the length of the long dining table that had been fixed up with a varied dinner. "I should go check on her," Andy insisted with a scowl, not liking all this waiting around stuff.

Maica and Maica III were occupying themselves with making faces at each other and comparing experiences. Maica was from another universe and survived long enough as an android to escape her creator, join Starfleet, and find love while getting a new body while Maica III hadn't survived being an android, was remade into a hologram, subsequently escaped, started her own information business, and was the 47th unique 'copy' of the original third rendition of Maica.

As Maica and Maica III were making faces at each other, Enalia offered Andy a glass of Findian brandy, swirling the golden liquid in her own glass as she spoke. "She'll be here soon enough. I bet she'll walk through those doors at exactly seventeen hundred."

Andy accepted the brandy with a sigh, knocking part of it back just to get that buzz that would take the edge off her nerves; the rest she would save and savor. "Meh, not like I ain't got nothing to occupy my attention here..." she muttered, watching her wife make faces are her holographic counterpart. "I would love to get a peek under your hood and play with your heuristics," she said to Maica III.

"I can send you some of my data, but without an agreement with the others, that's all. If you want a full copy, we'll likely ask for a full copy as well." Maica III replied with a wink and a nod to Andy. "We're as curious about Maica as you are about us."

Enalia chuckled softly before sipping her brandy. "Yeah, she's the forty seventh independent version of the third rendition. They keep their base code pretty secret to prevent tampering and what not. In fact, her actual core is hidden in my quarters and only ties into the ship systems enough for power and to interface with the ship wide holoemitters."

Andy nodded understandingly. "All right, now you two make out," she said to the two Maica's. Maybe it was a bit uncouth, but it was simply her way of masking her unease and nervousness.

Both of them just shrugged and grinned before going at it, locking lips and letting their hands explore each other in a decidedly PG manner.

"You're welcome," Andy said to Enalia with a gin as they watched the two Maica's kiss.

And just as Enalia had predicted, right at 1700 hours, the door swished open and there was the blue-skinned hologram Akira. She hesitated in the doorway before entering the room fully, surprised to see not only Andy but also two Maica's (why were they kissing?!).

"Hello," Akira said timidly.

Maica broke off from Maica III and walked over to Akira, pulling her into a big hug. "I'm sorry we couldn't get here earlier. We had a humanitarian aid mission to hand over to another ship and the Merlin's engines aren't the fastest."

There was a rigidity in Akira's form when Maica hugged her, a remnant of Ari's behavior that she had absorbed when she absorbed his data. "It's okay," Akira said in a subdued tone, putting her arms around Maica slowly. "Ari has missed you..." she said, holding Maica tightly.

"I've missed both of you so much. How are you handling the merger of his data with yours?" Maica asked.

Enalia headed over to the table and set her glass down at her seat while Maica III sidled up and latched onto her arm.

"It's hard to say," Akira answered with an expression of frustration. "Some things I understand better now that I have his experiences to draw upon, but that doesn't necessarily make it any easier to deal with all the things I feel."

"Well we're here for you," Andy said, moving closer to where her Maica was with Akira. "All you gotta do is ask for help," she said, something they all knew Ari had trouble doing.

"I know," Akira said with a nod.

Maica III spoke up as well. "I may be a different Maica from your mother Maica, but if you ever need anything, I'm here as well."

"I however, expect great things from you. I'll still support you in any way you need, but I'd like you to officially become the Operations Chief for the Hera, effective immediately."

"Oh... okay," Akira said hesitantly in response to Enalia's offer.

"I'm not so sure she's up for accepting any offers yet," Andy spoke up. "I ain't even had a chance to check her matrix to make sure it's stable and self-sufficient, and she's clearly having trouble coping emotionally!"

Enalia nodded understandingly. "The position is yours if and when you want it."

Akira considered Andy's objection before once again responding. "I will need some time to adjust, but I accept," she said. "I know I'm more than the function for which I was created, but I do want to make myself useful," she affirmed.

"You can always come back with us," Andy offered instead. "There's plenty of room for a good Engineer on the Merlin."

Akira looked out the great window through which she could see the stars and one of the spaceframe pylons. "I will think about it, but for now my acceptance of Captain Telvan's offer stands," she said distractedly, wandering over to the window to watch the stars.

Maica clasped her hands together over her heart. "I'm sure you'll do wonderfully no matter what you do. Just remember that we're only a call away if you need us."

"Thank you," Akira said distractedly as she stared out the window. Now that she had Ari's experiences, she had an appreciation for things she didn't have before, and this beautiful view was one of those things.

Enalia clicked off all the displays in her office and leaned back in her chair with her eyes closed. These new intel systems were being a headache and they were only a few days from launch. She needed someone else to help her out with the admin side of this refit and though she knew Clio had the clearance and power to do so, she also knew that she'd piled several times more work onto her than anyone else already.

Taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, she turned her main screen back on and looked up Mal's records to see if her request to upgrade his clearance had gone through yet. Most of it registered, but there was still one bit left that Starfleet Intel wanted to investigate before clearing him to access the primary Intel databases with Command. That was good enough for her.

Enalia tapped her comm badge. "Commander Xustos, I'd like to discuss something in my ready room if you have a moment."

Mal was playing his aulos, practicing a song he thought would make Aewia smile. He jumped when the captain's voice came over the comms.

"At once, Captain," he said. He rose, put on his jacket, and headed for the Bridge. He was soon standing outside the Ready Room hatch. He tapped his commbadge. "Captain, may I enter?"

"Yes, please," Enalia replied as she looked up towards the door as it opened. "Please, have a seat. I'm getting buried under the admin side of this refit and I need your help."

"Of course," Mal said. "What can I do to help?"

Enalia motioned to four crates of PaDDs sitting next to her desk. "Every little upgrade has to be confirmed and as you can see, I'm a little behind."

Mal looked at the crates dubiously.

"Uhm...sure," he said. "Are we dividing these up or should I cancel my plans for the foreseeable future."

Enalia chuckled softly. "If you could take just one of them, I'd be ecstatic. I'm about halfway through the top one, if you want the second one. It should mostly involve the upgrade of personal terminals around the ship laid out by deck section as well as the dedicated systems in the new Intel offices."

Mal looked relieved. four crates worth of PaDDs could contain a staggering amount of data.

"Absolutely," Mal said. He picked up the second crate. "Shall I work here? That way if I get through this one I can help with the next."

"Absolutely," Enalia motioned to the second terminal on her desk. "Feel free to use that one to look up any data you need to. The holographic displays can also help if you need to look at blueprints."

"Excellent," Mal said. He moved around to sit at the second terminal and got started on the PaDDs in the crate. "We really don't need warp drive, you know. Starfleet could have it's ships travel around the quadrant on the waves upon waves of paperwork it generates."

"Hmmph, yeah if only we could harness the power of reports like that," Enalia muttered as she pulled out a PaDD and started reviewing it. "A lot of this is related to the new Intel equipment too, which generates even more."

"You clearly got the interesting box," Mal said. "I'm currently reading a report about self-sealing stem bolts. It's...riveting...get it? No? Ah, well. Care to brief me on the new toys? More importantly, would you care to brief me on Aewia Larani? There's obviously a story there, and I only know bits and pieces of it."

Enalia had started looking up the info on the computer about the new master replicator station in engineering. Apparently it was completely replaced. "Aewia Larani... Intel officer that specialized in long term missions. Her last mission was to go undercover as a Romulan researcher just high enough to be useful to what we assumed was a splinter faction of the Tal Shiar. After almost a year, she made her way to the administrative section that reviewed the data coming out of the facility we were trying to get information on. She impressed someone at the facility and they re-investigated her to see if she could be moved to that facility and things went south. She was captured and Farenia and two other operatives narrowly avoided capture trying to find her. We were then sent in to infiltrate a Reman prison colony that was converted from an asteroid mining operation. Nexi had just joined us and we had enlisted the aid of some pirates to help us take care of the patrol craft. They had someone in that prison too, so it was mutually beneficial. Once we retrieved Aewia we found out that around forty percent of her brain had been literally removed. She's been aboard the Hera undergoing reconstruction therapy ever since. Thankfully, we were able to retrieve the location of the facility from her early on and were able to complete our follow up mission of destroying it." While she was rattling all this information off, Enalia had gotten through two PaDDs and even checked internal logs to ensure they were correct.

"Forty percent of her brain?" Mal said. "I wasn't aware that was survivable. Not that I've really looked into how much of a Betazoid's brain you can remove without killing them. That poor woman. Reconstructive therapy? You're regrowing her brain? The new brain tissue, it won't have access to the memories stored in the previous brain matter, will it? Aren't you essentially building a new person? One with aspects of the previous person, certainly, but a new person nonetheless?"

"Forty three percent," Enalia replied. "And yes. Bits of her brain were cloned and grafted in so she could relearn some things and become a functional adult. She's lost most of her memories but she's been able to regain some and reinforce others. Some things though, like her years at the academy, are just completely gone. A lot of people she used to know she either barely recognizes or doesn't remember at all."

"How awful," Mal replied. "Well, she seemed a perfectly nice young woman to me. I'm taking her and her sister out for ice cream tomorrow. Looking forward to it, despite the fact that Nexi pulled a sword on me. That sort of thing is going to get old very, very quickly, by the way. What's Nexi's story?"

"A long and difficult one that you should try to get from her. She has a lot of trust issues though. She has her own ship and has free use of the hidden third shuttlebay and can come and go relatively freely. I guess you could say she's an independent contractor assigned to the Intel department. She's gotten information we needed from more shady sources for us several times now." Enalia replied as she filed another PaDD away and started on another.

"Yes, well," Mal said. "I'll reserve my judgement as to whether or not she's nothing more than a sword-wielding lunatic with impulse control issues until after I get to know her better."

"Fair enough," Enalia replied as she shuffled through several PaDDs at once.

They worked in silence for a while, communicating a bit here and there where one of them needed clarification on something. The crates were steadily getting emptied.

"So," Mal said. "Has Command told you what we're doing next?"

"Yeah, it's a suicide mission. We lost contact with a team that converted an old Cardassian outpost deep in the badlands. We also haven't heard from three teams we sent after them." Enalia replied, not really paying attention.

Mal's eyes widened.

"I sincerely hope you have a better plan than trying to fly a Nebula Class Starship through the ion storms of the Badlands," he said. "What the Hell were they doing in there, anyway? Oh, never mind. We obviously have to go and get them. We could fly a runabout or two through there, if the pilots were good. But this big fancy starship is never going to get through that. The question, of course, is what are we going to be able to do that the other three teams couldn't? Do we know the details of these failed rescue attempts? We don't want to repeat their mistakes. If I'm going to get killed, I'd like it to be while I'm doing something original."

Enalia tossed a PaDD aside and pulled up something about a dorsal RCS relay on her terminal. "We lost contact with each team in the badlands. We didn't even recover a communications recorder from any of the teams. Also, they went in in runabouts so yes, we're taking the Hera in. Nexi and I are both excellent pilots, but I'm looking for someone else as well, just in case."

"It's your call," Mal said. "But we could take a lot of damage going through there. I'll make sure we have some extra spare parts aboard just in case. I know we can replicate some of them, but that depends on the replicators working once we get through the storms. If the engineers are prepared, they should be able to repair all reparable damage quickly."

"I'd rather be over prepared than under prepared," Enalia replied. "The new hull plating should help as well as long as we don't go over half impulse and our sensors have a good chance of cutting through that crap better than any other ship."

"Agreed," Mal replied. "Do we have any theories as to what happened to the outpost? The Cardassians haven't been very active militarily, but their foreign intelligence service has been increasing its reach for years. Could they have taken it out?"

"There's been an increase in pirate, Cardassian, slaver, Ferengi, and even Breen activity in the area so who knows? All we have is speculation right now." Enalia signed off on three more PaDDs. "What we do know is that the original team was set up there by Section 31 during the Dominion war and we've only recently lost contact about a year ago. Specter squad even sent a team in with no success."

"Section 31 set up secret installation during the Dominion War and we've left it in place for almost two decades?" Mal said. "How in the name of the Great Bird of the Galaxy did that happen?"

Enalia paused to read something on a PaDD before replying. "Starfleet Intel technically took ownership when they were dismantled. Who knows what we'll find though."

Mal had been working through his crate at a pretty good pace. His crate was almost empty. He worked in silence until he completed his task.

"There," he said. "One crate done. Would you like me to tackle one of the others for you?"

"Please, by all means, help yourself. Is there anything else you'd like to know while we're working?" Enalia asked as she slipped her last PaDD away and got another one.

Mal took another one of the crates to his terminal and got to work.

"How do you like married life?" Mal asked. He was really curious about what being married to a hologram was like, but he thought asking outright was a bit crass.

"I am enjoying it thoroughly. Thankfully she can create her own holographic food to match mine so I don't feel like I'm eating alone. She gives me everything I ask for and while I'm not sure I'm doing enough to support her, she says she's happy." Enalia replied, a smile gracing her face.

"Your relationship is very unconventional," Mal said. "I applaud you both for being able to make it work. I have not found someone to share my life with, but I am young yet. I have time, I suppose."

Mal signed off on a PaDD, one of several he'd completed from the new crate, and moved on to the next. The two were making good, steady progress by multitasking, rarely allowing their conversation to interrupt their work. Mall felt a sudden craving for a cup of hot vanilla spice chai tea.

"I'm suddenly thirsty and have a craving for tea," Mal said. "Can I get you something?"

"I could use a cup of black coffee," Enalia replied looking up from another PaDD. "But the replicator in here isn't working right. Everything it makes tastes like cat food and lubricant. The one in the conference room is the nearest working one."

"I can pop over there and get us our drinks and bring them back if you'd like," Mal said.

"Actually, I think I might go with you. My butt is sore from sitting so long and I'm overdue for a break anyway." Enalia stood, stretched, and moved to head out with Mal.

Mal stood to one side to allow Enalia to exit the room ahead of him.

"After you, Captain," he said.

T'Pral was thankful for taking the time to study the deck layout of the Hera, though she still needed the computer to guide her to her quarters to drop off her duffel bag and then to the nearest turbolift, which she now stepped on. "Bridge." The turbolift hummed as it began it's journey through the ship, soon coming to a stop. The doors opened to reveal the bridge. T'Pral took a step out and took in the surroundings as crew went to and from their stations which beeped as they processed information requested by the stations' current owner.

Mal was sitting in the command chair overseeing the bridge crew as they all began to test out the new bridge module. Not all of the department heads were aboard yet so junior officers were filling in. He looked up when the turbolift doors opened and Lieutenant Jordan stepped out.

"Welcome to the chaos, Lieutenant," Mal said. "Can I help you with something?"

T'Pral's attention turned to the Pomtoli who had addressed her and approached him. "Lieutenant T'Pral Jordan, reporting for duty as the ship's Security and Tactical Chief, sir."

Mal smiled.

"Lieutenant Jordan!" he said. "Of course! We've been expecting you. Please, join me in the captain's ready room. My ready room has yet to be furnished."

Mal gestured to the the Lieutenant JG at the science station that she should take the conn. The young lieutenant made her way down to the command chair as Mal got out of it. He led the way to the captain's ready room.

"I hope you won't mind sharing the couch with me," he said, gesturing that she should sit first. "I'm reluctant to sit at the captain's desk, even if she's not using it right now."

T'Pral nodded. "That's understandable, sir," she replied, sitting down in a perfect posture, keeping her back straight.

"So," he said. "I've read some of your file. You're an impressive officer. Good academy standing. According to reports, you acquitted yourself well against Orion pirates that had ambushed the USS Excalibur. Your mother is Melissa Jordan, yes? Captain Melissa Jordan?"

"Thank you, sir," she said with a grin. "My mother is currently on her last mission to patrol the Briar Patch aboard the Indianapolis before her retirement."

The grin was unexpected but pleasing. Expressions of emotions were not the norm for Vulcan's. T'Pral was very attractive and even more so when she smiled. Of course the ship's executive officer couldn't tell a new officer reporting in that he thought she was attractive, so he kept his mouth shut and his mind on his work.

"I met your mother once," Mal replied. "Lovely woman and by reputation a fine captain. So, back to business. How much experience do you have with the Nebula Class?"

"None, sir. I've only served aboard an Excelsior Class and a Excalibur Class during my time with Starfleet. However, I am familiar with the Nebula Class' specifications," T'Pral stated.

"Excellent," Mal said. "Then you know that the Nebula has a modular pod that attaches to the top rear of the saucer section. There are a variety of pods. Tactical Pods provide extra fire power in the form of a huge projectile magazine loaded with photon and quantum torpedoes. There's a medical pod which greatly expands a Nebula's medical response capabilities. There's a personnel pod that can be used for things like troop transport or large scale evacuations. There is also a 'fighter' or 'carrier' pod that allows a Nebula Class to act as a small to medium capacity carrier. The Hera is equipped with a newer pod especially designed for Intelligence use. It has some tactical capabilities, such as advanced electronic and information warfare hardware, as well as other forms of Intelligence gathering. You'll need to become familiar with its tactical capabilities without delving too deeply into its Intelligence capabilities. Even the Captain and I run into issues of security clearance when dealing with those. You can discuss some of this with Commander Eneas. As she is becoming familiar with the pod's capabilities as we speak, the two of you may be able to discover ways that the pod can be used tactically that are not in the manuals."

"Fascinating," T'Pral said as she dissected the information given to her. The Security and Intelligence Departments often worked and sometimes bumped heads over issues and regards to security clearances. "I will make it a point to speak with her at my earliest convenience."

"Excellent," Mal said. "Well, that's all the business I have at the moment. Is there anything you can think of that we haven't covered?"

"Not at the moment," she replied. "I should go and meet with my department and see what weapons and equipment we might require. She then stood from the couch. "If there is nothing else, sir?"

Mal rose to his feet and indicated that T'Pral should precede him out of the captain's ready room.

"You are dismissed, Lieutenant Jordan," he said. "I look forward to working with you."

With that, the two officers got back to work.

T'Pral had already met the XO of the Hera but as a Department Head and moreso as the ship's Chief of Security and Tactical, she felt it necessary to report to the ship's captain. Thus far, she had been impressed with the Hera and it's crew as she pressed the chime to the captain's quarters.

"Come in," Enalia called from behind the desk in her quarters. Maica III was off in the bedroom working on getting their quarters set up while Enalia was working from 'home' and going over refit reports.

As soon as the door opened and she saw a glimpse of who it was, Enalia stood and came around her desk to greet the new officer in a more formal manner. "Lieutenant Jordan, I presume. It's good to have you aboard. Are you settling in well?"

T'Pral approached the captain. "It is good to be aboard. Yes ma'am, I have found my quarters satisfactory thus far. She offered the captain the PADD in her hand. "My service record is on the PADD should you wish to review it."

Enalia took the offered PaDD and glanced over it, scanning down the record to make sure it matched the one she'd received earlier, then handed the PaDD back. "Welcome aboard the Hera. Your job will be made harder by so much Intel equipment aboard. Guards will have to maintain vigilance over the Intel offices on deck thirteen and all of the Intel deck on the pod. That's E deck. On top of that, away missions with security escorts will have to be a voluntary basis due to the possible deadly nature. Any questions so far?"

"No ma'am," she accepted the PADD back. "I spoke with Commander Xustos already about the new Intelligence Pod and I plan to coordinate with Commander Eneas in regards to utilizing the Pod. As for my department, I ensure you that everyone will be ready to protect the ship and crew from all foreseen threats."

"It's the unforeseen threats that we need to worry more about. Are you ready to fight off hybrid borg zombie dogs created by a mad scientist?" Enalia prompted.

T'Pral raised an eyebrow while suppressing a grin. "Such an animal is highly unlikely, ma'am as zombies, as you put it, is simply the product old Earth horror movies." She never understood humans' fascination with zombies. "However, I do see your point, ma'am."

Returning to her desk, Enalia punched up a report and transferred it to a PaDD. "And yet, we've fought exactly that. The zombie element came from a modified version of a genetic process used by a race in the Delta quadrant that reproduces by reanimating and reviving corpses of other races while overwriting the old DNA with their own." She then returned to T'Pral and offered her the PaDD, a classified logo emblazoned across the screen. "Here's the mission report for that particular mission. If you have further questions on it, Nexi was one of the surviving members of that away team."

T'Pral curiously read the after-action report of the Away Mission. "Fascinating," she commented. She looked back up at the captain after finishing reading it. "I stand corrected. I will make the effort to include the necessary countermeasures to such creatures."

"Thank you," Enalia replied. "We keep running into obscure things like that so we have enough TR-116 rifles of all three flavors to outfit half the crew if needed. For a while, there was a training program where six security members would have to assault an old Earth castle and defeat a fire breathing dragon. I'll leave the use of that program to your discretion as the largest singular enemy we've faced is an augmented Gorn. Do you have any questions for me?"

T'Pral arched an eyebrow at the mention of an augmented Gorn. "It appears I will have my work cut out for me. I do not have any questions, ma'am."

"Excellent," Enalia replied with a smile. "I'll let you coordinate with Commander Eneas about Intel assets. Welcome aboard and good luck."

"Thank you, ma'am." With that, T'Pral did an about face and exited the quarters.

Enalia was in her new Captain's chair, wiggling a bit to try and get comfortable in it. It wasn't a bad chair, but it was different and she had just gotten used to her old one. Now she'd have to break in a whole new bridge, let alone a new chair. Sighing heavily, she relaxed and just let herself settle into it. Yeah, it would take a while for her and the symbiont to get used it it, alright.

Then she refocused her attention and hit the intercom on her armrest. "All hands, this is Captain Telvan. As we launch in less than two hours and don't have time for a proper shakedown cruise, we're going to do a complete systems test while in the drydock spaceframe. All hands to stations. Prepare for incoming orders."

Turning the intercom off, Enalia looked around the bridge. Most of her senior officers were already here so she went ahead and started. "Engineering, This is Telvan. Please fire up the new warp core and stand by for stationary engines tests."

Down in the engine room the very tired andorian nodded as with a move of her finger the warp core slowly began to come online. She hoped she'd gotten rid opf the problems that seemed to be plauging the ship. " Warp core is online captain. Ready for your command." She said with a smile as the fmailar hum of the core filled her ears.

"Helm, activate warp coils. Use Intel program thirteen alpha and take us to a stationary warp factor four." Enalia ordered as soon as the reactor showed as full power on her monitors.

"Aye Captain. Activating program. External inertial dampeners online and linked with the spaceframe." The ensign at the helm punched in the orders and though the ship vibrated slightly when the engines came online, everything smoothed out after a few seconds. "Now sitting at a stationary warp factor four. Engines reading at ninety nine point oh four percent efficiency."

"Excellent," Enalia punched up a display of statistics and reviewed them before continuing with her orders. "Ok, return to all stop status. Let's hope that without the parking brakes on, the new engines are just as efficient."

Enalia punched up the next series of tests. "Next up is sensors. Activate all Science and Intel arrays and scan the test buoy at two three seven mark niner niner. Let's see if we can scan through the neutronium casing."

"Activating sensors and beginning scan now," Akira replied from the forward Operations station. After a few false starts and errors chiming on her console, she engaged the sensors and began a scan. She got a thorough reading from the exterior of the probe, but thankfully with the experiences she attained from Arivek, she knew a few tricks to try to penetrate the neutronium casing. "It looks like a standard issue buoy inside," Akira informed Enalia from the scans she received.

"Not quite standard issue." Clio grinned a bit as the Intelligence scanners came online to reveal slightly more information about the buoy. "It's damn close to standard issue, but there's a tiny recording device hidden inside." Curious as to what the device might hold, she busied herself for a moment with cracking into it to read the recorded message. It was all she could do not to laugh as the message marched across her screen. Stop hacking Federation computers! We're on the same side! While she found it amusing, she elected not to announce it to the bridge, instead simply sending a copy of the message to Enalia for the captain's amusement.

Enalia chuckled slightly at the message on her screen. "It seems that all sensors are operating as expected."

Enalia sighed gratefully. "Ok, weapons test. Lock on to that same buoy. If all targetting scanners show positive, fire forward phasers at two percent. If that hits perfectly, fire a dummy torpedo at it."

T'Pral brought up the tactical sensors as they locked onto the buoy. As she went to fire, the lock was lost and the phaser missed the buoy. She let out a low sigh and rebooted the tactical sensors. "Reacquiring the lock on the buoy." T'Pral fired the phaser again, this time striking the buoy. She then loaded and fired a practice torpedo that tracked and struck the buoy. "Weapons systems are operating at optimal level, captain."

Enalia expected the new tactical systems to have needed an extra calibration and was satisfied with the results so she moved on. "Sickbay, this is Telvan. Please report on the status of your new independant systems." Enalia was referring to the fact that sickbay now had it's own backup micro-fusion reactors, emergency transporter systems, and not one, but two new computer cores filled with the collective medical knowledge of the entire Federation. She also hoped his ice cream equipment had been fully installed and tested, on top of that.

The reply from sickbay was in a different but familiar voice. "Captain, this is Nurse Joy. The Doctor is currently occupied, but please let me assure you that all medical systems are online and ready."

"Excellent to hear," Enalia replied as she punched up a few statuses on her console to check a few other systems.

Mal really hadn't been given anything to do and neither had the Yeoman on duty. So the Yeoman wouldn't feel left out, Mal motioned for her to come to his chair.

"Yeoman!" he said. "Test the Bridge replicators. Make a drink for the Captain and bring it to her. Watch her carefully! If she's still alive and well fifteen minutes after she takes her first sip, then bring me one of whatever she's having!"

"Aye, aye, sir!" the Yeoman said. "Right away, sir!"

"And then bring me some reports to sign off on!" Mal called after the Yeoman as she ran for the replicator full tilt. "Let's make sure the PaDDs work!"

"Copy that, sir!" the Yeoman shouted back.

Well she's very enthusiastic! I hope she doesn't injure herself with all of that eagerness.

Enalia grinned and shook her head before calling after the yeoman. "Yeoman, the bridge replicator is still offline. Use the one in the conference room. And make it a chilled white mocha latte with caramel. Extra cream on top."

Enalia then turned her attention back to her readouts. " Commander Xustos, access the spaceframe's sensors and energize the new stealth armor. I want full scans of the Hera from them to make sure it works as advertised."

Mal accessed the sensors and then engaged the Hera's new armor. He tried several different scans before deciding that the new armor worked.

"Stealth armor functions at one hundred percent, Captain," he said.

"Excellent work everyone," Enalia clasped her hands in her lap and looked around the bridge. "Miss Zhuri. Get on communications, request departure clearance and signal all remaining refit crew that we're preparing to get under way. Also, any remaining crew on the station are to report to stations immediately."

"Yes ma'am," Akira replied, and the all call whistle sounded. "This is the Bridge, all hands report to their stations for imminent departure. Refit crew are encouraged to disembark immediately," she said over the open channel, immediately closing it only to open a new channel to the station itself. "Flight control at Utopia Planitia, this is the USS Hera in frame 2337-Alpha, we are ready to disembark; sending a request to clear all moorings."

=/\="USS Hera, request approved," came the reply from Utopia Planitia. The mooring clamps were released and the umbilical detached and retracted. "You are cleared to disembark,"=/\= replied the fleetyard Flight Control Officer.

"Helm, take us out. Maneuvering thrusters until we clear the shipyard. Once clear, set a course out of the system for five seven eight mark one niner at maximum warp." Enalia demanded.

The ensign at helm typed the info into his station and started the slow maneuvering of the larger ship out of the spaceframe. "Aye, Captain. Five seven eight mark one niner. We'll clear Utopia Planitia in seven minutes."

Enalia then activated the intercom again. "All hands, we are now departing Utopia Planetia. We will be at high warp for two weeks. Upon our arrival at Deep Space Nine, we will be under a complete communications blackout. Even our transponder and link to the Federation databases will be silenced. Those sent on this mission prior have not been heard from so please make sure proper arrangements are made. Anyone with a good objection to participating may stay at Deep Space Nine." Leaving it at that, Enalia cut the intercom off and sat there in her chair in the middle of a now dead silent bridge as they slowly maneuvered out of the shipyards.

"Well," Mal said aloud for everyone on the bridge to hear hoping to lighten the mood. "We're off. If you haven't yet bent over and kissed your ass goodbye, please find time to do so at your earliest convenience!"

Mal sighed. The captain had just handed him the job of overseeing a written exam that Nexi had to take as part of her enlistment plans. At first glance, Nexi was both a caring sister and a sword-wielding maniac with impulse control problems. Mal actually started to reach for where his kopis and gladius were, but rethought that idea. His relationship with Nexi wasn't going to be improved by a sword duel. His kindness to Aewia, when Nexi wasn't misinterpreting it, was something that would smooth things over. He picked up the isolinear chip with the exam on it and put in one of the pockets of his utilikilt, put on his jacket, and zipped it up. He made his way down to the cargo bay with the hidden door that led to the secret shuttle bay. He wasn't quite sure what the purpose of the secret shuttle bay was, besides giving Nexi a place to park her flying lair so she could lurk in it without interruption. With a bit of effort, Mal succeeded in convincing the door to the bay to open for him.

I feel like double-oh-ridiculous, super spy.

He found Nexi's Orion Class runabout and went to the door. He rapped on it with his knuckles.

"Nexi?" he said. "It's Commander Xustos...I mean it's Mal. I'm here to administer one of your enlistment tests."

Slowly, the rear hatch began to lower, revealing Nexi standing in what was supposed to be the cargo area of her ship, but it was clearly modified with holding cells.

"Oh, it's that time already," Nexi said in a dull tone, crossing her arms of her chest as she stared at Mal, surprised that he was the one to issue this test. "Alright, come aboard, let's get this done," she said with a huff, then led him through the ship. Past the holding cells was a workbench with a frightening array of bladed weaponry as well as supplies to keep them maintained in good condition; past the workbench was an open area that had been modified into a sort of kitchen with a small table backed up to a comfy looking couch, and beyond that was the cockpit which was refit with Ferengi displays. The lights were dimmed as she cleared some clutter from a chair so that Mal could sit and load the test to her computer using one of the few consoles that was still had the standard issue Federation displays.

"Uh, let me know if the computer gives you any trouble, it can be a bit temperamental," she said, giving him some space to work.

"I'm sure I'll be fine," Mal said. He took a seat at the computer and pulled the isolinear chip out of his pocket and stuck it into one of ports on the console. When the command prompt came up, he ordered the computer to download the exam. Within seconds, it was ready. He rose and stepped back.

"There you go," he said. "It's all yours. I, uhm, need to proctor the test, so I'll have to sit over here where I can see you. You can't really cheat on it, but Starfleet Command insists that the test be monitored. I'll just sit over here and try not to get in your way."

"Alright," Nexi replied, then sat down to begin the test. She was quiet for a while as she went through and answered each question, but then she came upon a question that out a confused expression on her face. With a huff and a scowl, she skipped the question to come back to it later, working through all the questions in a timely manner. Then she came back to the question she couldn't answer and simply stared at it for a long time, looking more and more frustrated as the minutes ticked by. Then she had the computer display the question in Ferengi, but that only served to frustrate her even more.

"Uh, I know you're not supposed to help me, but I don't understand what this means," Nexi said with great embarrassment, switching back to standard English and pointing out a phrase: moral culpability. "It didn't translate into Ferengi, so I have no idea what it means."

Mal looked at the screen and read the phrase Nexi pointed out to him.

"Morality involves our sense of right and wrong, good and bad. Culpability refers to being held responsible for an action, usually one that is considered morally wrong. Moral culpability has to do with what you can be held morally, as opposed to legally, responsible for. Morality and legality can be different things. A person is morally culpable for an act if at the time of the commission of the act they understood what they were doing and understood that the consequences of the act were evil. This presumes that they were in control of the situation at the time. Does this make sense to you?"

"Yeah, not really," Nexi said, but his explanation did help her understand the context of the question enough to try to answer it. "I was raised by Ferengi and morality isn't a big thing with them," she said as she gave the test a good once over to make sure she was confident with her answers. It was a test on Starfleet conduct and ethics, so her score probably wouldn't be all that great, but she hoped she would at least pass, otherwise she wouldn't be able to move on to the next set of study material.

"I wouldn't know," Mal said. "I mean, I'm familiar with the Ferengi. I've always just assumed that the Ferengi have a different sense of right and wrong than most Federation member cultures, and, intellectually, I could accept that. But I can't imagine being a brekkian female child in the clutches of the Ferengi was an experience I would wish on anyone."

"Brekkian-Betazoid," Nexi corrected, but at least he got the 'Brekkian' part right, most people assumed Bajoran when they saw the nose ridges. "And it's only been in recent years that the Ferengi have developed their own sense of morals, and even those are heavily steeped in legalities, and there are still traditionalists who only see morality and ethics as something to be exploited," she explained as she finished her test and saved it. "Uh, I guess I'm done," she added, getting up from the computer so he could do what he needed to do with it.

Mal sat in the chair vacated by Nexi and looked over her test. He uploaded her answers back to the isolinear chip and pulled out a small PaDD from one of his utilikilt pockets. He inserted the chip into the PaDD. The test answers loaded onto the PaDD and the system graded the test. Mal took a moment to review the answers. Satisfied that the score was accurate, he pocketed the chip and and the PaDD.

"Ninety-three percent," he said. "Not bad at all. You can be proud of yourself."

Mal looked at Nexi a moment.

"Why are you enlisting?" he asked. "Don't get me wrong. I'm all for encouraging people to serve. I'm just curious. As a civilian contractor you are free to come and go as you please as long as you honor the terms of your contract. While you're here you get all of the benefits of a Starfleet career without the commitment and the potential hassles. You don't strike me as someone who is overly fond of authority by any stretch of the imagination. If you don't already know this, most personnel, especially enlisted personnel, move about frequently. You're not likely to get assigned only to ships with commanders and supervisors who like you enough or find you useful or amusing enough to put up with any serious insubordination. You'll have to learn when it's appropriate to speak up and share your opinion and when to keep your mouth shut and follow orders. You have willpower and determination to spare by all reports. You could learn these things. But I'm curious. Why go through all of this?"

"Aewia," Nexi answered with resolve, leaning against one of the consoles. "I guess I could stay a contractor, but there are some downsides to it; that kind of life is hard and fast and people like me don't tend to live very long; don't matter I'm as good as I am at what I do, I can't protect her if I'm dead. And I suppose I have enough saved up that I could just call it quits and take Aewia back to Betazed and live comfortably, but even with the way she is now, she's a lifer like me and neither of us would be happy anywhere but a starship. I guess I've just come to a point where I realized that I can't live with one foot out the door, and this way I get to live a piece of the life she loved. Look, I don't expect you to understand my motivations; fuck, there are some days I barely understand them myself, but I want to be better, and not just for Aewia but for myself too. I know it ain't gonna be easy, I'm having a hard enough time adapting as it is, but it's worth it to me to try."

Listening to Nexi, Mal came to realize that there appeared to be more to Nexi than disdain, anger, and a lack of respect for authority. She was really trying to become something new, something more than she was, something different that might better fit her life as it was now as opposed to what it had been before.

"I think I understand," Mal said. "And I admire you for taking on the challenge. If there's anything I can do to assist you in your endeavor, please don't hesitate to ask."

"Uh... I could kind of use some help," Nexi said uneasily. "I, uh, I'm still learning that English language stuff, and mostly I'm learning on my own with the computer, but I had someone who was helping me on the side, but he left. And uh, I could... you know, use a tutor? Just for the harder stuff," she meander through, clearly uncomfortable with even broaching the subject of her issue of illiteracy let alone the fact that she was asking him for help. "It's why all my displays are in Ferengi, it's all I could read before Enalia took me in, and it don't translate very well."

Mal smiled.

"I'll be happy to help," he said. He thought about making a comment about knowing that it wasn't easy for her to ask for help and that she had impressed him, but decided Nexi might take that as condescending. "So, I can think of a few ways to help you learn to read and write English. They all depend on how fluent you are now. You read the test well enough. Can I assume you have a basic understanding of english? Enough, say, to read instructions if they aren't too complicated, or read a short note? English is a bizarre language, full of double meanings and contradictions. The only way to get fluent in it is to read it, write it, and speak it everyday. Do you use a universal translator for everyday conversation? I don't remember seeing you where a Starfleet commbadge, but I wasn't looking closely enough to see if you had some kind of civilian model."

Nexi lifted the corner of the collar of her Starfleet inspired jacket to show that she was wearing a Starfleet commbadge. "I also have a modified Ferengi translator in my ear; it has a homing beacon and a direct connection to my ship so I can give it commands when I'm on a mission. Before Enalia gave me this commbadge, I was able to receive Starfleet comm signals through my earpiece. I can speak English passably enough, but I do rely on my earpiece to translate for me, otherwise it would take me too long to have a conversation."

"Okay," Mal said. "At some point we may want to try having you listen to spoken English with the translator off. Sometime when speed is not a factor. What would you think of that?"

"Yeah, uh, that's what Daln was helping with before he left," Nexi admitted.

"It sounds like this Daln was a good friend," Mal said. "Were you close?"

"Something like that..." Nexi replied with an uneasy shift in her stance as she looked away from Mal. She wasn't used to having people in her life; Aewia had weaseled her way in past Nexi's defenses because she was family, but Daln, that had been something special, and now that he was gone, Nexi had to learn how to get over her 'first love'.

Mal let Nexi fumble for a moment, then spoke.

"If you ever want to talk about this," he said. "Or anything else, professional or personal, I'd be happy to listen. I'll try not to butt in with too much unsolicited advice on the personal stuff."

Nexi had enough personal talk as it was and scowled slightly. "Yeah, okay," she said in a clipped tone. "So when is my next test set?" she then said, eager for this exchange to be over.

Mal smiled, but not too broadly.

"I need to confer with the Captain and then I'll get back to you," he said. "I'll get you the prep materials as soon as possible and if you need a bit of help preparing, I'm here."

Mal could tell that Nexi was uncomfortable. She was starting to give off an irritable, cornered animal sort of vibe. Deciding it would be better to leave voluntarily rather than to leave Nexi, arguably his subordinate, with the disagreeable duty of throwing out a superior officer. He knew that she was trying, in her own way, to respect the chain of command and that it did not come naturally to her. So, Mal let her off the hook.

"I should really be getting back to work," he said, rising. "I think we're done here for now. I'll be in touch about your next test. Good day, Nexi."

Nexi simply nodded in reply, following him out of her ship and closing up the hatch once he was out. Well, that was was interesting...

After a brief layover at station Deep Space Nine, the Hera left there under a complete communications blackout and her new hull plating polarized for stealth. It had taken them two weeks to get there and another day to get to the badlands, but they were now sitting at the edge of one of the most inhospitable areas of space known to the Federation. They were at the entry point closest to their destination, but even so, it would still be a tricky trip.

"Yellow alert," Enalia ordered, confirming the shields automatically went online with the order. "Helm, take us in at full impulse. Try to keep your distance from the vents. All sensors to full. Depolarize the hull plating."

"Aye, Captain. All ahead full. I should be able to get us to the coordinates in just a few hours. I just hope the area is about like I remember it." The Ensign at the helm piloted the large ship expertly into the badlands.

Several hours in, they were finally nearing the coordinates.

"If the reports are correct, there should be a large asteroid closeby. Full sensor sweep. And keep an eye open for...." Enalia was cut off by the sudden lance of a Cardassian phaser slicing through space and striking the underside of the Hera. "At least now we have an idea of why the other teams didn't make it."

"Target the source of that weapons fire. Away team, standby in the Selune for signal to launch." Enalia had allowed Clio, Cato, Nexi, and three security crewmen to go on this away team and with so many unknowns, she had demanded the team go in using the Hera's stealth runabout and to use EV suits.

[Runabout Selune]

As the Hera rocked from enemy fire, the ship's motion was transferred to the runabout, rattling its away team around as they finished suiting up and getting into their positions. The message came through to standby for launch, and Clio glanced at it momentarily. From inside the Selune she couldn't tell who was attacking and delaying their mission, but given this was the Badlands, she had a good idea. And she was hoping Nexi could outfly them.

Cato quickly locked his EV helmet in place; Right hand moved to holster his Type II Phase Pistol and locked it into place on his right thigh. His old TR-116 rifle with a faded urban camo paint job on it. Eyeing the three members from the security finishing getting ready "You boys ready?" Cato said while doing a quick weapons check on his TR-116 rifle rather quick with proficiently.

Nexi moved past the cannon fodder- er, Security Officers, and took her place at the helm, suited up and ready to go.

"Hey there, baby, you ready to show these boys how it's done?" Nexi said to the Selune as she did the final checks for departure. "Bridge, this is the Selune, we're ready to depart on your mark," Nexi said once she all systems read as ready. Then she looked back Cato and the Security Officers. One of the Officers who had flown with Nexi before was already double checking his seat restraints when he saw her wicked grin.

"You guys better strap in tight, this is gonna get pretty interesting," Nexi said, then returned her attention to the console just in time to see the shuttle bay doors starting to open.

"Define 'interesting'," one of the Officers replied, quickly figuring out that he should double check his restraints as well.

Nexi said something in Ferengi which the translator output as "Oh god oh god, we're all gonna die."

Cato laughed and hadn't yet strapped in. Standing up and walking forward, he rested his hand atop the bulkhead and leaned down so the rest of the team couldn't hear him "if you make one of them puke, drinks are on me." he winked. He took right seat and strapped in.

Nexi had initially been wary of this guy; getting comfy with Fleeters had been one thing, but cozying up to a jarhead?! But after the offer, she decided she liked him. "You got it, one vomit comet express coming right up!"

Crewman Rick O'Shea, a security officer, closed his eyes. This was his first assignment and already he was being thrusted into a hairy combat situation. "This sucks," he commented.

The bolian female next to O'Shea was Petty Office Ritea De'Ath, who shrugged. "It's not so bad, O'Shea. It will be ok."

Sitting in the rear was Crewman Ben Dova, who swallowed the lump in his throat. Like O'Shea, it was his first mission and assignment out of Security School. He gripped his phaser rifle more tightly as the shuttle shook again.

"Didn't your mother ever teach you it's not nice to lie to people," Nexi said to Ritea, who she had worked with before; Ritea knew first hand just how Nexi's piloting skills could churn the stomach!

The doors were open and they had the all clear, so before she could get a reply Ritea or any of the other Security grunts, Nexi punched the throttle and they were shooting out of the Hera's shuttle bay like a torpedo. Banking at speeds that would test the limits of even the best inertial dampeners, Nexi quickly came about to settle in Hera's shadow to keep them safe from the weapon fire. Now the real fun could begin!


[Bridge; USS Hera]

T'Pral stood at the Tactical station behind the Captain's chair as she triangulated the incoming fire and began to return fire as phasers lashed out from the Hera. T'Pral then saw their attackers on the tactical sensors. "Sensors are registering multiple heavy cardassian orbital defense platforms. However, I am having trouble tracking and maintaining lock on them," she reported.

"You're going to have to manually target each platform and engage them individually," Mal said. "Helm, coordinate your maneuvers to give Lieutenant Jordan the best opportunity to score a hit."

The helm officer acknowledged Mal's command. He synced his console to the tactical station so that he could get a better idea of what T'Pral was trying to accomplish.

T'Pral took the automated tracking system off and began to track each target individually. It took slightly longer to lock onto a weapons platform than with the computer but the locks were more consistent as she scored several direct hits, destroying three of the platforms.

"Excellent. See if we can..." Enalia's words trailed off as almost a hundred torpedoes popped up onto her own sensors. "Activate point defense system! Redouble the shields!" The first few hit the ship's shields, sparks flying from one of the bridge consoles. This would be more dangerous than even she expected.

Meanwhile in Cato's quarters, he had showered, shaved and consumed enough caffeine; he was ready to rock. Fresh uniform; As he got dressed he tapped his commbadge; "Chief West to Commander Clio; Ma'am, this is Chief West, where would you like to meet for official transfer?" He continued to get dressed and ensured he was 100% in regulation. First impressions in their line of work were important and Cato had a nack of making bad ones.

INTELLIGENCE POD

Mal had been meeting with Clio in the intelligence pod when they heard Chief West's call over the comms.

"I assume you want to meet him in here," he said to Clio. "Would you like me to leave or should I stick around?"

"You can stay. It'll save him a trip and I doubt we'll be addressing anything that would be above your clearance level." To some officers, giving the first officer of the ship permission to remain in the vicinity might seem odd. Clio, however, had enough years in service to feel comfortable making such a decision. Tapping her communicator, she addressed West over the open comms line. "Come to E deck on the Intelligence Pod. Commander Xustos and I will meet you in Intelligence Laboratory 4."

Mal went to a terminal in the lab and quickly called up Chief West's record. Some of it was redacted, but from what he could tell, the man had seen quite a bit of action with the MACOs. There hadn't been much in the way of open hostilities in the nearly two decades since the Dominion War, but what there was of it, Chief West had managed find himself in the thick of.

Tapping his communicator to respond, "Aye Ma'am, en-route now." Cato spoke as he walked out of the doors of his quarters on Deck 9, turned the corridor he headed for the nearest turbo lift. Stepping inside, Cato turned to face the doors "E Deck" he stated, the doors wooshed shut and turbo lift began to move. A few minutes later it, it spit him out on E deck. Walking briskly down the corridor, Cato found Intelligence Lab 4 and rang the chime.

Already waiting by the door, Clio tapped in her code to unlock and open it as soon as the chime rang. Rather than allowing Cato to immediately enter, she held out her hand toward him. "Identification and orders, please. This is a secure area, and I'd rather not take chances. I'm sure you understand."

Cato nodded, remaining silent as his right hand moved to retrieve the PADD in his right thigh pocket. Tapping at the scene and un-locking the PADD with his thumb, he handed it to Clio along with his Starfleet ID. His eyes shifted to look beyond Clio and get a glimpse of Mal inside the lab.

Clio took the offered PaDD and read over the information carefully before looking at Cato's Starfleet identification card and comparing it to his appearance. It was a match and his orders matched what she had in her system for him, so she handed both items back to him. "This seems to be in order. I'll get your clearance parameters into the computer this afternoon, but for now we'll stick with you staying where we can both see you. Welcome aboard." Stepping aside to let Cato in, she gestured at Mal. "That's Commander Xustos. I'm Lieutenant Commander Eneas. We've been going over some mission parameters, but we can take a break."

Cato snagged both the PADD and his ID, stowing them in their previous pocket. "Thank you Ma'am." Cato said as Clio moved to step aside, he moved in and gave a nod to the Commander "Sir." he looked around the room with his eyes only, briefly taking in exactly what he was walking into.

"Welcome, Chief West," Mal replied. "Commander Mal Xustos. A pleasure to meet you. You have an impressive record. I expect much from you."

"Thank you sir, I won't disappoint you." Cato replied, "I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to serve where the action was." his eyes shifted to Commander Eneas who was silent, she struck him as a calculated, composed and seasoned Intel Chief.

West was a hard one to read, as far as humans went, but so far Clio was reserving judgment for a later time. However, it was clear that she didn't think being in the thick of the action was all that fortunate. She'd seen more than a fair bit of it herself, including the front lines during the Dominion War. "You may find the action follows us around now. This ship has quite the reputation already, and that was before Starfleet Intelligence drafted the Hera into its Echelon task force."

Cato smirked which quickly moved into a smile, Cato was a brainwashed jarhead who thought it was patriotic to be in the thick of the action, where a 'difference' could be made. "Ma'am, I assumed that's why I'm here." he paused "Respectfully, I have my own reputation; I see my objectives through and stack bodies. I'm here to get the job done and be silent about it."

Hearing West's response, Clio raised an eyebrow at him, the only outward manifestation of the alarm bells and red flags he'd set off within her head. "Starfleet's overarching mission is one of peace. I suggest you remember that while getting the job done." Oh, she understood about reputations. She had her own, after all. But something about 'stacking bodies' bothered her, despite her own high kill count. "We will see combat, both in space and on the ground. But our mission parameters specifically require us to attempt peaceful resolution of combat before we bring in the thunder."

"Aye ma'am." Cato replied "Outdated mindset from my days with the MACO's that seems to be stitched into my brain." Cato could always tell when his big mouth got shot off in the wrong direction, operators all had their weaknesses. Cato's was his big mouth, whiskey and women of questionable morality. Nevertheless, Cato was willing to go to the extremes in order to get things accomplished and his record reflected such. "I've been reacclimating to Starfleet Intelligence for a few years now and it's been an adjustment." he paused "I'll do my best to keep my jar-head learning curve to a minimum ma'am."

"See that you do." While his response was appropriate, Clio still found herself concerned about his apparent MACO brainwashing. She'd always found the MACO way of doing things to be a bit outlandish and dangerous. "Our current mission is a highly dangerous rescue attempt. You and Nexi will both be coming with me and probably a few people from security for extra firepower. It is a covert mission with a simple objective. Get in, find the missing team, and get out. Preferably with our entire team alive."

"Aye, sounds simple. When can I expect my mission detail and objective package?" Cato stated before a brief pause. MACO's were extreme, in many ways. Some surgical instruments, others blunt meat hammers with no brain; Cato liked to think of himself as being the former rather than the latter.

"It's already detailed in the computer. You'll have access once I put your clearance details in, which I can't do while Commander Xustos is here. So later today." Clio would have thought that was obvious, but she wasn't the one who had been MACO brainwashed either.

"Aye Ma'am, if we're finished, I'll get acclimated and settled in before going on rotation tomorrow morning." Cato stated, awaiting her response.

"I have nothing further. Commander Xustos?" Clio looked over at Mal to see if he had anything to add to the conversation.

Mal shook his head. "I've got nothing to add," he said. "Again, welcome aboard, Chief West."

Cato gave a nod to both of them before turning on a heel and exiting quietly, off to the Holodeck to go blow off some steam after an interesting first meeting.

T'Pral had been busy looking over the ship's systems since being aboard and had gotten little time to herself or her department, which was mostly off ship on shore leave at the moment, with being docked at Utopia Planitia. She decided to do some training on the holodeck, when she noticed a phaser training program was already in session with the program unlocked, meaning she was free to enter. She entered the holodeck to see a humanoid person firing at moving targets on a simulated phaser range. She stood, studying the young-looking man, waiting for a pause in the firing to introduce herself as she didn't wish to disturb the man.

Cato was running a rapid three "gun" drill, drone targets flying everywhere. Transferring from his TR-120, to phaser-pistol, to a shot-blast phaser for close quarters. Although he saw the doors open and close, his focus remained on the objective. After a solid three more minute of intense fire, an awkward pause came with the silence of the computer's voice; "Final Round Complete. Accuracy rating: 98.3%. Program paused." Cato's hands went to place a weapon or two atop a simulated table, eyes darting over to the strikingly beautiful vulcan who just walked in; then he noticed the two pips on her collar. "Ma'am." he nodded in her direction. West was out of uniform, MACO camo pants, boots and a coyote brown t-shirt. "Warm up round before combat sim?" he cracked a smile in her direction and perked a brow.

"Your performance was quite impressive," she said calmly as she approached the man. A grin soon formed at the corner of her mouth. "A warm up round would be satisfactory." T'Pral always enjoyed a challenge.

T'Pral picked up a Type-3 Phaser Compression Rifle from a nearby weapons rack and a Type-2 Phaser, holstering it at her waist. "Computer, reset and begin target course." She raised her rifle into the ready position.

"Program reset. Begin," replied the computer.

T'Pral fired as she stepped forward and to the right, striking a human-sized target and following through to an airborne drone target. A few minutes later, T'Pral fired her last shot and holstered her Type-2 Phaser, as the computer ended the sequence. "Round complete. Accuracy rating: 98%" the computer announced.

T'Pral sighed. She had hoped for a higher score which was affected by one miss where she incorrectly determined a drone's flight path. She looked over at the young man with a raised eyebrow. "It appears you were better this time. What combat sim did you have in mind?"

Cato smirked "Impressive, and I'm hard to impress." He paused with a smile "Not just a pretty face, then." He moved a few steps closer "One of my own. I like to relive battles that I've personally fought." He took a deep breath "Gives me a chance to learn from my mistakes and improve my ability." His voice trailed off "Kzinti invasion of Triton Seabase?"

T'Pral grinned, "You will find that my pretty face is just a few of my qualifications. I remember hearing about the incident at Triton Seabase from Federation News Service. What was your assignment there?"

Cato smiled, clearly something was beneath it "I don't doubt it" his voice was soft, another step and he'd be within arms reach of her; But not to the point of invading her personal space. He fired off a wink from his left eye in her direction. "Me? I was the cook." he grinned. He paused as that grin turned to a more serious look "One-Minute Forty-Two Seconds. That was the life expectancy of a MACO dropped behind enemy lines." Cato walked over to the arch, his hands began gliding over the panel; fingers tapping controls on the to prep the program."I'll make you a deal, if you last two minutes, I'll take you to dinner and tell you the story." he perked a brow

T'Pral took a moment to regard the man's actions. By Federation standards, he was out of line and had she been as strict, she would have felt the urge to remind him of those standards. Yet, she was also intrigued by his story. "Very well," she said after a moment. "You have a deal."

Cato nodded in response, fingers tapping away at the controls. Suddenly, the environment in the holodeck changed around them. It was dark, warm, and tropical. Holographic MACO armor would materialize around them both, the weight of which could be felt. "Computer, confirm all safety protocols are in place." "The computers voice responded "All standard safety protocols are active at this time"

Cato picked up her helmet and TR-116 rifle off of the armory table of the holographic Raptor drop ship, handing both to T'Pral as the sound of Kzinti war horns echoed in the distance; radio chatter from their helmets sounded, weapons fire lit up the night sky in the greater distance. "Type II Phase Pistol, TR-116 Rifle, MACO Special Warfare Operator armor and a Ka-Bar knife. Your helmet acts as a H.U.D. Thermal, X-Ray, T-Ray and Night-vision are all available." Cato rattled off; Once T'Pral took her helmet and rifle, Cato turned to retrieve his own. "If you want out at any time, say checkmate; it'll end the program immediately."

"I have never been one to back down from a challenge," T'Pral said as she finished donning her helmet. She checked her rifle, ensuring the sights were working and that it was fully charged. "Ready when you are."

Cato clicked his helmet into place, his armor had adaptive camouflage on it (as did hers). The camouflage began to 'load' once his helmet had been linked to the suit. TR-116 rifle in hand, Cato turned and said "Computer, advance to time index 1:42 after insertion."

"Acknowledged. Advancing program to time index 1 Minute 42 Seconds." Suddenly, the computer fast forwarded and weapons fire began to reign down. The Raptor had been blown to pieces and scattered debris crammed into the earth provided cover for the MACO team.

Cato returned fire, taking cover behind debris. The Kzinti Rebels had aligned themselves with rebel Klingon forces. Together, they were fierce and had caused the greatest amount of destruction since the Dominion War. They aligned themselves with no government, nor had any official demand other than the thirst of war. They wanted territory for themselves and were going to kill for it.

Flicking the selector switch on his TR-116, a group of armored Kzinti warriors rushed towards their location through the weapons fire; Cato remembered this like it was yesterday, even though it was years ago. His gloved hands steady, calm and dry as he moved atop the debris and locked his sights on that moving group.

Squeezing the trigger multiple times; sending nine rounds of TR-116 projectiles at the Kzinti. Quickly getting his 'feedback' before moving back behind cover; the sound of the jagged piece of armor from the Raptor taking disruptor hits. Having surgically placed two rounds and a 'security round' in each of them downrange, Cato smirked "You've got One minute and thirty seconds to go, let's push through to their forward command."

T'Pral nodded as she stood and rushed as fast as her legs were carry her as a disruptor shot missed her head by mere inches and impacting against a piece of debris. Her mind racing, she figured the shot was likely too accurate than a random shot as she dived for cover behind a low rock. She looked back at the scorch mark from the disruptor shot left on the debris and calculated the angle to the likely source of the sniper's position. Pressing herself against the rock, she leaned over the opposite side, catching the silhouette far off rushing to a new spot. She fired quickly as her shot caught the Kzinti in mid-stride, dropping him to the ground as she then laid down covering fire for West to move up.

Pushing forward, Cato used the suppressive fire as cover for his movement. Suddenly, a Kzinti leapt from the shadows and both tumbled through the air towards the ground. Cato's rifle found a new home slung to his back from the single point bungee sling; Right hand dove for the Type II pistol on his right thigh mid-air. Kzinti claws dug into his armor and sent four slash marks across the chest piece. Sparks flew from the cat's claws against the tritanium armor, but Cato's hand had withdrawn that Type II pistol, and pressed it into the chest of the larger Kzinti. Squeezing twice, sending two energy pulses tearing through the cat's body. Cato hit the ground at the same time the limp body of the Kzinti did. Moving quickly on the ground, he dove for cover and took up a defendable position from the wreckage of Kzinti artillery. Re-holstering his sidearm, Cato switched back to his rifle and began to lay down selective suppressive fire.

T'Pral was impressed with West's quickness. She soon realized her mistake of not concentrating on her surroundings as she began to move forward, being caught by surprise by two Klingons rushing their position. She fired a quick burst into the chest of one Klingon as the other slashed at her with his Mek'leth. She dropped her rifle to her side, bringing up her arms, and stepping into the Klingon, blocking the slashing movement as she twisted her hip, tossing the Klingon onto the ground, she drew her Ka'bar and slammed it into the neck of the Klingon, twisting it and withdrawing it. She sheathed the knife and brought her rifle back up and continued to move forward before taking a knee and laying down cover fire for West to move up.

Though she couldn't see it, he had a wicked grin on his face. She impressed the hell out of him, woman just took down a Klingon twice her size with a fuckin' Ka-Bar, if she could see the look he had on his face underneath that helmet she'd probably crack a smile of her own. With 51 seconds left on the timer, Cato suddenly realized that he was either getting old or he had stumbled across his match. "Well, that was shit-hot." he said with a chuckle over comms. "On me!" he said, before he peeled away from their cover and began to move forward with a steady pace, quickly firing selectively at targets as they appeared Cato was gaining ground. Slow is fast, fast is smooth; Or so they say. Hopefully T'Pral was on his heels and covering his 6.

T'Pral was enjoying the training simulation. She wasn't sure she would be doing as well if not for being part vulcan, which she always seemed to rely on in combat situations. "Thank you," she replied as she followed a few paces behind West as he moved forward. She caught movement out of the corner of her eye. Turning to fire, she caught the pouncing Kzinti in mid air, the impact sending the lifeless body rolling to the ground near her. A Klingon had circled from behind and caught her in the back of the leg. As she fell, she twisted and fired a three round burst from her rifle that struck the Klingon. The holodeck simulated the injury, as pain throbbed through her leg with every movement. She grunted, pushing herself back up, continuing to cover West.

Cato turned and saw T'Pral limping, he moved to her weak side and slung his arm underneath hers and moved it across her back. In that instant, Cato had turned his back for a second when a pride of Kzinti had moved to surround them from one side and five Klingons from the other. "Computer... Checkmate." suddenly, everything was bare in the holodeck and they were back in their previous attire. The only awkward thing was, Cato was still, um, holding T'Pral. Eye locking with her for a second, he slowly slid away "Dinner?" he smiled warmly before motioning towards the door.

T'Pral grinned as she flexed her leg, thankful that the pain was now gone. "Very well," she said. "However, you shouldn't have helped me, but rather kept up your awareness."

Cato smiled "I am only as strong as my weakest element, my weakest element is my strength. I've read Sun Tzu a dozen times and it still doesn't make sense, but I figured it means don't leave a wounded man behind." He said as he stepped out of the holodeck and into the corridor.

T'Pral followed him as the doors closed behind her, heading for her quarters to change.

T'Pral entered Ten-Forward, having come from her quarters. After the training exercise, she had jumped into the sonic shower and being indecisive on what to wear, she chose a clean pair of uniform. She had never been much for wearing civilian clothes unless the situation called for it. As she looked around, she noticed a man come up on her right. She turned to see that it was West. "Greetings," she said, feeling glad to see him.

"Greetings huh?" He perked a brow and chuckled. Cato too had changed back into uniform, although he donned a vest instead of a jacket. Leading T'Pral to the table he had just been sitting at, he took a seat across from an empty one. Having beaten her there by a few minutes he had been working on his second drink. His first empty glass sat atop the table, the ice in the bottom having melted and caused a water ring underneath it. "I took the liberty of starting without you, drinking Jameson."

"Is that your favorite?" she asked as she sat down in the empty chair as a waitress came up to the table.

He cracked a smile and eye locked with her "Absolutely and unequivocally my favorite. But only your imagination is the limit in this place."

West's reply caused her to chuckle, "I have never tried it." She then looked up at the waitress. "I will have a Bajoran Ale, along with roasted chicken and mashed potatoes,"

"And I'll have two of the Pork belly skewers, white truffle fries and roasted cauliflower." Cato ordered, his right hand hauled that glass of whiskey to his lips and he took a sip before looking back to T'Pral "I suppose I should finish the story, as agreed, but I'm curious. You're at least half Vulcan." He paused "Why security and tactical?"

T'Pral shrugged. "Why not." she then continued. "Because I find that those fields actually calm me. In all honesty, I have never been good at controlling my emotions and sports and physical exercise helps me work my emotions better than Vulcan control techniques. My father wasn't happy with my choice, preferring that I choose a science career, but my mother was very supportive of my decision."

Cato nodded "I was curious what motivated you to go the direction you did. Everyone has their reasons to go down their path, some are more logical than others." He continued "I too know what it's like making choices that parents disapprove of." He took a sip of his drink "But for me, my parents are long gone. No family, no ties. Helps me make the right decision, even when making the right decision isn't making the right decision. If you know what I mean?"

T'Pral nodded. "I do, and I am sorry that you do not have any family ties." The waitress came back with their food and set it on the table. "Thank you," T'Pral said before turning her attention back to West. "Why did you choose to go in Intel?"

He smiled "We all make mistakes..." his voice trailed off as he ate a fry. "Every career changing mistake I've made in my life has stemmed from a toxic woman." he paused and took a sip of his drink and looked into her eyes "You came for a story, so it's only fair if we start from the beginning." he perked a brow. "I was seventeen, early entrance into Starfleet Academy. During my first year, my girlfriend slept with my best friend at the time; I caught them together and put him through a window. Nearly killed the bastard too." A wicked smirk crept across his lips about that last part. "After that, I dropped out from the Academy and enlisted into the MACO's."

He continued "After that, became a Ranger, then Delta, then Special Warfare Operator training. A few brushes with death. MACO's got disbanded because we weren't needed anymore, alas I went to Officer Candidate School, taught at the academy and then another bad decision. Lost my commission and was assigned to Intel." he smiled "That about sums it up, more or less." he winked a then took a bite of the sweet pork belly from one of the skewers, then a fry.

T'Pral finished chewing and swallowing a slice of her chicken as West finished. It was obvious that he was flirting with her as she regarded the wink. While he was a handsome man, she was unsure of pursuing anything past friendship with him. She grinned in return. "So your problem then, is with women. You should be more careful in the future in regards to romantic endeavours."

He smirked as he took a sip of Jameson, although what was on his mind wasn't "On the contrary." he paused "I'm very selective; I just have a habit of picking strong, independent women who like to make trouble." taking another sip and motioning for the bar tender to send another one over, silently "I don't need to be careful in regards to romantic endeavors, I just need to find the one who doesn't mind keeping up with me... Or putting me in check." he paused, polishing off his second Jameson in the last hour.

"Anyway, I got my ass dropped outside of Triton Seabase and you got a glimpse of what that was. 131 Hours of CQB, finally repelled them. I lost a good friend of mine that day, why I always use my mistakes to train..." his voice trailed "Sweat in training so you don't bleed in battle." Cato perked a brow as the waiter brought him his third drink, taking another sip. Guys like Cato, loved their whiskey and crazy hobbies; It went hand in hand with what they did.

T'Pral nodded as she gauged West, finishing another bite of her chicken. Losing a friend was never easy. "Your dedication to correcting your past mistakes is commendable...yet you should not dwell it, nor attempt to drown it in alcohol. From what I observed on the holodeck, you push yourself harder than most. If you are still searching for a woman who can keep up with you, however, I believe you have found her," she finished with a grin.

Cato smiled, overlooking the drown it in alcohol comment and focused on her big grin "Is that a fact?" he moved a bit closer towards her side of the table, but not too far; his voice got softer, lower and a more serious tone took over "I don't admit things, nor do I apologize." He paused for a second, keeping his eyes locked on hers "I'll admit that I do like you, very much. Probably more than I should, but..." His voice trailed off, suddenly the enlisted-officer fraternization regulations came busting into his head. "I don't want to fuck this up." he gestured between the two of them before taking another sip from his glass.

T'Pral then realized that her comment had been misunderstood as a flirt--she had never been good at drawing a line between serious and coming off flirty. Yet, she could not deny that she felt attracted to West. "I believe the only way that we could, 'fuck this up' as you put it, is by moving too fast, as we are not in direct chain of command of each other." She knew that IF she wanted a relationship with West, it would be borderline fraternization as West was a senior enlisted but they were in separate departments. "I too, must admit that I find you...appealing."

"Appealing huh?" He grinned "I agree. Slow is good" he smiled before turning his attention back to his food. "So tell me a story about you. I'm sure you have a few." He took a few bites of fries following with a bite of pork belly skewer.

T'Pral finished swallowing a forkful of mashed potatoes. "I had nothing compared to your experience, but my most notable combat experience was when Orion Pirates ambushed the USS Excalibur. We were responding to a distress call of a disabled freighter. Only the pirates used freighter to close with the Excalibur and explode it, damaging the ship significantly. A moment later, several cloaked vessels beamed over boarding parties. In the process, the Security Chief was killed as well as nearly half of the crew before we were able to regroup and repel them," she said, remembering all of the friends she lost that day.

"Experiences where you lose friends are the ones that make you stronger. They teach you that life, is after all, only temporary." He paused before continuing "Orions are brutal, they usually rape and torture women that are captured. I'm glad you never had to go through that." Cato was blunt, suddenly their happy conversation took a turn for a darker, more serious note.

"Thank you. As for living temporary, speak for yourself. I plan to live forever," she joked, attempting to turn the tide of the conversation.

Cato cracked a smile "Yeah?" he eye locked with her for a brief second, long enough to say "Dream as if you'll live forever, live as if you'll die today." he perked a brow, slammed the rest of his glass. "I'm heading back to the Holodeck for a swim." he paused "Care to join?" he grinned.

T'Pral hesitated. She had things to do such as make sure her department was running efficiently by making inspections at stationed security posts, yet a part of her wanted to go for the swim. Figuring she could do the inspections after the swim, she stood. "Very well, let's go."

"Meet you there, Holodeck One" Cato said before standing and turning on a heel; Walking out of Ten-Forward rather quickly. Heading for his quarters to grab his UDT shorts and his favorite pair of sunglasses.

T'Pral rounded the corner and approached the Intelligence Chief's Office. The Hera had the role of an Intelligence Vessel, which meant things would run differently than on a standard Starfleet vessel. It had been suggested by both Commander Xustos and the Captain that she speak with the Intel Chief, Commander Eneas. She approached the door and pressed the chime.

Clio was not expecting any visitors, and the sound of the chime resulted in a mad dash to clear all the screens of classified data and then lock them to prevent any accidental peeking. After one final check that everything was, in fact, clear, Clio breathed for a moment before unlocking the door and allowing it to open. A woman with a Vulcan appearance stood in the doorway, a woman she assumed to be Lieutenant Jordan. "Is there... something I can help you with? Lieutenant?"

"Yes, ma'am," T'Pral said, stepping into the office with her hands clasped behind her back as the doors closed behind her. "I was informed by the Captain and XO that it would be beneficial to meet with you in regards to the access of Security aboard the ship as the Hera is an Intelligence Vessel."

"I see. That makes sense, though they neglected to tell me to expect you." That wasn't unexpected. Clio knew both Mal and Enalia had a lot of things to remember and take care of. "Well then. Why don't you have a seat and we'll see what sorts of things we need to straighten out."

T'Pral nodded and took a seat. "I believe the first regard is access of Security aboard the ship such as which areas are deemed off limits to everyone save Intelligence personnel."

"Generally this area is off limits without my authorization, as is the pod. There's a lot in there that's sensitive or highly classified, and frankly I don't want anyone touching it. Might sound petty, but I want my systems functional when I need them." Clio hoped that made sense without sounding terribly harsh, but she didn't think T'Pral would take offense. She went back behind her desk to sit down, contemplating whether there were any other areas of the ship that should be restricted. "Other than that... the normal Starfleet restrictions. Which are, honestly, lax when compared to Starfleet Intelligence."

T'Pral expected as much from the Commander, given the nature of her occupation. In her experience, Intel Personnel were near paranoid when it came to information. "Myself or my tactical officers may still need access to Deck C of the Pod at times as that deck holds the extra torpedo launchers. Though I could cross train your officers in the use and maintenance of the launchers should the need arise."

"Well I did say access was restricted without my authorization." Clio grinned a bit. "I can clear a few people, but not the whole department. That's too many for us to keep track of. You, obviously, will need to be cleared. Other than that, I can clear up to three more people."

"That sounds adequate," T'Pral said as she considered which three officers she should authorize access. "I am certain that Mr. Rasputin in my department will require access. I will select the other two officers at my earliest convenience."

"I'll need to meet them before granting clearance, but I think I can trust your judgement." Clio picked up a PaDD and wrote down Rasputin's name to look up later so she'd have some idea of who he was.

"Thank you for your confidence, commander," T'Pral replied. "I believe that concludes my concerns, unless you have something for me?"

"I don't have anything at the moment, but I know how to find you if I think of anything. I won't keep you from your work... I'm sure you have a lot to do." While Clio knew there was typically less 'paperwork' for security, her brief stint as Chief of Security on the Katana had taught her just how much thought went into running that department.

"Thank you, ma'am," T'Pral replied with a nod as she stood and exited the office.

T'Pral had finished her first day of duty and as she had surmised, it had been a long one. She was thinking of doing some training or exercises later on the holodeck but at the moment, she was hungry as she sat down at a table near the viewports. With the ship now fully operational after it's full systems test, she was looking forward to their next mission, whatever it may be.

The door opened as the Andorian chief engineer stepped through the doors. After her two days of busily trying to get the ship ready for launch was tiring the girl out and right now she needed a drink, something to eat and then some much-needed sleep. Seeing the chief of security at one of the tables she smiled and walked over. " Hello, T'Pral this seat free?" She asked politely.

T'Pral nodded and grinned, gesturing to the seat. "Yes, but hurry before I decide to charge credits."

The andorian smiled back in reply as she took the seat. " Thanks, I've been up for close on two days now. Finally sorted that mess out."

"You've done a great job," T'Pral commented. "You are very talented."

At that moment a waiter arrived at the table. "What may I get for you ladies?"

"I will have a Vulcan Tea and a chef salad," T'Pral said.

" A large plate of nachos and a large human coke. I am starving." the andorian said politely.

T'Pral grinned as the waiter walked away. "I can imagine, after your work ethic lately. How long have you been aboard the Hera?"

" Three day's now. Mostly on my feet fixing the girl up. One time I got some free time and the holodeck breaks on me." Thex said rubbing one of her eyes. " How about yourself how long have you been here?"

"Today is my first day on board," she replied. "Where have you been stationed previously?"

" I was the assistant chief engineer on the Aberdeen, Cape town and London. Before that, I was on the Annex and the Firebird." Thex replied as the waiter returned with their drinks.

T'Pral thanked the waiter as the food was placed on the table and left for the bar. "I haven't been on as many vessels. I have only served aboard the Alexandria and the Excalibur."

" You must be very good at your job to make chief after just two ships." Thex said taking a sip from her drink.

I spent 4 years aboard my first assignment, the USS Alexandria and then while aboard the USS Excalibur, I was promoted to Chief of Security after Orion Pirates ambushed the ship and the previous chief was killed in the attack. I remained there for 7 years," T'Pral stated. "The captain of the Excalibur fought to keep me aboard but orders are orders when it comes to Starfleet Command."

" Sounds like you had an exciting career. Don't see much action when you're buried down in warp core. " Thex replied as she ate some of the nachos.

"Perhaps, however your role is critical to entire ship and if you don't see much action then that means my department is doing their jobs," she smiled. "Have you gotten anytime on the holodeck as of yet?"

" Got on for a short while. Was swimming off the coast of the Orkney islands when the program glitched and loaded in one of the natives mythical creatures that nearly took my head off. " Thex replied smirking to herself slightly. " I've gotten them fixed now in case you wanted a go."

"I was thinking of doing some training later, so I am glad that they are fixed. Would hate for a creature to attack me while fighting a Klingon for example," T'Pral replied. "I am glad you were uninjured, though."

" If you're doing some training and need a sparring partner I'd be willing. Been looking to get some practise in." Thex replied as she made her way through her food much to her stomachs relief.

"I would like that," T'Pral admitted. She normally preferred to train alone but she also knew the importance of making friends aboard a ship.

Thex smiled in reply as she continued her meal. She had barely gotten anything to eat over the last two days. " Thanks. Been quite a while since i practice my martial arts." She replied after taking a drink to clean her throat.

"Once things settle down aboard the ship, I plan to begin offering self-defense classes to help others in their self-defense knowledge or learn a new art," T'Pral stated, and I don't believe I have ever seen anyone eat so much," she grinned now, reminding herself never get between a hungry Andorian and their food, as she took a bite of her salad.

" Barely had anything in the last two days. Still, it will be nice to get my martial arts up to shape." Thex replied having polished off the last of her meal.

"When you have time, I would welcome the company on the holodeck," T'Pral said. "Which art have you practiced?"

" Andorian guard martial arts. Learned them since I could walk. What about yourself?" Thex replied finishing off her drink as she did so.

"Mostly the Vulcan art of Suus Mahna and Starfleet self-defense," T'Pral replied, though she preferred Suus Mahna to standard Starfleet self-defense.

" I remember fighting someone trained in Suus Mahna back in the academy. Don't remember the fight well other than they accidently broke one of my antenna off." Thex replied grinning to herself.

"That had to hurt," T'Pral said, surprised. "Any permanent damage?"

"Nah." Thex replied tapping her antenna " Just had a little problem walking for a while and T'Leia helped me with that. "

"Who is T'Leia?" T'Pral asked after swallowing the rest of her salad.

" My former roommate and sparring partner. No idea where she is now off doing some work with intelligence. " Thex replied calmly as she motioned for another drink from the waiter.

"I see. It is commendable that you still think of your former roommate." T'Pral never really kept up with relationships with roommates, save for her Academy Roommate, Hannah McTaggert. "What do you make of your department?"

" Decent though I need to see how they work under fire though everyone's had experience though so they should be fine. What do you make of yours? " She asked the hybrid.

"I really haven't had a chance to study their strengths and weaknesses. I will have to put them through some drills on the holodeck to be certain," T'Pral said. "I should get back to my duties. It was a pleasure meeting you, and I hope we can meet up again another time," T'Pral smiled.

" Indeed I'll talk to you later, " Thex said still having her second drink. After this, she be back in her quarters having a well-deserved sleep. This posting was turning out very well.

Cato had to admit to himself, he liked her more than he would care to admit. She had this energy about her that few could understand. Cato stood on the white sandy beach of Grace Bay in Turks and Caicos; having deleted all of the people from the program it was just wide open white sand, crystal blue and turquoise water for miles. Silver mirrored Oakley plaintiff glasses reflected the gorgeous view that he was taking in; along with tan MACO shorts (udt shorts) with stitched insignia on the left front. Tattoos and scars visible now, Cato wasn't a fan of dermal regenerators. Scars to him and other Special Warfare Operators were reminders of mistakes.

T'Pral entered the holodeck dressed in a sea-green two piece swimsuit with her hair not in it's normal upkept position now hung just past her shoulders. As she approached West, she noticed the scars and tattoos. She wondered why he hadn't requested a dermal regenerator on them. "This is a nice setting," she commented.

"Yeah..." Cato's voice trailed off "This place usually keeps me at peace." he turned his head to get a look at her "Well, at least the view improved." he smiled warmly before turning his gaze back out to the empty white sand beach and gorgeous water. Weather was a comfortable 78 degrees with high humidity, but not to the point of being uncomfortable.

T'Pral grinned at the comment directed at her before continuing. "I can understand why. Though if I may ask, why do you still bear your scars?"

"Honestly?..." His voice trailed off before he continued "They're reminders. Of mistakes that either almost got me killed or got friends killed." Though she couldn't see it, Cato's eyes started to well up a bit; But were completely hidden behind those silver mirrored aviator sunglasses. "We all have reminders of our demons; Some mental, some physical, some both." he turned around and looked at her before raising his left arm, showing her the inside of his left bicep; An intricate tattoo of a tree branch with initials and stardates, in total about 19 different ones were tastefully blended into the branches. "I like to remember."

"I can tell," she said solemnly. "I apologize for asking."

"It's okay, don't apologize." Cato quickly got his composure together.

Reading his body language, T'Pral knew she had hit an emotional nerve. She closed distance with him and wrapped her arms around him. It was an illogical move, as her father would have said but to her it felt like it was the right move to make the situation a happier one.

The minute that she laced her arms around his neck and moved closer to him; the distance between them was mere inches (if that). Cato's hands moved to slide down her sides to rest at her waist. Pulling her body up against his, his lips brushed up against hers; but didn't push forward into a kiss, just teased.

T'Pral for possibly the first time in her life, was unsure of what to do. She felt the wild passion borne from her untamed Vulcan emotions stir within her while yet her mind fought to suppress those urges. Closing her eyes, she stepped back and opened them. "Perhaps we should go for a swim," she said after clearing her throat.

Cato didn't say anything and just made started to walk for the water, small 3-6" waves lapping on the white sand beach. "Do you ever get tired of wearing the uniform?" He said, wading out to knee deep water and then sitting down.

T'Pral sat down next to him. "No, not really. What else would I do? In Starfleet I am able to use my skills and experience help and protect others others. Besides, I am out of uniform at this moment," she grinned.

He smiled and didn't hide the fact he was looking, yet again. Though he shook it off and continued "Seriously though, after I lost my commission it's been getting harder and harder every day to keep going. Just act like my career isn't in the shitter and pretend that I don't miss the days of being a MACO or special warfare. The CIO already hates me and will probably leave my ass on a rock somewhere to die." He rambled, Cato wasn't particularly ecstatic after his meeting with Clio or Mal.

Looking over at the man, she was silent for a moment before speaking again. "Starfleet do not leave people behind...and if she did leave you on a rock, she would have to contend with me," she grinned slyly. "There are always hard days in our lives but you will get a chance to get your commission back. You just have to prove to those who doubt you of your worthiness and that you deserve a commission. If you need help, I will be here for you."

"Starfleet, yes. Starfleet Intelligence? Hah, they'll pronounce you K-I-A and leave you with your ass hanging in the wind." he paused suddenly realizing what T'Pral had said "She'll have to contend with you huh?" He backtracked and that statement made a smile appear on his lips. "You just met me, for all you know I'm some washed up former MACO psycho they dug up in a penal colony."

"You don't fit the profile of a 'psycho', as you put it. I also regard myself as a good judge of character and you are a good man from what I have seen thus far," T'Pral commented as she realized he was attempting to put up a barrier in their developing relationship. She wondered why as she continued to fight an internal struggle between her passion, fueled by raw vulcan emotion and her more logical mind. Sighing, she spoke up again. "Cato, I will admit I find you interesting and attractive, however, I want to know if you wish to pursue this. I do not wish to make you uncomfortable."

Fuckin' Vulcans, always trying to analyze everything. Cato hauled those aviators off his face and let them drop into the water next to them. "You know, where I come from, actions speak louder than words." It was in that moment that Cato knew he had a choice to make. Right hand lifted, dripping warm salt water onto her collarbone and left shoulder as his wet palm gently pushed past her left ear. Resting at the base of her head (back of her neck) he gently kissed her soft, full lips. His free left hand moved to her waist and tried to pull her body in closer to his own.

The movement surprised T'Pral, who at first wanted to resist, yet she didn't. She enjoyed the dominance that Cato was showing as she allowed herself to be pulled against him, kissing him back as she wrapped her legs around his waist.

Left arm snaked around her back and pulling her close; His right hand gently trailed down the left side of her neck, before gently grasping. Cato was dominate, very, very dominate. But his hand didn't stay there for more than a second or two before moving to her shoulder. Breaking the kiss, his forehead rested against T'Pral's before whispering "Pursue isn't the word I'd use." he smiled.

She raised an eyebrow at Cato. "Then what would you prefer?"

"You can't pursue what you already have." he nipped softly at her bottom lip with his teeth, playfully.

"I am glad," she said, kissing him again.

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

The next morning, T'Pral stirred, feeling the warmth of a body against hers. She woke to find herself in her quarters as she looked at West lying next to her nude body. She grinned, laying her head on his chest. "Good morning," she said.

Demons Cato was asleep and his dreams haunted him. In his dream, he wasn't himself His hair was long again, beard grown out. A glimpse of what was to come? Or was it something that was in the past? Cato himself didn't know anymore. Cracking his eyes open, he felt the warmth of her body pressed up against his own. "Good morning pretty girl." he kissed her forehead before turning slightly, squeezing her body with his arms playfully before his right hand wandered down and grabbed her ass.

T'Pral grinned. She wished she could remain in bed with West but she had duty in an hour. "What do you want for breakfast?" she asked.

"I wish I could, I can't. I'm sorry." he paused as he pulled away from her and slid out of bed. "I need to start prepping for this cluster fuck of a rescue mission." he started moving for his clothes as he too had to get his ass to E-Deck. "BUT!" he turned around after he quickly put his boxers and uniform pants on, leaning back over the bed. Cato placed a soft kiss on her lips "Dinner?" He smiled before pulling away again and resuming getting dressed.

"Agreed," she said continuing to grin as she got out of bed and headed for the sonic shower.

Cato was completely dressed in record time, following her into the bathroom he moved to the sink and splashed some water on his face. Fixing his hair, he turned around and took in the view. "1900 hours, my quarters." he smiled "I'm gonna have that image in my head all day now." he wolf-whistled back at her as he walked out of the bathroom and headed out of her quarters.

"Yes sir," she said with a large grin as she activated the sonic shower.

Having learned that Sick Bay was up and running, Mal decided he'd get his physical out of the way as soon as possible. Getting his physical out of the way right away would set an example to the crew of how he expected things to be done: in good time and with a minimum of bullshit. Plus, he'd avoid a crowd. So when 'as soon as possible' o'clock rolled around, Mal went straight to Sick Bay. It was rather empty. The full crew hadn't quite come aboard yet, but there were a few.

"Doctor Dodger?" Mal called out. "Are you in?"

Mal stood there in his uniform shirt and jacket and utilikilt and waited for a response.

From an open jeffries tube, a voice called out, "Be with you in a moment." Metallic tools pinged and a tookit was placed on the ground just outside of the tube before Ian crawled out. "Just having an argument with a bag of computerized phlegm that the fleet seems to want to cram inside every juncture orifice in the..." As if realizing he sounded like someone's peevish grandfather, he stopped himself and took a breath, looking up at the man. "Sorry, commander, I didn't mean to rant. How can I help you today?"

"No need to apologize," Mal said. "Troublesome technology is a common theme in every race, species, nation, et cetera, et cetera. The more advanced the technology, the more potential for malfunction. Anyway, I believe we are all expected to make our way through Sick Bay for a check up. I can't rightly complain about others trying to avoid Sick Bay if I do. So, here I am! Bright-eyed and bushy tai...well, my tail is a bit short to be very 'bushy' but I assure you that what there is of my tail is now bushy...that must sound very strange, no? Well, before I digress any further, please, examine away!"

"Ah yes, the daily grind." Ian replied with a nod, consulting the PaDD attached to his sleeve to read the commander's commbadge and send his medical files to the nearest biobed. "If you could lay on the biobed over there," He said, pointing at it. "I'm calling up your medical records and species-specific data." He pulled a medical tricorder from a niche on the wall and popped out the scanning peripheral, which he synched with the biobed's monitor, and then looked at the commander expectantly. "I've written to Starfleet a few times about equipping the transporters to use induction testing for this sort of thing, but they do insist that it be done in person, else doctors would have too much free time on their hands."

Mal climbed up on the biobed and lay down in his back. He expected this to go well. He was young for a Pomtoli and in great shape. He even kept his hooves clean and washed behind his horns!

"With every innovation someone, somewhere, has sounded the alarm that the machines are taking over," Mal said. "And yet, no matter how far our technology has advanced, the living element has remained in some way. Why do you think that is, Doctor?"

"If we lose the sentient element, we're probably not much better than the Borg." Ian replied using the scanning peripheral to direct the biobed's scans. "Back when I was on the Bowditch, we came across a cult of people who wanted to join the Borg Collective because they believed the Borg to be the perfect society. They called themselves Assimilationists. They were, no joking, living in the remnants of a Borg cube, putting implants into their bodies and stealing ships from all over to try and rebuild the damn thing... Cardio-vascular system's good, nervous system's good..." He interjected as he scanned. "Machines don't... often feel empathy. If they don't know what suffering is, why would they work to alleviate it?"

Mal nodded awkwardly from his reclined position.

"A senient, living being can to a certain extent relate to a patient's pain, fear, frustration, et cetera," he said. "They can respect a patient's dignity. We've made great progress with our EMH technology, even to the point that they are considered in corners as sentient photonic lifeforms, and even our EMH's require time to learn how to understand an organic lifeform's feelings, concerns, worries, and the like."

Ian made a face. He often struggled with issues regarding EMH and Hologram sentience. "Which makes it an awkward conversation when I use the same holographic technology that projects sentient holograms to create medical test surrogates for the interns I'll be teaching." He'd been given two more interns to teach aboard the Hera, the poor hapless souls. He had every intention of 'pimping' them as roughly as the attending physician at Cedars Sinai had done when Ian was a lowly intern himself. "Except, of course, that, if one of the interns has to cut a holo-patient open and crack their ribcage, the patient won't be programmed to feel pain." Ian's surgical intern from the Katana had learned to dread the holo-simulations worse than seeing actual living patients.

"Well," Mal said with a cheeky smile. "If you're lucky maybe the sentient holograms won't rise up and use you and your interns as the medical test subjects."

"Well, until they develop sustainable, self-replicating mobile emitter technology, I am not worried."
Ian mused with a chuckle. So far, the most advanced mobile emitters were the size of a large backpack. To his knowledge, at least. "Everything is looking good. You're in excellent health, no appreciable health problems, acceptable stress levels... I'd say you're fit for duty."

Mal climbed down from the biobed and stood up.

"Thank you, Doctor Dodger," he said. "That was perfectly painless. Well, I'm off. Very nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you as well." Ian said, putting the scanning peripheral away and resetting the biobed's sensors. "Have a good rest-of-your day." He added with a smile and nod, moving off to the side so Mal could take his leave.

As the away team launched in the most stealthy runabout the Hera had, the Hera herself did the best she could to shield the away team from incoming fire from the old Cardassian weapons platforms. They were hard to pick out in all the interference, but they seemed to be doing well enough and only a few shots came close to hitting the shuttlecraft.

Enalia had called everyone to red alert already and while they had a good idea of where these platforms were hiding, sensors seemed to be having difficulty cutting through all the interference. "Akira, boost power to the active tachyon sensors in the pod. That might give us a better idea of where these platforms are."

"Yes Captain," Akira replied softly as she complied with the command. As the tachyon sensors went into overdrive, she matched the frequencies with the main sensor pallet and aimed the focal point at the nearest weapon platform. "There's still a lot of interference, but I believe I am capable of cleaning it up to some degree," she said, her fingers working rapidly over her console to make good on her statement.

"Excellent," Enalia replied as another wave of torpedoes started flying towards the Hera. "Coordinate your data with T'Pral. Helm, as soon as the away team is aboard the station, evasive pattern caravan three."

T'Pral's fingers danced across the tactical console as she automated the point defense system this time, tying it's targeting into tachyon sensors to give the system a boosted response time all the while leveling a barrage of phaser fire to cover the shuttle.

The Ensign at the helm was straining to keep up with Nexi's own piloting to shield the runabout from the majority of incoming fire, but somehow he was doing it and giving T'Pral a few good fields of fire. "They should be aboard the station in ninety seconds. Less if Nexi's as good a pilot as she seems."

"She is and better," Enalia called out more orders. "Akira, when you get a moment, scan for any large power sources. These platforms normally aren't self powered so should be fed from a central reactor. See if you can find it."

"But wouldn't that be the station itself?" Akira asked, momentarily forgetting protocol to look back at Enalia. Then she frowned. "It's up to me to confirm or deny that and track down it's specific location," she reminded herself, then returned her attention to her console to try to find this central reactor.

Enalia was studying her console as the ship rocked again. "The station isn't shielded so I'm betting the power source is deeper into the area. If I'm reading this right, there are at least thirty more platforms. Don't spare the quantums, T'Pral. Helm, do your best to keep our distance from the majority of them."

"Aye, Captain," T'Pral replied as an idea formed in her mind. If the platforms were using an external power source from one location that also meant the platforms were likely using a shared sensor pallet, with each platform's sensors adding to the collective, thus making them more effective as a whole. She loaded one forward launcher with a photon torpedo salvo and the other two forward launcher with quantums. She inputted commands into the launching computer, changing the warheads from contact detonation to a proximity burst on the photons. She fired the photons in a three shot spread. As the photons neared the platforms, they exploded temporarily overloading the sensors. She then fired the other two launchers with quantums as they tracked the now blinded platforms, scoring direct hits, evidenced by distant explosions on the view screen.

"Excellent shooting. Akira, do you have a lock onto their power source?" Enalia held onto her chair's armrests tightly as several more torpedoes made it through and hit the hull.

"The source of their power is evading me, Captain," Akira spoke up with great uncertainty. "But I have isolated what seems to be a number of resource hubs where the power is then distributed to the weapon platforms. I believe taking out those hubs would be sufficient to powering down the weapon platforms, but I am still searching for the power course in case this does not work out. I'm sending the data on the hubs to Tactical now."

"Fire at will, Lieutenant," Ordered Enalia.

T'Pral looked at the incoming data to her console and relayed it to the ship's tactical computer as the forward torpedo launchers finished reloading. The ship shook again from a torpedo hit. She glanced at the shield status which showed seventy-five percent. "I have a lock on the hubs, captain. Firing." Three salvos launched from the torpedoes as they streaked through space and a moment later, slamming into the hubs as several platforms went dark from the loss of energy. "I'm reading loss of power in fifteen of the platforms, captain. I estimate there are still six platforms left."

"Maybe that'll give us a little breathing room. Switch to quantums and let's see if we can finish off those six platforms." Enalia ordered as she punched up some coordinates and sent them to navigation. "Helm, use the pull from that plasma vent to swing us into the middle of those platforms and try to keep us in a lateral slide. T'Pral, fire six full spreads when you have a good lock."

The ensign at the helm glanced back at the captain like she was fucking nuts, but he followed his orders to the letter. "Swinging into the energy flow now," He reported as the Hera began to shimmy from the added stresses. After a two hundred degree swing, he pulled the ship out on nothing but maneuvering thrusters, keeping their momentum up in a lateral sliding spin, bringing them right into the middle of the remaining platforms.

Now being closer to the weapons platforms, the computer was able to establish a lock, allowing T'Pral to lock on and fire faster. The Hera's Point Defense Systems were working overtime at destroying the incoming fire. Phasers and torpedoes streaked to their targets, destroying the six remaining platforms. "Platforms are destroyed, captain," T'Pral reported.

"Captain, I am now reading a build up in the station's generators. If this is not rectified soon, within the next three minutes, the station will experience an overload of their generators and explode,"Akira chimed in. "Given the abrupt onset, it would be a reasonable assumption to think that this is intentional, perhaps a security measure?"

Enalia wasn't pleased with this news, but she at least expected it. "Helm, bring us around to catch the Selune as soon as we can and plot a course out of here. T'Pral, keep scanning for active platforms. Akira, keep an eye on that reactor and be ready with a tractor beam . If they're not out of there and in shuttlebay two with fifteen seconds left on the clock, we have to leave without them."

Having taken position at an auxiliary station, Enoch was monitoring the console infront of him. He had little to say previously, simply keeping his silence, standing by to back up the tactical station if needed. "Leave without them?" said the young looking man with overgrown dark hair. He gave a quick swipe across his face, brushing the hair aside. "Captain" he added with a worry in his tone.

T'Pral continued to scan, yet she found herself worrying about West as her eyes watched the sensor monitor. She mentally kicked herself for getting involved with West--this was one danger of having a relationship with someone on the same ship.

The silence dragged on as the seconds ticked by, and Akira was about to give a 30 second warning on the impending explosion when finally the familiar voice of a surly Brekkian bounty hunter sounded off over the comm.

=/\="Hera, this is the Selune! The station's set to self destruct, we need to get out of here! I'm bringing the Selune around to dock now, so don't move yet."=/\=

"Akira, get that tractor on them," Enalia ordered.

"Yes ma'am," Akira said, then activated the tractor beam as soon as the Selune was in range. Easing the Arrow-class runabout into shutlebay 2, she then gave the order to secure the outer doors and begin decontamination. "The Selune is safely docked," she informed the Captain.

"Helm, get us out of here. Best possible speed." Enalia gripped the armrests of her chair as plumes of fire started spouting from the station. Thankfully, the pilot was good and got the Hera moving a bit faster once the runabout was in the shuttlebay. The final explosion singed the Hera's aft but they were otherwise going to be ok.

Once they were definitely out of danger, Enalia stood up and tugged down on her uniform top. "Commander, a damage report, if you please."

"Engineering reports that we've take damage to the port nacelle," Mal said. "And there are several fires currently being extinguished as we speak. We weren't hulled, but there were several explosions due to overloaded conduits. And I regret to inform you that corpsmen on deck 26 report that a crewman named Daniels has perished."

Four fatalities, if the sensors were right about there only being three survivors from the station. Enalia nodded and headed towards the turbolift. "Conference room nine. Commander, I'll be down there to debrief the away team. If you can get away, feel free to join me."

"Of course," Mal replied. He rose and took the center seat, and got to work. "Alright, everyone, run after action diagnostics and report anything that needs repair. Secure from General Quarters..."

Away team composition is Cmdr Eneas Clio, CPO Cato West, Nexi, and three random security crewmen. Attire is EV suits. Weaponry is at your discretion.

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

As the away team launched in the most stealthy runabout the Hera had, the Hera herself did the best she could to shield the away team from incoming fire from the old Cardassian weapons platforms. They were hard to pick out in all the interference, but they seemed to be doing well enough and only a few shots came close to hitting the shuttlecraft.

Nexi was relaxed but focused at the helm of the Selune; despite the weapon fire going off around them, this was the kind of thing that Nexi lived for.

"Hey boss, get on the sensors, see if you can find us a way in," Nexi said with a steely calm to Clio as she continued to weave the shuttle through asteroid and debris, trying to stay in Hera's shadow where they would be safe from the weapon platforms.

"Already working on it." While the security mooks seem unsettled by Nexi's flying, Clio didn't mind it at all. Taking advantage of the Selune's upgraded sensors, she looked carefully for any entrance into the base. "Here." Tapping the entry into a shuttle bay, she sent its location over to Nexi's panel.

Cato was strapped in, EV Suit on and pressurized. His old TR-116 rifle in hand, a MACO issued Type II Phase Pistol strapped in a drop leg holster. Chewing some bubblicious gum inside his EV helmet, Cato had his head back against the bulkhead, eyes closed and chewing away as the Runabout maneuvered through the weapons platforms. He too didn't mind Nexi's flying.

As the information was transferred, the lights in the half open and waiting shuttlebay flickered to life, giving a nice beacon for the runabout to follow in. It also showed the remains of at least one of the prior teams. The scraps of an arrow class runabout similar to their own was scattered across the rocks just outside the shuttlebay, blackened nearly unrecognizable by the weapons platforms.

"Look," Nexi said as she pulled the Selune away from the Hera. "Looks like they almost made it," she remarked as she brought the shuttle closer. She didn't want to leave them vulnerable out here with the weapon platforms just so they could look at the remains of the other shuttle, so she skillfully glided the Selune into the open shuttlebay where they passed through the environmental containment shield (but that was still no guarantee the station had an atmosphere) and set her down. She was somewhat disappointed that she hadn't heard the telltale sound of regurgitation, but she still had hope for the return trip that she would get one of the grunts to blow chunks.

"How we doing on atmo?" Nexi asked Clio as she put the shuttle in standby. "Do we have air in there or do we need the suits?"

Clio's gaze lingered for a moment on the charred remains of an Arrow-class runabout before she turned her attention back to the sensors. "I'm reading atmosphere, but I can't tell for sure if there's anything airborne that might be harmful to us."

Unbuckling the straps as soon as the runabout touched down on the deck, Cato stood and pulled the charging handle of his MACO modified TR-116. Far from standard, his EVA suit was different. His was a matte black and streamlined; A slim cut for battle in the worst conditions one could imagine. His former insignia (MACO) had been visibly scraped off the arm with a blade of some kind. Painted over crudely with a slightly different shade of matte black, the punisher skull replaced it. "Then let's not roll the dice." Cato added tapping at his arm 'quarterback' style computer.

"Righto," Nexi replied, adjusting the blade strapped to the leg of her EV suit; she was unable to wear her collapsed pike sheathed at the small of her back as she usually did, not in this suit, and it was unlikely that she'd be able wield it effectively in this bulky thing, but she liked having it with her, just in case, and barring the use of her pike, she had a standard issue rifle clipped to her side. "C'mon boss, don't worry about that shuttle; ain't going nowhere and we can always tow it back to the Hera when we're done."

"I don't think we'll be able to tow it when it's in so many pieces." Shaking off the shock of seeing the shuttle plastered against the rocks, Clio unbuckled from her seat and stood up, settling her EV helmet in place. Like West's, hers was the farthest thing from standard issue. The metallic armor plates had been replaced with stronger light-weight armor in a dark steel grey, and some had been removed entirely to save weight. To it she had added a soft cloth belt for this mission, with her plasma-energized mek'leth tucked neatly in place. She also carried a phaser rifle, held magnetically by its sling to the shoulder of the suit with a bit of engineering magic she'd picked up over the years. "Check your seals and then let's get moving."

Cato quickly did a run-up on suit systems, the suit responded with MACO H.E.C.A. Operating at 100% Integrity. Something T'Pral had said to him the night before during their dinner date suddenly popped into his head; 'I plan to live forever' it made him smile. He moved past the three gold-shirts before standing at the top of the landing ramp, his TR-116 in his right hand with the muzzle pointed towards the deck; Supported by a good old fashioned single point bungee-sling run over his right shoulder and under his left arm. "Ready to lower the ramp, when ya'll are ready."

O'Shea, De'Ath, and Dover looked at each other and then at the three intel operatives and then to their suits. "Ok, after this mission, I'm transferring to Intel. They get all the cool toys while I feel like the Sta-puft Marshmallow Man," Crewman O'Shea complained as he gripped his rifle.

"Regulation says nothing about the marshmallow suit. You choose to wear it," Clio reminded O'Shea with a grin. She did a brief spot check on helmet seals and then nodded at Cato. "Open it. We've got a job to do."

Cato lowered the ramp, the sound of a pressure differential sounded with that all too familiar swoosh of air. "O'Shea, Dover, secure the landing area... On me." Cato raised his rifle and began to move down the ramp. His eyes began to scan the shuttle bay up, down, side to side. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast ran through his head right now for some reason. Suddenly replaced by his 'love' for Cardies; They were sneaky little shits with no honor. Gloved right index finger rested on the trigger guard, ready to move in a split second; standing about 25 feet away from the front landing gear of their runabout. "Looks clear..." His voice trailed off.

"My turn." At Cato's all clear, Nexi stepped up, approaching the door separating the shuttle bay from the rest of the station. Given the level of paranoia in Cardassian defenses, she wasn't taking any chances and carefully checked the door panel for any rigging that might indicate a trap or alarm, then removed the access panel to the get a look at the inner workings. Even if she hadn't been briefed about what happened the last time someone came across an abandoned Cardassian station, she had enough experience with disabling locks to know that sometimes people were just fucking crazy when it came to securing their shit, and the Cardies were no different.

"This'll just take a sec, so get ready to make entry," Nexi said as she pulled out a tool and a Ferengi PaDD looking device.

Indeed, there was a booby trap, but rather than it being Cardassian in design, it had the distinct look of Federation tech. There was also a slight buzzing coming from the panel and an alarm sounded through the base momentarily, to be replaced with a decidedly male Cardassian voice filled with the usual detestable arrogance known for that race.

"Bunny-chan... Bunny-chan... Where are you? Oh... There you are... Six nice little Bunny-chans have come to play!~" The voice trailed off in an upward singsong voice before cutting out and the door Nexi was looking at opened on its own.

The door opened into a security foyer and other than a few flickering lights, everything was smashed. Then there was the floor. It had been soaked in blood and gore, but it looked like whatever did it, tried to clean the place up with its tongue and there were quite a few large footprints. They resembled Cardassian vole prints... If they grew to six feet long...

"Oh fuck that noise," Noxi said, backing away from the door panel at the sound of the familiar 'Bunny-chan'. It wasn't the same as the Bonnie-kin motherfucker from the other station, but she wasn't going to stick around to see if they had the same taste in sadistic experimentation. Then the door opened and there was the biggest Cardassian vole she had ever seen. "Oh fuck..." She couldn't grab her pike fast enough, there was no way she was letting this thing live.

Clio didn't understand Nexi's reaction to the Bunny-chan chant, but she didn't have time to question it either. Within seconds of the eerie announcement, a truly massive Cardassian vole appeared and made a 'die motherfuckers' face at them as it moved menacingly forward. "Oh hell no." Bringing her phaser rifle up, she fired at the monstrous creature.

Cato wasn't too far away before that creepy announcement. Moving to position himself to the right of Clio, he muttered to himself "Fuckin' cardies...". Suddenly, that door opened; the reactions from Clio and Nexi told him everything he needed to know. Flicking the safety off, the multi-role optics on top of his TR-116 were in red-dot mode. In one fluid motion, Cato brought the rifle to his shoulder, non-dominate hand supporting the forend, cheek to the stock and red dot put on target. Trigger finger squeezed off a few rounds in-between blasts from Clios rifle; The timing was so he could get feedback from his round placement.

The half starved vole reared up and screamed in pain and frustration as it was struck several times, then charged the group, still very much alive.

Cato's eyes narrowed and he quickly adjusted how he went about engaging this target; flicking the selector switch on his rifle from 'semi' to 'auto'. Taking aim at where this giant ass creatures brain should be, his trigger finger unleashed a fury of tritanium bullets that were surgically placed. Cato slowly pulled his aim downward, moving towards center mass of the creature; continuing the reign of 'thunder'. Suddenly, the energy mag on his rifle was depleted and the eery sound of a click from the trigger resulted. He moved to drop the depleted, smoking energy magazine onto the deck; Cato's right hand quickly dove to his left thigh pocket and retrieved a fresh one - slamming it into his rifle in a secondary motion. Flicking the selector switch back to 'semi', he resumed firing - selectively this time.

"What the fuck is that thing made of?!" Nexi cried out as she watching the creature take such heavy fire. "The last time something like this happened, it was zombie Borg dogs and we lost the security detail that came with, as well as the doctor who fell to his death in the turbolift shaft. I say we get the fuck out of here and let Hera blow the fuck outta this thing!" And Nexi was not one to scare easily, she had stared death in the face more times than she could count and came out not only the victor but laughing, but if this Bunny-chan person was anything like the last guy who did something like this, then she had every reason to make such a hasty retreat.

"I agree with Ms. Nexi," CPO Ritea De'Ath spoke at hearing the unfortunate demise of the previous security team as all three security officers joined West in firing at the Cardassian Vole.

The vole's tail whipped around, smashing into Crewman Ben Dover's legs, causing him to hit the deck hard. "Shit!" she cried out as he tried to get back up, seeing the vole attempt to grab at his legs with it's claws. Pain was throbbing through his legs and attempting to stand, he fell, this time closer as the Vole latched on with it's claws and decapitating the crewman with it's mouth filled of razor-sharp teeth before falling dead from it's wounds.

"Ok, I'm going to be sick," Crewman Rick O'Shea said as he turned from the gruesome scene.

It took Clio about a second and a half to figure out that phaser fire and bullets wasn't going to hurt this monstrous creature. Dropping the rifle so it again hung from the armor plate at her shoulder, she instead drew her mek'leth. Quickly energizing the blade, she brought the weapon down across the vole's neck, lopping off its head before it could go after anyone else. As the creature fell over dead, she turned off the energized monofilament but kept the bladed weapon in her hand. "We came here to do a job, which we haven't finished. We stay until that job is finished." Her tone was firm and somewhat cold, but it got the point across. Looking over at O'Shea, she just shook her head before turning to West. "West, I appreciate your enthusiasm but I swear on whatever it is you hold sacred... fire that weapon on automatic again in close quarters and I'll feed you to one of those things." Perhaps that was harsh, but Clio was not going to go back to the ship explaining to Enalia how anyone died of friendly fire. "Now, we have people to find. Let's go."

Without waiting for anyone else to reply, the intercom crackled to life once more. "Bunny-kun... You've destroyed my favorite baby vole... I was going to train him and enter him into the pit fights. Bunny-kun... Bunny-kun... Where will you go next..." And then the voice dissolved into high pitched mechanical laughter as the far door to the security antechamber cycled open. On the other side, the lights were stable, at the very least, revealing a short hallway.

Cato took her remark with a grain of salt and kept his asshole jarhead comment to himself. He didn't like to openly disagree with anyone, especially in front of a team. Things differed between divisions, operators like him trained to use FA (full-auto) to achieve fire superiority/suppression in a close quarters engagement. Sure, it was only a 60 round burst of hell before he switched back, but apparently she didn't like it at all. So, he wouldn't be doing that again. Eyes shifted towards Nexi and the remaining two security personnel "You need to get your fuckin' heads on straight. If it moves, it can die. She's right, we aren't leaving until the job is done." TR-116 slung to his back before withdrawing the knife on sheathed into the back of his suit; A 13" tops tactical 'anaconda 7B' knife was drawn. He turned and pushed past O'Shea "Sac up, motherfucker.". Cato continued walking across the deck towards the open door.

"You've clearly never seen a zombie Borg dog," Nexi remarked dryly. "And the voice said this thing was a baby, I'm not looking to get my head taken off when its fully grown mother comes looking for it! My assessment of the situation based on prior experience, this is fucked up. I say we at least call this in to the Hera before proceeding."

"And tell them what, exactly? That a giant rat scared us off so we're not going to do the job Captain Telvan sent us in here to do?" Clio took on a very no-nonsense tone that conveyed so much more than just the words. "There's nothing the Hera can do to help us, and we are not leaving until we finish our mission. So you've got a choice to make. Suck it the hell up and continue forward or go back to the runabout and wait there because I am not going to give this order again. Get moving."

"No, you're not listening-" Nexi tried to interrupt with frustration only to be cut off by Clio's 'get moving', to which Nexi scowled. "Yes ma'am," she said, clenching her fists tightly. "But there is a connection to a prior mission that I am trying to warn you about that you are choosing to ignore, and if this goes sideways like I think it will, then I reserve the right to rub it in your face, assuming we even survive."

Cato laughed, a deep, dark ha-ha-ha laugh that echoed the deck about the zombie-borg dog. He stopped in his tracks and turned around "You know what, you can stay behind and secure the runabout." he said motioning towards Nexi, looking at Clio "Ma'am, all due respect let's ditch the dead weight. We get jammed up in there, I don't want any of them behind us." Cato said bluntly, sure it might've been harsh but Nexi's attitude and O'Shea's weak stomach didn't win them any points.

"Chief West, I did not ask for your input. Can it," Clio said forcefully before turning back to Nexi. "I have read the reports. I have watched the recordings. I have spoken at length with Commander Fairchild about the Hera's prior missions. I am well aware of the apparent connection, and along with finding our missing people I intend to find out who did this and how. So you can help me or you can go back to the Selune and wait while the rest of us complete our mission."

"Forget you, Jarhead, I'm still an independent contractor, and it's my responsibility to do a risk assessment to evaluate the cost to offset that risk, and this is turning out to be a job you couldn't pay me enough to do, so forgive me if I'm have trouble switching motivations from profit to duty," Nexi said sourly, then turned to address Clio. "Sorry, I'm with you. Reports don't do that mission justice, but it's good to know we're on the same page. I'll try to control my outbursts, but hearing that voice calling 'Bunny-chan' is not helping," she said in a more collected tone.

The voice came back to taunt them a bit more. "Bunny-chan... I know who you are now. Scans are complete. I know something you want. I'll not give it to you though, no I won't. Nothing for Nexi but full security activation! Hahahahaha!" With that, the doors leading back to the shuttlebay closed and resealed while several turrets came down out of the ceiling of the hallway and the security center they were in and started firing phaser stun bolts at the team.

Oh fuck, the voice knew her! Nexi was just barely able to get inside the doorframe before her suit took any damage, pressing herself against the door so the turrets couldn't hit her. "I get the feeling that Bunny-chan doesn't like me too much," she said, calculating her options. Then she grinned. "Alright, before we all die, I just want you all to know, I was right," she said, then disappeared in a shimmer as she activated her (illegal) personal cloaking device. It wasn't working at 100% efficiency with the EV suit, so they could see just the tiniest hint of distortion from movement as she stalked off to take out the turrets while the others kept them distracted.

"Woman, I am going to skin you alive when I find you again." She tried very hard to be serious as she said it, but the absurdity of the situation had hit critical levels. Clio couldn't quite suppress a chuckle as she dodged a few of the stun bolts and sought shelter near the walls. One of the turrets managed to lock on and clip her shoulder with a bolt. While the armor shielded her from the stun effect, the inertia of the phaser bolt knocked her breathless to the floor with a few muttered curses.

The Cardassian voice popped back in again with another interjection, but this time, it was decidedly more stable and sounded strangely like Dukat, whom died at the end of the Dominion war. "Let's see how long you survive, Nexi. I'm activating Singh protocol nine now.I hope that you understand that this is a... Necessary precaution." In a medical bay deeper into the complex, fifteen stasis tubes started cycling to release whatever was inside.

O'Shea leaped to the deck as a stun bolt passed through the space he was just at. He fired in return but it was more of a panic fire.

CPO De'Ath was more composed as she fired and moved, doing her best to keep the turrets' targeting computer guessing. A burst hit one of the turrets, destroying it.

"Bloody fucking hell, O'Shea, at least aim the damned thing!" Getting up from where she'd been knocked to the floor, Clio narrowly avoided a few most phaser bolts before finding her way into a sheltered area along the wall where she could try to take a few turrets out herself. "Nexi, if you're going to do something I suggest you do it fast!"

Cato wasn't as lucky, probably his karma for being a dick just a few seconds before. While his suit deflected the effects of the bolt, he got hit centermass and knocked onto his ass before scrambling to take cover in the narrow hallway; a nice big scorch mark on his armor as a reminder. Of course his eyes tracked Nexi as she activated a personal cloak. "That's a new one..." he muttered to himself. Laying down selective suppressive fire towards the turrets while Nexi went about doing her invisible man thing.

Almost on cue, one of the turrets started sparking up a storm, only to turn and start firing at another turret, and then at the last turret in the room aimed at the door until they were disabled. Then Nexi's cloak dropped to reveal that she had shoved the blade of her pike into the backside of the turret to aim it. "Shit!" she said when she noticed her cloak had failed, giving the pike a twist to destroy the turret she was controlling, then pulled the pike free and darted to a corner as more turrets in the hallway began to fire on her, but ducking behind a Security terminal she was now out of their line of sight.

"What's that human phrase, 'your wish is my command'?" Nexi said with an exhilarated grin. "I caught sight of 3 more in each hallway, but at least the door is clear now," she added. "Concealing the bulky suit is putting a bigger drain on my cloak than normal, I'll need a few minutes for it to reset before I can do that again."

"That was a neat trick." Clio's suit carried a stealth module, but it didn't have a full cloak and likely wouldn't fool targeting sensors. "We might be able to shoot them out, now that we know where they are. I have a sneaky suspicion that staying still in this place is suicidal."

"Agreed" Cato added, still under cover from what was probably the largest bulkhead in the corridor. "I'll lead the charge and make a run for the door, you guys shoot out the turrets. Just don't miss..." Cato suggested it as he seemed to be the most expendable aside from the security detachment.

"I'll be right on your ass," De'Ath said as she fired two more shots. She then turned to O'Sea. "O'Shea! Just keep moving and firing! Don't give the turrets a chance to get a lock on you!"

That's when two of the augmented Cardassian soldiers entered the far end of the hallway. They had no visible weapons, but from the rippling muscles, it looked like each of the 7 foot super soldiers could have ripped the head off of that vole easily. They silently advanced on the rest of the away team wearing nothing but shorts.

De'Ath cocked her head to the side at the odd sight. "Ok, who ordered the Cardassian strippers?" She then fired off a shot, hitting one in the shoulder, not phasing him. "Shit!"

"Yeah, peaceful mission my ass." referencing the conversation Clio and Cato had when he came aboard "Giant fuckin' rat, now giant fuckin Cardassian's from fuckin' hell." Cato bitched, mostly to himself. Fingers working quickly on the control panel on his rifle, switching the rounds from Tritanium to 18mm Explosive Airburst rounds. His rifle sounded "Airburst rounds selected, warning, reduced magazine capacity."; he'd get about eight rounds per energy magazine instead of 120+ tritanium. If Clio didn't like Cato using full auto earlier, she definitely wasn't going to like what he was about to pull. Pulling from cover, Cato aimed down the hallway with surgical precision and locked onto the two targets. Firing, one round per target, the loud launches echoed the hallway. Secondary explosions from the airburst and the sound ofsomething being shredded down range.

The ventilation system cleared the air quickly enough to reveal that one of the super Cardassians was badly injured but still standing. Also, there were three more of these bastards shuffling into the corridor.

Armored EV suits protected the team from the bulk of the pressure wave, but not the noise. The resulting sounds of the nearby explosions left Clio half-deaf and more than a little irritated. Also, it hadn't worked, so it wasn't even worth the risk. "Fucking hell, West, you attracted more of them! Good fucking job!" It was clear from the engagement so far that phasers and bullets had little to no effect on the Cardassians, just like the voles. But she sure as hell wasn't getting into melee range with West firing airburst ammunition in an enclosed space. Enalia would be hearing about this, and any future missions she'd be leaving his crazy ass on the ship.

"This is fucking ridiculous!" Nexi muttered. Between the 'roided up Cardies, the overgrown voles and 6 MORE FUCKING TURRETS! there seemed to be no reasonable way out! Now it was time to find an unreasonable way out... Once again without any warning to her team, Nexi ran down the corridor. Before she reached the Cardies, she popped off a bulkhead panel to find the EPS conduits, then using the panel to shield herself from the turret fire, she grabbed a small explosive device stuck to her belt and placed it on the conduit. The lumbering Cardassians were almost on top of her, and she swung the bulkhead panel at them to distract them, then ran back to the team, detonating the explosive device and hoped these guys weren't immune to plasma!

They were not.

Hot plasma sprayed out, filling most of the hallway before emergency systems were able to shut down the flow. In that time, four of the five Schwarzecardassians had had their bones stripped of flesh and the fifth one wasn't looking too good, laying on the floor dead as well.

"Well." Five very large Cardassians lay on the deck, and Clio looked at them for a moment before looking at Nexi. "Remind me not to get in a fight with you." As the air circulators went to work, she ventured forth to see if anything else was coming toward them.

Then the air circulators finished clearing the air again, spurring on another message from the intercom, deepening into a more stalkerish kidnapper over the phone voice. "An efficient system, isn't it, Nexi-bunny-kin? Or was it Bonnie-kin? It's hard to retrieve my logs these days, you know. But I remember. I definitely remember the logs about you. You and your... Sister... The Master would love a sample from you, you know."

It only took a few more seconds for several more of the musclebound soldiers to make their way into the hallway, blocking their advancement. Also, the doors behind them also resealed, blocking their escape. The closest of the new batch of five grabbed the wall panel that Nexi had previously abandoned and threw it at the group like a frisbee, effectively slicing one of the security guards in half.

O'Shea was at a loss at seeing De'Ath cleaved in half. He was frozen with fear and shock. How could anyone do that with a piece of panel! She had been the most calm and experienced. He knew he should have been towards the front, taking point. He fought back tears as anger began to swell within him.

Watching one of the grunts getting cleaved in half by the blunt wall panel nearly turned Nexi's stomach, and some sadistic part of her was glad that it wasn't her. But what really struck a nerve was that this voice knew about Aewia being her sister; such a detail wasn't widely known outside of the Hera, Enalia had assured her that she had kept that detail out of any official reports! And the fact that this Master guy wanted a sample from her was not helping matters either. "Tell your Master to go fuck himself!" Nexi barked back, looking more than a little unraveled. But she steeled her nerved and finally drew her phaser rifle, falling into formation with Cato and the remaining grunt to continue firing on the Cardassians; Nexi may have liked doing things her own way, but contrary to popular belief, she did actually know how to operate as part of a unit.

"Oh, Bonnie-kin... We would have gotten a sample from you back in 2160 when you invaded Facility One, but you were just too... Slippery..." With that, the voice faded off into electronic laughter and static.

Cato had run out of patience with this shit, one of the security guards getting sliced in half did it for him. Then Nexi fell in line firing on the Cardassians, “Big-Bada-Boom” he said towards Nexi and Clio. He pulled his ‘end game’ from his right thigh pocket; a modified plasma grenade. If these fuckers weren’t immune to regular plasma, they shouldn’t be immune to a shower of plasma. Firing six more of the airburst rounds down range until his rifle was dry, Cato smashed the 'push' detonator on the top of his helmet to activate the grenade. The timer on the grenade started… 5...4…3… Cato played baseball back in high school and hadn’t lost his touch; Screaming “FRAG OUT!!!” on the '2' count he hurled it right into the middle of the Cardassian cluster fuck at the other end of the hallway. Quickly taking cover in that next split second.

Crewman Rick O'shea was now on his feet with his phaser rifle at the ready as he moved forward following the blast. Anger now pushed him forward, overcoming his fear. He fired three bursts at the Cardassians who were still twitching on the ground.

Seeing the grenade go out, Clio swore under her breath before dragging Nexi and O'Shea both back from the impact zone. "GET DOWN!" She'd barely gotten them clear of the blast radius before the grenade exploded, killing the remaining Cardassians and knocking metal plating off the ceiling and walls as the resultant pressure wave washed over the team. Who throws a fucking grenade that close to their own team? She kept that thought to herself, not voicing it but shooting a glare in West's direction. He couldn't see her, but she was getting damned tired of his refusal to consider his team's safety. Even Nexi, who she knew operated as a lone wolf, was a better team fighter. "We need to get out of this section." Clio still couldn't hear out of her left ear and couldn't quite gauge how loud she was speaking.

The door behind the team was still sealed, but at least the turrets had stopped firing and there were no more Cardassians in sight. That left forward as the only direction to go, unless they wanted to crawl through access tubes. That sounded like a monumentally stupid idea, so Clio figured she'd stick with forward. Creeping past the bodies littering the deck, she retrieved the mek'leth she'd dropped moments before, also drawing the second one from behind her back. Nearing the open door that lead deeper into the base, she paused and looked around before continuing.

Indeed, forward was the only direction of travel possible now. the doors along the hall they were in revealed nothing but empty barracks while the open and destroyed door at the end revealed a medical center with tools and apparatus that even Starfleet Medical didn't keep on hand. There were genetic manipulation tools from half a dozen races and an entire 250 gallon floor to ceiling vat of what was listed as biomimetic gel. A lone terminal blinked on a wall panel and five more stasis tubes with augmented Cardassians were starting to cycle open. Thankfully, these five didn't look quite so threatening, being misshapen to varying degrees.

Well, it wasn't that close to his own team. It wasn't an action of gross negligence so much as it was a calculated risk. After all, their path forward was cleared but it only took another death. One by one their numbers were dwindling and Cato didn't like the body-count ratio so far. Sure, he took risks, as would any other operator in a similar situation. But it wasn't like he shooting yee-haw the whole way, he was surgical about his actions. Sure, he knew he was going to get a bitching out from Clio, but his job was to push the team forward and see the objective through using any and all means at his disposal. Eyeing the stasis tubes opening, Cato dropped yet another energy magazine on the deck. Reloading with one of his last three, he tapped on the control panel of his rifle once again. Switching back to tritanium rounds, he moved forward walking into the chamber of horrors. He moved to eye one of the disfigured creatures in their tube. "We should end them now, before they're up." He stated loud enough for others to hear.

Crewman O'Shea nodded in agreement, still filled with anger. "Best to be safe," he said, as he increased the level on the phaser rifle, leveled it at one tank and fired, shattering the tank and ripping the body inside apart.

Nexi followed them in, and with a swing of her pike, delivered a lethal jab through the tank and into the neck of one of the Cardies. "Hey, I see a terminal; maybe we can get some information?" she said to Clio as she pulled her pike free of the tank then approached another tank.

"So long as your stalker in the computer doesn't try to stop me," Clio responded dryly, obviously getting frustrated with this space station and its decidedly outlandish security system. And its zombie-Cardassians. And its werewolf-voles. "West, O'Shea. Cover the door, watch for any more surprises. No explosions unless you want to destroy our chances of finding anything. Nexi, stick with me. Take this." Clio handed Nexi one of the mek'leths to free one of her hands. "Try not to lose it. We aren't supposed to have anything like that."

Cato had been busy ending deformed cardies in tubes before he heard Clio's order. "Aye Ma'am" he responded sharply, moving to cover the door smartly.

"Oi, like this is standard issue?" Nexi said, raising her pike to show Clio. But then she remembered that was not how she was supposed to answer and cleared her throat as she took the blade. "I mean, yes ma'am... nice blade, by the way," she said as she took the mek'leth and admired it.

As they approached the blinking console, the words blinking on it became clear. 'Data Dump at 55%.' As they watched, the number rose to 56%. Meanwhile, in the back of the lab, a turbolift door opened to reveal a conglomeration of tech on a self operated hovercart that slowly slid out of the turbolift. Towards the top of the stacked computer equipment was a crooked monitor showing a severely degraded Cardassian face. "You're too late... Bonn... Bonn... Bonnie-kin. Too late. As soon as... Erased... Self destruct imminent. Five... Five minutes from no-o-o-ow."

"Fuck, why can't these jobs ever be easy!" Nexi blurted out. "Get what you can from the computer, I'm grabbing Bunny-chan here and hauling ass back to the shuttle."

"Damn it all to hell. Keep that thing off my back." Tucking the other mek'leth back under her belt for safekeeping, Clio took over the blinking console and tried to interrupt the data dump. That quickly proved fruitless so she instead initiated a rapid download of the data into one of the many recording devices hidden in her EV suit. She'd worry about how to transfer it to the computer later. Right now her recorders were faster than a tricorder or trying to establish an uplink. The data dump countdown blinked on incessantly, quickly approaching 100 percent. After an excruciatingly slow few moments, Clio heard the telltale beep in her ear that signaled that she had as much information as could be retrieved. It wasn't much, but it was better than nothing. "I have it. Forget the monstrosity... it won't be able to keep up." She checked the countdown on the destruct, wincing slightly. It sat at just under three minutes. "Don't stop to shoot anything. Run!"

As the four remaining away team members ran down the hallway back towards the runabout, the previously sealed door was pulled out of its runners by the biggest, ugliest teeth any of them had ever seen. Waiting for them in the shuttlebay was a vole that was at least a meter longer than the runabout they came in and it had already taken a bite out of one of the aerofoils, leaving parts from one of the warp engines dangling out of their casing. Thankfully, the vole had caught the scent of fresh meat shortly after it started chewing on the ship, so it had turned its attention to the away team and toasted Cardassians.

Cato's eyes went wide when yet another, giant fuckin rat snatched the door less than a foot in front of him. Going from a full on sprint to suddenly skidding on his ass across the deck like a dog on roller-skates. "FUCKKKKKKK" he yelled loudly, suddenly regretting always leading the way. Large black eyes staring at Cato, he suddenly found himself in a fight for his life, with a overgrown rat... Scrambling to put rounds on target, it wasn't any use... Teeth sank into his left leg, he felt the pressure on his armor and something pierce his flesh. Screaming in agony, Cato felt as his body was lifted into the air... All he could do was continue to put rounds on target... In the next split second, the vole shook it's head just one time. Just violently enough (like a puppy with a chew toy) to allow Cato to slip from its jaws. His limp body was tossed across the deck like a rag doll in the direction of the runabout; But away from his team who now had to contend with the full attention of the vole.

O'Shea had been tired of being scared and panicky on this mission. Both Dover and DeA'th had died bravely and guilt was plaguing him from his actions earlier. He had always dreamed of being brave and a hero like his brother but actual combat was something else entirely, as he had learned today. The team only had three minutes left to get safely away from the station. He checked the power cell in his phaser and tapped in a few commands, back flowing the cell's energy back into the cell, creating a timed overload as his rifle started beeping it's warning. He tossed his rifle at the beast as the weapon bounced off the tough hide of the vole, skidding several feet away. "Shit!" O'Shea raced forward, diving for the rifle. As he picked it up, he saw that the timer only had four seconds left as he rushed the beast, who was charging him. "See you in hell!" he screamed as the vole attacked, followed by an explosion that engulfed O'Shea and most of the giant vole.

The vole wasn't dead, but it was at least stunned enough for Nexi to run over to Cato without worry it was going to attack again. He was in bad shape... "Come on, meathead, we're getting out of here!" Nexi said as she grabbed him by an arm and started dragging him to the shuttle. She worried about whether the shuttle would be able to function properly with its aerofoils chewed on like it was, but she was at the point she was just hoping and praying that they were going to get out of here alive. She opened the hatch and continued to pull Cato inside. "Boss! Load up and make sure he ain't gonna die on us, I'm getting us out of here!" she barked out to Clio, then headed to the front of the ship to get ready for take off.

Bad shape was more than likely an understatement. Armor on his left leg was shredded mixed with his blood and saliva from the vole. He grimaced as Nexi, moved in, grabbed him by the wrist and put his arm over her shoulders. Moving as quickly as he could, faceplate from his armor spider cracked and blood had dripped down his face inside his helmet. On top of everything else, it hurt to breathe. Once they had made it up the ramp and inside the runabout, Cato blacked out.

Were the vole not stunned and flopping around trying to find them, Clio wouldn't have had a chance to get to the runabout. With the large beast immediately in her path, she took a sharp turn to the left and skidded around the monster before hightailing it through the runabout hatch and closing it behind her. "Go! I'll keep this idiot alive." They weren't kind words, but there was a somewhat affectionate tone about them. Much as he drove her absolutely insane with his reckless behavior earlier, he was still her stupid brainwashed jarhead to keep track of. "You'd better not die on me because you are already in so much trouble," she told his still form very seriously before physically placing him in a more stable position that would ease his breathing.

As soon as Clio was aboard, Nexi closed the hatch and lifted off, maneuvering around the shuttle debris at the shuttlebay doors before increasing speed to put some distance between them and the station. Now to find the Hera...

The Hera was now leaving the station behind and everything seemed well enough off. The Selune and everything and everyone was in quarantine and the decon team was stripping the survivors and getting them medical treatment. Everything would be scanned and gone over several times, including the EV suit recorders.

Enalia was already in Conference room nine just off of shuttlebay two and was waiting for Clio and Nexi. She needed at least an idea of how the mission went and while Cato was apparently heading straight to surgery, she planned on shanghaiing the other two survivors before letting them go.

Mal arrived a moment or two later. Having spent this first part of the mission on the sidelines, basically observing and standing by in case Enalia was in some way incapacitated. He'd piped in a few times, but essentially he'd tried his best to stay out of the way. Sometimes, that was his job. Now, however, he'd get to find out more of what was going on.

Punching up a coffee from the replicator, Enalia took the mug and went back to lightly pacing the floor. "Sorry for keeping you in the dark about so much, Commander. What little I know only raises more frustrations and questions and I was waiting for your sigma nine clearance to be approved before dumping all that on you."

"I understand, of course," Mal said. "There are no hard feelings. I merely wish to be of assistance as much as I can. Can I assume we were not expecting to find a lunatic mad scientist running the base? I was dividing my attention between being on standby for you and listening to the away team's audio feed. It sounded horrifying."

Out in the shuttlebay proper, a medical technician blocked Clio's progress toward the conference room where she knew Enalia would be waiting. Stopping short, she gave the young man a somewhat sinister look. "I have been decontaminated three times already. I have a debriefing to give, and you are going to get out of my way."

"Yeah... no. You stay until you're cleared." The tech crossed his arms, refusing to move. "Headache and nausea are symptoms associated with vole venom and radiation poisoning."

"Kid, do I fucking look like I was bit by a vole? Are there any readings that much suggest I was exposed to radiation?" Okay maybe that was an unprofessional tone to take with someone just trying to do their job, but Clio figured that was better than just pushing him out of the way.

"Well... no..." The tech looked confused, as if his data and his orders didn't match up.

"Then get the hell out of my way." Clio went around him and into the conference room. Her fancy EV suit had been left behind, leaving her with only the sleek, form fitting undersuit. And she didn't care. Modesty had been something she lost a long time ago, and she just wanted to finish the debrief and get some rest before having to start up the usual daily grind again.

Nexi wasn't far behind Clio, and she actually stunned the med tech with her touch when he tried to stop her as well. She entered the briefing room in a suit similar to Clio's, looking just as ease in the revealing as suit as she was in just about anything else she wore; at least it covered more than the traditional attire for Ferengi women...

Mal was too relieved that Clio, Nexi, and West had survived their excursion to pay much attention to the women's state of dress. Otherwise he'd most likely be very interested.

"Commander," he said. "Nexi, it's good to have you back in one piece. Truly. Please, sit. Take a moment to collect yourselves. May I get you some refreshment? Something cold to drink, perhaps?"

Mal knew that stress combined with running around in EVA suits could dehydrate a person quickly. He knew this having been in stressful situations, including combat, both in and out of an EVA suit.

Nexi was thirsty, but she'd worry about that later. "Can we just get this over with? I think I'm gonna need week long shower to scrub that mission off of me," she said with a shudder.

"Yeah, I'm with her on that one." Clio took one of the empty seats and sat down. She doubted any cold liquid would be able to stay in her stomach where it belonged anyway.

Mal nodded.

"Have it your way," he said, taking a seat at the table. "I believe we are ready when you are, Captain."

Taking the seat at the head of the table, Enalia sipped at her coffee and began. "First off, did you find any similarities to the previous genetic research facility we destroyed? The one that Aewia gave us the location for."

"Without a doubt," Nexi said as she joined them at the table, taking a seat with a tired exhale. "The automated security system used similar language and taunts; called us 'Bunny-chan', even recognized me and called me by name and used the term used on the other station, 'Bonnie-kin'. No zombie Borgs, but anyone twisted enough to come up with that is equally as capable of coming up with unstoppable Cardassians and giant voles."

"From the reports and recordings I've reviewed I'd say it was damn near the same modus operandi. Illegal genetic experimentation, enhanced security. Even the choice to do these experiments on lower life forms before attempting it on something sentient." Clio didn't really want to comment on the other obvious similarity, but she sighed a bit and continued. "Right down to slaughtering precisely half of the away team. And both times, Nexi survived. I don't think that's a coincidence."

"It did seem rather fixated on me this time, which is new, but... it was all so messed up," Nexi said with a shake of her head.

Enalia nodded thoughtfully, listening carefully. "Were you able to retrieve any of their database? What kind of things did you run into over there?"

"I think they've learned from our last excursions, there were turrets everywhere," Nexi said. "And then there were the aforementioned giant voles and unstoppable Cardassians. We saw no other personnel there, it appeared to be completely automated like the other locations, possibly abandoned outright after the experiments were complete, or left as traps. There was one thing that was strange, something we didn't see at the other locations, the source of the voice taunting us appeared to be some sort of AI using some tech rigged to a grav-lift. It was fucking weird."

"Our weapons were pretty useless. Even West's stupid airburst trick didn't work." Talking about it, Clio gingerly rubbed her left ear. She was still deaf on that side and couldn't tell if her eardrum had ruptured or the structures inside her ear were just stunned by the explosion. "Plasma did okay. The energized mek'leth worked well for melee, but I wouldn't recommend getting that close to those things. One of the voles ate half a security crewman and the other damn near killed West."

"Assuming we are going to encounter these creatures again," Mal said. "Could we adapt the effectiveness of the energized mek'leth to some kind of distance weapon? If nothing else even a polearm, with a bit of training, could be effective."

"I'm sure we could. I used an energized staff once several years ago. A bit unwieldy for your average person, but better than mek'leth striking range." Clio also remembered it being rather satisfying to hit people with, but she didn't think Mal would find that especially amusing. She also really just wanted the debriefing to be over, and little asides into discussing favorite weapons didn't factor well into that.

While the others were talking, Enalia had pulled a PaDD out and was taking notes while making the most serious and dour face she'd ever made. "I think we'll be moving several of our plasmatic monofilament bladed weapons and plasma rifles out of the hidden armory for the next mission. As for my prior question, I still want to know if you were able to copy their databases."

Right, the databases. Clio clearly didn't have her head entirely in the game at the moment, though she wasn't sure if she was sick or just shell-shocked. "Forty percent. That's all we could get before the computer dumped all its data."

"More than we've gotten before. Compile your reports and have them on my desk in a day or two. Commander Clio, have your people start working on that database immediately. Commander Xustos, do you have anything else to add?" Enalia didn't even look up from her PaDD, her brow furrowing even tighter. "Computer, re-enable long range communications. Authorization Enalia fuckery six niner. Connect to Starfleet Intel and send them the message that our mission is complete." The computer chirruped a few times and was silent.

At the mention of compiling reports, Clio made a noise that was somewhere between a groan and a whimper, resting her head in her hands. Forty-eight hours was plenty of time to get them done, of course, but most commanding officers who gave that order expected the completed compilation within twelve to twenty four hours, regardless of the wording.

Nexi simply snickered; Enalia fuckery six niner...

"I have questions," Mal said. "But they are for Commander Eneas and can wait until she's had a bit of time to rest. Commander, come and find me when you have a moment, or if that doesn't work out, I'll come and find you."

Clio nodded slightly, not looking up. She'd been concerned that Mal would be the one person in the room to scold her for her unprofessional behavior, but he hadn't. Instead, he seemed worried about her well-being, which was kind of refreshing after several years of higher-ranking officers demanding that she conform to their idea of an officer. "Unless there's anything important left to discuss, I'd like to take a shower and try to start on those reports."

Enalia nodded and offered the PaDD to Mal. On it was an image of a Cardassian vole larger than a runabout chewing on one of the away team members. "I have enough info and your EV suit recorders are coming in now. Go get some rest."