Kyle groaned and pulled his pillow over his head as an incessant beeping kept on ringing in his head. He was still too asleep to realise what it was, all he knew was that he wanted it to stop.

Ethan woke up with another warm body pressed against him for the first time his legs were hopelessly entangled with Kyle's but he mind. Then he realized his PAdD was buzzing and that is what woke him up. He fumbled for the device, but it skittered off the night stand on onto the floor. He reached down to get it but over corrected and found himself on the floor.

"Hello," he managed, "who is it?"

"Ethan sweetie is that you?" the familiar voice of Ullani echoed through the room as her image appeared on the PADD with it.

"Huh? Wha...?" Kyle raised his head and opened his eyes in confusion.

"Are you not alone?" Ullani whispered, leaning forward towards the screen.

"Shit " Ethan said, under his breath,"Uh no, mom, uh, Kyle's here too. We're at his house."

"Oooo..." Ullani grinned, "Does that mean it went really, really well?" she asked excitedly, keeping her voice low before frowning and saying "Were you sensible?"

Ethan's face turned a bright crimson. 'MOTHER!" he said, a little louder than he intended. He paused, "yeah, I guess you could say it went well. What do you mean sensible?"

"Well you know, not doing anything stupid or unsafe, nothing that will come back to haunt you in a few years." Ullani replied, "You remember that story your dad told you about him and Ray that guy he dated in college? I would have died if those pictures had turned up in the college newspaper." she shook her head in disbelief.

"Yes I do remember that story, he told it more than once, but no, no pictures or anything like that. But it was ama.... it was... uh well, like you said it went well. Except for one thing. Kyle's parents don't like the fact that he has a boyfriend instead of a girlfriend and they like it even less that I'm the boyfriend. Sooooo, he kind of sorta needs a place to stay."

"They've thrown him out?" Ullani sounded appalled.

"More or less. They basically told him to chose between them or me and.... he chose me. I mean he loves me. Really loves me mom and I love him back. I think he basically told his parents to fu.. get lost."

"So what's he gonna do?" Ullani asked softly, feeling sorry for the other boy.

Kyle shifted across the bed so that he could listen better but kept out of the camera view. He wasn't ready for Mrs Chaparral to see him in his current state of undress.

"I was kind of hoping he could move in with you, me, us, you know what I mean."

"Well I'd have to run it by your dad." Ullani pointed out, feeling proud of her son and the man he was becoming. Then she smiled and asked "So how was it? You know, your first time?"

Ethan felt comfortable talking to his mom about almost anything, but his first time having sex was kind of pushing the limits of that. "It was really good," he said after a long pause, "but I don't really want to go into details if that's okay. And could you check with dad about him moving in? It would mean a lot go both of us."

"Of course I will." Ullani smiled at him, "But don't think you're getting off that lightly." she grinned, "When I see you I want details." she trilled uncaring if she was embarrassing him or not.

Ethan's face, which had just returned to a somewhat normal hue started to flare again at his mother's words. As he glanced down he realized both that he had morning wood and that his mother could probably view that. He adjusted the screen immediately and turned an even brighter red than he had originally.

'You want detail details?" he managed incredulously.

"Why not?" Ullani sounded surprised, the look on her face showing the confusion she felt at the fact that Ethan might not want to share details with his mother.

"Why not?" Ethan asked as he looked up at Kyle, "I don't know. A guy just doesn't, you know talk about sex with his mother. I mean I don't ask you about what you and dad do I? Besides Kyle might have something to say about it too you know."

"I'd be more than happy to tell you all about me and your daddy if you wanted me to." Ullani grinned at her son, feeling nothing but happiness for him. "I'll talk to your dad but you boys come on over, I'm sure we'll work something out."

"I, uh yeah, I don't think I really want to know," Ethan said, relaxing enough for this color to return to normal and to roll his eyes. As for coming over that will be great. We just may, not leave for like an hour or so. We really need to get a shower and, if we're going to get one, we might as well make it worth it."

"Oh okay!" Ullani grinned before adding "Well do everything I wouldn't do and have a wonderful time." she winked at her son.

"Good bye mother," he said, then turning to Kyle he said, "Oh my god, I can't believe my mother is like that and uh I think she saw me. I mean sawme, saw me. That is just gross. But, you heard, we do have her permission, to you know, do it again. I mean if you want and then we can go to my place.'

"She's cool...much better than my parents." Kyle replied, "At least she accepts your lifestyle." he sighed then looked Ethan in the eye as he added "And I'd love to do it again."

"Well then lover, boy it sounds weird and fantastic all at the same time," Ethan replied as he picked himself up off the floor and climbed back in bed, "I think its my turn." He then stroked Kyle's cheek and kissed him.

"We're not having that shower?" Kyle whispered against his lips, eager to try out every new experience.

"Ohh, you're a naughty boy aren't you. Yeah, you know, a shower sounds pretty fun. All that hot water cascading over our bodies, our bodies that will be pretty much stuck together. Let's do it." Then taking Kyle by the hand he led him to the other boy's rather spacious bathroom.

Almost falling into the shower cubicle in their hurry, Kyle kissed Ethan passionately as the water was turned on and not only the steam heated the small enclosure.

Ethan pushed the other boy against the wall of the shower, returning the kiss with fire and passion.

"Kind of sexy isn't it?" Kyle smiled against Ethan's lips before he nipped him softly, hands roaming everywhere.

"Really sexy," Ethan returned, letting his own hands began to explore. Their time last night had been quick, both because of their inexperience as it was from their lust. The lust had not ebbed, indeed it was rising a new level. But this time Ethan wanted to take his time After the kiss had broken, Ethan moved his mouth down to Kyle's left breast and his tongue began to dance over the other boy's nipple.

"You sure you never did this before?" Kyle teased, "Cause you sure know how to pleasure a man." he groaned in response.

Ethan, pleased that he was making Kyle feel good was about to respond in the negative. He'd never done anything like this before. Just as his mother had predicted though, everything was flowing naturally. It was almost instinctive. Before he could say anything however, the door to the shower was yanked open.

"Holy shit," said a voice, "The damned kid is not alone. There's two of them and they're fucking making out. Which is which?"

Then they were both pulled out of their sensuous embrace and the shower. There were three men standing in front of them. All wearing masks and carrying disruptors.

"What the hell?" Kyle staggered out of the shower cubicle, confused by what was happening, his eyes still filled with the passion of just moments before.

Ethan acting on a different kind of instinct, just reacted. His hand shot out and latched onto the wrist of the man closest to him, twisting the arm up and back. The weapon clattered to the floor, but the second man, the one who had opened the shower, merely turned his disruptor and fired it at Ethan.

At this close range it was impossible to miss and the teen was thrown back several feet from the blast and collapsed, unmoving, to the floor.

"No!" Kyle cried out, "Ethan!" he yelled, struggling against his captor as tears welled up in his eyes, "What did you do to him you bastard? Let me go!" he struggled with all of his might and yet the other man was just too strong for him.

The man who had fired at Ethan, turned to fire at Kyle, while the man that Ethan had disarmed walked over and kicked him hard in the ribs. But the third man, who was holding onto Kyle shook his head, "You don't shoot this one, not until we give his parents proof of life."

"Your, uh, friend was stupid trying to play hero. But he's only stunned. But I give you my word. If either one of you tries to get away, I'll make sure he dies. Slowly and painfully. Do we understand each other?"

Kyle eyed the man defiantly for a moment before fear overtook him and he nodded silently.

"Good, now that we have an understanding, we are only out to make a little money. Your parents are loaded, they won't miss a couple of million credits. Hell we might throw another million in for your boy toy here. I'm sure they'd pay for both of you, right?"

Now, you're going to make a little recording, then we're going to transport to our ship. You cooperate and you'll be home by noon tomorrow, and you two can continue to fuck each other till your heart, or your cocks content. You defy us or your parents don't pay up,well then the shit is going to hit the fan. We'll still make some money not as much, the Orion's can be stingy, but you'll never make it home. Am I still clear?"

Another nod as Kyle wondered if his parents would even pay up given the argument they'd had earlier. Finally finding his voice he asked "Who-who are you?" As he spoke, he desperately tried not to wet himself in fear.

"Let's just say that we're a group of entrepreneurs and leave it at that," the speaker answered in a cold, almost monotone tone, "it wouldn't be healthy for you to know more. But we've done our research, knew mommy and daddy would be gone. We thought however that you'd be alone. There were rumors that you were a fag, just not that you were a slut and sleeping around. So who is Mr. Hero?""

"I don't sleep around." Kyle shot back angrily, trying to break free again as he added "And leave him out of this...it's obviously me that you want."

The leader of the group, smirked at Kyle, "Whatever you say Kyle."he said tightening his grip. "Kirk, it seems that our little meal ticket doesn't want his boyfriend around anymore. Go ahead and sit your disruptor to the max and eliminate him. We don't want to leave any witnesses."

"Sure thing boss," the man who Ethan had disarmed replied, "It will be my pleasure." He began adjusting the setting on his weapon.

"Wait!" Kyle cried out, "Don't please don't, I'll do anything."

"I thought you might say that." the man replied, "Kirk, stop for now. I am going to let you go now and I don't want any trouble.

Just repeat after me, "I am Kyle Cross. For now I am in good condition, but you have 48 hours from the time you return. 1300 hours day after tomorrow, or me and my boyfriend will be killed or sold to Orion slavers. Don't go to authorities, or they will know and send pieces of me to you a part at a time."

Whimpering in fear, Kyle did as he was told, reciting the words in a voice filled with fear and sorrow as tears fell down his cheeks.

Ethan began groaning as he regained consciousness. His body hurt in a hundred different places. He'd never been shot before and never wanted to again. It felt like when his foot fell asleep, just compounded about twenty times and centered on his chest not his foot.

As Kyle finished his words the man being called Kirk jabbed Ethan under the chin with the business end of the gun. "I don't like to be made a fool of boy. So just give me an excuse. We don't need you, just Richie Rich there. So get out of line just once and you're a dead little boy.

Ethan cut a glance between Kirk and the others. He tried to look into Kirk's eyes, to meet his gaze, but he couldn't do it. He tried to say something, but fear had dried out his throat and it was impossible to talk. So he merely nodded his assent.

After a few minutes the leader of the group, who called himself Picard, tapped a com badge and everyone disappeared in a blue haze. It was unclear where they were to the two boys but they were led, sill naked, to a cell with old fashioned iron bars and no window. They were dragged in, the three men left and they were by themselves again.

"Okay...what just happened?" Kyle asked, his voice still trembling with emotion.

"I don't know exactly Kyle, but whatever it is we're going to be okay. My mom is Intel remember. I have a transponder in me. As soon as our folks figure out what is going on, my mom will send help. Or even come herself. Trust me. As surely as I love you, we are going to be rescued and come out of this."

"But what if she doesn't?" Kyle replied, the chill of the stone room getting to him as he started to shiver, "And what if my parents don't pay the ransom?" he added, wrapping his arms around his naked body.

Ethan equally cold, and only slightly more confident than Kyle, knew he had to keep the boy he loved from falling off the edge. So he pulled Kyle onto the bed and wrapped his arms around him. He had little doubt they were being watched, but he didn't care. "My mom will come, it is all going to work out. Just trust me."

His words seemed somewhat empty as he spoke them out because he really wasn't sure they would. He just hoped they seemed reassuring to his boyfriend.

"I hope so." Kyle whispered as he clung to Ethan, finding comfort in his warmth as he added "Because I can't even think about the other possibilities."

"Neither can I," Ethan said pulling the other boy closer. His heart was beating wildly in his chest, having Kyle in his arms eased it only slightly. There was only a blanket, thin as a sheet of paper and a sheet even thinner on the bed but Ethan managed to get them both around their naked bodies.

He kissed Kyle deeply, though it couldn't really be described as a sensuous kiss. At least that was not Ethan's intent. "Did I tell you I want to be a doctor like my dad?" he asked after the kiss had broke, mostly to just change the subject.

Reaching out to caress Ethan's cheek, Kyle said "You'll make a great doctor. You care a lot about people."

Ethan smiled, "Well a better doctor than Intel officer probably," Ethan replied snuggling closer still, "I've never been shot before, its sure not like being in a holodeck. It hurt like hell."

Pulling back a little, Kyle looked down at Ethan's chest in the dim light of the cell and touched it tentatively as he said "It's left a mark. Does it still hurt?"

"A mark? Really? Well I hope its not permanent. And yes it still hurts, but being with you, in your arms helps a little ."

"If you hadn't been there, I'd be here right now all on my own." Kyle realised, shuddering at the thought.

"We'll get through this Kyle and this whole thing, no matter how bad it gets, well it is only going to make me love you more. And I still want you to move in with me, I want to spend the rest of my life with you."

"You do?" Kyle broke out into a smile despite their situation, "I'd like that." he said softly, gazing into Ethan's eyes as he forgot just for a moment where they were.

"Oh yes I do. I can't imagine ever being with someone else."

********************************************************************
Meanwhile the Cross's were just returning to their home.

Ted turned to his wife as he keyed in the code to the door, "I can't believe Kyle has turned out the way he has, or that he wants to be with that Chaparral boy. What did we do wrong?"

"We should never have let him start going to those parties." Delia sighed, "I think he was brainwashed into wanting to be gay." she added, not understanding the way it was at all.

"I think you maybe right. We raised the boy right. I blame that little bastard Ethan and his parents. They are too permissive and let that boy get away with anything he wants to. They actually endorse that lifestyle. Well I don't care what they or anyone else thinks. Right is right and wrong is wrong.

I say we put our foot down. Make sure he never sees Ethan Chaparral ever again and if Kyle wants to run away then we drag his ass back here and take away his rather generous allowance. I bet having no money will change his mind in a hurry. Maybe we can even get him some counseling if we have to.

Like you said he had to have been brainwashed. There has to be a way to reverse that."

"I agree. With a bit of counselling he'll come to realise how wrong it is." Delia nodded, agreeing with every word that her husband said "And maybe without that allowance, Ethan won't be interested in him anyway." she added smugly.

"Yeah, did you see the house they live in? I bet Kyle's closet is bigger than Ethan's room. I just hope its not too late. You mean you really caught them in he act of... of.. well you know what I mean. I just can't believe that he would let the chaparral boy, uh,touch him like that."

"They were fornicating." Delia replied disgusted about her son's behaviour, "He even openly admitted it." she screwed her face up at the thought.

"That is really disgusting, I bet they're up there right now. You know like you said, fornicating," Ted said, just as sickened by the situation as his wife was, "I'm going to go drag them out of bed and that Chaparral boy our of our house and I don't care if he's buck naked, I'm not giving him a chance. I'm throwing his ass out of our home."

"And I'll be right behind you." Delia nodded as she began to take her coat off.

He then turned on his heel and marched resolutely out of the main house and out to pool house. He didn't bother to knock he just slammed the door open. He was shocked by the sight that greeted his eyes.

"Delia!" he shouted, "get over here right now!"

"Oh god, are they into kinky stuff too?" Delia came across the patio after her husband and skidded to a halt by her son's bedroom door.

"He's not here, no one is here. But the bed has been, well used and there is a funny smell in the air. I don't mean that smell, but something different? Where could they have gone?"

"Well we did tell him to be gone by the time we got home." Delia replied.

"That is true, though I think that may have been a little too much. We just need to get rid of the Chaparral boy. But they wouldn't have left the place in such a mess would they? And it doesn't look like they packed."

"Do you think something has happened?" Delia frowned, suddenly feeling worried for her son.

"I don't know," Ted replied, as he surveyed the room and found a black and gold PAaD that he knew wasn't Kyle's. He opened it and played the one message. As he did so his face drained of color, "Oh my god, Delia, what are we going to do?"

Delia snatched the PADD from her husband and watched it with horror as she saw her son reciting the words he'd been told to say, naked and terrified. "We have to help him." she whimpered, all thoughts of her son's homosexuality going out of the window as she found herself wanting nothing but having him home and safe once more.

"Of course we have to pay," Ted said, but we have to contact the Chaparrals too, they deserve to know."

TBC

A joint post by

Ethan Chaparral
ACMO
USS Hera

&

Kyle Cross
Boyfriend
USS Hera
PNPC Dylan Santiago

Ethan had been unable to sleep all night. There had been a good reason for his insomnia the first part of the night. He and Dylan had been getting reacquainted in the most intimate and pleasurable way. It had been awhile and so the time had been both a sensuous relief and a nurturing, almost spiritual time. Ethan hadn't wanted to fall asleep.

Then when Dylan had dozed off, he'd wanted to follow suit, but had simply been unable to do so. Sleep had eluded him. Even with Dylan spooned against him, the images of Ian putting a torch against his arm still played in his mind. He avoided, barely, tossing and turning but soon realized he just wasn't going to be able to fall asleep. No matter how hard he tried he could not get his mind to shut off.

He carefully untangled himself from his lover so as not to wake him and crawled out of bed still naked. He found his underwear and managed to get that on, without much trouble. Then he grabbed a pair of gym shorts, which after a brief struggle he was also able to put on. But after several failed attempts at trying to put on a shirt he gave up on the idea and moved to the main living area shirtless.

There he sat on a chair in front of his computer. He tried again to still his mind, but every time he closed his eyes he saw Ian's gloating face. Dylan's being further away from him, only made image stronger, which in turn raised both Ethan's fear and frustration level.

He didn't want to go back to bed however so he just sat there. After about 45 minutes of frustrated silence he decided to try to read. He reached for his PAaD but fumbled picking it up and it fell to the floor. "Damn it," he said to himself softly. Picking it up he tried to open it up, but the locking mechanism was stuck. He tried three, then four times and it would not budge. After the fifth failed attempt, he flung it against the wall and saw it shatter. "DAMN IT TO HELL!!" he shouted forgetting momentarily that he was not alone.

The crash had Dylan out of the bed before he was even awake and stumbling into the lounge he rushed to Ethan's side, looking at the shattered PADD as he said "I'm guessing that wasn't because it malfunctioned?"

"No, it's fucking not why," Ethan replied, his anger growing,"It's because that goddamned Ian turned me into a freak!"

"You're not a freak." Dylan replied, his voice calm, "And the docs are working on your new arm so you won't have to be without one for much longer." he walked over to Ethan and deliberately placed his hand on what remained of his missing arm and added "To me, you're still you and arm or no arm, I'm gonna love you till the day I die."

Ethan allowed himself the briefest and smallest of smiles, warming at the touch. "I know both of those things, " he said, "but it is still hella frustrating waiting. But that is only part of it. I can't sleep and when I do sleep I have nightmares. I can't get this, I can't get him out of my head.

I close my eyes and I see him. Sometimes even with my eyes open I see him. Am I going insane?"

"It's post traumatic stress." Dylan replied, "And it can be treated, you just need to be sure to attend your counselling sessions." he added, knowing that it was all well and good saying it but in truth he had no idea how he'd feel if he had been through the same kind of horrendous abuse.

'I have to do something. This is really starting to get to me. The only one I can talk to about it. The only one I don't have to pretend that I'm really not okay, is you."

"And so it should be." Dylan took Ethan's hand and pulled him up so that he could wrap his arms around him, "But I'm no professional and right now a professional is just what you need."

There was no doubt in Ethan's mind that Dylan was exactly right. But just to be held in the other man's arms was reassuring. "I love you," he said.

"I love you too...after all, I don't ask everyone to marry me you know." he commented before finding Ethan's lips and kissing him deeply.

Ethan drank in the kiss. He wanted it, needed it. For that moment in time Ian posed no threat to him. He was safe. After the rather long kiss had broke he said, "I'll clean this up later. Let's just go back to bed. As long as we're both awake we might as well make good use of our time."

"Why, Mr Chaparral, are you propositioning me?" Dylan grinned as he began to back them towards the bedroom door.

"That is exactly what I am doing Mr. Santiago." Ethan still wasn't feeling entirely safe and the memories of his torture still lingered at the fringes of his mind. But being with Dylan made him feel better, so much better.

"Well then, who am I to deny my gorgeous, sexy, husband to be?" Dylan replied as they reached the bed and flopped down on it together.

As they fell down together, a momentary flash of memory from a long time ago, his first time with his first crush, passed through his mind. He dismissed it almost immediately, he was with Dylan now and knew he always would be. So he began to kiss him passionately.

"I love you so much." Dylan breathed as they came up for air and he gazed into Ethan's eyes, glad that he didn't have to put up any barriers with him any more.

"I love you too, " Ethan replied, content in the moment, "and I am never going to let you go again."

"Even if I'm a lunkhead again?" Dylan asked reaching up to caress Ethan's cheek lovingly.

"Even then," the other man responded as he settled into the embrace. "Is it okay if we just kiss and hold each other for now?"

"Of course it is." Dylan nodded, knowing that Ethan needed his space with everything he'd been through.

A joint post by

Lt. Dylan Santiago
Intel Chief
USS Hera

&

Lt. Ethan Chaparral
ACMO
USS Hera
"Not that I don't want to make love to you, but right now I just need this."

"Hey it's okay...we have a lifetime to make love. Right now you need comfort." Dylan whispered as he stroked Ethan's hair and gazed into his eyes, "I'm not a total horn dog all the time you know."

Ethan kissed his lover on the cheek and snuggled closer. "Yeah I know, you are kind of the complete package. And of course being a horn dog is not a bad thing."

"You have your moments too you know." Dylan smiled, pulling Ethan closer, eager to make him feel as safe as possible.

"Yeah, I do. Like I said, you're the complete package. You're the one that turns me into a horn dog. I love you so much."

"I love you too, now how about you get some sleep? You're going to be a zombie at work tomorrow if you don't." Dylan whispered as he nuzzled against him.

"Yeah," sleep sounds like a great idea," the doctor replied. Soon after, nestled safely withing Dylan's comforting arms his breathing deepened, his eyes closed and he drifted off to sleep.

With Ethan safe in his arms, Dylan rested back and stared up at the ceiling. When Ethan was awake, he forced himself to keep calm, to be the rock that his fiance needed. But at times like this when he was alone with his thoughts, he seethed and ruminated about what had happened and vowed to himself that he would make this Ian person pay for what he had done to the man that he loved more than life itself. And what was more, he promised himself that Ian would beg for his life before he ended it in Ethan's honour.

A joint post by

Lt. Ethan Chaparral
ACMO
USS Hera

Lt. Dylan Santiago
Intel Chief
USS Hera

It was just a bit past midnight. Enalia was on the bridge finishing up some paperwork in her command chair. Everything was quiet. The lights were dimmed and most of the ship was asleep.

Suddenly, the ship shuddered and fell out of warp. Glancing at her status screen, Enalia could see that whatever had happened, they had been ripped from warp 8 to almost a dead stop in less than a second. The reason for this was dead center on the viewscreen – a massive blue and black singularity that seemed to tear a line through space and suck the light from the stars near it deep inside. “Report,” she called out, already having a few guesses as to what it could be.

“A singularity Ma'am,” the ops crewman answered. “It's emitting massive amounts of temporal radiation and I'm reading a Borg signature in the center of it.”

Then the helmsman cut in. “Captain, we're being sucked into the singularity. We're at full reverse but I can't keep our position for much longer. Warp drive is offline.”

Tactical reported next. “Shields are down and targeting systems aren't responding.”

The borg? Temporal anomaly? Enalia didn't like what she was hearing. “Get those shields back online. Helm, do whatever you have to to reverse course. What's our distance?”

After a second, the ops officer replied. “Twelve hundred kilometers. Eleven fifty... Calculate we'll enter it in less than fifteen seconds at this rate.”

Punching the ship wide comms on, Enalia didn't have much time. “Red alert, all hands brace for impact.” punching them back off, she called out to the bridge crew. “Where are our shields?”

“Almost...” The tac officer said. “Got them. Shields at 37%”

As the crew braced themselves, they struck the temporal anomaly, the ship shuddering greatly and almost tossing people everywhere. Moments later, they were through and in open space.

“Shields at 12% and holding,” the tac officer reported as soon as the tremors stopped. “Weapons systems report functional. Borg Probe detected off our starboard side.”

“Confirmed,” the ops officer called out. “I'm also picking up several other ships. I don't think they've detected us yet. Federation and Klingon signatures, both with weapons hot.”

“Helm is responding,” the helmsman called. “Guidance systems report that we're in the Cygnus system.”

From the back of the bridge, the science officer on duty called to the front, leaning on the tactical systems bridge rail. “Captain, Stellar Cartography reports we're in the late 2240s.”

2240s? Fuck... Enalia didn't like this one bit. “Disable that Borg probe. It may be our only way home. As for when we are, I want an exact date and I want to know what's going on out there.”

As the bridge crew busied themselves, the ship fired on the engines of the Borg probe repeatedly, eventually breaking through the shields and overwhelming the probe. It hadn't fired back at all and it seemed to be drifting. Then, with one last shot, it exploded spectacularly, vaporizing the ship and rocking the Hera yet again.

“What happened?” Enalia demanded harshly, once the explosion cleared.

“Sorry Captain, it looked like they overloaded their own power plant.” The tactical officer replied. “I didn't even hit anything near there with that last hit.”

“Fine,” Enalia was peeved, but she'd have to deal with this as it was. “Scatter our sensor signature however you can and go to yellow alert. Wake the senior officers and get to work on finding a way home. Have them ready for a staff meeting in one hour. If I remember right, there's an asteroid field rich in duranium near here we should be able to hide in. Set a course, best possible speed.”

Standing, Enalia headed towards her ready room. At the door, she turned back for a moment. “And get some sensor data on this battle. We get home, historians will be upset if we don't.” Disappearing into her ready room, Enalia sighed heavily. There would be no rest for them this night.

Stepping into the room, Tallara glanced around disinterestedly before settling for a seat at a small table towards the middle of the room. Sitting down, she looked out the window for a moment before punching up her order directly into the table's surface - some sort of melted chocolate souffle thing with caramel topping and whipped cream. The blue pointy eared woman enjoyed her pastries and this was one of her favorites.

As soon as the attendant delivered her order, she dug in, cutting a small bite so the inside liquid chocolate flowed out across the small plate, enjoying the look of the spreading chocolate as she savored the pastry part of it.

Elsewhere on board the Bacon, Lieutenant Cameron Tenm was taking his dog, Cairo, for a walk on deck ten. Like Cairo, Cameron had spent most of their voyage in a state of restlessness, with both eagerly looking forward to their new assignment on board the Hera. As they passed ten-forward, Cameron seemed perfectly content to continue on, but Cairo stopped him by whining at the door.

Given that Cairo's form was a few feet too small to be detected by the door's sensors, it didn't open for him. Cameron stopped and gave him a look. "I don't think so, bud. You'd eat everything you could find, and there's a lot of food in there." The dog whined again. Cameron pointed in the direction of the corridor with his head. "Let's keep going. I'll get you food once we're back in our quarters."

At that most inopportune moment, someone from inside ten-forward exited, and Cairo took the afforded chance to make his jailbreak. Cameron pursued him. There were few animals on board a Federation starship, and Cairo had undoubtedly made several of the Bacon's crew apprehensive in regards to his mere presence. With a dog now hurdling itself inside the lounge, Cameron suspected that those feels had been amplified.

"Cairo!"

But the dog ignored its master, and instead charged up past the plates of food and into the lap of an alien-girl. A woman that, like Cairo, Cameron recognized as soon as he saw her.

"Tallara?" Cameron asked, his mission to capture Cairo momentarily paused.

Tallara didn't immediately recognize the dog that ran up into her lap but she certainly recognized the voice calling it. Petting the lovable dog, she looked up and smiled softly, her heart undecided on if it was going to sink or flutter at the sight of her prior lover. "Hey Cameron. What brings you here?" she asked as she pet over Cairo's back and neck.

Cameron was still having a difficult enough time processing Tallara's re-existence in his personal universe, but Cairo seemed to have made the adjustment, and was now immediately content amongst Tallara's strokes. The Klingon-Trill hybrid rubbed the back of his neck, and presented a rather lop-sided grin while his mind caught up with the rest of him. "I, uh - Cairo and I are heading to the Hera."

God, she looked beautiful. Of the many things that he'd forgotten about from Chiron, Tallara's face, her smile, everything about her... he could never forget those. But he wasn't sure how to act around her now, not after so many years. "What are you doing here?" He asked.

Petting over Cairo some more, Tallara was flooded with memories too. Some bittersweet, some awesome, and several with regrets. She did her best to smile happily though. He was heading to the Hera as well? Was it fortune or bad luck that brought them together then? "I'm heading to the Hera. I'm with a team of civilian researchers that Starfleet wants aboard her."

Finally getting the overjoyed canine to settle down, Tallara motioned to the other seat at the table, glancing up at her former lover. "Would you like to join me?" Did she still feel for him? Undoubtedly. She was too confused on a lot of her emotions right now to figure out what she wanted to do with him though.

Cameron nodded, reluctantly. He wasn't sure how the other patrons would handle a dog sitting in a place of dining. Then again, if they had anything to say about it, he could always leave. Joining her at the table, he started palming the table, although only haphazardly, in search of something to order. It didn't last long. Within a second or two, he couldn't focus on anything but her. "Who would have thought we'd be working on the same ship together. I mean, we were both so sure after i left for Starfleet Academy that we'd never be able to spend much more than a couple weeks together each year." Cameron pressed something on the table - what, he didn't know. It was an order of... well... something.

"Yeah, go figure," Tallara said sheepishly. "With so many ships in the fleet, I knew there was a chance of it happening when they offered me a researcher position on the Hera, but jeez... I'm one of the independent biologists, by the way." She was poking at her chocolate dish somewhat nervously, not sure what to say after all this time.

For a moment, all Cameron could think about was offering some praise. After all, a civilian assignment to a Starfleet vessel was relatively rare, as far as he knew. But the words didn't seem right in his head, so he didn't say them. The waiter showed up and delivered something that didn't look even remotely appealing to him. But before he could say anything, the waiter was gone. Cameron laughed. "Feels a little weird, doesn't it?" He looked at her. "Us suddenly being back together again. It's not exactly something we ever considered happening."

"It's certainly unexpected," Tallara said as she looked curiously at the dish he had ordered. "I'd ask if that was a Klingon dish but it's not moving." Were they back together? A Nebula class was a pretty massive ship. They probably wouldn't run into each other too often. It was a chance to try to make a few amends though. Perhaps even to become a couple again. She used to enjoy his company and if he'd settled down a bit... Either way, being on the same ship would help a lot with that path. If things didn't work out... Well, the Nebula class was still a big ship... She didn't have to interact with all 780+ crew if she didn't want to.

Cameron glanced down at his plate. "To be honest, I have no idea what it is either. I just kinda pushed a button." He stopped and laughed quietly to himself. It was just like him to hit something without knowing what it was. He ignored the plate and looked into Tallara's Lavender eyes. "So, I guess I'll ask the question. If we're going to be here on the same ship for the next few years, what do we do?" He asked. "I mean, I haven't committed myself to any one person."

"Well, logically... We have three choices... Get back together and fuck like rabbits in heat, avoid each other, or just ignore the whole thing." Tallara said as she poked at the remains of her own dish for a few. "Personally, I'm inclined to try the first one and see where that leads, myself."

A grin manifested on the Klingon/Trill's lips. There were many aspects as to his relationship with Tallara that he remembered rather fondly. But their sexual appetite, particularly around each other, took the proverbial cake. "Just pick up where we left off then?" He asked, although the question seemed rhetorical as far as he was concerned.

Tallara flashed him her best grin, setting her fork back down. "Might as well." She remembered those days fondly as well. She could blame some of her libido at the time on her research and need for experience, but it was still amazingly enjoyable.

Ethan was glad that a new doctor had come on board, it meant he could take some time off to recover from what had been done. By now all the physical wounds had been healed. except of course his arm. That would simply have to be replaced.

The psychological wounds of course could not be fixed by a wave of of a tricorder or on oceoregenerator. In fact he wasn't sure if he would ever recover from that and if he did, he knew that he would never be the same.

The one good thing in his life at the moment was that Dylan was back in it, and back in it for good.

He was going to stop in and visit the counselor as he had promised his fiance, but first he was going to stop by sickbay and meet his new boss and talk to him about building a prosthetic replacement for his missing limb.

Dressed in his uniform, a freshly replicated one, he walked into sickbay and pressed the chime for the CMO's office.

Lieutenant Cameron Tenm had been aboard the Hera for less than a few hours, had barely even had time to get him and Cairo settled into their new quarters before taking off to examine the status of sickbay. Recent events on board the Hera did not wait for one man; aside from losing its previous Chief Medical Officer, the Ambassador-class starship had many other casualties. As eager as he’d been to accept the position at first – to finally get back into space – now, upon realizing the scope of loss that this crew had recently experienced, he was beginning to wonder if his decision been wise.

It was like being tossed into the deepest part of the lake and told to swim back to shore. In his heart and in his mind, Cameron knew that he knew how to swim; he’d been serving in Starfleet for fourteen years now, was specialized in both Emergency Medicine and General Surgery, and had cared for and treated hundreds of patients.

But with the exception of a two-year stint on board the Proteus, all of that experience had been planet-side. The Hera would be Cameron’s second duty station, as well as his first as a Department Leader. Even for the Klingon-Trill hybrid, it felt like a whole lot to take in.

One step at a time, Cam Cameron thought inwardly just as the chime at his office door activated. Alright, so he’d been on board for less than a few hours and already had his first patient. He looked through the glass portion of the wall but whoever was at the door was also well hidden behind it. “Enter,” said Cameron.

Ethan took a deep breath before he complied. Normally, he was a pretty gregarious and out-going person. But these circumstances were not normal. Steeling himself, he stepped inside. Seeing the rather large man standing there in his teal uniform, Ethan took an involuntary step back.

Then chiding himself for his insecurity and timidness snapped a quick salute, "Good morning, you must be the new chief. I'm Ethan Chaparral, I'm your assistant. Well, I mean I'm the Assistant Chief Medical Officer. Welcome aboard."

Cameron raised an eyebrow to such fashion that would have made any Vulcan proud. His transfer to the Hera happened so quickly that he hadn't even had a chance to download the crew manifest reports before boarding the Bacon, so it felt a little strange to know nothing about his new assistant chief. "Thanks," Cameron replied after a moment of studying Chaparral's body language.

What caught Cameron next was the fact that his new assistant was missing an arm. Dammit... there's too much I don't know about what happened here, the Klingon/Trill hybrid thought, despite holding his facial expression to stone. "Uh, why don't you have a seat then," Cameron suggested, pointing to one of the empty chairs in his office.

Then again, he hadn't even convinced himself that it was his office. He hadn't sat in the Chief Medical Officer's seat, at least. Cameron had convinced himself that there were too many good places to stand that a seat was unnecessary.

Ethan forced himself to relax, the man in front of him was a Starfleet Officer, a real one he assumed, not some pirate. He took a seat and managed to look his superior in the eye, though the smile he wore did not reach his eyes.

"I am an epidemiologist, someone wanted the information about Romulan bio-weapons I have in my head. I didn't give it to them." he said answering the unasked question.

And they took your arm off as a result, Cameron thought. Clearly, Ethan had held up to the same standards as any Klingon. That didn't stop Cameron from feeling like it was somehow his fault for not knowing more details as to exactly what happened. All he knew was that it involved Remans, and the term "Zombies". Then he looked back to the empty chair. "I assume my predecessor wasn't so fortunate."

"No, he wasn't taken just me. He helped save my life so I can't really fault him. But I am pretty sure he was already thinking about quitting and this was the last straw. I'm just in no condition; physically, or emotionally to deal with the job. So they brought in a fresh face. Which is okay with with me, especially since I got a marriage proposal out of it. I'm fine with being number two. What I'm not fine with is staying like this.'

It was a lot to take in. Cameron nodded. "Congratulations on your Marriage proposal, at least."

"Thanks for that it was an easy decision to say yes." Ethan said, a small smile playing at lis lips before disappearing.

He pointed to his missing arm, "Can you help me with a prosthetic one? I really don't want to have to leave the ship to have one made."

Once again, Cameron looked to the space on Ethan's shoulder where an arm should have been. Producing one at Starfleet Medical would have been an easy matter, but he had certain doubts as to what the sickbay of a Nebula-class starship could afford. Still, Cameron could see the look in Ethan's eyes. They told him to at least try.

Pulling a drawer at the CMO's desk, Cameron found -- predictably -- a medical tricorder which he opened up. It began to read out medical statistics almost immediately. "Cybernetic or poly-organic?" He asked, studying the results.

"I don't know, I'm into extreme sports, but I don't know which I should get. Any suggestions?"

Cameron shrugged. "I've never had a prosthetic, so I wouldn't know." He pointed out, then giving Ethan's arm another look. "Cybernetic replacements tend to require a little more maintenance than the flesh and blood variety, but they do have a talent of increased strength and agility in the right hands, though. Cameron looked up... or rather... down, towards Ethan. There was a considerable height difference between the two. "Until you lost that arm, organic worked for you before. But if you want the extra features, mechanical would probably be a good option for you."

Ethan tilted his head up, "Well surgery is not my forte, but I do have to perform it once in awhile. So if the mechanical gives the the same, or greater amount of dexterity, I'll try that. I want something to remind me of the bastard that did this to me. Because if I ever catch him, I'm going to forget my Hippocratic Oath."

Ethan wasn't sure if he could face Ian again, much less strangle him, but he wasn't going to voice his fear to someone he barely knew.

Adjusting is tricorders readings without responding, Cameron began to analyze the severed nerve endings in Ethan's shoulders. Nano-augmentations along each ending would act as a conductor towards the motorized arm. While he ran his scans, he felt that it would be 'socially appropriate' for him to get to know more about his assistant, and yet right now he felt like he was on a mission. Side chat would be a distraction.

"It would be understandable if that's what you wanted," Cameron said, finally. Being part Klingon himself, he wasn't about to try to talk Ethan out of revenge... even if that's what he even wanted. Closing the tricorders, Cameron looked Ethan in the eyes. "It'll take a few hours for the replicator to synthesize the prosthesis, plus about an hour of testing and configuration."

Cameron realized he was going to need access to the terminal at the desk, and ever so reluctantly walked over to sit in the chair he'd been reluctant to so far. Bringing up LCARs, he scanned the schedule. "How about we aim for tomorrow afternoon at 1500 hours to begin the operation

"Sure, " Ethan replied, "How long do you think the operation will take?"

Cameron added. "As long as there aren't any complications, I think it would be reasonable to assume two or three hours."

"Okay, and how long will therapy or acclimation, or whatever else you want to call it. You know how long will it take to get used to my new arm?" Ethan asked.

Of course that would have been Ethan's next question, and Cameron quietly scolded himself for not thinking to elaborate further. As the new Chief of Medical, it wouldn't do him any well to answer questions line by line. "I believe I still have a therapy program from back when I was at Starfleet Medical. You should be able to use it to get used to the new arm much quicker. As for how long that'll take, it depends. Everybody's body reacts in different ways to the loss of a limb. I don't think you'll be assisting me in surgery for at least a few weeks."

Ethan let out s slow breath. "Well at least I have some idea. now. Thanks. Is it wrong to want the man that did this dead? I am supposed to be a doctor not a killer"

"You're talking to someone who's part Klingon, Chaparral. If I were you I'd probably rip that new arm out of its socket and beat him to death with it as soon as I found him," Cameron pointed out, even letting loose a little bit of his joviality. That wasn't an answer to his question, however. And Cameron wanted to give him one... or at least he thought was one. "We are healers. And sometimes you can heal one man with medicine, or a hundred men by plucking one bad one from the universe. It's the hard truth many doctors aren't willing to accept, however. And it has a cost to who you are... a significant one."

Ethan pointed to his arm. "I think I've already paid a price, don't you. I hardly see how killing the bastard could be even steeper of a price. Besides if I don't do it I'm pretty sure my fiance will and I don't want to burden him with that price."

Cameron shrugged. "Your arm can be replaced. I think there are some who would say that your soul is a different story. There's no prosthesis in the universe that can make up for the guilt of murdering someone - whether in cold blood or honorable combat." He was starting to sound like a counselor, and shook the feeling off. To keep from having to look at Ethan, Cameron stared into the console as though he were reviewing some part of the results. "I can't tell you what's right or wrong, Chaparral. It's for you to decide."

"Thank you for that Cameron. I'm mostly thinking out loud here, but I appreciate your being a sounding board. I guess I'll see you tomorrow. One more thing though, how soon before you can put me back on the schedule, return me to duty?"

Somehow it didn't feel right putting Ethan through the same standard he would any other member of the crew. Why Ethan hadn't been assigned as the new CMO was something he hadn't considered yet, but was beginning to. Typically, he'd expect an adjustment period of this nature to last as long as a month. But waiting that long didn't seem well suited for Ethan, particularly if he was consumed by a blood-lust. "When you feel ready, Chaparral." Cameron said simply.

"Thanks," the junior doctor replied. "I'll make that work."

A joint post by
Lieutenant K'am'mirh'un Tenm
CMO
&
Lt. Ethan Chaparral MD
ACMO

Ven paced the hall out side the turbo lift while he waited. All this time as a department head and he still had trouble talking directly to the captain. Buy he needed some advice, and considering what it was in regards to, he felt that talking directly to the Captain was his best bet.

The turbo lift came to a stop and Ven stepped inside once the doors parted. He tried to ignore the butterflies in his stomach as the lift stopped and opened...

Enalia was trying to relax in the conference room, sipping at her tea and nibbling on a plate of finger sandwiches with more than she could eat. The lights were darkened and she was watching the stars race past the ship, moving off into the distance.

Ven walked up to the doors of the conference room and he took a deep breath. He braced himself, then stepped into the room. He stopped just on the other side of the door. "Captain..." he said softly.

Slightly startled from her reverie, Enalia turned to face Ven for a moment before turning back. “Is there something I can help you with?”

"I hope so." Ven said nervously. "May I have a moment of your time? I...I could use some advice." He wanted to be up front that this was not necessarily a captains issue, but Ven was seeking advice from someone he respected.

“Sure, have a seat,” Enalia said, motioning to the rest of the table.

Ven took a chance and walked over to the seat next to her. He felt it was bold move but since it was just the two of them he felt it would be safe.

"I was hoping to be advised on a crewmen transfer that might be tricky." He said.

Enalia smiled weakly at Ven as he sat down and grabbed a sandwich for herself before offering the plate of finger sandwiches to him. “May I ask who the crewman is and where you want to transfer them to?”

Ven snagged a sandwich, but didn't bite into it right away. "It's Amelia Ma'am. She's not happy in engineering and expressed an interest in Op's. But, we are seeing each other..." he explained while playing with the sandwich.

“I’d have to check, but if I remember right, she’d have to broaden her specialization field and get a few promotions to move to ops.” Enalia said, biting into her own sandwich. “Is this driven by personal feelings or issues with how our Engineering Chief runs things?”

"She had never said anything to me in an official capacity but she does not feel she's being treated well by our Chief." Ven admitted. "She said something about her last review not being very good, and from a professional standpoint I don't see how that could be. I have worked on several projects with her and her work is always superb."

“I saw a fair bit of her work myself during the refit and I’m forced to agree.” Enalia said, thinking it over a moment. “What specifically do you want to happen, then? And how serious is your relationship with her now?”

"I personally want her moved to a department where she can do her work in peace. Our relationship is...odd." Ven said. Though that didn't seem to be that out of the ordinary on a federation star ship. Odd relationships seemed to be the norm. " she's moved in with me, she bit me..." he grind a little at that last bit. He waited to see how the Captain would react to that last comment.

Enalia grinned a bit, knowing what it meant for an Andorian woman to bite someone. “As much as I’d love to know where and how she bit you, that’s a personal subject between the two of you. If she moved to ops, as my Ops Chief, where would you put her and what would you have her doing?”

"Shuttle bay." Ven said without hesitation, then finally took a bite of his sandwich.

“That makes sense. She has quite a bit of experience with small craft maintenance.” Enalia thought a bit more before replying. “If you can get her promoted, I’ll reassign her. Just promise me that you won’t let your personal feelings for her get in the way.”

"I promise Ma'am. I'll see if I can help her keep her head down and her work standards up." Ven said. This was good news. "Would it help to submit my own reports on working with her? I know it's not exactly standard procedure to submit reports on crewmen outside ones own department."

“As a department head, you have that right. You can also review and put in objections to her last performance review as well as recommend her for promotion as long as she meets the requirements.” Enalia explained as she finished off her sandwich.

"Thank you for your advice Captain. I'm still learning this department head gig." Ven said. He had always heard what a hard ass Enalia was, but his experience had always been very pleasant. She enjoyed watching him squirm a bit when she promoted him, but otherwise he felt she was very approachable and willing to help him.

“I may mess with people, but I like to be a good mentor too. Besides, after the last mission, I’m not in the mood to do my normal captaining schtick.” Enalia sighed a bit and grabbed another sandwich. “I’m just glad the away team came back with anyone at all, you know?”

Ven nodded. "I do know. I was worried for Nexi's sister." Ven admitted. He knew the rest could handle themselves.

“So was I. From what I’m told, she did amazingly well during the mission and was quite helpful on her own.” Enalia said before biting into her sandwich.

"That's excellent news." Ven said with a bit of relief. "She's a smart girl. Just a little jumbled up in the head. I would not be shocked at all to hear someday that she's all straightened out and commanding her own starship."

“If she gets her commission back, that wouldn’t surprise me either.” Enalia replied.

"She had one before?" Ven asked shocked.

“She was a Lieutenant before her capture. If she hadn’t come back messed up like that, I’m betting she’d been a Commander straight off.” Enalia sipped at her tea a bit before continuing. “What do you think of how she’s recovering?”

"To be honest I have nothing to base an opinion on. I only just met her and am getting to know her." Ven said as he gazed at the stars swooping past, the same view the captain was watching.

“I wish I knew her before all this.” Enalia reminisced. “Or Nexi to have. Someone to remember her for who she was.”

Ven nodded his agreement. "All we can do is learn who she is now and be her friend. Nexi too."

“Well put.” Enalia replied, finishing her current sandwich and following it with a sip of tea.

Ethan couldn't cook like he wanted to, but he could operate a replicator. Still frustrated that he was forced to rely on other people for almost everything he used to take for granted, he needed a distraction.

"Hey, "he called to Dylan as he handed him a cup of coffee, "I have an idea. I met Commander Sinek in the lounge the other day. That guy needs to get laid. or at least have a date. You know shake up that damned logic of his. And you know, I am pretty sure that Nexi is single, maybe we can invite them to dinner with us. You know a surprised blind date."

"You became a matchmaker since I last knew you huh?" Dylan grinned at his lover before adding "But who am I to get in the way of true love...go for it if you want though I'm not sure a Vulcan will take too kindly to a blind date."

"Which is why we don't tell him about it. We make it a surprise. I mean it's only logical, right?"

"Well on your head be it if the happy couple freak out once they work out what's going on." Dylan chuckled, not convinced that it was a good idea but willing to go along with it. It was good to see Ethan getting animated about something and he wanted to be part of that.

"Okay well, why don't you invite Nexi, tell her, I don't know it's a housewarming thing.

I'll tell Sinek. I met him the other night. I'll tell him the same thing. And just to make sure we're not lying, why don't you move in with me? Full time."

"Live together?" Dylan raised an eyebrow, knowing that his reaction was silly given their plans to marry, "You don't want to wait until after the wedding?" he asked as he watched Ethan closely.

"You're my anchor Dylan. Now more than ever. I don't want to wait. Part of it is because I love and am committed to you, part of it, to be honest, is because you make me feel safe. Or safer anyway and I need that."

"Glad I changed my training now huh?" Dylan teased, figuring that after all this time, what had happened between them before was water under the bridge and fair game for teasing.

"Oh pleaseeeee," Ethan said, his mindset much like his fiance's. "I see how this marriage of ours is going to work. I'm the bossy, bitchy one, and you're going to be the one that always says I told you so."

Then after a quick peck on the cheek said, "Now, I think we both have to get to work and hatch our little plan."

"Agreed." Dylan nodded, "So...housewarming right? Wanna be sure to get my facts straight with yours."

"Perfect, you've got it. Now I am going to go to my office, maybe stop by and see the new counselor, then I'm going to have my talk with my new Vulcan friend."

"Well I'm just hoping that this Nexi person doesn't think I'm weird for inviting her to a housewarming even though I've never socialised with her." Dylan shrugged.

'I'm not worried. You can be pretty persuasive."

"Yeah I guess...I got you in my bed after all didn't I?" Dylan grinned widely at Ethan.

"Yeah you did, and you're never going to get rid of me either."

"Good." Dylan leaned over and kissed Ethan on the cheek, "Because I've got no intention of leaving you ever again."

"You have no idea how good that makes me feel, but I better go now. We both better or we're going to be in deep shit."

"Yeah...good impressions and all that." Dylan grumbled as he reluctantly moved away from Ethan.

Ethan glanced over at his husband to be. "Yeah keep that thought for tonight after our little double date is over."

"Oh I intend to." Dylan grinned as he walked towards the door, his step light as he considered what fun they could have.

TBC

A joint post with

Lt. Dylan Santiago
Intel Chief
USS Hera

&

Lt. Ethan Chaparral
ACMO
USS Hera

Ethan was feeling a little better now that he had visited his new boss and gotten an ETA on his new arm. It would help make him whole again, at least make his body whole again. The thought of putting Nexi and Sinek together amused him. Not because he wanted to play a practical joke on either of them, rather he knew that opposites attract, just like with him and Dylan. Besides he figured that both could use the companionship.

He wasn't sure exactly how the Vulcan would react to his request, but he knew how he was going to start the conversation. After that he'd just have to see what happened and think on his feet.

He approached the door to the Science office and pressed the chime.

Sinek was just finishing a read of Kaparov's The Beginnings of the Delta Quadrant when he heard the chime. He raised a brow as he was not used to receiving guests at his quarters. In fact, on his previous ship's, he counted zero visitors' shadows graced his door.

Tipping his head toward the door, Sinek said, "Enter."

"Good morning, Commander,"Ethan said a smile that reached his ears on his lips. Part of him still wanted to come clean and just be completely clean with the other officer, but he realized he'd never get him to come if he were too honest.

"Remember me? We met in the lounge the other night. I was kind of feeling sorry for myself and we had a few drinks."

Sinek's face remained expressionless. "Certainly, I remember you, Doctor Chaparral. There is nothing that compare's to a Vulcan's memory. How may I be of service to you?"

"Well, this morning I asked my fiance to move in with me and he agreed. We are having a housewarming tonight and wanted you to be our guest. Are you free?"

"Housewarming..." Sinek paused confused with the Terran Tradition. Cocking his head to the side he asked, "...do I bring a heat inducer?"


Ethan chuckled, "No, sorry that is a euphemism." He searched for the right words, "When someone gets a new home, or in this case moves in together, it is traditional for them to have a party and invite their friends. In the past, or if there is a need the guests bring gifts, things people need for a new home. You know replicators, eating utensils, linens, things like that. In our case we don't need any gifts. You know we're just inviting a few people over for dinner and to hang out."

Lieutenant Commander Sinek raised a brow. He was not sure how to process the information within the Doctor's explanation. Sinek had never been associated in any statement with reference to him being a friend. This puzzled the Vulcan. He had only met and spoken to the hybrid male once before this moment. Perhaps he was making progress in Spock's challenge.

"You consider me a friend?" The question was so evenly verbalized that it sounded more of a statement.

A twinge of guilt washed over Ethan and if he'd been doing this as a joke, he probably would have come clean, but since was doing what he thought was a good thing he replied honestly, "I would not have invited you otherwise, at least I would like for you to be a friend."

The Vulcan raised a brow. Someone desired to be his friend. Sinek knew the two were vastly different. However, he also knew it was the differences of each that made the whole team stronger.

"I am honored," Sinek calmly expressed. "What time should guests arrive?"

"Let's say about seve, er, sorry about 1900. Does that work for you?"

"If you mean, "Is 1900 satisfactory?" Sinek posed, "I shall be there." He hoped that is what was meant by the term "work." He had never had time work for him. However, if one were efficient with the tool of time, much work could be accomplished. Sinek was often confused by the idioms those of human heritage used.

"Yes, Commander," Ethan said in reply, quirking his brow in the process, "that is exactly what I mean. We will see you then."

"I shall see you then at 1900 hours," Sinek confirmed. He could not help but believe that he was making progress in establishing connections with his fellow shipmates.

"We will see you then." Ethan confirmed, "Oh and tomorrow I'm being fitted with a new arm. And I, uh have a favor to ask you."

Lieutenant Commander Sinek bent his elbows, bringing his hands before him, forming a triangle with his fingers and thumbs. "How may I be of service?"

Ethan let out a slow breath. He'd never intended doing anything but asking Sinek to come to his surprise blind date, not to talk about anything serious. "I, uh, the man that did this to me, took my arm and, and more. I find it difficult to get him out of my mind. Are there, that is could you teach me some Vulcan mind tricks?

Okay tricks is probably a bad way to put it. Uh, techniques, disciplines? I don't know. I need a, a safe place to go. In m mind I mean."

"Indeed," the Vulcan intoned. "A mind meld is no trick or illusion. That is what you wish?"

"I was thinking more of your teaching me some techniques, so I could do it myself. I don't think you want to see what I went through, I'm not sure I want to relive it."

Sinek looked deep into the doctor's eyes seeking the resolve and commitment it would take. It was a huge commitment for a Vulcan, much less one that was not. Sinek did see a man who survived much torture and the taking of a limb. Perhaps, Sinek could help him become more than a survivor. One that made lemonade out of the lemons of life as a human would say.

"The teachings of Surak may help," Sinek explained. "When one meditates on his teaching and puts it to practice, one literally shuts down ineffective synapses of the brain and opens new neurological pathways, charging new synapses to what is logical and good. I must warn you that it is tedious and the change does not happen immediately. However, in time, things such as fear, hatred, and such will not be a controlling factor in your life."

The Vulcan paused for effect. He had to continue with the warning. "You must understand that even what you consider good emotions will be affected. It is a long and difficult path if you choose it."

Ethan let out a long breath. "I didn't mean to burden you with all this. I really didn't. But when I shut my eyes I see the man that did this to me. I see his face that started out friendly, but when he had me chained and naked it changed into something dark and twisted. I'm not eating like I should, I barely sleep, I cry. And part of me just wants to curl into a ball and part of me wants to wrap my hands around Ian's throat and strangle the life out of him.

I can't continue like this. I just can't. I just don't want my love for Dylan to change."

Sinek lowered his head in thought. "Then perhaps a mind meld would be the best option. We would reroute those emotions and feelings to new synapses activating a different response to them. At the same time we can set up a block to the visual stimulation from those emotions. I would require a doctor other than yourself to be there. The process will be draining for both of us."

'You'd be willing to do that for me?" Ethan asked incredulously.

The Vulcan's face was a blank stare, unreadable by human standards. "I would and will do anything and everything I can to assist the crew of the Hera to be more effective..."

Sinek paused, this time not for effect, but attempting to sum up his reply with the invite to the housewarming and the fact that Doctor Chaparral desired Sinek as a friend. "...Especially for a...friend," came the monotone ending of the Vulcan's reply. "Is that not what friends do?"

"It is," Ethan replied, "and thank you. Thank you very much." He was feeling even more guilty for setting up the Vulcan, even if it were for a good cause.

"You know the medical staff better than I," The Vulcan stated. "Make arrangements with a doctor, and I will meet you at the scheduled time."

"Thank you again, I'll make the arrangements." Ethan said.

"Very well, then" Sinek replied. "I shall arrive at your house...warming at 1900 hours."

"Great," Ethan said, "We will see you then."

TBC

A joint post by

Lt. Ethan Chaparral
ACMO
USS Hera

Lt. Commander Sinek
CSO
USS Hera

Angelica stared at the panel in front of her, trying to make sense of it. She'd thought she knew the phaser systems inside out and backward, but now her brain couldn't make heads or tails out of the information. Feeling like her head was about to explode from frustration, she took a deep breath and turned to ask Amelia a question... only to realize that Amelia wasn't there. Oh, right. I meant to call her... Angelica shook her head, not sure why she was so forgetful tonight when she normally had her head on pretty straight... though she had a feeling it had something to do with so many consecutive days with not enough sleep. Sighing, she tapped her communicator. =/\="Fairchild to Takethen. Please meet me in tactical sub-systems control immediately."=/\=

=/\="On my way,"=/\= Amelia replied right away. Thankfully she had been pulling a night shift when all this happened and other than the shaking of the ship, she really had no idea what was going on. she just knew she had 14 replicators in unused quarters she had to do maintenance on during this shift. Packing up her tool kit, she scribbled a few notes on her PaDD and headed out, arriving at the control room a few minutes later.

Walking into the control room, Amelia set her tool kit on a counter and stood respectfully near Angel, awaiting orders. "What can I help you with, Commander?"

"We need to make our orange 24th century phasers look like blue 23rd century phasers with the appropriate energy output readings and realistic damage for this time period." Even to Angelica's very sleepy brain, that sounded like such nonsense. It was so absurd that if she wasn't so damned exhausted, she might have laughed at it. "To make a very long story short, we got thrown back in time and we're about to be part of a rather important historic battle, and we can't risk changing the timeline."

Amelia was a bit stunned, not sure if what Angel was saying was a prank or if she was serious. Angel had a reputation though, and Amelia decided she feared that reputation more than the possibility of this being a prank. Either way, she was asking for the impossible. Thinking it over a moment, Amelia stepped over to a console and pulled up the specs of a ship of this era - a double hulled cruiser of some sort. "Other than it being impossible without a complete refit of the phaser arrays... The power levels, yes that's easy. Weapons signatures haven't changed much in the past hundred years either. That's easy. But blue?"

Then a thought struck her. "We can only rotate the spectral frequency a little... but if we route the energy feeds through holoprojectors..." Pulling up the ship's internal holo systems, Amelia checked through the possibility of doing the reroutes needed. "I think we could get the upper saucer banks partially blue with the residual energy bleedover at the very least. Other than that, we'd have to manually retune every third emitter coil and recouple the EPS feeds to a rougher stream."

Angelica blinked at Amelia's answer; even if she'd been fully awake a lot of that would not have made sense. "Um... if you say so?" Honestly, she had absolutely no idea what the hell Amelia had said. So much for knowing the system inside and out! "But yes. Blue. Has to be blue... Telvan said so."

Amelia snapped her fingers, thinking of an even easier option. "We could also invert the primary ship wide holomatrix. I assume that's how we wouldn't look out of place in such a setting. But then we wouldn't be able to disguise the ship and our weapons at the same time..." Thinking on it a little longer, a sudden thought occurred to her. "Triolic waves!"

Turning back to Angel, Amelia had an excited smile on her face. We could use the main deflector to charge the outer hull with triolic waves. Then rotate the beams to the IR spectrum. When we fire, they'll look perfectly blue from the residual triolic wave particles riding on them!"

"Huh... yeah... that would work... wait." There was something about triolic waves that Angelica tried very hard to remember, something important. After a long while it slowly dawned on her. "No... no... not good. The... floating phase things." Oh yeah that was technical, but she couldn't remember what they were called. "The ones that... they suck energy out of your brain..."

"Do you mean the Denobulans or Devidians or something? As long as there's no temporal energies in the area, we should be fine." Amelia replied with, totally oblivious to how tired Angel was at the time. She expected the security grunts to be clueless when it came to engineering things and their chief being clueless as well wasn't too far fetched to her. Besides, drawing attention to it might attract Angel's wrath and Amelia didn't want that.

"Devidians, yes! Triolic radiation attracts them." Angelica paused, considering the rest of what Amelia had said. "Are you sure? Absolutely sure?"

"I am. We had a few days on them in history class and I did a little research on their technology, as it were. As long as we don't go putting things out of phase or have any stray temporal anomalies in the area, they'll have no way to get here. Besides, the hull is shielded from it so unless it gets inside, there's no way then can visit us." Amelia explained somewhat cheerily.

"Okay. Okay, that's fine then... so... uh... how do we do that?" Totally oblivious to the fact that Amelia had already explained how to produce the triolic waves, Angelica leaned against the edge of a console as she waited for the answer.

Punching up a quick simulation on the main monitor, Amelia obliged anyway. "With a slight reconfiguration, we can charge the outer hull like this... Then with the phasers at the IR solar penetration mode in wide angle, when we fire, they'll be blue like this. Make sense, Commander?"

"Uh..." It should make sense. Angelica knew it should make sense. "Not really, no. But I trust you. I mean... this is your, uh, ballpark."

Now Amelia was worried. Her explanation and cartoon graphics should have made sense to the most dense of the security grunts but Angel wasn't getting it? That was worth risking incurring her wrath... "Are you ok, Commander?" she asked softly. "You've been a lot more out of it than your reputation would suggest..."

"That depends on your definition of 'okay'," Angelica muttered under her breath, not sure she should unload any frustration or fatigued ranting on Amelia. Part of her wanted to be angry with the question, but mostly she wanted to sleep. "I'm tired," she said after a long moment of consideration, hoping that was answer enough.

An officer admitting they were tired? Now Amelia really was worried. "Should I get you some coffee? Or some other sort of stimulant? Or just go to bed? I'm pretty sure I can handle this myself if you need me to."

Angelica shook her head. "Can't go to bed. Too much to do... combat simulations after this..." As she talked, she blinked a few more times than might be entirely normal, but at least her words were making sense again.

"Yes Ma'am," Amelia replied, turning back to the consoles and programming up a combat simulation against a Klingon D-7, normally no match for a Nebula class but with the modifications, it was a relatively even looking fight as far as weapons were concerned.

Angelica watched the simulation for a few moments, looking for any flaws in the proposed disguise. She didn't see any, but she didn't really trust her eyes either. She was exhausted enough to admit to an enlisted member of the crew that she was tired, and she knew how bad a sign that was. Still, she turned to a console to check the simulation up close. As she studied it, her eyes slowly started to drift closed and before she quite knew what had happened, the impact of her elbow against the solid surface of the console jolted her awake again.

Startled, Amelia looked at Angel in a bit of shock. Tired was a vast understatement. "Ma'am... Are you ok?" she asked somewhat timidly. She didn't want to tell an officer what to do, let alone a member of the senior staff... Other than Ven, that is... But it was painfully clear to her just how 'tired' Angel was and she was tempted to insist she go to bed.

Oh, that was embarrassing. Angelica felt a bit of color gracing her cheeks as she pushed herself back up to a proper standing position. She hadn't fallen asleep on a console since the academy, and never when she was standing up. "Okay. Maybe 'tired' is an understatement. But we have less than six hours to get this ship combat ready, and as chief of security I can't be sleeping while everyone else is working on that."

Amelia shook her head. "The ship is already combat ready. We just need to disguise her, right? That's plenty of time and technically, we can be done with the preparations in less than an hour. Then we just charge the hull just before combat and we're good. As an engineering stooge, I can't in good conscience stand here and watch you pass out from exhaustion. You might hurt yourself when you hit the console and blood is a pain to get out of the panels."

"Uh huh... I see how it is... concerned about the equipment but not me." Even tired as she was, Angelica had to grin at that. Engineering types could be so funny about the ship's safety. And she did have to admit that Amelia had a point, even if it was phrased about the console and not her head. "Technically I just have to make the phasers blue and match the power outputs. Have we done both of those? I can't remember."

"Technically no," Amelia said, punching some more data into the systems. "We just have a plan and putting it into effect will be easy. I'll program in the necessary adjustments to everything and send an instructional briefing to the bridge consoles. If you want to sit down and supervise with your eyes closed, I'll let you know when I'm done."

"Okay, that sounds fair." Angelica had a mild suspicion that Amelia might not actually wake her up, but she wasn't in any shape to argue. So she found a chair at an unoccupied console and - after checking to be sure said console was powered off - crossed her arms on it and rested her head on them. At least it was safer than falling asleep standing up.

Indeed, Amelia didn't have any plans of waking her. She just stood there, punching in the data and reprogramming the needed systems and writing up instructions on a side terminal. Half an hour later, she was finished. Saving the configurations, she fired the messages off to the main bridge terminals, as well as Angel's office terminal and started turning the consoles back off.

Now for what to do with Angel... With her strength she could easily carry her to her room but that was at least a dozen decks away. She didn't want to explain what had happened to anyone. Shrugging, she carefully picked Angel up, cradling her in her arms. "Computer, please initiate a site to site transfer to Commander Fairchild's quarters. Access authorization Drydock sigma thirty three alpha."

In a moment, they had disappeared in the transporter shimmer, leaving the room empty.

---

"The time is 0600 hours."

Angelica tugged the blanket up over her head as the lights slowly came on and the computer's monotone wake-up announcement repeated a second time. Five more minutes couldn't hurt...

No sooner had she thought it, she snapped awake and sat up, looking around to see where she was as the blanket slipped free from her shoulder. Home? But... that didn't make sense! She'd been in the tactical control area! Very slowly, Angelica swung her legs off the couch and stood up, trying to sort out what had happened. They'd been working, she'd nearly cracked her head on a console... and Amelia had let her fall asleep on a console while the plan was implemented. And then, clearly, gotten her home. Somehow.

Angelica didn't know whether to be annoyed or grateful. Finally, she decided she couldn't be angry about someone insisting she sleep when she so clearly needed it, and - with an amused smile - went to take a quick shower before reporting back in for duty.

Dylan hadn't moved his things in yet and was still on duty some place on the ship. Ethan had left his shift early, since technically he didn't need to be working at all. He didn't feel like going to the work of changing, it was just too much effort, so he was still in his uniform.

He'd done some calculations and figured, hopefully correctly, that it was about eleven in the morning, back home.

He knew he had to call his folks and let them know what had happened before they heard about what had happened from other sources. They had always been nothing but supportive of him in the past, and he had no doubt they would be now. But still a part of him was still dreading doing so.

Nonetheless he opened up a subspace channel and made the call.

Ulani was deep in thought. Several things had changed for her at home. All the kids were grown and pursuing their separate careers. Jaime was working hard at the local Medical Center. The empty nest just didn't seem to be all that it promised to be.

The Elasian had just finished a workout in her form-fitting athletic suit. She had kept in shape with martial art, even though she had not used it since retiring from Starfleet Intelligence to raise her family. Ulani looked in the mirror; one strand of her auburn hair hung loose from the rest and swung in front of her eyes. She was forty-nine and still looked good. A cocky grin came to her face at that thought. Not just good, but damn good.

The computerized voice in Jaime and Ulani's smart home announced an incoming subspace message. She missed her children, had dedicated over half her life to raising them, even moved from Intelligence to Security so as not to bring harm to them. Inwardly she had hoped the message was coming from one of them.

Turning to a large screen, Ulani commanded, "Computer, show subspace message on screen."

Ethan let out a long breath as the connection was made and his mother's face started to coalesce on the screen. He tried to adjust the screen so she wouldn't see his missing arm. Or at least she wouldn't see first thing. The act of adjusting the screen triggered a memory of a happier time. Of when he had been to slow to adjust the screen and she had seen much more of him than he would have liked. A bittersweet memory.

"Hello mom," he said trying his best to keep his face impassive, but not sure how long he could.

Ulani knew her son; knew that impassive tone attempting to cover something up. Ethan had always used it when he didn't want her to know how he truly felt. But she was his mother; mothers always know. He had used this tone the first time he had ended a relationship. Only this time, it seemed more hopeless.

Her face full of concern, Ulani asked, "Ethan...what's wrong?"

"Mom, I. I, mom, I need you. I damn, this is hard. " He paused then and adjusted the screen so she could see all of him. He blinked back tears, "I was attacked. kidnapped like before, but this time, well look what they did to me."

Ulani's face went from concern to rage. Anyone witnessing a mother grizzly protecting her cubs from danger would recognize the look.

"Who did this to you?"

"A man named Ian," he replied, "I should have been stronger, I should have escaped. Hell, I shouldn't have even let him get to me. But he got away and I'm scared he's going to come back and do something worse."

"You are you, Ethan," Ulani replied. "I wouldn't want it any other way."

Inside her head, Ulani's mind was clicking away. Her life was at a standstill. Jaime was spending so much time at the hospital, the kids were gone, one seriously injured by some maniac. Her eyes narrowed. It was her job to protect her offspring. In that nanosecond, Ulani made up her mind. She was going to be there for this cub.

"Ethan, I want you to transmit to me a file of everything you know about this person. Everything your ship's computer may have on him. Where he calls home. Where he sleeps. Where he eats. Where he relieves himself. Who his close relations are. Who he is having relations with. I want to know everything."

"I don't think we know much. Only his name, which he carved into my chest, Ian. If that is really his name. He got aboard the ship, i was foolish enough to meet with him, and, and I'm going in circles aren't I? Anyway, about the only real lead is his picture. I am sure the ship's security camera captured him. You could probably run that through database somewhere.

But it's not all bad. I am getting a new arm, might be even better. And do you remember Dylan from the Academy.Well he's on board here and he... uh we made up and he, well he asked me to marry him."

"Send me what you have, Ethan. It will be a start."

The look on her face soon turned from anger to confusion. "I thought you were with Kyle?" From confusion to surprise. "There's another love interest?" Then, registering what Ethan had said from surprise to elation. "Did you say marry?"

It was good for Ulani to know that all wasn't bad. Why didn't he start off with this news?

"Yes, I did say marry," Ethan replied smiling for the first time and yes, I did say yes."

"Did you say Dylan?" Ulani's mind raced back to Ethan's academy days. "The strong, muscular boy?" Where was he when my boy was losing an arm?

Ulani seemed to also remember that Dylan's track was Intel. "Pass on to Dylan that I would like to speak with him, dear." She gave a reassuring smile.

It never ceased to amaze him, that his mother could still make him blush,"Yes mom, the strong muscular boy. The very cute, strong muscular boy. You'll have to come for the wedding. I'll let you know when we set it. And I will let him know you want to talk to him.'

"Thank you, Ethan," Ulani expressed with love. "You can be assured I will be there for any important events in your life. Don't forget the info I need."

"Thanks mom, I'll tall to the Captain and get the information you need from the ship and I'll have Dylan call you. I am going to be okay, thanks to you and Dylan, and well I guess the rest of my shipmates as well. I'm glad we talked. I feel better now. I love you."

"I love you too, Buttercup!" She couldn't resist one last chance to see his cheeks flush. It was her nickname for Ethan. If his lover only knew.

She knew she had to protect Ethan. He was loving and caring, much more like Jaime than the others children. The others shared more of the daring, careless and action seeking of their mother. I will be there for you, Ethan.

"MOM, really, please don't call me that in front of himHer attempt to get him to blush was working, but he was also smiling.

"I'd love to see you and dad sometime, maybe even before the wedding. You have any time off?"

"I have some things demanding my attention," she told the half-truth. Of course, with her training in intelligence, her face did not show it. She was not revealing the things demanding her attention dealt with the information that Ethan would be sending her.

Her plans were to involve her contacts, with whom Ulani had kept in touch with over the years. Someone should know something about this Ian fellow. Then she would get personally involved. Ethan would see mommy dearest sooner than he thought. He knew her love for him, but would he think that love knew no bounds when it came to doing what needed to be done to protect him.

"Okay mom," he said trying to hide his disappointment. He knew she still kept a hand in things even though she was just supposed to be in the Reserves (OOC We can change this if you want). "Well I'll have Dylan call you. Just try to keep your drilling to Ian and not about the wedding, he's kinda shy."

"Good-bye, Buttercup," Ulani said with a tease. "I need to go freshen up. Always remember that I love you!"

Ethan was past blushing, but not past rolling his eyes, "G'night mom, I love you too."

A joint post by

Lt. Ethan Chaparral
ACMO
USS Hera

Ulani Chaparral
Citizen
Retired Starfleet

Lieutenant Commander Sinek exit the Commander's ready room and headed straight to Operations. He always set straight off to tackle the task at hand and resolve any issues. It was in his DNA.

It only took a few minutes of to get to Operations. Entering, he sought out the Chief of Operations. According to his PADD, it was a certain Lieutenant Ventarus Nosplet. THis task also gave Sinek the opportunity to work on the second task Commander Telvan gave to him: to get to know the other department heads.

Sinek pulled up a picture from Lieutenant Nosplet's Star Fleet file. He was struck by the Lieutenant's piercing violet eyes. Fascinating. A Xenexian.

Ven poped up from behind a crate in the messy office. The place really.looked more like a storage room then an office. It had wall to wall shelving that was packed with parts. The few tables in the room were used as work space for the many repairs that were going on.

Ven himself matched the room better then his profile picture. Messy hair that had a large pair of goggles resting in the nest of brown tangles. Little steaks of grease and grime covered his face, hands and uniform. He had a tool belt that hung low on his hips and was overlaiden with tools. But his eyes gave away who he was.

"Huh?" Ven said as he glanced over at who was entering.

Recognizing the set of eyes from the profile picture, the Vulcan introduced himself in his monotone way. "Lieutenant Nosplet, I presume. I am Lieutenant Commander Sinek. Commander Telvan sent me to assist with the sensors. What seems to be the malfunction?"

"Malfunction?" Ven asked glancing around. "I was not aware there was a malfuntion." he said stepping into the main part of the room. "You can call me Ven Commander." He added as he picked up a PaDD and swiped through the data on it. After a moment he handed the PaDD to the Commander with a pleased look on his face. "I recalabrated the entire system this morning. It took four hours to do but..." Ven trailed off noticing he had fineshed at three this morning. Had he even slept in the last twenty-four hours?

Sinek accepted the PaDD and gave it a quick scan. It didn't take much for the Vulcan's mind to accept all the information. According to the readings, the Operations Chief was correct.

"According to the data," Sinek reviewed, "Our sensors are running at 102% efficiency. Your hard labor is much benefit to the Hera. Continue the hard work. Is there anywhere that I may be of assistance?"

Ven's mind was a steal trap when it came to technical things, but he had no mind for even the simplest social things, like what position people held on the ship. "Yeah...what do you do again?" Ven asked as he scratched his head. "Would not want to ask you to vent a plasma manifold when you should be in sick bay ya know?"

Sinek understood the logic but not the humorous way it was presented. His face appeared to be stoic. "I am Lieutenant Commander Sinek," the Vulcan replied flatly. "I am the Chief Science Officer."

"Science...got it." Ven said "Well if I need anything I will gladly...THERE IT IS!" Ven suddenly exclaimed and bent down to scoop up a part from under a work table.

The Vulcan remained calm at the exclamation. He merely raised a brow, brought his hands together in a triangle before him and replied, "Indeed."

Ven looked up, almost shocked the man was still there. "Is there anything you need help with?" Ven asked nervously.

"It seems you have everything...," Sinek hesitantly responded, "...under control. I shall see where I am of more need."

Sinek nodded or bowed, he was not sure which, then turned to leave the operations area. He had never met one so eccentric as the COO. I probably never will in the future at that. Sometimes Sinek had trouble understanding how those of other races could complete tasks given to them. He didn't understand their system of doing things. It seems not highly logical that he could accomplish what he does. Yet he does. The thought brought another raised eyebrow to the Vulcan's face.

Once the door closed Ven shrugged and smiled. "Nice guy...needs to smile." Then his attention was drawn to the part in his hand. "Oh yeah!" He went to his work bench and started fitting pieces onto an old tricorder.

Kyle had lost track of time since being confined in the cold, damp, dark cell that he and Ethan shared. He was hungry. Their captors had given them nothing but water to drink since they had arrived and his stomach was gnawing away at him inside and driving him crazy. "I can't handle this for much longer." he uttered quietly, his voice echoing around the cold stone walls.

Ethan was hungry, cold and irritable. Not to mention more scared than ever. He had been doing his best to keep it together, to be the strong one but the longer they were held, the less confident he was feeling that his mom was going to be able to pull off a rescue. And Kyle, as much as he loved him, was starting to get on his nerves.

"I'm hungry too Kyle," he told him, "get over it." The words came out harsher than he intended. "Look babe, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that. I know you're hungry. Trust me so am I, but we just have to, I don't know, think about something else. You remember our first real date?"

"Our first kiss." Kyle smiled at the memory, trying to do as Ethan suggested as he welcomed the distraction.

"Yeah, our first kiss. We went out for iceswirls after you won the Parrises Squares game, with the last second goal. Everyone was ecstatic, but instead of going out with the team, or to he Headmaster's party, you went with me. Just me. And afterwards, as we were walking home, we kissed under the Clock Tower. I will never forget that."

"Me either." Kyle replied, "My very first kiss." he added, his eyes filled with love for the boy in his arms.

"And you know, I never plan to kiss anyone else. Kyle, my mom is coming. You know her. She's not going to let me, let us die. They'll be here."

"But it's been so long." Kyle replied, "And no-one has even checked on us...it's like we've been left here to rot."

"I know, babe," Ethan replied caressing the other boy's cheek. "But I'm telling you it's goi....."

His words were cut off as the outer door, thick and made from some kind of metal, slammed open and a man wearing a Picard mask stepped in.

"Well boys, I got some bad news for you, you two may not make it out of here alive. Or you may wish that we'd killed you after we do what we're going to have to do. It seems that Kyle's mommy and daddy, are stalling for time."

Two more men entered and aimed phasers at the pair of teens, they to were wearing masks. Picard opened their cell door, roughly grabbed Kyle, pulling him away from Ethan. He then backhanded him across his left cheek. Ethan started to intervene but the men with the phasers persuaded him not to.

"Please no!" Kyle whimpered as the men pulled him away from Ethan, "We'll do anything, just please...don't kill us." he begged before starting to cry.

Ethan was once more filled with a combination of anger and fear. Adrenaline was coursing through his veins and his heart thundered against his chest. He had been feeling a little irritated with Kyle's whining, even though he had been wanting to whine himself. But he wasn't feeling that now. He only felt love and concern for the other boy. More convinced than ever that if they got through this he was going to ask him to marry him. No matter what either set of parents thought.

The question was, would they actually get through this.

Picard looked at Kyle derisively. "You are such a pussy. At least you're boyfriend had the balls to not cry and fight back. I would kill you right now if you weren't still valuable." He slapped him again. "Now you're going to make another holo-vid and you're going to tell them, they have one hour to comply, or we'll cut off one of your fingers. Then every ten minuets, we'll cut off another one. It will be painful believe me. Then we're done with all ten fingers, you'll be of no use to us and we will execute you. It is important to get this right. Do you think you can handle it?"

"Anything." Kyle whimpered, "I'll do anything, just don't...please don't hurt either of us."

"Good," said Picard"Just tell them exactly what I told you." He then got out a hand-held holorecorder and turned it on. "Now talk," he said.

"M-Mom? Dad?" Kyle whimpered, "Please do as they say, if-if not they're going to cut off my fingers one by one until you pay." his voice trembled as he spoke, the terror in his voice unmistakeable.

Picardgrinned. He'd accomplished what he wanted to accomplish, even turned on a bit by the fear Kyle and Ethan were demonstrating. "Good, "he said. "Let's hope they get the picture now. We're going to upload and send it now."

********************************************************************
A few minutes later in the Cross home, the message from a very shaken and stressed out kyle was displayed. Ted just stared at it opened mouthed and in shock. He was no longer casting blame or caring about who his son was attracted to. He just wanted him back.

He turned to Ulani glaring at her. "So do you still say we should refuse payment? It is your son's life on the line too. What have you been doing to find them?"

"Well thanks to this most recent transmission we've got a fix on them." Ulani grinned from ear to ear as one of her team handed her a PADD. "So I guess we go and extract them right now." she added, eager to get going.

Ted's glare softened slightly. "Are you sure about this? I mean really sure?"

"I don't get things wrong." Ulani stated as matter of fact. "Now...I suggest you stay out of our way and let us do what it is we do."

"Very well," he replied, "I'm counting on you. They're counting on you."

********************************************************************

Ethan found himself alone in the cell. Kyle had been taken away, and he didn't know why, but he feared the worst. The resolve he'd been putting up, melted away. The facade of strength he had been doing his best to maintain crumpled.

Sacred and alone, he started to cry.

The shimmer of a transporter beam suddenly filled the room and Ulani plus one of her operatives materialised in the small cell, her eyes fell upon her son and relief flooded through her body as she rushed to him and gathered him into her arms. "Ethan...thank the gods."

The relief Ethan felt was instant, but fleeting "Kyle, they've taken him. You've got to get him back. I love him."

"Go." Ulani said to the man in black, "I'll take Ethan to safety and send Rogers down to join you."

The man nodded silently and after using a device to pick the lock to the cell door, exited the room, phaser in hand.

Uncaring that he was a naked teenage boy, he absorbed her hug and wrapped his arms around her in return.Tears flooding down his face, "Oh mom, I... I was so scared. I thought you weren't coming."

"Have I ever let you down?" Ulani whispered as she kissed the top of his precious head.

"No, you haven't. I just was feeling helpless and I had to be the strong one. I don't know how I did it. Kyle was just so, I don't know klingy, needy, but I don't care. I thought I liked him. liked him a lot. But I don't. I love him. I mean love him, love him like you and dad love each other."

"Feels great doesn't it?" Ulani smiled at him, "Well then, as you love him so much, let's get you back to the transport and then I can help the others find him."

"Okay," he said grateful that she took him seriously and that he was about to be reunited with the boy that he loved with all his heart.

"Come on, let's go." Ulani whispered, holding him tight as she tapped her combadge and waited for the extraction. Within seconds, a shimmering light heralded their salvation. Ethan was finally safe.

Her team began the search of the building. Three of the four would be kidnappers were found and eliminated. The men were loyal to Ulani, not Starfleet and had no qualms about killing the scum that had kidnapped a boy many of them considered a friend, and his friend. They did not however find Kyle.

TBC

A joint post by

Ethan Chaparral
&
Dylan Santiago

Sorry everyone, my "husband" pointed out I had posted these out of order. This should have been posted before The plot thickens.


Previously:
"I don't know," Ted replied, as he surveyed the room and found a black and gold PAaD that he knew wasn't Kyle's. He opened it and played the one message. As he did so his face drained of color, "Oh my god, Delia, what are we going to do?"

Delia snatched the PADD from her husband and watched it with horror as she saw her son reciting the words he'd been told to say, naked and terrified. "We have to help him." she whimpered, all thoughts of her son's homosexuality going out of the window as she found herself wanting nothing but having him home and safe once more.

"Of course we have to pay," Ted said, but we have to contact the Chaparrals too, they deserve to know."

And Now the continuation

Ethan wasn't sure how long he'd been asleep, but he'd had a nightmare to end all nightmares. It had started out to be one of those dreams where the sheets would be messed up in the morning, but quickly dissolved into something very different.

Then he felt the body entwined with his and opened his eyes. Realizing that it had not been a nightmare at all, but cold, stark, reality. "Kyle," he whispered, "are you okay?"

"Not really." Kyle replied, having been awake the whole time that Ethan had slept, "How about you?" he asked softly.

"Well being with you, next to you, does help. But I am still..." he turned over and looked into the other boy's eyes and saw the fear there. A fear even deeper than his own and knew he had to be the strong one. "I'm still scared, a little," he continued, "but like I told you, its going to be okay. My mom isn't your typical stay at home, or even corporate grind kind of woman. She's a spy, and a pretty ruthless and resourceful one she's not going to let anything happen to me, or us. You just gotta trust me."

"Yeah but they don't even know where we are...hell I don't know where we are." Kyle replied, "What if they don't get to us in time?"

"That's not going to happen. Remember, I have that transponder. As long as your folks, call mine, hell even if they don't, if I go missing they'll activate. I love you and I'm not letting anything happen to you."

"I know you won't but I can't help having a bad feeling about this...like something really, really bad is going to happen." Kyle sighed, holding onto Ethan as if his life depended on it.

Ethan could understand where Kyle was coming from. He was convinced that his parents, especially his mom, would come through, she always had before, but still, they had to survive until she got there. And what, on the off chance that she didn't, or that she did get there too late.

Sure she had put him and his siblings through simulations and drills, so he'd be prepared. But those weren't the same thing. He knew they'd been pretend. This wasn't. He'd never been more scared in his life. He could put on a show for kyle, but really that was just to keep both of them from giving into total panic.

He clung to Kyle as tightly as the other boy held onto him.

********************************************************************
"I'm calling the Chaparral's" Ted said, "They have a right to know, besides maybe they were after their brat and Kyle just got caught up in things and they decided to take advantage of the situation."

"Whatever it is, they deserve to know." Delia nodded, knowing that she'd want to know straight away.

Ted nodded his head curtly and looked up the Chaparral's contact info on his PAaD.

^=^Mrs. Chaparral, this is, this is Ted Cross, it's an emergency. Are you there?^=^

=^= Chaparral here...what's the emergency?=^= Ullani asked as she exited the shower, towel drying her hair.

^=^Kyle, Kyle and your son have been kidnapped, they're holding them, well holding Kyle for ransom. We have to do something, we have to give them what they want.^=^

Ullani stiffened as she heard Ted's words, =^= Don't do a thing. I'll be right there and then we'll formulate a plan.=^= Rushing for her bedroom, she began to throw on some clothes, quickly filling in her husband on what was happening as she dressed.

"Ethan and his boyfriend have been taken?" he asked his voice calm, his heart racing, "Do you want me to come with you?"

"If you want to." Ullani replied, "Depending on what's going on, I might need to call in some of the boys to help out." she added referring to the unit that she usually worked with on undercover missions.

"I'd go crazy sitting around here, and I'm not going into the office. I'm coming with you."

"Then let's go. Something tells me that we don't have time to waste." Ullani replied grimly as she finished dressing and tied her still wet hair up into a ponytail.

Jamie nodded, "I'll make arrangements for someone to come get the other kids, they can move into our panic room. They'll be safe there until we get back."

"Okay...meet you out front." Ullani replied as she began to open a locked box containing her weapons and equipment.

Jamie made some quick calls, including the hospital to let them know he wouldn't be coming in, so they could reschedule surgeries and he met his wife out front. He didn't carry weapons, no any more, but he planned on asking Ulani for one if it looked like things might go south, or more south than they already were.

"Follow my lead sweetheart." Ulani said softly to her husband as they got into their vehicle, "No heroics okay?" she warned him. Her husband was courageous and she knew he'd do anything for their son. She also knew that he wasn't trained the way that she was and she loved him too much to lose him to a stupid mistake.

"Of course," Jamie said, "who was the target, Ethan or Kyle?"

"Kyle." Ulani replied as she took off like a bat out of hell such that they were both pressed back against their seats, "My guess is that Ethan was just there at the wrong time and got caught up in it all."

"Well, I know they both must be scared, but I'm sure that Ethan will remember all the training you gave him, and the other kids, he didn't seem too bored with it. And he has the transponder too. We'll get through this." He laid a comforting hand on his wife's arm, though truth be told she was the stronger one in a situation like this.

"I hope that you're right." Ulani sighed as they skidded to a halt outside the Cross's opulent home.

Ted was waiting at the door and opened it with a curt nod. "We need to discuss your son's behavior and his corrupting Kyle,"he began, "but not now. We called you, because we thought you should know. I discussed this with my wife Delia and we are going to pay the ransom and not involve the authorities. We want our son, flaws and all back."

Suppressing the urge to punch Ted for what he had just said, Ulani replied "Paying the ransom is a mistake...the only way you'll get them both back alive is if we extract them."

"Extract them? First your son turns mine into a fag and fucks his ass, and now you want to get him killed by playing the hero? What happens if something goes wrong."

"Suit yourself but if you look at the statistics, few hostage situations end happily if the ransom is paid. Most victims die anyway." Ulani replied, "But far be it from me to tell you what to do. You do what you want, I however, am going to save my son." she glared at Ted before pointing upstairs and asking "They were abducted from the bedroom?"

Ted took a deep breath, antagonizing the woman who could possibly save his son, no matter how much of a deviant, her own son might have been, was probably not a good idea. Mustering what humility he could, "So what would you suggest we do then?"

"We look at the crime scene, we look at the ransom demand and then we go find them." Ulani replied as if it were simple.

"They were in Kyle's room, his suite actually. We've given him the pool house. He loves swimming so much, it just seemed natural. "Ted started then stopped himself as he realized that he was jabbering nervously. "Let's go."

He led the Chaparrals out of the main house to what was in essence Kyle's apartment. It had a bedroom, living area and a kitchen equipped with both a replicator and a small stove. The bedroom area was in disarray. One pillow was on the bed, another off. The sheets were twisted while the blanket was half on the bed and half off. The mirror on the dresser was cracked and the nightstand had been turned upside down. Ethan's PAaD was flipped on its side and beside the pillow on the floor.

Ulani moved to pick up Ethan's PADD, hoping beyond hope that he'd left some kind of message for them to decipher. "Jamie, see if you can access the transponder." she said to her husband as she handed him her own PADD.

Unfortunately, Ethan had not been able to leave any kind of message before he and Kyle had been taken away, however, he had been able to turn on the recording function and the whole event, including his getting shot was recorded.

Jamie tried accessing the transponder, but couldn't find a signal. He shook his head and cursed, "Nothing," he said, "I don't understand. It should be there, but it's not. I don't have anything."

"Damn." Ulani looked at her husband with a grim expression as she listened to the recording in horror. As she heard the thud which clearly signified her son collapsing to the floor, she said "That blast must have shorted out the transponder."

"So, what do you suggest we do now?" Ted asked, his tone bitter, "where is your grand Starfleet plan now? You implant your Ethan with some kind of device so in case the Imperialist tactics of the Federation come back and bite you in the ass, you'll be able to get him back, but then your faggot son goes and gets himself shot and eliminates the one chance we have of finding him and Kyle. Great, just great."

Jamie, not being as disciplined as wife exploded with anger. He crossed the distance between them and punched the man in the chin, knocking him to the floor. "Don't ever talk about my son like that again and focus on what we should be focused on, getting them back."

Stepping over Ted as if he wasn't even there, Ulani said "We're gonna need a full team on this if we're going to work out where they were taken."

"I heard a noise...I....Ted!" Delia came running into the room and rushed to her husband's side, looking up at the other two accusingly as she said "What did you just do?"

"Your husband was more interested in pointing fingers and calling people names to focus on getting our sons back. He called my son a faggot, which I resent since this is the 24th century and I am one too, or used to be. Anyway I'm sorry, but I just couldn't deal with him any more."

Unable to think of a suitable retort, Delia busied herself with helping her husband onto his feet.

Ulani had taken the time to contact her people and looked up at Jamie, "I've got a couple of the team on the way, they'll help me analyse the recording and design a search pattern to look for our boys."

"Good, I know your people are very good at what they do. We'll gt them back. Safe and sound, I know it."

A joint post by

Lt. Dylan Santiago
Intel Chief

Lt. Dylan Chaparral
ACNO

*** USS Bacon ***

Cameron Tenm had spent the last five years of his Starfleet career on Earth, working in Starfleet Medical. While there was no doubt in his mind that he enjoyed living in San Francisco while simultaneously pursuing his surgical fellowship, there was nothing that could compare to the feeling of experiencing open space.

Most people preferred the former; gravity plating on a starship never quite provided a consistent 1G of gravitational force, and the inertial dampeners tended to be a few micro-seconds behind any course adjustment or speed change. And until someone was properly acclimated to the effects of interstellar space travel, they’d experience nausea and disorientation, confusion, sleeplessness – all symptoms of what medical professionals like him regarded as “space sickness.”

But even when he’d been a mere child, Cameron had never experienced such a thing. He felt more comfortable – more alive – living under the imitation of gravity as could only be provided by a Starship. Which was why he’d been tremendously pleased once he beamed aboard the USS Bacon for its three-week journey to rendezvous with the USS Hera.

And now, the Klingon-Trill hybrid was standing on the Bacon’s transport platform waiting to have everything he was pulled apart, particle by particle, until carefully reassembled back aboard the Hera.

With a small duffel bag hoisted over his shoulder and kept in place with one hand at the strap, Cameron glanced down and to his right where his faithful companion waited with considerably less sureness. The brindle coated boxer-lab mix whimpered even as it sat restlessly on the transport pad next to Cameron.

“Don’t worry, Cairo,” the Klingon-Trill-Human hybrid said as he knelt down and gave the animal a quick pet across the head. “You’ll be fine.”

Cairo yawned and resumed his panting.
The transporter room officer at the controls cleared his throat, catching Cameron’s attention. “Uh, sir. They’re ready for you aboard the Hera.”

Cameron nodded and stood back up to his full height of 6’2, straightened his uniform and made sure that Cairo’s hair hadn’t gotten on it. “Very good. Energize, Chief.”

***

Enalia was still shaken up from the last mission, what with having lost so many people, the CMO among the dead. She had no choice but to select a replacement and it seemed Starfleet had sent her a spare one just on principle with the rest of her crew aboard the USS Bacon. There were now a full 783 souls aboard her ship and she just hoped she wasn't going to lose any more of them - especially the contingent of civilian scientists that had just come aboard.

Sighing heavily, she typed up a message for the computer to deliver to Lt Temn so she could give him the news of his greater responsibilities in person.

***

Cameron found himself rematerializing onto the Hera. As soon as the audible shimmer faded completely, he dared to move. Cairo was already off the pad, eagerly exploring around the new transporter room; the transporter chief looked less than pleased to have a dog running around in his area of control. Cameron shifted the weight of his duffel and then looked to third person in the room, a wry smirk crossing his lips. "Lieutenant Cameron Tenm, requesting permission to come aboard."

"Permission granted," Aelyn said, the fur on her tail bristling at the sight of the dog. The half-Caitian Executive Officer we definitely not a dog person and regarded the canine with more than just a hint of disdain, but otherwise remained cool and composed despite the agitated state of her calico tail. "You are aware that you are required to request permission to keep a pet?"

To Cameron's chagrin, Cairo chose that particular moment to sniff the largest feline in the room - the Caitian. For a moment, he was worried whether Cairo would let certain instincts regarding the Dog vs. Cat world to assume control, but as soon as he was finished, he moved on without another care in the world. "I wasn't, ma'am." Cameron began as he walked and leashed his canine friend. Cairo seemed less than joyous all of the sudden. "And you're free to consider this my request to keep my pet, a dog which I've had for..." he stopped and counted the days, months, and years in his head. "Around four years now."

"Starfleet policy, you should know this," Aelyn said with a sigh. Well at least the dog wasn't aggressive... "But since you've had the dog for some time, consider your request approved. I'll make sure your quarters are assigned near the arboretum so you won't have to go far to walk him."

"I appreciate it," Cameron added. "Ma'am..." he threw in at the end.

Aelyn nodded. "I believe the Captain wishes to have a word with you," Aelyn said in a somewhat aloof manner. "I can have a crewman take your dog and your belongings to your quarters."

Cameron nodded back. "Uh- I'd appreciate that, ma'am." He said, sliding his duffel out of its pocket against his shoulder and resting it on the floor.

"Chief, call someone to see to his belongings, and keep an eye on his dog," Aelyn said the transporter chief manning the room.

"Yes ma'am," he said, taking the dog's leash from Cameron and leaning down to give the dog an affectionate pat. "I'll take good care of him," he assured Cameron.

"Thank you, Chief." Cameron said, returning his attention to Aelyn. Until now, he'd never met a Caitian in person, and it was only at that moment that he realized that she had something else... too. Spots? How a Caitian and a Trill managed to make that work might as well have been a medical mystery. He gestured for the doorway. "After you, ma'am."

Aelyn did not indulge in idle conversation as she led Cameron to the lift. After recent events, she wasn't much in talking mood, and since she had nothing of merit relevant to their duties to speak of, it was a silent walk

For most of the deck, Cameron and Aelyn failed to say so much as a word to one another. If there was one thing that Cameron was slowly coming to realize, it was that the atmosphere on board the Hera was heavy. Even the transporter chief seemed as though he were being weighed down with some sort of emotional toll. But as much as Cameron could wish that he was properly apprised of recent events, his transfer had some so hastily that he wasn't.

They stepped into the turbolift, and gave the command to the computer to bring them to the bridge. This being a Nebula-class starship, that would take a while. "Is everything alright, Commander?" Cameron asked, peeking sideways at the Caitian. He figured that out of everything he could say, that was probably the least likely to be adverse.

"No, not in the slightest," Aelyn replied, hear ears drooping slightly. "We had a mission go badly, several officers died..." Aelyn sighed, then looked at Cameron with a tired expression. "I suspect that's why the Captain wished to speak with you as soon as you boarded."

Cameron felt much less jovial now. Suddenly it made a lot more sense as to why he was so assigned to the Hera so hastily. Wordlessly, he waited until the turbolift came to a halt on the bridge.

Enalia had left her ready room momentarily to confirm something at one of the science stations during their trip from the transporter room. Having just finished, she nodded to Aelyn and Cameron as they stepped out of the turbolift. "Lieutenant Tenm, I presume," she said grimly. "Welcome aboard. Please step into my office." Not waiting for a reply, she turned and headed straight back to her ready room.

Aelyn strode over to the Command pit to relieve the on duty officer while the Captain had a talk with the good doctor...

Cameron nodded and followed Telvan into her ready room. His first instinct was to make a joke or comment hoping to lighten the mood, but after what the Hera had been through, he didn't consider doing so a good choice. "I'm sorry for your recent losses," he said instead. "At first I didn't understand why my orders got pushed through so quickly. Now I do."

"You think you know," Enalia said sourly as she sat in her own seat behind the desk and motioned to the seat across from her. "You've already been reassigned from Chief Surgeon to Chief Medical Officer. We've lost 2 CMOs in as many weeks and we almost lost our new Assistant Chief as well."

"If you don't mind my asking, ma'am. I don't really have a solid idea of what happened here." Cameron asked, hating the fact that he didn't have a good idea of what took place to have caused so much death and damage. But his transfer to the Hera had been fast. And now he was the CMO? That was something he'd need to process later.

Enalia sighed lightly before starting in. "In summary, our first CMO went back to prison, then our replacement CMO was just killed and became undead Romulan chow. Our ACMO we got with our CMO replacement was kidnapped, tortured, and lost an arm. Then I was kidnapped, escaped, and rescued him. We also have a lobotomized patient we rescued from a Reman prison converted from a mining facility whose care you'll have to now oversee. Unless you'd like the EMH to take over, that is."

Fuck, Cameron thought, and even managed to let the look of surprise slip onto his face. From the sound of it, if things were to remain consistent, he would not have a very long life span ahead of him. As ridiculous as the offer was, Cameron was momentarily tempted to put his hands in the air and admit surrender prematurely. "Of course not, Captain. I'm up to the task."

"Excellent!" Enalia exclaimed, clapping her hands together in mock glee. "Live at least a month on this ship and who knows, you might get promoted."

Somehow, Cameron couldn't mimic the false satisfaction he was seeing. In fact, he felt like something very heavy had just been saddled onto his shoulders. Nevertheless, he wasn't exactly mortified, either. "Time to see if my Klingon genes pay off, I suppose." He managed with a wry smile.

"In that case, you might get to go on an away mission eventually. A nice safe zombie free away mission." Enalia said, relaxing and leaning back into her chair.

"Zombies?" Cameron asked, but then decided he didn't want to know after all. "Never mind. It's probably best I don't know. I'm ready to handle whatever you or anybody else throws at me, ma'am."

"Good. Get to work then. And just ignore my overdue physical." Enalia said, busying herself with a few PaDDs. "Do you have anything for me?"

There were probably no fewer than half a dozen questions that came to Cameron's mind. But they were all questions he could gain answers from by asking anybody else but the Commanding Officer of the Hera. And somehow, Captain Telvan seemed like the sort of person who, for the moment, needed some space for herself. "No ma'am. At least nothing at this time," Cameron answered.

"Excellent. If you need anything, I have an open door policy unless it's locked. Dismissed." Enalia flashed a polite smile to her new CMO before focussing fully on the PaDDs before her.

"Aye aye, ma'am." Cameron said, turning towards the door and exiting.

Ethan had been crying for most of the morning. The antics of his brother, his sisters continual coming into the room to console him, his father's attempts to offer counsel and solace, nor his mother's promise to find who had taken his beloved Kyle, had left him inconsolable. He had finally locked himself in his room and refused to come out.

Everything had happened so fast. First, there was the joy of being rescued, his mother's arms wrapped around him, being beamed to his home, being bombarded with questions before he had even gotten a chance to clothe himself, the ones from his younger brother about his nudity,being embarrassing and funny at the same time. But when Kyle was not found, that joy was quickly crushed.

The Crosses were of course even more devastated than Ethan was. When they discovered that Ethan's transponder had shorted out when he had been shot, and had taken time to repair itself and reboot. Time that could have been used to track them down earlier, they placed the blame squarely on Ethan's shoulders. Blaming him for Kyle's presumed death. Him and his parents, for their reassurances that a rescue could be effected.

They had even filed suit against the family, charges which were quickly dismissed. In addition, they had placed ads and written letters to the editor of every on-line publication in and around San Francisco. But the worst thing, the absolute worse thing in Ethan's mind was they had held a funeral for Kyle and barred Ethan and his family.

Ethan had taken the blame for Kyle's death, accepted the responsibility, he knew it was his fault. He was sitting on the edge of his bed, thinking dark thoughts. Thoughts perhaps of even taking his own life.

"Hey sweetie." Ulani said softly as she let herself into Ethan's bedroom, "How are you doing?"

"How do you think?" he replied dully, "the boy I loved, that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with is gone and its my fault. If I hadn't tried to play the hero, he'd be here with me and we'd be... we'd be together. His parents hate me and I don't blame them. And our family's name is being drug through the mud."

"I don't care about the way we're being treated." Ulani replied, "But I do care about you." she added as she sat down on the bed beside him, "And it's killing me to see you so upset."

"But its my fault he's dead. Mine. I can't go... I can't just go on as if nothing had happened. It hurts so much."

Pulling him into her arms, Ulani said "It wasn't your fault, you can't blame yourself for the act of a few evil men."

He snuggled against her as he had when he was just a little boy and felt some comfort. "But, but if I hadn't tried to do something, I wouldn't have been shot and then my transponder wouldn't have gone off line and you would have gotten there sooner. And, and he'd still be alive." The tears were flowing freely down his face as he leaned against her.

"My beautiful son, you have to stop playing the 'what if' game. It'll eat you alive. I know it's hard but you've got to move on with life. You'll probably always love him but in time the pain will subside, I promise."

********************************************************************

Ted laid a comforting hand on his wife's shoulder, "Those people and their damned Starfleet did this to our son. From the very beginning, I knew they were bad news. Allowing that sick, twisted, kid near our boy, corrupted him. If they hadn't been, been, well you know, then he wouldn't have been taken and then we allowed that, Ulani bitch to convince us to try it her way. And look where it got us. It is all their fault. We need to ruin their lives like they ruined ours."

Looking at him, with empty, dead eyes, Delia replied "Whatever you think is best dear." The woman had been virtually mute since she had been given the news. The thought of what had happened to their precious boy was eating away at her from the inside. Her dreams were full of nightmares of what could have happened to him and upon hearing the news that he was lost to them it was if a light went off inside of her, extinguishing everything she was except for the hatred she felt for whoever had killed her son.

He turned to her, "You know, I did love him. I mean I thought he needed therapy, but I still loved him. And they took him from us. Yes we really do need to ruin them." He really hadn't noticed his wife's expression, he was too preoccupied with his own pain and grief. Though to be honest, he'd pretty much been consumed with his own needs for a long time.

"Whatever you decide, I'll support you, you know that." Delia replied, her voice like an automaton.

"Good, we will see them pay if it is the last thing i. we do."

********************************************************************

"But mom, I don't see how its going to get better, I just don't know what to do."

"Give it time. Allow yourself to heal." Ulani replied, "And as for what to do, you get on with life. Study hard and follow your dreams. In time you'll find love again." she added soothingly.

Ethan wasn't sure his mother was right. All he felt now was pain. All the could think about was Kyle.

A joint post by

a young Ethan Chaparral

Dylan Santiago TEMPORARILY playing an ageless Ulani Chaparral

Ven sat in his office, well it was called an office. The room looked more like a place where the ops and engineering staff tossed used parts. Actually, it was both. He was hunched over a table twisting wires together on something he had been working on for a while now. He had even taken the thing into a staff meeting with him.

Aelyn was concerned about the Hera's Chief of Operations. She was still largely unfamiliar with the staff, having been busy with desk work to help lighten their Captain's workload, but now the half Caitian Officer was trying to rectify her distance with the crew. She hoped to get to know them better, starting with the Xenexian officer, Ventarus Nosplet. He seemed to have no prior experience running a department and his deportment left a lot to be desired. Apparently, he had been promoted from within rather than having Starfleet send for a proper replacement. She had a feeling that mentoring him would require a great deal of work, but it would be worth it. She had read his departmental reports and there was great promise, he just needed a little guidance. Aelyn brought herself to the office of the Operations Chief and rang the chime.

Ven looked up at his door. This was his office not his room so he was Not use to people ringing the bell to come in. Most people just barged in. Who ever was showing this new level of respect for Ven had already impressed him. "Please come in."

Aelyn entered and took in the clutter that surrounded them. What a mess! There didn't even seem to be an empty chair for her to use. It seemed she had her work cut out for her! "Lieutenant Nosplet, what is the meaning of this mess?" she asked.

Ven watched Aelyn enter and look around. He also looked around. "Mess? Where?" He looked under the table where he sat.

"Why are all these parts in your office?" Aelyn asked, looking about through some of the used parts strewn about. "These are all used. Lieutenant, there are storage lockers for this sort of thing, and most of this should be bound for recycling anyway."

"Oh! Well they are!" Ven explained and held up what he was working on. It looks like it was once a tricorder but it was not anymore. "In my spare time I invent things...you like coffee?"

"I do," Aelyn said as she picked up and examined the tricorder Ven was working on. "What does this do now?" she asked, able to see that he had changed its primary functions.

Ven's eyes lit up, he loved nothing more then showing off his gadgets. "Let me show you!" He said holding his hand out for the device back. "This little guy is going to change away missions forever!"

"Please, show me," Aelyn said, handing the device back to the excited Engineer with a curious tilt of her head.

Ven took the hand held device and typed something into the controls. He then pointed it at the table and pressed one of the buttons. A blue beam shot out of the top and in a mater of seconds a white coffee cup with a black liquid materialized before them.

"Behold!" Ven exclamed excitedly. "Coffee!"

Aelyn's eyes widened as she watched the mug of coffee materialize before them. Her nose twitched as she detected the aromatic brew. It smelled like coffee, but something was off... "Impressive," she said, then reached out to take the cup. "Stable, sturdy container and properly replicated fluid dynamics... Although you have a few bugs to work out; this coffee is cold." She brought the cup closer to get a better whiff of the scent, then a cautious taste. "And very bitter, but that could just be the replicator pattern you're using. I would say run the pattern through a regular repicator to test for pattern accuracy." But her initial impressions? Definitely impressed!

"Yeah..." Ven said looking at the thing. "It still get confused over hot and cold...ice cream was messy. I'm also having trouble coming up with a small enough mater container. So far I have gotten it small enough to replicate most drinks and some smaller foods, but it only holds enough for a few uses then needs a recharge. But that's the fun of inventing! Working out the kinks." Ven set the device down. "As you can see Commander, I bring this stuff here to help better the crew. Anything I don't use I always recycle back into the replicators. I alway felt that there was no point in using brand new replicated parts when used ones would work just fine. If I can get this thing to work right, I'll present it to the captain and then I'll make fresh ones to keep in our emergency kits."

"Innovative. It definitely needs those kinks ironed out, but i could see how something like this could be useful in an emergency situation. But you can't keep all the spare parts in your office. You also can't bring this stuff into staff meetings. You're a department head and a Senior Officer, you're supposed to be setting an example for those working under you," Aelyn said seriously. She wasn't relly scolding him... well, maybe she was, but she was trying to be nice about it.

Ven wore a confused look And he cocked his head to the side. "I don't understand. None of the crew were at the meeting and I stopped once the meeting started. And how is storing and using used parts for the ship not setting a good example?" He was clearly not being demeaning, but honestly asking.

It's true, none of your subbordinate were are the meeting, but that is not the point," Aelyn said with an exaperated sigh. Alright, so maybe this was going to be more work than she originally thought... "A staf meeting is not the place for tinkering. Your full attention should be on the meeting, and you should be conducting yourself in a manner that is fitting of an officer of your station. You come to meetings and the bridge in a dissheveled state; you can do better, Mr. Nosplet."

Ven immediately wilted under the small verbal lashing. Any typical Starfleet officer would have been able to deal with such a small scolding, but Ven was anything but a typical officer. Truth be told, many have wondered in the past how he got there in the first place.

He sagged into a nearby seat and stared at his shoes. "Yes ma'am" he barely squeaked out.

"Now, with that out of the way, I do want to say I'm encouraged by everything else I've seen from your performance so far," Aelyn went on. Goodness, how had this timid thing managed to make it to Chief of Operations?! "You need some polishing, which I will work with you on, but you work well with your peers, your subordinates look up to you and respect you and follow orders well, you manage the ship very well. I am pleased. And your inventions are an added bonus, but you will need to work on them on your own time, not while you're on duty. I will, however, authorize lab space for you to dedicate to your tinkering so you can keep your office neat."

Of everything she just said, only one thing made its way into his mind. "A lab?" He peaked up at Aelyn from under his mess of hair. "Like, a real lab?"

"Yes, a lab," Aelyn said with a hint of laugh. "And you must keep it in order. I don't expect it to be clean all the time, but I should be able to come through at any time and walk without hinderance, find a chair, and find the replicator." Though the last bit of that was just to tease him for the state of his office and not being able to sit down or get a cup of coffee, but she would make it a real stipulation if she found he was keeping the lab space in complete disarray.

"More chairs...got it." But his mind was already wandering to the idea of having a proper work space for all his gadgets. His finger bounced off his lips as he stared off into space.

Aelyn chuckled with a shake of her head. This one was certainly interesting! "Focus, Mr. Nosplet," Aelyn scolded gently. "First order of business, I'd like you to clean your office. Then in the morning, report to my office looking properly dressed, meaning no dirt or grease on your face and no wrinkles in your uniform, and then we can go over unallocated space to set up your lab."

Ven looked at her in confusion again. "How could I possibly clean all this up before I get the space to store it in?"

"You're a clever fellow, I'm sure you'll figure it out," Aelyn challenged him. She could simplify things by just letting him pick his lab space now, but she needed to affirm the boundaries: work before pleasure, meaning his office had to be clean before he could get the lab. But she had faith that he could figure out a solution.

Ven looked around the office then back a Aelyn. "Ok, I'll move it all." He said with out explination. Beaming the lot to cargo bay two would work out since he knew it was empty and the cargo that was going to go in there was now in a different dimension...or timeline or something.

"Very good," Aelyn replied with a nod. He seemed resolved and that was good enough for her. "I'll see you in the morning, Mr. Nosplet, bright and early," she added as she turned to leave.

"When bright and early?" Ven said to her back. He hardly slept so sometimes it was hard for him to know exactly what time it was. Actually the only time he really got sleep was when Amelia came and dragged him off to bed. "I don't want to be late."

"In the morning, start of duty shift," Aelyn reminded him. "Come to my office and I'll approve your lab space."

"See you then." Ven said as he stood and picked up a PaDD. He was going to have to spend the next few hours placing transporter tags on everything in his office. Time to get to work.
TAG

Deciding to use his chat with Nexi as as chance to meet one of his staff, the thought foremost in his head was that Dylan didn't want to disappoint Ethan by failing to convince her to go on tonight's blind date.

Wandering out of his office, he looked around. It took some searching to find her, but eventually he spotted her in the shuttlebay, the woman whose picture he'd seen in her personnel file and wandered over, a charming smile on his face as he said "Hi...you must be Nexi."

"A-yup," Nexi said as she examined some work the Hera's Engineers had recently done on her ship, the Wandering Star. She crouched by one of the thrusters to really get a good look at the repair job, then nodded approvingly. "What can I do for you, Boss?" she asked without looking up at him to properly acknowledge him. Instead, she scooted over to another thruster to look at the degradation of the parts to see if it needed any repairs or replacements, getting her hands good and dirty in the process.

"Oh I'm uh...just doing the rounds, you know, getting to know the people I'm going to be working with." Dylan replied, figuring that his charming smile wasn't going to work whilst she was so busy with the shuttle.

"Well, I usually work alone, so I'm still getting used to this whole 'team player' thing, but so far I don't mind working with that Angel girl over in Security. She seems to have her head on straight," Nexi said idly as she worked. "Oh, and I met your boyfriend. I was in your office reading stuff I shouldn't be looking at when he came by to find you."

"You were in my office poking around?" Dylan looked suddenly annoyed even though he knew that he kept the good stuff locked away, "And just what gave you the right to do that?" he added, clearly miffed.

"Because I'm nosy," Nexi admitted shamelessly. "Please, you can't tell me you didn't at least expect it. I refuse to believe the Captain didn't at least warn you about me, and as a legit spook you should've expected it."

"The Captain didn't even mention you and as for expecting it, that's why I have the good stuff locked away." Dylan replied with a grin.

"Yeah, locked away..." Nexi said with a snicker. "So, what can I do for you, Boss?" Nexi finally said, standing and dusting off her hands on her pants.

Ignoring her question, Dylan said "Does that mean you've been snooping elsewhere as well?" He watched her and made a mental note to keep a close eye on her. Clearly she was someone who was a bit of a loose canon.

"I don't like the term 'snooping'," Nexi said seriously. "I prefer 'creative information gathering'."

"Oh do you now?" Dylan crossed his arms and glared at her. This meeting was not going as planned.

"Yes, I do," Nexi replied with a nod. "Now seriously, what do you want? I got a lot to get done today."

"Polite aren't you?" Dylan commented dryly before saying "Like I said, I'm just getting to know my staff." then he grinned and added "And in that spirit, I'd like to invite you to a housewarming party and me and Ethan are having. We're moving in together and want to celebrate." then he fell serious and added "I'm hoping that it'll help to take his mind off...you know, what happened."

"I'm polite when it benefits me," Nexi said, rubbing her fingers together in a way that seemed to have a universal meaning: money. Shit, Enalia seriously said nothing to this guy! Nexi almost felt sorry for him. Almost. "But in this case, I suppose I could show up for a party. I guess I can appreciate what you're trying to do for your boyfriend, and I usually ain't one to turn down free food. Will there be booze? The real stuff, not that face synthohol shit."

"There'll be booze." Dylan chuckled, choosing to ignore her rather crass mention of payment "I have a few cases of wine from back home in the cargo bay..." then he paused and frowned as he asked "You do like wine?"

"Wine is fine," Nexi said. "Oh, by the way, I have something for your man," she said, digging around in her pocket for something. A moment later, she pulled out a memory stick and handed it to Dylan. "I'd give it to him at dinner, but even I know better than to ruin the mood with something like this."

"What is it?" Dylan asked, turning the memory stick over in his hand.

"Proof that he doesn't have to be afraid anymore," Nexi said cryptically. "He doesn't have to watch it.. If anything, he's probably too soft to see what's on it, but maybe just holding it and knowing what's on it will give him some closure. The crew of the Raptor are dead, they can't hurt anyone anymore." It was a surprisingly thoughtful gesture from someone like her who couldn't show an ounce of consideration for another person unless there was some benefit in it for her. Maybe taking care of her disabled sister was having a bigger impact on her than she thought...

"That'll make him sleep better." Dylan nodded, making himself a promise to review the contents of the stick before he let Ethan anywhere near it. "And thank you...I'm sure that he'll appreciate it."

Nexi nodded, then returned her attention to her ship. "So what you want me to show up for this shindig?"

"Gotta have some folks to turn up for it...does eight o clock sound okay?" Dylan replied, pocketing the stick and finding himself unsure how to take the woman.

"Alright, I'll be there," Nexi replied agreeably enough.

"Excellent. Well I'll let you get back to whatever it was you were doing and I guess I'll uh...see you tonight." Dylan replied as he began to back away towards the door.

Enalia had been in the conference room for several minutes now, sorting through about 20 PaDDs of sensor data collected during their trek through the temporal anomaly. Rather than her customary cup of tea, she had a mug of coffee next to her as well as a carafe with even more. Checking the time, she hoped the senior staff would be filing in shortly.

Angelica yawned as she entered the conference room, still trying to comb tangles out of her hair with her fingers. She'd already been asleep in her bed when the call for the briefing came through, and for several minutes she'd contemplated either ignoring it or showing up in her pajamas. That fantasy hadn't lasted long, and she'd gotten her uniform back on... but she'd neglected her hair, and immediately upon entering the room she felt ridiculously self-conscious. Checking her pocket, she found a hair elastic and pulled her hair into a ponytail, hiding most of its tangled imperfection as she sat down in an empty chair at the table.

"Morning," Enalia muttered, pausing her search through PaDDs for a moment to sip at her coffee. "Did you sleep at all?"

"You have an odd definition of the word 'morning'," Angelica grumbled at Enalia, wondering just what was going on that was so important it warranted dragging the senior staff out of bed. "I got maybe an hour. Maybe." If she was going to be honest about it, it was sheer luck that she'd even woken up to the call. She'd crashed pretty hard.

"That's an hour more than I got. I hope you know about Garth of Izar and the deployment of the Ares class of ship. That battle is going to take place in six hours." Enalia didn't even look up from her PaDDs at Angel's grumpiness.

"Don't play pranks on me right after waking me up." Angelica briefly inspected Enalia's coffee carafe then thought better of drinking it on an empty stomach. "And just in case you're serious, I know a little."

"Good," Enalia said. "And no pranks. A temporal vagina sucked us back to the year 2244. We're currently hiding in the Cygnus system asteroid belt and Operation Pegasus is right outside our hangar bay, preparing for combat."

"Uh huh..." Either Angelica wasn't quite awake or Enalia wasn't making sense. Or perhaps both. "Well. Even you couldn't make up a story like that."

"I wish I was," Enalia grumped as she tossed a PaDD down the table towards Angel with the tactical data on their current situation.

"Great. Time travel and a crazy man." Angelica rolled her eyes, skimming over the PaDD. "You realize our weaponry is way too advanced for this period, right? If we get involved, people are going to notice that. That and the whole thing about being a rather unusual ship..."

"Yeah, the Hera isn't exactly a common design in this era..." Enalia said, sipping at her coffee again. "Maybe there's a way we could invert our ship wide holo-emitter system and use it to disguise the ship itself..."

"Whoa. Too technical." Angelica held her hands up, shaking her head. "Wait for the engineering types... I don't understand that stuff."

"Morning..." Dylan stepped inside the conference room, looking bleary eyed as he took a seat at the table.

Aelyn followed Dylan in just seconds later, looking a bit rough around the edges. "I'm not 'baby sitting' that girl again," she said quite bluntly as she took her seat to the right of Enalia. Nexi had apparently disappeared right after the away mission for reasons known only to Enalia and Angel, and someone had to look after Aewia in Nexi's absence. After the ship got jostled about, Aewia got clingy and Aelyn almost couldn't make it out of her quarters to attend the meeting. "If Nexi wants to run around doing who knows what, that's her business, but she can't just dump her responsibilities on other people without making arrangements!"

Finally glancing up from her mountain of PaDDs, Enalia made the best cute pouting face she could. "Aww, but you two are so cute together." Looking back down at the array before her, she was all business again. "Besides, she likes you and her telepathic abilities are coming back. That means Nexi needs to flush a lot of stuff from her mind in some Betazoid-Vulcan mind purging nonsense. I'd take care of her, but my spots aren't as nice to cuddle."

"Why would she-" Aelyn started, then shook her head. "You know what, I don't wanna know. But next time she goes running off to do whatever requires mental purging, she needs to make arrangements for Aewia's care," the half-Caitian insisted, settling back in her chair with a huff, taking one of the PaDD's and glossing it over. "So, what caused the commotion earlier?"

"Some temporal bullshit. Find us a way home and I'll babysit Aewia for you." Enalia replied back.

"It's way too early in the day to be dealing with temporal bullshit..." Aelyn grumbled, taking a spare mug next to Enalia's carafe of coffee and pouring some of the aromatic brew for herself.

Enalia scoffed at the too early comment. "Too bad - the Borg had different plans. Now we get to watch Garth of Izar kick some ass." Finished with one of the PaDDs, she tossed it down the table. "That's the sensor data on the Borg Probe before it vaporized itself."

"Vaporized... itself?" That was downright weird, and Angelica's expression was one of pure befuddlement. As if the time travel insanity wasn't enough to deal with.

"Mmhmm," Sipping at her coffee a moment, Enalia held up another PaDD and tossed it down the table as well. "It seems that rather than letting us disable it, they decided a core breach was preferable."

"Borg." Angelica rolled her eyes then rested her head on her hands, wishing this was all a bad dream that she was going to wake up from later.

The flight controller calmly entered the room, dressed in her uniform pants, boots, and a black ribbed t-shirt with her combadge and pips on it. Her uniform jacket was slung over her shoulder, obviously a casualty of not having enough time to get here. Taking her seat, she listened to what went on..

Lieutenant Cameron Tenm entered the conference room a moment later and found the CO and First Officer already situated and discussing their recent situation. He was still having a difficult time accepting what he was hearing from the science officers -- that somehow, the Hera had been translated from one universe into another. At least Tallara was here. "Ma'am," he said, his voice a little detached.

Glancing up from her mountain of PaDDs, Enalia decided there were enough people here for this. "Anyone else shows up, they'll have to be back-briefed. Computer, start recording. Ship's log, type meeting. Stardate... two two four four point one, relative." Chirping merrily, the computer started the requested recording.

Time... Time was of the essence and they had precious little of it, even being thrown back in time 145 years. "The way I see it, we have 3 objectives. One, make sure there's no Borg influence left in the area. Two, find a way home. Three, try our damnedest to not fuck up our own history."

"For number one, sensors aren't detecting anything of Borg origin larger than a peanut. I think it's safe to say we're safe on that count, but let's keep our eyes open none the less." Holding up a collection of 3 PaDDs and waving them in the air a moment, Enalia continued. "As for number two, we have one of the best deflector arrays Starfleet has ever built and our sensor platforms are unparalleled even by modern standards. If we can't produce something a Borg probe pulled out of it's ass, something's wrong."

"As for number three... Vigilance... I want around the clock monitoring by tactical, science, and intel officers on the sensor feeds. We're sitting in a good position right now so unless we fuck up, no one should see us. There isn't even a mining team that'll be out in this part of the asteroid field for over thirty years." Enalia picked up the carafe and poured the last of it into her mug.

"And four..." Shaking the now empty carafe, Enalia set it back down on the tray of mugs. "We're out of coffee."

Sitting back in his chair, Dylan tried to get his head around what he was hearing. Time travel? Them? Seriously? Despite the mind bending nature of the news, his mind was already going to who he was going to assign to help him with the round the clock shifts for his department.

Ven came wandering in, completely oblivious that he was late. He had an arm load of parts with him and he immediately dumped on the table and took a seat. When Ven's typical disheveled looks made him stick out around the polished star fleet group, today it was his extreamly awake and with it look that set him apart.

With out a nod or hello Ven plopped himself in his seat and started humming to himself quietly as he started attaching parts together right there at the table.

Angelica wasn't paying much attention to what Ven was doing until it caught her attention that he was putting something together. Curious, she sat up a little straighter to watch him.

Soon after, Richard walked in with a large mug of coffee in his hand, with an annoyed look on his face. Sitting down in his seat, he raised an eyebrow and asked "What's new, Commander?"

As the man she didn't know walked in, Airi got up, quietly striding over to the replicator. "Computer, repeat last order of Commander Talvan, make that two please." With a beep, two mugs of carafe coffee materialized, and she placed one down in front of the commander before resuming her usual seat. The antics of Ven did not go un-noticed either. Our operations guy is a morning person. Great. she thought.

Lieutenant Commander Sinek looked his crisp self as he walked in. He had an hour of rest and felt ready to do whatever task needed to be done. His logic had shown him that he was more a part of this crew. He believed he had found a home.

Sinek took a seat, relaxed and straight. He had just come from the Science section of the ship perusing the sensor readings before and after the event the Commander had already been reporting to the Senior Staff. His team was prepared to work around the clock to come up with a solution to their dilemma.

Pushing a large stack of PaDDs over and scattering them down the table, Enalia wasn't happy that so many of her senior staff were both late, and so awake after she had briefed those that were here on time and barely awake. "There's the data on our situation. The next time any of you are late, you'll all be assigned 48 consecutive hours of manually scrubbing plasma injectors."

"With a toothbrush," Angelica added, annoyed that they all appeared to have actually slept. Ven's forming contraption no longer held her attention; she was dead tired and wanted to go back to bed. "Since you're all so well-rested, you can start your mission preparations as soon as the meeting's over." She knew it was likely that everyone would be doing their mission preparations, but the threat of working when no one else was always seemed to keep officers on their toes.

"Wow everyone's so chirpy this morning." Dylan muttered under his breath as he took his PADD and began to read it.

"I'm sorry, Lieutenant Santiago, did you say something?" Angelica wasn't normally the type to call someone out on the carpet, but comments like that during staff meetings just weren't necessary.

"Oh I said, uh, everyone's got a lot to do this morning." Dylan replied with a sheepish grin on his face.

Ven glanced around the table as he took the PaDD. Everyone was so snippy. He glanced at the day and time on the PaDD and his eyes bugged out. "Whoa! I have not slept in four days!" He said, shocked.

"I haven't had more than an hour a night since the last mission ended a week ago." Enalia snipped back. "And as much as I want to know what toys you brought to the table, right now I'm more interested in being able to recreate that temporal anomaly. Can we do it or should we look for that asshole doughnut of forever thing?"

Ven wilted at the Captain's snap and sagged in his chair. His hands fell to his lap and his eyes followed. "I don't know anything about temporal anomaly's" he muttered under his breath.

"Take it easy, Nosplet. She's just mad her ship is lost." Watching Ven practically melt in his chair, Angelica almost felt sorry for him. He was only being his dorky self, forgetting to sleep and not coming to meetings on time because he found some toy to play with. For now she was staying out of the 'this is how little sleep I get' game, but she didn't think she'd ever slept more than three hours straight since they'd launched. The past week with all its crises meant more interruptions, and she'd lost track of how many times some panicked voice had called her from sleep to handle something.

"That's it exactly. Take things with a grain of salt." Enalia said, tossing another PaDD down the table, this one sliding off the end onto the floor. "Take a look at the sensor logs of that Borg probe and tell me if our deflector systems can reproduce that. If not, we'll have to make our way to..." Picking up another PaDD, she glanced at a star chart. "...Bepi 113 and slingshot around that sun and hope we get home rather than nosedive into it."

Ven picked up the PaDD and glanced over the readings. "Oh this will be super simple. Get me this probe and I'll have us home before the weeks over." He said with a shrug and tossed the PaDD back on the table.

"The probe vaporized itself." Enalia chirped back in mock cheeriness. "Anything else that's atomic dust that you'd like?"

Ven melted again, this was clearly not going to be his meeting. "No ma'am..."

Airi hadn't had much to contribute. Especially since she was well rested. She was listening. Reading how the cards were by the way each one held their eyes. Angelica needed to lighten up, since she was seemingly radiating tension. Probably from lack of sleep and competent help. Heh, lucky her, being flight control. None of this was voiced, a mere nod at the Commander's words to not be late again.

"Comparisons of sleep counts and snark aside." came her voice after Enalia's sarcasm, directed to her. "Since everyone on the ship is gonna be busy with this temporal timey wimey thing, how about I take my stealth fighter out and observe the battle? State of the art sensor and stealth systems, and I can handle myself if anything does come after me. That way we get historical fun times, and a lookout just in case anything nasty appears." She could think of quite a few cases where a lookout would have been useful..

"That's the first really helpful thing I've heard." Enalia flipped through a few more PaDDs before tossing one towards Airi. "There's the records of the battle. Don't change the timeline and be careful. And remember that stealth isn't cloak. I'd get with Nexi and coordinate with her just in case you need backup."

"I can... try to modify our weapon output to match this time period," Angel offered, rubbing her eyes. It took far longer to string the thought together than she would have liked, and she wasn't even sure she could actually follow through on the offer. "I'll need some help though. Maybe Crewman Takethen? That's one of her specialties, isn't it?"

Enalia nodded thoughtfully. "Power systems specialist. During the refit she was integral in helping me get the pod working again. The entire EPS system had been blown out. In fact, I'd say that if anyone could help you get our phasers blue, it's her."

"Great. I'll talk to her." Angelica hoped that Amelia had gotten some sleep or this project would be going nowhere fast.

"As the Captain stated," came Sinek's even reply, "It is important that we do not change the space-time continuum. If we distort even a minute in this time period, the butterfly effect could be disastrous to our time. The Federation could even cease to exist, especially if the Borg or any of our enemies steal the stealth technology.

"It would not be logical for us to participate in the battle given the possibilities that we could distort this continuum."

"Sinek... even if we avoid this battle, there may come a situation that requires us to fight. We should be ready for that possibility as well." Angelica thought that Sinek had a pretty valid point, but they still had to be prepared with a convincing disguise, just in case.

The Vulcan raised a brow. Angelica had impressed him with her thoughts and action in her dealings with the Deltan, Sela. She had seemed to be very logical for the most part in her thinking. He had not seen much of her emotional side as yet.

"Indeed," he replied. "May I suggest that we stay on the peripheral?"

"That might work..." Angelica thought about it for a moment and nodded. Tactically, it made sense for them to be involved as little as possible. There was less chance for blowing their cover.

Sinek knew of the previous starship called the Hera, Captained by Captain Silva La Forge. It had mysteriously disappeared. Sinek's mind was trying to calculate the possibilities of its disappearance happening the same way as the present Hera's disappearance in it's own time. Of course, it could not have gone backward in time, but perhaps it had gone forward in time.

"Captain, have you considered the possibility of the previous Hera's disappearance may perhaps be due to the same type of anomaly?" the Vulcan asked. "Some have attributed it to chaotic space, but no one has truly solved that disappearance."

"Since we didn't know about the Borg, nor did they know about us, I would rule that out. It's an interesting theory though. The original Hera was a type 1 Nebula class so she wouldn't have had the resources to go through a temporal anomaly like that unscathed. Our Hera is a Type 3 Bonchune series based directly off the Galaxy class." Enalia said, distracted by yet another PaDD but looking up with a hint of a smile at the Vulcan for a moment. "In fact, this ship is the Bonchune technically. When I took command she was renamed for the prior Hera."

Sinek noticed the smile and wondered what was behind it. Those of other species smiled for many reasons. It could be a happy smile, a sneaky smile, a smile that meant a person had one upped the other or it could mean something struck the person as funny. The Vulcan didn't know how to interpret the smile.

So he said what Vulcan's said when they had nothing more to add: "Indeed," which when said with no inflection as the Vulcan's tended to do, could mean anything: "I understand," "I agree," ""It is logical," "You know it," etc.

"Interesting theory, all the same." Angel tried valiantly to suppress the following yawn, eventually succeeding but finding her eyes watered as a result. Hate when that happens. Disguising the motion as simply rubbing her eyes, she wiped them clear again and shook her head slightly, trying to wake up a bit more. "Captain, if you don't mind I'd like to get those weapons simulations and changes started."

Enalia glanced up from her PaDDs for a moment. "Yeah, if no one has anything else you're all dismissed."

"I'll be coming by within the hour to check everyone's progress," Aelyn said as she rose from her chair. "And feel free to voice any concerns or ideas regarding our situation. This is a tricky one and we'll need everyone working together to get us out of it. So let's get to it."

As officers began to exit the conference room, Sinek picked up a PaDD and began looking. Addressing the Commander, he asked, "Commander Telvan, do we know if the probe may have picked up on the Hera's presence?"

"Honestly, until we fell into the temporal anomaly I have no idea." Enalia said, not even glancing up. "I can't even find much in the sensor logs that would tell us how it created the anomaly in the first place. Not my specialty though so that's really no surprise."

"Perhaps he and I can look over the logs to try to find something," Aelyn suggested, looking to Sinek to see if he agreed. "Temporal science can be finicky at best, an extra set of eyes couldn't hurt."

Sinek nodded in agreement, "As you wish, Lieutenant Commander."

"I'm going to go find Nexi. And study this padd." Airi waved, having been dismissed, and she walked out of the conference room. Presumably to either find Nexi or prep her fighter.

Sinek departed the conference room. He desired to get a head start on reviewing the logs.

Lieutenant Commander Sinek went to the Science Section and began researching Temporal Anomalies. He intended to find a way for the Hera to get back to the present before any battle took place .This could take some doing as they were not certain how the anomaly pulled them into the past.

Another question he contemplated was the probe. Did the probe pick up readings on the Hera and send them back to the Borg cube before it had exploded. Logically, he should have asked that during the meeting. He did ask at the end of the meeting and Lieutenant Commander Radt suggested they take a look at the logs.

Tactically, the ship was ready, and security had wisely squared the department away while Angelica had been asleep, so it was to her new duties as second officer that she turned to, ensuring that the other departments on board the ship were also prepared for the situation they would soon find themselves in. There was little she understood of engineering, but a quick glance at the power schematics showed promise that the Hera's power signature would match ships of this time period. Rather than get her head wrapped up in confusing technobabble, she decided to let Aelyn handle any more thorough checks of engineering while she started with ensuring Sinek and the science department were ready to handle any threats they might face. Truthfully, she trusted the Vulcan officer to be quite on track with it all; Vulcans had a reputation for responsibility and a solid work ethic.

Sinek was an easy man to find in the ship's science section, and she forewent any warning calls as she approached. Vulcan ears would hear her approaching footsteps, and the addition of sudden voice could be a distraction, even to the most disciplined minds.

Sinek had indeed heard the footsteps coming up behind him. He had assumed that it was the First Officer, based on the conversation at the end of the meeting. His dedication to his new ship and attempting to work out the solution would not allow him to wait for the First Officer's arrival. Without looking up he commented, "I took the liberty of starting the investigation into the logs without you."

"I would certainly hope so because I'm not Commander Radt, and it's been a while since that briefing." Angelica smiled just slightly, coming up beside him to see if he'd found anything interesting. "She'll be around here soon, I expect. Probably figures she can save your department for last, given your people's reputation."

Sinek twirled his seat around to face the Lieutenant Commander. It was the first he had seen any hint of emotion upon her face. His logic told him the phrase "your people" was referring to Vulcans, although it could have referred to the Science Department.

Nodding in agreement, Sinek acknowledged, "Yes...my people are always about their duty. We find that is the best way to be efficient. The fact we do not need much sleep also helps."

Looking up into her gray eyes he asked, "How may I be of assistance to our efficient Chief of Security?"

"Must be nice not having to sleep. My people went and got ready without me, though I can't say I'm disappointed. I just wanted to see if you'd found anything." Angelica wasn't sure if his calling her 'efficient' was a compliment or not, but given he was Vulcan, it was probably the closest thing to flattery she could hear from him. "I can't promise I'll understand a word of it though."

Turning toward the screen, Sinek admitted, "I have only just begun to view the logs to determine if the Borg sensor had made any readings on the Hera before exploding. It could be detrimental for us if it had."

It dawned on Sinek that Security would need to be alerted if the probe had made readings on the Hera. "If I had found anything, I am prepared to inform the Security team." It is logical she would be interested in my findings. Fascinating - this much logic coming from a human. One that paid attention to detail would have noticed his cheeks turn a tad greener from the coppery blood going into them.

"Relax, Sinek. I'm not here to make sure you report in... I'm just curious." Despite his still flat and logical tone, something prompted Angelica to look at him, and she blinked to make sure she wasn't imagining anything. Vulcans didn't blush, at least not the Vulcans she'd known before. "Are you all right?"

"Yes Lieutenant," Sinek replied, suppressing what had come across him. "I am well. If you are not curious about my the readings of the probe, to what is your curiosity directed? Is it a matter of science?"

"Anything that might explain how we ended up in this time period." Angelica wasn't sure she really believed Sinek's claim that he was fine, but if he didn't want to talk about whatever it was, she wasn't going to pressure him. "I'll admit I don't know much about temporal anomalies, but I've never heard of one that looked quite like... well. Like this one did. The probe is interesting too, but since it blew up the threat it posed is over."

"An anomaly could take on most any form, even a part of the anatomy," came Sinek's response. "The threat of the probe is not over if it sent information about us back to the Borg. Information that is out of time."

The Science Officer had to admit he was curious as well. His curiosity had nothing to do with science or security. He had to admit he was curious about this human and her logic.

"Lieutenant," Sinek began, "where did you learn to be so logical in what you do? More than any other human I have observed, you manage to keep your emotions in check and carry out your duty in a...most logical manner."

Lieutenant? Wondering why Sinek was still calling her that, Angelica touched the pips on her collar, wondering if she'd grabbed a jacket that was missing one. Her fingers brushed against her hair, which had fallen forward over them. And that's why you should wear your hair up. Brushing it back behind her shoulder, she first said gently, "I've been promoted. As for your question..." Angelica paused, not quite sure how to answer him. "In security, we deal in facts. It's easier to do that if you don't let feelings get in the way."

"It is refreshing to see a human skilled in logic," Sinek confessed. Especially a human female. Through observation, Sinek had seen that the human female based much more on their emotions than the male. "I find it...," Sinek paused stopping himself short of saying "stimulating," thinking it may cause confusion. "I find it fascinating."

It was true he did not notice her pips behind the long brown hair. "I had not heard of your promotion as of yet. Congratulations are in order." Remembering the Doctor and his mate celebrating their moving in together, he assumed that most humans enjoy celebrating. "Have you celebrated with those close to you?"

"Thank you, but I don't have anyone close to me to celebrate with." The words weren't exactly sad, but there was a small bitter note to them. Angelica knew she wasn't well-liked on the Hera, and her own department was scared to death of her.

Sinek raised a brow, wondering why others were not drawn to Angelica as he was. Perhaps it was her lack of showing emotions. Perhaps it hindered her in establishing relationships as it did him.

"The logical thing to do then," Sinek explained, "is that we...celebrate the promotion."

It was his way of expressing to Angelica that she would know he would be there for her. He would support and celebrate her achievements with her. Logical individuals needed to assist each other.

It seemed that Sinek was full of surprises. She would certainly never expect a Vulcan - any Vulcan - to suggest the a celebration would be logical. "I think... I'd appreciate that. But only if it doesn't make you uncomfortable. I know that Vulcans don't usually enjoy that sort of thing."

"Logic does not mean drab," the Vulcan stated. "Vulcan's enjoy doing a myriad of things."

Turning toward the screen, Sinek turned it off and returned his attention toward Angelica. "I was doing this on my own time before I met with Lieutenant Commander Radt. How would you care to celebrate?"

She was right in one aspect. Vulcan's didn't celebrate in the same manner as humans. Humans seemed to have various ways according to each one's own likings. He left that choice up to her.

Her choice? Angelica hesitated for a moment. "I hadn't really thought about it. But I don't really like big, fancy celebrations... I mean, big crowds just make me want to study everyone for threats." She had no idea why she even told him that, but it gave her a moment to think about what sort of celebration she might actually enjoy. "You know what, I'd be happy with a pastry and a cup of real coffee, not that replicated nonsense."

Sinek was content that he seemed to have befriended someone that thought, not exactly the way he did, but in a more logical manner than most humans. He needed that in his life at this time.

Getting up from his seat, Sinek motioned with his hand, stating, "After you." For some reason Sinek was reminded of the apprehension of Sela; he had followed Angelica's lead on that occasion. He could logically argue he was new to the ship. However, he had already memorized the floor plans to every deck of the ship. He knew where every suite, department and Jeffries Tube was located. He also knew where they could get pastry and coffee aboard the ship.

Angelica was also rather intimately familiar with the ship, and if Sinek wasn't Vulcan she might be worried about going back to the lounge with him after they'd apprehended Sela there. She so rarely went there unless it was some sort of security call, and she wondered how people would react when they got there. Even though it was supposed to be a pleasant visit - a celebration - she couldn't help but feel just a bit tense. Still, she smiled as they left the lab and headed for the turbolift.

Sinek was at peace; he appeared to be very calm, his strides even as he followed Angelica. Entering the turbolift, Sinek pursued more knowledge about her.

"Tell me," the even probe came, "what brought you to your post on the Hera?"

"Same reason as everyone else. Transfer orders." Angelica smirked ever so slightly. "It was a chance at a senior staff position, so I took it when it was offered. Granted I didn't expect Telvan to put me in the second officer role..."

The turbolift door swished open and Sinek waited for Angelica to exit before following her toward the lounge. "My story is similar," Sinek admitted. "I did not have much attachment to my latest ship. Most of the crew considered me a joke despite my contributions." He stated this without any hint of pain; it had been easy to suppress. Sinek did not need anyone's approval to know he had been a success at his duty. "It was also a opportunity for a Senior Staff role for me."

"Well, that's just rude of them." Angelica might not be the nicest person on the ship, but even she thought that was just uncalled for. "You're just as valuable as anyone else on the ship... Starfleet wouldn't know what to do with itself without the science department."

"Indeed," came the classic flat response. "The same can be said of Security," he added as they approached the lounge.

"Most people don't feel that way. We crash a lot of parties, so I can kind of see where they're coming from on that, but at the same time... it's nice to hear a little gratitude occasionally. Thanks." If Sinek hadn't been Vulcan, Angelica might have suspected that it was an attempt at flattery. Knowing that it was likely just his honest opinion was refreshing... if a bit unexpected. Rather than dwell on it, she turned her attention to those already in the lounge as they came through the door. It was a strange time of day for this area of the ship, and not many of the crew were there... but those few there eating breakfast were staring.

Sinek saw those who stared, but chose to ignore them. His attention was directed only to Angelica. After all, no one has ever seen a Vulcan with ADD. Sinek pulled a seat out for the Lieutenant Commander while saying, "Without Security, the ship would not be a safe place. Without the Chief of Security, the department itself would be...chaotic."

Once Angelica was seated, Sinek sat across from her. He signaled for a waiter to take their order, then asked her, "How long were you a lieutenant?"

"Sometimes Security is pretty chaotic even with the chief present. Nature of who we are... driven to maintain order but we're thrill-seekers. Tends to lead to a bit of craziness." Still just a bit surprised by the small chivalrous gesture of insisting she sit down first, Angelica paused to gather her thoughts before addressing Sinek's question. "I made lieutenant in 2385, so about three years... needless to say the promotion was one hell of a surprise." That was an understatement, given how her away mission immediately before the promotion had gone. If anything, she'd almost expected to lose rank.

Sinek gave Lieutenant Commander Fairchild his direct attention. When she stated that she was surprised at the promotion, he raised a brow. He did not know much of Angelica yet. But he was impressed with what he saw of her. The efficiency and way she handled herself in her duties.

"Why the surprise?"

Angelica mimicked his expression, looking back at him with a small sense of befuddlement. "You mean you haven't heard?"

"You must remember, promotions are not based on what happened just before the promotion, but everything that has transpired and everything that you have accomplished since your last," Sinek reinforced. "It is my understanding, contrary to what has been said, your last mission was successful."

"Ultimately, yes, but that doesn't make up for getting three members of my team killed." Angelica didn't know how much of the official report was available to other members of the senior staff, but she suspected that part of it was general knowledge by now.

Sinek had heard of the mission from crew. He had also read the reports. Since he was a member of the Senior Staff, he had access. He knew three members of the team had lost their life. He also knew that Lieutenant Commander Fairchild was not at fault.

The waiter brought the pastry and coffee that Angelica ordered and the mango salad and fruit juice that Sinek requested. Sinek took a sip off the juice as he thought how best to reply.

Attempting to focus Angelica's logic, Sinek stated, "I have read the reports; you are not at fault for their deaths. Commander Fairchild, all of us are not given tomorrow. The mere fact that we are aboard a star ship puts us in danger of facing death at any given moment. The temporal anomaly could have been something else, which could have destroyed us. We face the unknown every moment of every day. Part of that unknown is death."

Sinek hoped his logic was reaching Angelica. For some reason, it seemed important to him. "Even the civilians aboard have assumed the risks of being aboard a Federation vessel. I understand that you commanded the away team. However, the men who gave their lives also understood the hazardous danger awaiting them aboard that station. Even then, it is my understanding that one of those men died valiantly, saving the remaining members of the team. He made a cognizant choice of his own."

Angelica nodded slightly, listening to his words. "He did. And I understand all of that... believe me, I do. It's just..." She blew out a puff of air, not quite a sigh but with similar feeling to it. "I can't help feeling guilty. It's part of being human, Sinek, this... inability to entirely turn off our feelings. You could have God Himself tell me it wasn't my fault, and I'd still have to work through it." She did, however, know that he had a sound - and very logical - point, especially regarding the death of Ensign Jones, who had stood his ground so that she could escape with Lockheart and Nexi.

Sinek took the last bite of mango and chewed as he listened. The fact that Angelica accepted the facts told Sinek she would be okay. The logic would eventually win over the emotions. She would soon see the truth for herself. This was the first he had seen her emotions. It did not surprise him; she was human after all.

"It does not initially come natural for Vulcan's to..."turn off emotions," Sinek confessed. "We are born with them. However, through our parent's modeling the teachings of Surak, instructing us in his teachings and us practicing the principles as we grew, it eventually is our natural response to suppress them. It may seem strange to humans, but is very beneficial to us."

Sinek paused momentarily, then added, "Seeing that you have no one to support you in processing your thoughts, I volunteer to be one to whom you can turn."

She'd been eating her flaky chocolate pastry she'd ordered when Sinek made his confession and following offer, and if she had any less composure, Angelica would have choked on it. Startled as she was, she managed to swallow the bit of pastry and follow it with a sip of coffee. No one had offered that to her before. "This is something you can... teach me? Or at least help me with? I mean, I don't expect to ever master it, but just being able to shut some of it off... I'd really appreciate that."

"You have already showed basic skills, which I have observed while assisting in your duties," Sinek explained. "It is not my intention to transform your mind into a Vulcan." He did not wish to change anything about Lieutenant Commander Fairchild. If he did, what fascinated Sinek at this time with her may change also. "As a human adult, you have grown accustomed to emotions. To begin to suppress them at this time will be a great struggle within. I have seen human adults break under these circumstances. It is a high risk, one that I do not believe I wish you to endure."

Even though they claimed they never lied, Vulcans were very good at hiding truth when it was logical. Sinek did not see the logic at hiding the truth at this point. "I tell you this because you are a vital member of this crew, part of the Senior staff, a shipmate..." he paused because the term was still new to him, "...and someone I would like to consider a ...friend."

A friend? Something sparkled in Angelica's eyes when she heard the offer, and she couldn't quite fight off the grin that threatened to take over her entire face. Someone on this ship actually liked her, temper and everything? As far as she was concerned, that was a miracle; it wasn't just the Hera. She'd pretty much been a loner for her entire career. "Well, if we're going to be friends, you're going to have to stop calling me 'Commander Fairchild.' My friends call me Angel."

Sinek had never referred to anyone by their first name. He had always used their title or rank when speaking of anyone. It was another foreign concept to the Vulcan. However, he believed he was making progress in Ambassador Spock's challenge. He was establishing relationships.

"Comman...Angel," Sinek corrected himself, "You honor me by allowing the use of your personal name."

The hour was late and they had both completed their meals. As much as he was content in continue the conversation, Sinek knew he must get back to duty - the ship's logs and the Borg probe. Somewhat hesitantly, he asked, "May I escort you to your quarters?"

"If I was going home, sure." Angelica grinned at him again. She couldn't help it; something about Sinek accepting her for who she was just made her day. "I have some last minute work to finish in my office before we end up in a fight. You can escort me there, if you'd like."

"Indeed," Lieutenant Commander Sinek nodded, "Hoepfully, it will not come to that."

Spring Fling Writing Prompt
Forsaken, Candle, and Thunder

---

Enalia had finally gotten some holodeck time and what did she spend it on? Reading a book. The setting was interesting, but it was more the real paper pages that held her interest - a biography of Mahatma Gandhi.

Then there was a flash of light through the room’s windows. Glancing up from her book, there was a sudden clap of thunder, a herald of the rainstorm that would come shortly after.

Getting up from her rocking chair, she crossed the room to close the main windows, the candlelight flickering slightly as the wind started to pick up outside the 17th century manor. It was looking like it would be quite the storm this time. That was good - she’d sleep better tonight than in months. Settling back in her rocking chair, she wrapped a small blanket around herself before returning to her book.

“Truth alone will endure, all the rest will be swept away before the tide of time. I must continue to bear testimony to truth even if I am forsaken by all. Mine may today be a voice in the wilderness, but it will be heard when all other voices are silenced, if it is the voice of Truth.”
?Mahatma Gandhi

Settling in, Enalia smiled as she read on, enjoying learning more about such a famous historical figure as the rain pattered against the glass windows, thunder and lightning not near as fierce as the initial burst.

Security crew already gathered in the training area gave Angelica a suspicious look as she practically waltzed in and flopped onto a bench to read through a few PaDDs before the Hera entered battle. Several quiet minutes passed before someone cleared their throat and a hail of snickers filled the room. Startled - and a bit confused - Angelica looked up from her reading to find a bunch of burly security types giggling like school girls. "What?" she finally demanded, wanting to know just what was so amusing.

"Nothing!" an ensign said quickly, looking like he might explode any minute if he kept holding in his laughter.

"Uh huh." Not quite believing him, Angelica went back to looking at the PaDD, only to hear the same rousing laughter the moment she looked away. "You lot better start explaining the joke or you'll be fighting fire-breathing dragons in the next training scenario."

There was more laughter and finally the same ensign mustered the courage to say quietly, "It's just we don't usually see you this... warm and fuzzy."

"Fuzzy? I'm not fuzzy, you nitwits." Angelica rolled her eyes at them.

"No, usually you're fierce and vicious," another officer piped up, prompting more snickers. "But... uh... well. You've kind of got a glow about you." There was a short pause and then a mischievous, "So who's the lucky guy?"

The gathered officers scattered as Angelica swatted at them all with the PaDD in her hand. "Get back to work, you nosy little buggers!"

Ulani was hot. Her cheeks were flush, clashing with her jade eyes.

She had begun her journey to catch up with the Hera. She was certain she had told Ethan to let Dylan know she wanted to speak with him. She knew her son; he would have forwarded the message.

Opening a subspace channel, Ulani sent a face-to-face communication to the Hera for Lieutenant Dylan Santiago.

"Santiago." Dylan leaned forward and activated the channel without looking up as he finished off the PADD he was reading.

Ulani paused for a few seconds awaiting for Dylan to at least look her way. Her face showing more anger with each passing second.

Finally, she could stand it no longer. "Hello, Lieutenant Santiago. I told Ethan to let you know to contact me. Did he? And if he did, why haven't you done so?"

Dylan froze. The PADD he was holding clattered to the desk as he took a deep breath to compose himself. Finally forcing himself to look at the screen he smiled and said "Mrs Chaparral! My apologies, you know how it is, new job, long hours." he shifted uncomfortably in his chair, a deep blush staining his cheeks as he added "I was going to call you later I promise."

At least I know Ethan told him. Now she just needed to work on his mate. Ulani was satisfied with the reaction she got out of Dylan, but she did not show it. It was best he see the bitchy side of her, at least for now.

"Unless you desire the mother-in-law from hell," Ulani suggested, "you best know your priorities," meaning, "If you know I desire to be contacted, you best contact me."

She didn't give Dylan time to respond, but continued. "I want all the information you have on the beast who carved his name on Ethan's chest. I want all of it. I will not rest until this matter is finished."

She knew Dylan was in Intelligence and that he probably knew she still had active contacts. She was a civilian, which made her more available to track Ian. She didn't have to follow orders.

"Uh...with all due respect Ma'am, I know he's your son but this is a Starfleet matter and...well, " another awkward shift, "You don't have the clearance anymore do you?" he swallowed hard and waited for the tirade that he suspected was about to come.

If Ulani could have reached through the subspace channel and grabbed Dylan by the collar and pulled his face just before hers so she could explain something face-to-face at that very moment, she would have. "Mr. Santiago," she said with steam in her voice, "you claim you love my son and wish to marry him. I would think that would mean you wish to protect him. That is my very wish at this time: protect my son. Now, you can be a part of my action or not. But if you are not willing to go to all costs to protect Ethan, you are not worthy of him. I can go through my normal contacts to get information, but it will take me longer. It is better to get it from someone who is pledging to love and support Ethan. We both know that Ethan is a very caring individual, which opens him up to be hurt. How are you going to protect my son?"

"I think you underestimate me." Dylan narrowed his eyes at her, not liking the way she was trying to dress him down, "I can protect Ethan just fine." he virtually growled.

"Then do it and give me what I need to bring justice to this Ian," the angry mother implored. "If you love my son, then you understand what I must do."

Dylan glowered back at her for a few seconds as he debated the rights and wrongs of what she was asked. Finally he ground out "Fine...but you sure as hell better make sure that this doesn't come back to bite me on the ass." Tapping a few buttons, he sent her the data she was asking for.

Ulani's face showed a smile that some would have thought her possess as she made sure she received the files. She felt like she was that much closer to getting the revenge Ethan needed. She also knew that Ethan would not be able to carry it out.

Once they were all transmitted, Ulani looked back into the screen and said in a softer tone, "Thank you, Sweetie!"

"Sweetie?" Dylan raised an eyebrow at his soon to be mother-in-law.

Ulani grinned and snickered. Her voice still soft, she admitted, "Well I could give you a knock name like the one I gave Ethan when he was a child." Apparently, Dylan was now in her good graces.

"He had a nick name?" Dylan leaned forward, eager for her to divulge the information about his fiance.

Ulani's grin widened. "You are in Intelligence, Sweetie. I wouldn't want to ruin the fun you'll have trying to get it out of him."

Her face took on a serious note then as she announced, "Oh, and one more thing to remember..." She stopped to ensure she had his attention. "If you hurt Ethan in any way, you won't live to regret it."

At that point, she closed the subspace channel.

"Great." Dylan sat back in his chair, "Mother-in-law from hell." he muttered before adding "Well at least she can only get to me through subspace." he added with a shrug before returning to his work.

Kyle awoke came to, inside a small room. The last thing he remembered was being dragged out of the cell he had shared with Ethan,then there had been shouts and the sound of phaser fire. If he had been expecting rescue, those hopes were crushed when he was grabbed roughly and thrown against the wall. The blow had knocked him unconscious.

The room was painted white and was much more pleasant than the cold, dank cell he'd been in before and at least he had some clothing, a pair of gym shorts, but it was still very much a prison.

Around his neck was a heavy chain collar, similar to the kind that had been used on Terran canines at one time in history.

You are no longer Kyle Cross came a voice from unseen speakers, you have been sold to the Orion Syndicate. You are now our slave. Your friend, your lover, sold you out. He is free now. You, are not. He didn't love you and you won't find love from anyone here, but you will learn obedience and submission. You will learn it, or you will die. Expect your first lesson soon, we won't say how soon.

"No." Kyle shook his head from side to side, "Ethan wouldn't do that...he loves me." he whimpered, scared beyond anything he'd ever known.

=^=Really, he loves you? =^= came the voice, =^=then explain this.=^= A small portion of the wall slid down revealing a screen and a holovid started playing. It was news footage and showed Ethan seating in front of a bank of cameras, a blanket wrapped around him, a faint smile on his lips.

"Are you happy to be home?" a reporter asked.

"Of course I am," the boy replied.

"What about your friend Kyle Cross?"

"I can't think of him right now, I just have to think of myself. I'm home, that's all that matters to me."

The voice was genuine, Kyle knew it too well to deny it. What he did not know, is that while all the words were Ethan's, they weren't spoken in the sequence he had spoken them.

"E-Ethan?" Kyle uttered, the colour draining from his face as he listened to his boyfriend's words, unable to believe he was actually saying them.

A large Orion came in the room then. "See, what did I tell you. He doesn't love. Would someone that loves you abandon you like that? All he cares about is himself. You'll learn in time that, that is all anyone cares about in this universe is themselves.

So, let me tell you what is going to happen. I am Len-tar and I own you now. You'll do what I say, when I say it. There are men that will pay good money to use your body for their pleasure and so you're going to do exactly what they want.

Some of them can be quite kinky, but that's okay, I don't mind because the stranger things they want, the more money I get paid and the longer you survive.

And whenever anyone pisses on you, or bends you over, or beats you, I want you to think about your precious Ethan and the good life he's living.

I bet he's already forgotten you and moved on."

"I...I won't do any of those things." Kyle replied, feeling sick at the thought of what the Orion was proposing.

The Orion turned a darker shade of green and moved to Kyle's bed. He grabbed him in one big, beefy hand, by the neck and lifted him up, suspending him in mid-air squeezing the neck slightly. "You will do exactly what I say, or you'll live to regret it. I will make your life a living hell."

Unable to do anything other than make a gurgling choking sound, Kyle made a futile grab for the man's arms, his eyes filled with fear as the realisation of what his life was about to become began to dawn on him.

Len-tar released the boy, letting him fall the the floor of the cabin. Then he began to take off his own clothes, "Your first lesson boy is with me."

Previously

You have no idea how good that makes me feel, but I better go now. We both better or we're going to be in deep shit."

"Yeah...good impressions and all that." Dylan grumbled as he reluctantly moved away from Ethan.

Ethan glanced over at his husband to be. "Yeah keep that thought for tonight after our little double date is over."

"Oh I intend to." Dylan grinned as he walked towards the door, his step light as he considered what fun they could have.

And now the continuation

Ethan paced nervously as he waited for their two guests to arrive. He was dressed casually in jeans and maroon short sleeved polo shirt and had checked the pies he had in the oven twice in the past thirty minutes. He looked over at Dylan who at least on the surface seemed calm and reassured.

"You know," he commented, "I'm starting to have second thoughts about this. Sinek is a really nice guy and I don't want to hurt his feelings, or for him to take this he wrong way. How did things go with Nexi?"

"She's uh...an interesting person." Dylan replied, still not sure what to make of the woman and definitely not sure if it was a good thing to introduce her to Sinek.

"Interesting in what way?" Ethan asked, not sure if he really wanted to know.

"In a weird kind of a uh...psycho way." Dylan replied awkwardly as he ran a hand through his dark hair.

"Oh, just great, Mr. Cool Calm And Collected and Ms. Psycho, yeah that is going to make for a fun evening. What did you tell her to get her to come?"

"She asked for money, I promised her wine." Dylan chuckled, remembering his conversation with Nexi as he reached into his pocket and extracted the datachip. "Oh and I almost forgot. She wanted me to give you this...says it's proof that you're safe now and that those pirates can never hurt you again."

'Okay," said Ethan as he took the chip, "oh and by the way, I called my mom told her about everything I don't remember seeing her so angry. Not at me, or you, but at Ian. She wants to talk to you about it. She uh, probably has questions about the marriage too."

"Questions as in she doesn't approve?" Dylan looked concerned. The truth was, Ethan's mother was a force of nature and in his own mind he was pretty sure that she didn't like him.

"About the wedding? Oh, I don't think she's upset about that, she described you as the 'young muscular boy'. I think the questions are more about Ian. That or she is going to make your babysitting me the rest of my life a condition of her blessing."

"Young muscular boy...great." Dylan sighed, "Nice to know that she holds me in such high esteem."

"Dylan, its okay," Ethan responded, caressing his cheek, "that's just how she remembers you. She also knows that you are in Intel. She likes you. Besides she hasn't seen you naked like she saw my first boyfriend. Count your blessings."

"Do I really want to know how that happened?" Dylan cringed at the thought of being caught naked by Ethan's mother.

"Probably not, let's just say it was our first time, we fell asleep, she called and woke us up. I was clumsier than, then I am now. But to be fair I was surprised. Looking back on it now its funny, but it wasn't then. The sad thing is that was the last good memory I have of him, of us. We were kidnapped, or he was and I just got caught up in things. Mom rescued me, but too late to save him. He disappeared with one of the kidnappers. I'm sure the killed him."

In his quarters, Lieutenant Commander Sinek was preparing for the evening. This was one occasion he decided it was not good to wear his uniform. This was not business as usual. He was not going there to be the CSO, but as a...friend. He was not used to suppressing what the humans called butterflies in the pit of his stomach.

Looking into a mirror, he looked at the elven-eared face reflecting back at him. Sinek had on a classical Vulcan hooded cloak. Satisfied with his appearance, Sinek picked up the bottle of Chianti he figured would be good for a gift and headed to the doctor's new quarters.

As he walked, he realized he never had met Dylan Santiago before. If he were anything like Doctor Chaparral, he would be a good man. This thing called love, he still did not understand. Particularly that of man and man. It was certainly different than the Vulcan understanding of mating. But the CSO was open to trying to build relationships on his new ship. Reaching his destination, Sinek rang the chime. It was precisely 1900 hours.

Dylan had just been about to respond to Ethan's comment about his first love being a likely murder victim when the bell rang and he said "We'll talk later but right now I guess we'd better get this show on the road."

Ethan nodded,"Yeah we need to talk, but you're right, let's greet our guest and hope we don't have a Category 5 storm on our hands." Then, rather than just calling for Sinek to enter, something he found hugely impersonal, he moved to the door and opened it manually. He looked approvingly at the Vulcan officer. "Commander, so glad you could make it."

Sinek held up the bottle of Chianti. "You said you did not need a gift. However, I had heard it was appropriate to offer wine at an occasion as this."

The Lieutenant Commander looked into the quarters empty of people. "I must be the first to arrive."

"Yes," Ethan said, "trying not to look as guilty as he was starting to feel, "We decided to keep it small." He took the bottle from the Vulcan and passed it to Dylan.

Following the track of the bottle of wine, Sinek took in the appearance of Dylan. "Lieutenant Santiago, I presume." It was a statement, not a question.

"The one and only." Dylan grinned at the Vulcan and held out his hand in greeting, "Pleased to meet you Sinek and call me Dylan."

Ethan, took the bottle of wine, wondering where Sinek had gotten it and placed it on the table, wondering where their other guest was, and when, or if, she would show up.

Sinek took Dylan's hand, knowing about the human way of greeting others. He wondered if it had to do with their need of closeness with each other. For Sinek, it was logical not to offend his honored hosts, as this was their day. The Vulcan was not certain which way he was to shake Dylan's hand, so he just held it and followed the human's lead.

After a few shakes, Dylan awkwardly pulled his hand away and smiled before saying "So...you're new here like us, what do you think of the Hera?"

"Yes," Sinek flatly acknowledged. "I transferred to the Hera from the USS Bacon to become the Chief Science Officer. I find the Hera stimulating to the mind. Based on history, as the original Hera was crewed by mostly Vulcans. Also, I find the crew of the current Hera exceptionally performing their duties. I find it fascinating."

The way Sinek expressed himself, there was no way to know he was truly stimulated. The tone showed no emotion at all. In fact, a truly emotional being would surmise that the Vulcan was bored by all that he had experienced. Such was not the case.

"USS Bacon..." Dylan shook his head, "Do you think Starfleet had some kind of brain storm the day they named that one?" he grinned.

The Vulcan raised a brow, not knowing the human thought that "everything is better with bacon." He continued in his even tone, "Yes, it was named after the famed 16th and 17th century philosopher and scientist, Sir Francis Bacon. It is a logical name for a science vessel."

The corners of Ethan's lips curled upward, "I believe that would be score one for the Vulcan, babe." he said.

Nexi was running late, but it wasn't her fault! First she couldn't think of anything to wear that would be appropriate for this sort of thing, then she had the bright idea to ask her sister for a help.... turns out that was a very bad idea, as Aewia decided to play a dress up game instead of actually helping. Once she finally got away from Aewia, Nexi escaped to her shuttle where she still had a few articles of clothing stored and found something that looked... passable; a fitted shirt of deep blue and a pair of baggy khakis. Hardly 'dinner' material, but at least she would be comfortable. She dressed, combed her hair and tied it back with a leather strap, then headed to her boss' quarters, bouncing nervously on the balls of her booted feet as she rang the chime.

Ethan, hearing the chime said, "Excuse me," then he turned and walked to the door. He pressed the release and greeted their latest arrival, "Well good evening, " he greeted, "welcome to our home. Won't you come in?"

"Um, yeah, hi..." Nexi said as she stepped inside. She didn't normally do things like this unless she was being paid to spy on someone or steal something, so she didn't know how to just be around people for the pure sake of enjoying their company. She looked incredibly uncomfortable and felt terribly out of place, but still she was here and making an effort. "I, uh... was gonna bring something for dinner, but I kind of got distracted," she admitted.

"Not to worry...we're all set." Dylan chimed in and smiled as he added "Glad you could come."

Nexi nodded and followed Dylan back to the others where she waved uneasily. "Um, hi," she said awkwardly.

Sinek beheld the female he had not previously met. She appeared to possibly be human, pleasing to the eyes with auburn hair and eyes as black as his own. Nodding his head slightly forward to recognize the newcomer, Sinek introduced himself. "I am Lieutenant Commander Sinek, the Chief Science Officer."

Remembering Dylan offering his hand earlier, Sinek stuck his hand toward Nexi.

Nexi took his hand and gave it a firm shake. "I'm Nexi, Collector for the FCA and freelance... well, just about anything you could pay a person to do, I'll do it," she said with a somewhat devilish grin.

Ethan exchanged glances with Dylan, "Hey babe," he said, why don't you help me in the kitchen, kind of hard with just one hand, you know."

The Vulcan's logical response came, "Can I be of assistance anywhere?"

"No, thanks, "Ethan replied quickly, "you just stay here and visit with our other guests. Dylan and I can handle things, but thanks for the offer."

As the two left the room, Sinek raised a brow. The other guests?

"Am I missing someone other than you?" he inquired of Nexi.

Nexi shrugged. "Beats me," she said, though at the back of her mind an inkling of something bothered her, something almost felt from Ethan and Dylan. She cast a suspicious glance at their retreating hosts before returning her attention to Sinek. "So, Science Officer? Is it any fun?" she asked. What the hell does a person talk about at one of these dinner things?!

Fun? Again, the Vulcan raised an eyebrow, confused as to what was fun. His brow raised so much in the last few minutes, it seemed as though he had a nervous twitch.

"I do Science because it is logical," came the even reply. "Perhaps Lieutenant Chaparral was referring to letting in the guests as they arrive. What do you ...freelance?"

"Killer for hire, smuggling, theft, kidnap and ransom, sexual desires... about the only thing I won't do is deal in slaves," Nexi said, so casually she could have been talking about the weather. "What's so logical about Science?"

Another brow raised on Sinek's face. "Science is based on facts. Hence it is logical."

The Lieutenant Commander was attempting to grasp why Starfleet had someone aboard the Hera who had just admitted to being an assassin and prostitute among other things. "May I ask, what is logical about doing what you do for payment?"

"I work for the Ferengi Commerce Association, and you're asking what's logical about getting paid?" Nexi said with a hint of a laugh. Damn, this boy was naive. "Just about any place you go that ain't under the jurisdiction of the Federation is run on a commerce system. If you want anything you gotta pay for it, to pay for it you gotta earn money. I do what I do because it gets me a lot of money so that maybe I can retire one day and do nothing for the rest of my life."

"So your loyalties are to yourself," came Sinek's monotone reply. A statement, not a question. "You do not serve a crew, the Federation or allies. You do not serve the Hera. You serve only yourself. When you retire, will it be in isolation?"

Sinek became convicted at his own words. He had been guilty of isolating himself by throwing himself into his duties on his previous starships. Even though he had worked so hard at serving those ships and the crews, he was not a part of the crew. He was slightly beginning to understand the words of Ambassador Spock.

"No, there is one person I will keep with me," Nexi replied, her expression softening for the briefest moment as she thought about her sister.

Sinek was intrigued with this change of emotion. Nexi turned from the hardest person he had meet thus far on the Hera to one of the softest.

"You have a mate." Sinek assumed.

"No," Nexi said a bit more harshly than she meant to. "I'll never let myself be owned," ever again, "least of all by a mate."

"A mate is not about ownership," Sinek observed. "Obviously, you do not see any type of ownership between Lieutenants Chaparral and Santiago or you would not be here." He made that judgment based upon how harshly her response came.

Of course, they didn't exactly meet his definition of mating. However, Sinek had made the commitment to build relationships. In starting to build those relationships, Sinek became more curious about how humans could function with their emotions. Would they be able to function by suppressing them?

"You've clearly never been to Ferenginar," Nexi said with a snort. "And there ain't nothing wrong with the Doc and my boss shacking up. They're adults, they can do as they please."

"Indeed," the CSO confirmed. It was one of the few things upon which he did agree with Nexi. "I'm beginning to think the union is not popular with the rest of our ship mates, though. The Doctor stated that a couple invites all of their friends to the housewarming." He looked around the mostly empty room wondering whether they had no friends or if most of the ship were objecting.

In the kitchen, Dylan whispered to Ethan, "Take a peek...see how they're getting on."

Ethan nodded and peaked in, something between a smile and a smirk crossed his face as he heard Sinek's words. He turned back to face his future husband. "I think we've been had. Sinek thinks others don't like the fact we're getting married, because no one else is here. Should we tell them the truth?"

"No way." Dylan replied, "That chick will probably kick me in the balls for tricking her, she's unstable." he added, keeping his voice low so that they wouldn't be overheard.

"Well, I could kiss them and make them feel better if she did, but what do you suggest. Oh and why did you let me talk you into this?"

"Because I love you." Dylan shrugged as if it were obvious, "Let' just play along, say a few things about wondering where everyone else is and then eat."

"I think we're just digging ourselves in deeper, but okay. I won't even tell you I told you so, when this comes back and bites us.

Now let's take the food out there, you ready?"

"Better than a kick in the balls." Dylan quipped as he picked up a couple of bowls filled with various foods, "I'm ready." he nodded.

The two men stepped out into the main living area, "Well hello welcome guests, we're back. Are you making yourselves at home?"

The suspicious glare that Nexi sent them spoke volume of what she thought of this bullshit. "Right..." she said, drawing out the word to let them know for certain that she was on to them. She didn't need to be a telepath to know that something was up; with the abruptness of their 'departure', she'd had a feeling that she and Sinek had been abandoned, but feeling their plotting in the other room had just confirmed it. "What are you two up to? This ain't a housewarming party, is it?"

Ethan glanced over at Dylan, "Uh, well no, not exactly. It is however a party. It's just that you two are the only guests."

Again, Sinek raised a brow. The logic was flooding into his brain full force. Very quickly, he had to suppress various emotions. His cheeks turned a darker green, then quickly faded to their natural color.

"Doctor," Sinek made an appeal, "May I have a word with you?"

"Of course Commander," Ethan said, trying not to blush himself, "Over here, he said motioning with his one hand towards a shallow alcove that held a viewport. He walked in that direction, wondering what he was going to say.

The Vulcan walked calmly to the alcove, his hands folded in a triangle. He thought over what he was going to say as he approached Ethan. He knew Ethan was aware of the meeting with Spock and his recommendations.

"It is my understanding," he began, "that this is what humans refer to as a date. Did you do this in order to assist me in building relationships?"

"Yes, Commander, that is exactly what I did. I admit that being honest with you and explaining what we we, what I was trying to do, would probably have been the better thing to do, but I was afraid that you would refuse and so would she.

"I wasn't doing to hurt you in anyway, or to make a joked out of it. I was really just trying to help. And I drug Dylan along for the ride. So, if you're upset, blame me, not him."

Nexi had overheard enough and cast Dylan a sidelong glance. "Really? You thought you could set me up on a date? You couldn't at least ask?" she said to Dylan, crossing her arms. She was wondering why Dylan was worried about getting kicked in the crotch and now she knew why. And now she was actually considering it.

"Would you have turned up if I'd told you?" Dylan countered, refusing to cower before her.

"Dunno," Nexi answered honestly. "Probably not, but I might have if I thought it would have amused me."

Suppressing more, keeping an even keel, Sinek attempted to be quiet with his words to Ethan. "Doctor, I understand your efforts. You are a..." I am still unfamiliar with the term "friend; it is to be expected that you help a friend."

He glanced toward Nexi, then returned his attention back to Ethan. "However, do you not see that my logic and her..." for a lack of a better term "...logic are not compatible? I will continue to build relationships aboard the Hera. But if I pursue a mate, she will be of my logical choosing."

Ethan let out a sigh of relief, glad that the Vulcan understood his intention. "Love isn't logical, Commander. If it were Dylan and I wouldn't be together. Sometimes as we humans like to say opposites attract.

"Give her a chance, assuming of course she doesn't kill us all right now,that is."

Sinek hesitated as he thought the situation over. He then tilted his head to the side as he replied, "Regardless of the circumstances, we are here to celebrate your moving in together. We were invited under a ruse. However, you are a friend and I assume Nexi is also a friend. To stay and eat to continue the celebration would be logical."

"Yeah, it would be logical," Ethan replied, "I'll go get our dinner. I knew you, or at least I assumed that you were vegetarian, so we have an apple walnut salad, soup and garlic bread. I've also fixed some chicken that can be put in the salad for those who want it."

The Vulcan nodded, "That is appropriate." Looking toward the other two, Sinek added, "Shall we commence the meal?"

"Yes, let's do that," said Ethan as he walked beck towards the dining room table.

"Are we not mad at them?" Nexi asked Sinek. "Does this mean I can't kick him in the nuts?" she asked, pointing to Dylan.

"A Vulcan does not get angry," Sinek pointed out. "I cannot answer for you. We are, however, here to celebrate. So let us celebrate."

"I can live with that," Nexi said with a nod, brushing off the setup without any further remarks. She joined the others at the table. "So, what are we celebrating, exactly? If the housewarming thing was just a setup for a date, then what are we celebrating?" Okay, so maybe she had one more remark...

Ethan looked over at Dylan then over at their guests, "Look, I am sorry about the whole set up thing, it was all my idea, Dylan just went along for the ride. But I'll tell you what we can celebrate. My being back and almost whole, I'm getting my new arm tomorrow and the fact, that this man that I love, has asked me to marry him."

"What's so good about not being able to screw other people?" Nexi asked bluntly.

Ethan's brow raised, slightly, "We take turns," he replied jokingly, "but to answer your question, I don't have any desire to screw anyone else. Because a relationship involves a lot more than just screwing, its being there for each other, having the other's back and just being together. Talking, doing dishes, watching a holovid."

Ethan cast his eyes at his husband to be, then back at Nexi. As far as that goes, screwing others that is, I've been there, done that, and got the tee-shirt. I only want to be with Dylan. I have no desire to screw anyone else but him."

"Wow, that sounds so boring," Nexi replied. "But congrats anyway?"

"Maybe one day you'll understand." Dylan looked at her, still grateful that he hadn't been assaulted for their subterfuge.

She would definitely not be one I would seek for a mate, Sinek thought while taking a bite of the salad and thoroughly chewing it during the ongoing conversation. Turning toward Nexi. "You are contentious on this point," he vocalized in observation. "Why are you bitter against mating in general?"

Ethan failed miserably at concealing his eye roll and waited for her to answer as he continued to eat his salad, which he'd added a generous helping of chicken to. For the moment he remained silent, resisting the urge to comment further.

Nexi wouldn't be caught dead eating a salad unless it was a bacon salad smothered in chili and cheese, so instead settled for a plain broth. "What'dya expect, I was brought up around Ferengi," Nexi grumbled. "They ain't exactly the best example of marital bliss."

"We all have baggage we have to deal with Nexi " Ethan inserted, "there has to be something else that would make you feel the way you do."

"You wanna know what my baggage is?" Nexi asked seriously, casting a cold glare his way. "Alright, I'll tell you. Before becoming a Collector for the FCA, I was a slave. I was lucky that I was smart enough to help my boss keep his books up to date, but that didn't stop him from using me for sex, or lending me out to others for those services. I had a... client... that took an interest in me, thought I was way too smart to be wasted as a prostitute and contracted my boss for an extended use of my time so he could train me to be something more. I made a lot more for my boss as a Collector and since then I've been slowly trying to buy my freedom. Now that I got my freedom, I ain't giving it up for nothing, sure as hell not for a lover or a mate."

"And this wasn't my first time to be kidnapped either, "Ethan replied, "Okay, my past doesn't seem as horrible as yours, but when I was 16, I was kidnapped along with the only other guy I've ever really loved, the boy I thought I wanted to marry and spend the rest of my life with.

I knew that my mother would come to our rescue, my mother was Intel and she's tougher right now retired and sitting at home, than anyone I've ever met, including you. Anyway when I saw Kyle get hurt, I just reacted, because I thought I was a tough guy.

Turns out I was wrong, I wasn't tough at all. I got shot. My mom and her men did wind up rescuing me. Me but not him, because my effort at playing hero messed up that transponder and it had to reboot, or recharge or whatever it had to do. Anyway that delay cost Kyle's his life.

It took me months, years to get over that, over him. And yes, like I said, I know it's not the same, not by a long shot, but we all have had things happen to us. And you still have both your arms. You need to give love a chance."

He cut his eyes to Dylan and reached out to take his hand, "because you will find that right person, that soulmate, to come along. And it will make all the other shit you've gone through worth it."

"You know what ain't worth it?" Nexi said in a strangely soft tone, looking down at her soup with hollow eyes. "This... date." She rose from her chair and rather neatly tucked it back under the table, such a contrast from the crass personality she had been presenting all evening.

"Sinek, you seem like an interesting guy and I've enjoyed our conversation," she said to Sinek, her expression unreadable. "If ever you wanna go have a few drinks and compare your logic to my nonsense, I'm game. It was fun." Then she looked at Dylan and Ethan and gave them the finger. "Fuck you for thinking I don't know what love is. Just cause I ain't tying myself to a lover don't mean I don't know what it means to love and lose and sacrifice and grieve and all that shit. So go blow it out your ass, I'm outta here." And then Nexi turned to leave.

"Wait, Nexi," Ethan said, "It wasn't like that. I'm sorry, please sit back down and I promise to shut up."

Nexi stopped abruptly, turning to look at Ethan, but this time her eyes weren't hollow, they were full of anger. "Why? So you can look down on me because I ain't lookin' for that special someone who completes me? No thank you, I got better things to do, like take care of my sister who was fucking lobotomized by Romulans for the information she had on that zombie shit we stopped!" Fuck, she hadn't meant to tell them that much... Nexi sighed in defeat. Well, the cat was out of the bag.

"That's why I was late, you know... Because my sister was reduced to the mental capacity of a child and wanted to play. How could I tell her no?" Nexi had no room in her life for a romantic interest because her life was full with her sister and her antics, but what surprised Nexi the most was how much she loved it; even on the days when Nexi wanted to strangle Aewia, she love it all and wouldn't trade that time with her sister for anything in the 'verse. She didn't want for anything more in life; for the first time ever, Nexi was content with what she had.

Ethan, released Dylan's hand, stood and moved towards her, placing his hand on her shoulder. "No one is judging you Nexi," he said quietly, "now please just sit down. Tell us what we can do."

"Do?" Nexi asked, looking at Ethan like he was crazy. "What do you think you can do? I neither need nor want to be set up on a date. And to be blunt, Aewia is more important to me than your arm, you two shacking up, or getting hitched." Then she looked to Dylan. "Sorry for mouthing off, boss, I'll see you at the start of duty shift tomorrow."

"That's not the kind of help I meant,"Ethan said helplessly to her retreating form, "I meant help with Aewia."

Sinek had been closely observing the discussion. Nexi had experienced deep trauma and was hurting; this was evident. The heated discussion seemed to have climaxed with the result softening each sides view of the other. Sinek had no intentions of creating this atmosphere when he had made the inquiry of Nexi. However, the each individual had used these emotional outbursts to seem to bring out a sense of caring for the other.

"I was not aware of your circumstances; that is why I inquired," Sinek inserted. "I also offer my services."

"I don't want your help!" Nexi barked out. She could use all the help she could get, but she didn't know how to accept it. Her whole life, no one ever just gave her help without wanting something in return, so she didn't know what to do with help that was so freely given. More to the point, she was feeling a bit selfish; Aewia was her sister, her responsibility! She had finally reconnected with her only living relative and she wanted to keep Aewia for herself for a while. "Just leave us the fuck alone!" She didn't wait for any responses, she simply stormed out.

Sinek raised a brow. "Was it something I said?" he stated to no one in particular. He didn't understand how his logic didn't aid the situation. Instead, it seemed to make matters worse.

"I'm sorry,"Ethan said, "This is all my fault. I was just trying to help."

"You need not take the blame for anything," the CSO reported. "Obviously, Nexi's emotions run deep. This event may have happened to help her confront those feelings and find the help she needs. She wishes to be free, but the emotions have her chained."

"Well I don't doubt you're right about her, but I just can't help wondering if I triggered something that is going to blow up in everyone's face."

"Under the circumstances Doctor, I suggest we end the festivities for this evening," the Vulcan suggested without emotion.

"Perhaps, you are right Commander." Ethan admitted.

Lieutenant Commander Sinek tilted his head and said good night to both men, then exited their quarters. In his mind, he was wondering how people of other races considered emotions as helpful.

Ethan turned to Dylan and said,'Well, that went swimmingly."

Having remained silent for the entire exchange, Dylan finally sat forward and said "Does that mean we're done with playing matchmaker from now on? Because I would really be okay with that." he leaned forward and picked up a lettuce leaf out of the salad bowl and quipped "Told you she was kinda nuts."

"Oh I am so done trying to play matchmaker hun and yeah let's finish our dinner, clean up and go to bed.
End/Tag?
A joint post by

Lt. Ethan Chaparral
ACMO

Lt. Dylan Santiago
Chief Intelligence Officer

Lieutenant Commander Sinek had spent several hours researching time travel. The Commander had mentioned the Sling Shot Maneuver, which was first accomplished by the Enterprise in Captain Kirk's days. However, the maneuver created great stress on a starship. Sinek had an idea, which may get them back to their own time with less stress.

The turbo-lift arrived at the bridge. Sinek walked straight and with purpose to the Commander's ready room. He gave a tug to his uniform top, ensuring it was crisp and clean, without creases or wrinkles. In uniform, one had to look his sharpest. He pushed the chime and quietly awaited the command to enter.

"Enter," came the command, the doors sliding open to reveal the Captain at her desk, still poring over a mountain of PaDDs. "Please tell me you have good news, Commander."

Sinek remained until he strode to just before her desk. "Indeed Captain Telvan, I believe I have an answer for our dilemma." He paused to ensure her attention moved from the pile of PaDDs to him. Those of other races seemed at times not to channel their attention; they seemed easily distracted at times.

When Sinek knew her attention was directed toward him, he continued. "Are you familiar with the effects of electromagnetism upon time travel?"

Setting her PaDDs down, Enalia leaned back in her chair and focussed her attention on Sinek. "Several hours ago I knew really only one thing about time travel. Avoid it at all costs. Now? I'm not sure I know much more..."

"I have spent the last few hours studying the experimentations of two individuals on electromagnetism and time travel," Sinek reported, standing, ready to move forward. "The first was a 20th century earth scientist named Nikola Tesla. The second an earlier Vulcan named Tyrok. They reported using electromagnetic fields to transport items to the future."

He paused to emphasize his next statement. "I understand that we are in an asteroid field, the majority of its components is duranium. Captain, duranium is highly magnetic."

"This is true, but it's all duranium ore... Low EM reactivity. Barely enough to keep us hidden with our sensor scrambling in place." Enalia said, wondering where this was going. "Also, didn't the Vulcan Science Commission deem time travel as impossible during Tyrek's time?"

"Indeed," the Vulcan agreed. "Tyrek's work was deemed illogical and he was banded from Vulcan for continuing his pursuits. The claims were his logic was not based on given facts. However, we now know time travel is legitimate."

Sinek knew that Tesla's work had issues as well. "As far as Tesla, he was able to transport small items. However, when he had drastic results when he tested it on a manned naval ship."

Both scientist's algorithms had errors. Hence the importance of testing. But they were making progress in the unknown.

"Combining their work, I believe I have arrived at the correct algorithm that will get us back to our time. If we could turn the Hera into a Tesla coil, generating static electric currents into the duranium, we could possible create an electromagnetic field. I would have to first ascertain if we have enough duranium to interact with the static.""

"You mean the Phillycheese experiment or something, right? There were a lot of pretty bad lasting effects, if I remember right..." Enalia shook her head a bit as she spoke. "I've turned shuttle warp coils into teselatic arrays before, but not to do anything of that scale. Just to shoot some arc lightning into another shuttle to ignite their plasma exhaust. You have some more recent data and numbers to back up this theory, I assume." Enalia was open to ideas like this, but she had to have some solid evidence that this sort of thing would work, first. Especially considering the questionable nature of the sources of the stories of these forms of tech.

"The Philadelphia Experiment, yes Captain," Sinek accurately identified. "Tesla had died before the experiment commenced. Had he lived, it may have been successful. If you wish me to pursue, I can run some tests. I may need an engineer to assist me."

"Small tests and simulations please, Commander. And don't risk the ship. Once you have some solid data, please let me know." Enalia said.

"Aye, Captain!" the CSO commented. "Do you have any suggestions for an engineer to assist? You know your crew better than I."

"An engineer versed in temporal physics? Not a clue. It's not something I usually look for in an engineering officer. Ven or Rhett might know someone but I don't." Enalia said apologetically.

"Barring no problems or interruptions, I will have a report to you tomorrow," the Vulcan announced. He knew Lieutenant Nosplet was a bit eccentric, but was good at what he does. Sinek had no dealings with Ensign Beaumont yet. Perhaps both could help. "If there is nothing further Captain, I will continue the project."

"Let me know when you have something then. Dismissed." Enalia said, looking back down at her mountain of PaDDs.

"Indeed," Sinek responded. He then turned on his heals and exited the ready room. Already, Sinek was thinking ahead, planning and calculating the experimenting ahead of him.