As Sinek left the Operations center following his surprise inspection, Lieutenant Seras had a strange feeling as she watched him go. He shouldn't be going away, weren't they just on their way to Lieutenant Sha'ha'zen's office? The Cairn woman turned, then noticed Karina was standing right beside her. She recognized the Hiigaran woman from her profile picture, but couldn't recall having spoken to her before now, although she did seem far more familiar than a profile pciture. Had they already spoken? Was this part of the pheromone-memory thing mentioned in the Lieutenant's bio? Seras' heart raced as she tried to recall anything that had happened since she rang the chime at Karina's office door, but it was all a blank. Then she really started to panic when she felt at her pockets for her orders, but found that the PaDD was gone. Oh no! Seras stared at Karina for a moment. She felt lost and confused. Had she already reported in? She must have, her PaDD was gone, not to mention she was standing right next to her with Sinek walking away which must mean that the inspection was over.

The Hiigaran was busy rubbing the back of her neck. A migraine, likely caused by that damned Vulcan and his questions, had just begun to set in. Closing her eyes for a moment while her fingertips searched for the best spot, Karina sighed audibly. "I always knew that Vulcans were assholes on the inside, but a surprise inspection? Really?" She muttered, half to herself and half to the Lieutenant standing across from her. When Seras didn't respond right away, Karina opened her eyes and stared at her. Recognizing a quizzical look, Karina sighed again.

"You alright?" Karina asked.

"I... do not know," Seras replied, her synthetic voice quivering in her confusion. "I seem to have lost my PaDD," she added absentmindedly as she looked down at her empty hands. Star above, what was happening to her?!

At first not sure what Seras was talking about, Karina reached over and picked up the PaDD -- the only PaDD -- she'd seen Seras come into her office with. It was, of course, the one containing her orders. As the Hiigaran was about to speak to her junior, she stopped, and reminded herself that both were technically the same grade. Even though Karina was still in charge of Ops, and thus Seras superior officer, she felt that adding a little more eloquence to her words were best. "Do you mean this one?" She asked, speaking with a tone that sounded more peer-to-peer rather than senior-to-junior.

Seras recognized the PaDD right away. "My transfer orders! Then that means..." That meant she had met with Karina and had already forgotten about it. But that wasn't right, Seras was under the impression it took a while for people to forget because of Karina's pheromones. "I cannot recall giving that to you. I'm sorry, I do not think I am reacting well to your presence," she said awkwardly.

Karina's freckles dimmed. It usually took at least several hours before people began to forget even just subtle details of an encounter with her. For Seras to already begin to lose track after just a few minutes... while they were still in contact? It was unheard of. Standing up, Karina walked around her table and leaned against it, crossing her arms. "During the inspection, Commander Sinek asked if I'd reported a crewman late to his shift. Do you know who that was?" She asked, deciding to test.

Seras opened her mouth to speak, looking for just a moment that she might know the answer, but then her jaw snapped shut and she looked focused and frustrated as she tried to recall the memory. "I remember walking up to the office door with Commander Sinek, I remember him telling me about the inspection, and I remember ringing the chime, but then after that nothing is clear," Seras finally replied with a hint of panic in her tone. "What you say about the crewman, I feel like I should remember it... I am trying to remember, but it is fading so quickly."

"Relax, Seras." Karina said, even though she was just as confused at the situation. Her brow rose in a fashion that would make any Vulcan proud. For a second, Karina considered grabbing a tricorder and scanning Seras, but it would do little good since she wasn't a doctor or even overly familiar with how her pheromones worked. "Maybe we should get you to sickbay," the Hiigaran said next. If things like memories could be affected so easily, it was best to make sure that no other complications might arise. They could figure out how to make official business work later on.

Seras simply nodded and headed out of the Operations center for Sickbay. It was a good thing that Karina was going with her for she wasn't even halfway there when she realized that she had no idea where she was or where she was headed. "Wha- I... Where am I?" Then she noticed Karina beside her and she tried to shake her disorientation. "Lieutenant Sha'ha'zen? I was just coming to report in, but I seem to have lost my PaDD with my transfer orders..." She didn't sound panicked anymore, just really confused.

The Hiigaran's brow furrowed even further as she took Seras lightly by the elbow and continued towards sickbay. Nothing in her not-so-many years of life could have led her to believe that any of this was even possible. Was it truly something with Seras alone? Or had Karina's own pheromones... evolved? As a defense mechanism that protected Hiigarans against persistent hunters more than several eons ago, it seemed possible in her mind for that to be the case. She hoped not, otherwise her career in Star Fleet could end up being very short lived.

"You've already completed those tasks, Seras," Karina informed her subordinate, keeping her tone matter-of-fact. "Unfortunately, your body doesn't seem to like my pheromones," she glanced at Seras. "Do you know about my species?" Hey, after seeing all this, Karina couldn't just assume Seras hadn't forgotten that as well.

"Y-yes..." Seras said uneasily. "I tried to familiarized myself with the pertinent crew before I arrived, and as my superior I paid particular attention to your file. I knew of the pheromones, but I had no reason to believe they would affect me differently, I thought I would at least have enough time to write things down..."

That's good, at least... Karina thought. Had Seras not reviewed her personal jacket prior to meeting with her, odds were she wouldn't even recognize her by now. "Good call," Karina pointed out as the two rounded the corner towards sickbay.

"I'm sorry if I've forgotten you already," Seras said softly as they entered Sickbay. She found an empty biobed and took a seat. "It must feel terrible having people forget about you all the time..."


Ethan smiled as he walked out of his office into sickbay, he'd spent an amazing evening with Dylan the night before and it hadn't even involved any sex. So he was feeling good. "Hello," he asked as he looked at his patient, "What's going on?"

"I can't seem to remember my superior officer," Seras replied bluntly. She had been keeping her eyes on Karina now that she was aware of this issue in the hopes that focusing on the Hiigaran woman would prevent her from forgetting her so quickly. "Apparently I have already met her, but I do not recall doing so."

Ethan looked at her quizzically, "so tell me more about yourself," he asked, "Have you had any memory issues in the past, or is this the first time for it?"

"I don't think there is any connection, but four years ago I was taken hostage by Cardassians. I was of course rescued, but there were some things about the incident I had repressed. It was wholly psychological and I did my counseling, took time off to recuperate, and as far as I can tell there's been no further issues with memory since then," Seras explained, her vocal synthesizer replicating quite well the quiver in tone associated with unease and anxiety. She didn't like talking about the those final days of the ill-fated Stargazer, but she had blocked a great deal of it for the longest time. "And I'm Cairn, the only one in service. The others who attempted to join Starfleet couldn't adapt to the need for verbal communication."

Karina shrugged, looking to the doctor she'd just recently met. "I've never heard of this kind of reaction before," Karina admitted. "It usually takes days, even weeks before people even start to lose focus of affected memories; what's happening to her is happening in seconds."

"Well then, we definitely need to take a closer look. Why don't we start with just a general work up, see what that turns up, if anything. Then we'll do a more thorough neurological workup," Ethan said.

Seras nodded to the doctor. She would, of course, submit to any testing necessary to figure out what was going. "I'm sorry," she said to Karina. "I can't imagine what it must be like for people to forget you all the time, and I'm so sorry I'm unable to hold onto the memory of you," she continued, having already forgotten that she said something similar earlier. "If it's not too much trouble, could you contact my husband? Lieutenant Tito in Security, he should know I'm here."

Karina nodded, resisting a chill that traveled up her spine and into her shoulders. "Sure," looking to the doctor, Karina smiled tentatively before turning to leave.

As Karina walked away, Seras lay back on the biobed so that the doctor could start those scans. Her first day on the job certainly wasn't working out how she thought it would...

END

Daln was outside Nexi's quarters, brushing his hair into place. Well, what hair he had. He had had it cut just a little too short this time. He was in a pair of jeans and a tee shirt, since Nexi loved that kind of clothing on men. He pressed the chime, hoping his warm hand did not heat the cool bottle of wine he was holding. He had a picnic basket full of sandwiches, fruit, and more wine, but he didn't really know what to do with Nexi now that they were away from a planet where he could take out Lia.

Nexi hadn't been expecting anyone to drop by, so she was more than a little messy from working on her ship, her hair in a messy ponytail, a dirtied jumpsuit with the top half tied around her waist, and several grease marks smeared on her arms and even one on her face. She had just stopped by her quarters for a moment to tuck Aewia into bed before heading back out. Just as she was about to walk through the door, the chime rang. Huh? Who could be visiting at this hour? Oh fuck, 'at this hour'? She was starting to sound responsible and that was not like her at all! Nexi shook her head with a huff, then pressed the button to open the door.

"Daln!" She said, surprised to see him there in his sexy jeans holding a picnic basket. "Wow, I wasn't expecting you... And now I feel way underdressed," she said with a grin. She quickly stepped out of her quarters so they wouldn't wake Aewia, letting the door close behind her. "I'd invite you in, but I just got Aewia to bed, and her telepathy is getting better so if she senses you she'll wake up and ask for another puppy."

Daln grinned and looked her up and down. "No, you look...yeah, you look just fine. And she'll be fine by herself for a couple of hours, won't she?" He hefted the basket. "I brought food and wine to woo you," he said jokingly with a little bow, but the look in his eyes said he meant it.

"Woo me? I thought you did a pretty good job of that with Lia," Nexi teased as she started walking, heading for the lift to take her back to the cargo bay. "I was just heading back down to my ship to finish up some upgrades. I guess I can let you tag along if you want." And of course Nexi would never turn down free food!

Daln nodded, picking up the food thought. "Of course I'll come. I'm no genius when it comes to engineering like my brother, but I do know weapons systems pretty well." They entered the cargo bay and he waited for her to unlock the shuttle.

"Don't have much in the way of weapons on this thing, she's meant more for stealth and maneuverability than anything else," Nexi said rather proudly, unlocking the cargo bay and then the rear hatch of her ship. She led him into the cockpit where part of her console was in pieces as she finished some upgrades to improve communication between the Starfleet systems and the Ferengi interface she had installed. She gestured for him to take a seat in co-pilot chair while she took the picnic basket and put it in her chair so she could start checking out what he brought.

The lighting was dim in the cockpit, just how Nexi liked it, which helped add to the mood of their little 'picnic'. It was strange, Nexi usually didn't like bringing strangers onto her shuttle, but for some reason she didn't mind having Daln here. This was supposed to be her haven away from all the crazy things she did in her line of work, and yet she could think of nothing more natural than having Daln over. She found a piece of fruit to nibble on and took a seat on the co-pilot console so she would be closer to Daln.

Daln sat where she she indicated and took a sandwich and a bag of icoberries. He brought out two glasses and filled them with uttaberry and cherry wine. It had a darker flavor, enhanced by the flavors they added to it. He had some chocolates in the bag too, hopefully for some foreplay later, but if she wasn't ready for that yet, he'd be fine waiting. But he was looking forward to it. "You need some weapons, Nexi. Otherwise you're a sitting duck for anyone with a phaser array."

"I've got a couple of phasers, not much else. Truth is, I've never had to use them, so hell if I know if they even work," Nexi admitted, then took a sip of her wine. "This ship is designed to have micro-torpedos, but there was a defect in the torpedo tubes, but with the way it was built into the hull, it was easier to simply write the ship off as a defect rather than fix her, to keep up with the production of the other shuttles in this line. That's how I got her, they were cleaning out the mothballed ships and she was fit for civilian use. She had the stock phasers removed, but I installed some aftermarket phasers from the same guy I got my cloaking device. Tested 'em after I installed them, but ain't used 'em since, never needed to." Because she was that good at what she did.

Daln grinned. "You're good. I couldn't do half that. I could do almost anything with a torpedo, but the tubes? Not so much." He looked over Nexi, his eyes raking down her figure. "You look good in grease. Really good." Maybe it was the wine, but he was starting to feel aroused. Of course he had been wanting to see her from the moment he put together the basket... He reached out and touched her face with his hand, feeling the softness of her skin, looking into those dark eyes. He hated blue eyes. They were...wrong. Green was okay, brown was better, but like chocolate, the darker it was, the better he liked it.

Part of Nexi was afraid, sensing what he wanted. She didn't shy away from the contact, but neither did she lean into it, she simply watched him as he studied her eyes. "I..." she started, but the words were caught in her throat. How could she explain to him why she was so hesitant to give him what he sought now. Part of her wanted it too; she had been alone long enough that she had grown cold to her own wants and desires, she didn't know how to be with him simply because it was something they both wanted. And because it was so confusing even to her, it terrified her. But what terrified her even more was what finally came out of her mouth.

"Remember how I said I had been a slave?" she finally started after a long while, her face bearing a pained expression, afraid he would look down on her for her confession. "My owner used me, my body, and loaned me out whenever it suited him. That's how I met my mentor; he bought my time to teach me the skills of his trade so I could earn my freedom, but I continued to use my body to... make ends meet." Hell, it was more than that; more often than not she would outright use sex as a means of completing some of her work because it made for excellent distractions and helped opened doors for her that might otherwise be closed to her. She had never felt shame for any of that, if anything it empowered her that she could use her body this way, that she could take control of a situation so easily, but knowing that others outside her line of work held a moral compass that frowned on that kind of thing, she was suddenly worried what Daln would think of her.

Daln knew everything that went through her head since her thoughts were so loud, but he didn't want just her body; he wanted her heart, her mind, everything about her, and to give his in return. "Nexi, it's okay. I don't want just sex. I want a relationship. I want someone I can grow old with, someone to be the mother of my children. And right now, that's you. I want to get to know every part of you." He stroked her cheek with his thumb. "Every flaw, every imperfection, every strength, and every talent. And I want you to have every part of me in return." He turned towards her smiling. "Even my incompetence fixing computers," he joked.

"I don't know how to do all those things," Nexi answered honestly. She didn't even know if growing old or children were things she even wanted; she had always assumed she'd die before she could ever have any semblance of a relationship or family, so she'd never wanted them before. But she was drawn to Daln, like a moth to a flame, and the imagery of that was not lost on her; she knew if she took a chance that she might get burned, but she was willing to give this whole relationship thing a try. "I won't stop doing what I do for a living," she admitted quietly, but there was a resolve in her now; if he could accept that, then she would try to make this work.

Now it was Daln's turn to hesitate. "I wouldn't expect you to. But...you wouldn't...have sex with a client?" His insecurity was showing, he knew. He didn't trust himself to hold her. He thought of himself as Mr Right Now for most women, since most of his previous girlfriends had dumped him for the next big thing. It always reinforced his feelings of not being good enough for any woman, including his own mother.

"It's what I do," Nexi said, then sighed. If she was seriously going to give this relationship thing an earnest effort, then there would have to be some concessions. "But I'll avoid it if I can," she acquiesced, "And I promise not to enjoy it if I absolutely have to do it." Which wasn't much of a promise considering she didn't really like sex to begin with, but at least she was trying to meet him halfway.

Daln nodded. He guessed he could live with that. After all, she was giving up one part of her life for him. He leaned closer, to see how he would be welcomed. Their lips met and for Daln it was tender, and very very sweet. Then he opened his mind to Nexi. He didn't want to push her if she didn't want it.

Nexi was hesitant, but more than that she was uncertain how to react to his advance. She was accustomed to rather rough treatment, so for him to start with such a tender kiss was a foreign concept to her. She had never known gentleness before, but she supposed now was as good a time as any to learn how to get used to it. After a moment of stillness, she finally pressed her lips against his, curious to see how 'gentle' and 'sweet' would play out. But she did not open her mind to him in return; Nexi was still so afraid of all this, and more than that she wanted to protect him from the darkness in her and all the bad things she had done in career. Although she took her time getting to know the feel of his mind pressing against hers; there was something almost comforting about him and so she allowed him to see at least a small fraction of who she was hidden behind her mental barriers. For as self-assured as she pretended to be, she was very much a broken woman who had no idea what she was doing in life, stumbling from one job to the next until Aewia had landed in her lap and now all she had was chaos and confusion trying to make a life for herself with these 'Fleeters.

Daln kept the kiss tender, and slowly removed his shirt, hoping that him being naked first would be taken for what it was: a sign that he would allow her to be the dominant one. He had been raised among the most traditional women on Betazed and it had stamped its footprint on him: the woman was head of the House. He carefully let his gentle side meet her, but there was a carnal edge to his thoughts that was growing, however gentle he tried to be. He was a guy, after all. Finally he was naked before her, his arousal evident. He began kissing her neck and reached for her clothes.

Nexi closed her eyes with a soft exhale of breath. Something about him and his gentleness was stirring a warmth in her she had long since forget the feel of, desire welling up within her as his lips burned a trail down her neck and she offered no resistance as he slowly relieved her of her clothing. She didn't fully understand or appreciate the little gestures he was making or why, she only distantly knew Betazoid traditions, all she knew was that for the first time in years she was feeling something she actually wanted to take her time to savor and enjoy...

Lt Daln Hadren
Chief Sec/Tac Officer
USS Hera

Nexi
Infiltration Specialist
USS Hera

Nexi silently crept back into her quarters the morning following her date with Daln, hoping not to wake Aewia before she was ready. checking to see that her sister was indeed still peacefully asleep, Nexi opted for a quick shower then dressed for the day. Another cup of coffee had her feeling a bit more alive, and when she heard Aewia's morning alarm go off, she replicated breakfast for her sister while she waited for the younger Betazoid to stumble out.

"Morning, sleepy head," Nexi said with a grin when a sleepy Aewia finally joined her in the dining area. She was trying to act like nothing had changed in the last 24 hours, but that couldn't be farther from the truth. It wasn't like she was trying to hide this new development with Daln, especially not from her sister, but the idea of change just didn't come easily for Nexi and she wanted to go back to status quo as soon as possible.

"Morning," Aewia said groggily as she made her way to the table and her waiting breakfast. "How was sex with Daln?" she added nonchalantly as she cut up her biscuits and gravy and sprinkled some more pepper over the whole thing.

The question made Nexi sputter, nearly choking on a sip of her coffee. It wasn't like she was embarrassed, she just hadn't expected such a blunt question from her sister. It was easy to forget that under the innocent, almost child-like behavior that Aewia was still a grown woman. "Uh... it was good, really really good," Nexi said awkwardly. "Am I that obvious?" she asked warily. For fuck's sake, she better not have a 'glow' about her.

"You were last night. I wouldn't doubt it if every empath on this ship felt that." Aewia replied before stuffing a big bite into her mouth.

Shit. "Well, was it good for you too?" Nexi asked, trying to make light of the situation.

Taking a sip of her juice to clear her mouth a bit quicker, Aewia nodded, still not fully awake. "I remembered some things, so I suppose it was good. I think I was going to marry someone after I got back from that last mission but I don't remember who to."

That was wholly depressing. "You... want me to look into your past, see if anyone's looking for you?" Nexi asked, uncertain if this was something Aewia wanted to know about. At the very least, Nexi wanted to give her that option.

Aewia thought about it for a moment, not sure what to do. "Maybe. I don't think I could handle a relationship right now though." Taking another bite, Aewia munched away on her breakfast, trying to remember anything more about the person. "Tall, dark hair, spots... Skilled tongue in every sense of the word... Hips you want to slap with a tuna... And I don't think she was in Starfleet."

Oh gawd, that description! The tuna comment had Nexi choking on her coffee again, but this time with a laugh. "I'll find her, but I won't reach out to her; I'll leave it up to you when you wanna make contact," Nexi offered, took another thoughtful sip of her coffee, then sighed. "How much of this morning between me and Daln are you aware of?" she asked her sister.

"Just the sex. And that your cockpit isn't the best place to do it." Aewia replied, still munching away like it was the most normal thing to talk about.

Nexi facepalmed; although she did rather like doing it in the cockpit... "Well, this morning wasn't so great... I guess I got cold-feet about this whole relationship thing and I'm kinda wondering if I'm doing the right thing getting involved with anybody while I'm still doing bounty work."

Waving her fork at her sister with a chunk of gravy drenched biscuit on it, Aewia gave her a scolding look. "You're involved with me, right? What makes him so special that you would think that way with him but not me?" Then looking at her fork like she forgot the food was there, popped it into her mouth and chewed.

"Yeah, I am involved with you, and I know you ain't oblivious to how worried I am about that," Nexi replied. "I've been careful to make sure no one outside Hera knows about our connection, but the more people that know a secret, or the more secrets you have to keep, the harder it is to keep them. I don't want either of you to get hurt..."

"And I don't seem to remember Daln keeping our secret very well. Fair enough." Aewia replied, munching away at her breakfast some more.

"Revealing his history with you was necessary because you couldn't recall how you knew him," Nexi pointed out bluntly. "I'm sure if the circumstances had been different, he woulda kept his mouth shut." Nexi sighed again, resting her head on the table as she reached over to take Aewia's hand. "I just don't know what to do kiddo, I don't want my work to come back to hurt either of you. What's the hu-mon phrase, something about having cake and eating it?" Which made no sense to Nexi; why would get a cake if you had no intentions of eating it?! "I want both of you in my life, and not just secretly... But I'm not sure I'm ready to leave my old life behind..."

"Life changes us all for better or for worse. I'd love a nice pretty cake to look at but I'd rather eat it and see what flavors I get. As for you... The last time Enalia watched over me, I caught a hint of her trying to get you a provisional rank. I don't know if that's something you'd want, but it might be an option." Aewia spoke as if she were speaking from the depths of her wisdom on this one, but she knew that wouldn't last much longer so she was trying to get it all out at once. "Life has handed us some pretty terrible flavors, but I think the good flavors have made it all worth it. If we hadn't lived the way we had, I doubt we'd both be here at this table right now."

Though Nexi never wanted any of these changes in her life, she couldn't deny that those changes had been for the better. Aewia could frustrate her like no other even on the best of days, but Nexi wouldn't change a thing about any of it because she knew that her life was better now that Aewia was in it. "Yeah, you are a pretty good flavor," Nexi said, pulling Aewia's hand closer to play nibble at her fingers.

Aewia giggled softly at the nibbles. These were happy days indeed, even after all they had been through. "Whatever you decide, I'll be here for you. Now where's my breakfast gone?" she asked, looking down at her plate curiously.

"I ate it when you weren't paying attention," Nexi fibbed with a grin. "You want more?" she asked more seriously, checking her watch to see if they had enough time left before Aewia had to be with her tutor and she had to check in with Santiago. "Tallara won't mind if you're a few minutes late."

"I don't feel hungry... So I think I'm ok." Aewia said, still looking at her plate. "And I think Tallara is coming here today. She wants to see how I... Do something..."

"Do what?" Nexi asked curiously, picking up the plate and sending it back through the replicator.

"I don't remember. I'm sure she'll tell me when she gets here." Aewia replied, just before the door chime rang.

"That's probably her," Nexi said as she rose to answer the door. "Go get dressed, kiddo, I'll keep her entertained while you're gone."

As Aewia headed off to get dressed in one of her one piece jump suits, Tallara smiled brightly at Nexi as she opened the door. "Good morning. Is your sister doing well this morning?" She was obviously one of those rare morning people.

"Yeah, doing real good. She had a really deep moment when we were talking personal stuff. She just keeps surprising me on how much she understands even when she's confused," Nexi said, looking towards Aewia's room with a smile. "Hey, before I leave Aewia with you, I was wondering if I could ask for your help with something. Help for me, that is," Nexi started awkwardly, trying to work up the courage to ask what she needed. "I, uh, kinda can't read all that well. All of my reports to Santiago read like inventories, itemized lists and stuff. I was raised by Ferengi, so..." she trailed off, having trouble finishing her line of thought because of how awkward and embarrassing it was.

"Ah, yeah," Tallara moved into the room far enough for the door to close, then put an arm around Nexi in a half hug. "There are a few courses you could take. The first is a sleep learning program which is mainly used for speaking common. Another is an accelerated course that can theoretically teach you almost the entire language in a week if you use the recommended brainwave stimulators. The last one is tutoring and computer lessons, which is the same track that kids learn with."

Nexi stiffened with the half hug; the only person she let hug her was Aewia, well, and now Daln. "I can mostly speak it alright, but I still rely on my inner ear translator for some stuff," Nexi said, taking a step away from the Andorian/Vulcan woman to reinforce the notion of personal space. "But the hu-mons write a lot different-like than what they talk; it's more... formal, and it confuses me."

"And their language is the simplest to learn of most of the Federation races. I'd recommend the accelerated course then. It's not easy, but you seem like the kind of woman that prefers hard things." Tallara replied, understanding the body language for personal space.

"I do, but this is one of the few things I wanna do right," Nexi said seriously. "However we do this, I just wanna keep this between us. It's kinda embarrassing... Okay?"

Tallara nodded and smiled brightly. "No problem. I'll get a kit from storage and check it out to me, then you can have fun with it."

Nexi nodded, then stood by awkwardly while they waited for Aewia. After a moment, she called back to Aewia's room, "Hey kiddo, you need help in there? You didn't get lost in your closet again, did you?"

A moment later Aewia emerged, mostly dressed. She had the lower half of her jumpsuit right and had gotten one arm into a sleeve, but her other sleeve was inside out and she was struggling with it. "My sleeve isn't right."

"You're not right," Nexi said teasingly, striding over to help her sister dress. She pulled the sleeve right side out and held it open for Aewia to slip her arm in. "Alright, I gotta go check in with Santiago. You be good for Tallara, and have fun." Nexi added, ruffling Aewia's hair affectionately.

"I will. Be safe, ok?" Aewia replied happily.

Tallara smiled brightly as well. "I'm sure we'll have lots of fun with yoga today. If anything happens, we'll call you immediately."

Nexi nodded to Tallara, then grabbed her jacket off the back of a chair and headed out.

..:: Hours Later ::..

Daln blew out his breath. What hair he did have was messed up, and he was lying on his back in the middle the Wandering Star's cockpit with Nexi's head on his chest. "I wasn't sure what it was like for you, but it was great for me." He looked at her haltingly, wondering if he had said too much. He didn't want to drive her away. He wanted her to feel comfortable around him and with him. He wanted to be a safe harbor for her in a lifetime of far too many storms.

Nexi chuckled with a grin. She was never looking at her cockpit or any of the co-pilot consoles the same ever again. Star above, and the things they did in her chair... "It was definitely... memorable," she replied teasingly. Already, her mind was wandering back through the last couple of hours, especially to that little trick he did with his tongue, or even better, the look on his face when he learned how pleasurable her body's natural electric charge could be; what had started gentle and tender hadn't exactly stayed that way! "Maybe next time we should actually try to make it to the bed so the deck plating doesn't tear us up," she added tiredly, but she didn't seem to be all that upset about a little rug-burn. This was one night she would not soon forget, or hopefully not at all...

Daln's arms were wrapped around Nexi and he held her tighter. "I could get used to this," he said, grinning. "Well, the sex was great, but this," he said, holding her tighter. "Keeping you safe right here with me." He buried his lips in her hair, smelling the grease that was just as great a perfume as Andorian wildflowers or musk. "With what you went through, I'd say a little safety is in order," he teased. But there was nothing joking about the look in his eyes. His father had always said be careful who he gave his heart to, but right now he thought it was gone.

Nexi wasn't much for all this huggy-mushy crap, but since Aewia insisted on hugging and cuddling, Nexi had been getting used to it, and now in Daln's arms, she definitely get used to more of this... "You can't protect me from everything," Nexi cautioned quietly as she put an arm around him.

Daln didn't like the sound of that. "I can try. I don't want anything to hurt you. I won't let it." Daln was a protector, a fighter. His job was to protect the crew, and he saw it as his job to protect the woman he loved. And that was Nexi. His feelings were more than obvious to any empath that was even inside the cargo bay. Hell, a human with above average esper abilities would feel it.

Nexi could feel it, but she didn't understand the emotion, it had become so foreign to her. She looked up at him, her dark eyes peering into his, trying to understand this feeling from him. It was warm, and she could faintly remember feeling something similar a long time ago when she was just a child, before her mother had died...

"I told you I won't give up my work," Nexi reiterated for him, trying to be firm but not mean about it, "and I can't take you with me when I have a job to do."

Daln's eyes tightened. "I know. But it won't stop me from trying to protect you when you're with me." He sighed. "That's what I do. I'm a protector. And I don't like anything hurting anyone I care about. Not since the war. I swore that no one I cared about would be hurt ever again." He leaned his head back and blew out a breath. "I'm just going to have to get used to the fact that I can't protect you all the time."

Nexi sighed. She swore she wouldn't change who she was for anyone, that she would always be herself no matter what, but she had already slipped on that vow; she'd let Aewia make some changes in her life, and even Nexi could reluctantly agree that the changes weren't all that bad... And thinking on this, it made her wonder if she should maybe make another change in her life; maybe it was time to retire and take up a different line of work? Enalia had not outright made any offers, but she had hinted that opportunities would be open to Nexi if she wanted them. Maybe she could enlist? No, that would be too much of a change too quickly and that immediately put an unease within Nexi, but at least the seed was planted in her mind.

"I'll try not to get myself into too much trouble," she offered instead, hoping that this small promise would be enough to ease his worries a little.

Daln grinned, apeased for now. "I can live with that." He turned his head and looked at Nexi's eyes. "I still need to get some sleep. I have training in the morning. Thorne is starting to rely on Bart too much, Hernandes is feeling invicible and the rest of them...I need to know what they are capable of." He paused for a moment. "Care to join me? My quarters aren't too far from yours."

"You do realize I have a bunk on the 'Star, right?" Nexi said teasingly, but then she nodded an acceptance of his offer. "Let's go, just don't let me sleep in too late. Aewia gets confused when I'm not around in the morning." Nexi stood and stretched, then started picking up their clothes scattered about. "And if you need some help with training, I could step in and give you a hand." She could definitely take anyone feeling invincible down a peg or two.

Daln chuckled evilly. "I might take you up on that. If Lt Santiago doesn't mind. I'd have to clear it with him," he said as he pulled his jeans on. "Though I have to say, two hot women beating each other to a pulp sounds...sexy."

"I'm still a civilian, I can do whatever I want, and no one is beating me to a pulp," Nexi assured him as she tossed his shirt to him then started to don her own clothes. "Oh, do you have any real coffee at your place?" If not, she could take some of her own stash to his quarters for the morning. She could not function in the mornings without at least a couple cups of coffee.

Daln caught his shirt, then shook his head as he put the shirt on. "Nope. I have plenty of Betazed tea, though."

"Tea..." she replied with a grimace. Yeah, definitely grabbing some of her personal stash... "You sure you don't wanna stay here on my ship? My bed is comfy." Nexi finished dressing then tried to tidy up her console a bit while he picked up the remnants of the picnic basket. She'd never had anyone stay in her ship like this, she always preferred their place so she could leave as soon as she was done with them, but now she kind of wanted him to stay here...

Daln thought for a moment, then nodded. "Alright. I could stay here." He had his clothes on except his shoes and socks. Still, the bed did look comfortable. He crawled into the bed and saw that there was one pillow, but he could serve as a pillow for her if she wanted. Of course, if she wanted the pillow, he'd be fine with that, too.

There was also a knife under the pillow, so before his head could hit the pillow, Nexi dove onto the bed and made a grab for her trusty blade, pulling it away and setting it on a bedside table, then she shed her pants and crawled up against him in just her tank top, hoping he wouldn't notice how embarrassed she was about the possibility of him accidentally getting hurt by one of her hidden blades.

He was caught off guard for a moment, then lay his head down. He yawned, very tired. He had had a long day and then the evening with Nexi; while it was extremely pleasurable it was also tiring. He opened his arms as Nexi crawled into bed with him. Almost immediately his eyes began to droop.

Nexi was not that far behind him, her eyes growing heavy and closing for the night as she rested her head on his chest, the sound of his heartbeat lulling her into a deeper sleep. But her night was anything but peaceful. Nexi had always been careful about sleeping too deeply where she could not control her mental barriers, especially around Aewia now that her telepathy was returning. Nexi typically had very vivid, disturbing dreams; she had gotten used to them, but she didn't want anyone else seeing these images, but sleeping too deeply and her mental barriers dropped and suddenly her dreams were broadcast to anyone telepathic. In this one, she was standing in the cargo bay, her ship, her freedom, destroyed. She was shackled and her mentor was pulling her away from the people she cared about, dead and bloodied on the cargo bay deck. Daln and Aewia were among those bodies. Then her mentor took her to his ship and locked her in a holding cell to take her back to her former master on Ferenginar. Inside the dream, Nexi couldn't even weep, she was so hollow and numb from the loss, but the slumbering Nexi began shedding a few tears. It was her greatest fear and this dream haunted her frequently; now that she had people that she cared about, she worried that they could be used against her. And she didn't care about what happened to herself, she just didn't want them to get hurt because of her...

Daln's dreams began to intertwine with Nexi's. He found her, snapped the neck of her owner, and released her from her cell, taking her into his arms. The real Daln's arms tightened around Nexi's form, and his fierce protectiveness of his loved ones came out in full force, comforting her and calming him. They spent the rest of the night in each other's arms, their dreams intermingling and separating and mingling again. When Daln woke, he realized his shirt was wet and that his arms were sore from holding Nexi so tightly. "Hard night?" he asked.

"I don't wanna talk about it," came her muffled reply, her face buried against his chest. She had realized at some point that not only was Daln aware of her dreams, but that he had been affecting them, and it made her feel vulnerable, a feeling she did not like at all. And she felt like a wuss for crying on him. Fuck, she was stronger than this! "Maybe we shouldn't do this again," she said quietly, pulling away from him so she could go to her kitchen space to make coffee.

But Daln wasn't having it, and pulled her back down on the bed with him. "Oh, no, you don't. What's wrong?" He didn't want to lose his girlfriend the very next day after getting one. That would suck. And it made him feel just like he had when all those other women dumped him: inadequate, unwanted, and definitely not good enough.

"I can't do this," Nexi said in a raw, raspy voice. "What if you get hurt? Fuck, I had a chance to get to know my father and my sister once when I was younger, before he died and Aewia's brain was cut apart... but I stayed away so that the fallout from my work would never touch them," she said in a pained rush, but with that admission came the guilt of knowing that if she had been there, maybe she could have prevented her Father's death and Aewia's torture. "I don't know what to do! I don't want all these people around me, I work better alone, but you and Aewia, you make more want more than that loneliness, and I can't chance it or you might get hurt!"

Daln grinned. "I'm a security chief. I think I can take care of myself. And no one wants to be alone forever." He caressed her cheek, hoping to ease her pain at least a little. It was hard for Daln to feel it, but Nexi... "I promise you, I won't let anything happen to me. Or Aewia. Do you hear me? Nothing will happen to us. I won't let it." Once again, instead of the gentleness she had come to know, his fierce desire to protect his loved ones came out, with an irrational desire to tear apart the heavens if she wanted him to. At the moment, he would do anything, be anything for her. All she had to do was ask.

Nexi didn't know what she wanted or needed in this moment. Except for coffee, she could always use more coffee... But when it came to the relationship, Nexi just didn't know. Was she just not ready for this or was it all maybe too much too soon? But whatever this was between them, it was addictive and Nexi didn't want it to end. She didn't know how to answer his pleas, perhaps the right words didn't even exist, so she settled for meeting his lips with a heated kiss.

Daln understood completely. His arms tightened around her, his lips sucking on hers, first her upper lip with his tongue, then her lower lip. He stopped as he remembered that he had a duty shift in a few hours. He sighed, saying, "We really should get going." Then he grinned. "I can't wait to see you take Hernandes down. Should be interesting." He sat them up, kissed her cheek and then went to the replicator. He didn't drink coffee, but he did like a glass of juice in the morning. He replicated two plates of a hearty breakfast, a glass of juice, and a uniform for him. He'd have to settle for his motorcycle boots instead of his work ones.

"I don't wanna go and do responsible things," Nexi replied with grumble and a pout, flopping back onto the bed. She would have to get up and go check on Aewia soon anyway, so she might as well at least eat with Daln, though she was looking forward to kicking some upstart's ass... Nexi got changed and met Daln out in the kitchen. She looked at the breakfast he made with a grimace. She wasn't sure she could even identify everything on the plate and instead replicated a bowl of something that roughly equated to grits, then sat on the counter while she waited for her percolator to whistle that the coffee was ready, reaching into a cabinet for a box of mini cheezy crackers and dumping a mountain of them into her bowl.

"So, tell me about Hernandes," she said in between bites of what could only charitably be called breakfast.

Hadren chewed the eggs and a dish from Betazed that roughly equated to bacon. "Well, she's 5 foot 9 with another two feet of attitude. She's from Brazil on Earth where the women all have a LOT of attitude. She grew up with six brothers, competing against them and occasionally kicking their asses. She went through the academy a few years behind my cousin and brother, but she was on the women's wrestling team and mixed martial arts team. She even beat a couple of guys. So now she's feeling ten feet tall and bulletproof like the humans say." He finished his breakfast and chugged the rest of his juice. He looked at Nexi's bowl. She was nearly done. "Any questions? Or do you need a bit more?" he asked with a grin.

"No, that about sums it up," Nexi replied with a laugh. She tossed her bowl back through the replicator, then poured some coffee into a to-go mug. After that first sip, she finally started to feel awake. "I gotta go check on Aewia then check in with Santiago before I come down for any sparring, so try not to have too much fun without me," she said with a grin, heading for the rear hatch. "I just had a new shower installed if you wanna use it, just make sure you lock up my baby when you leave.

Daln shook his head. "I need to get to my quarters to pick up my workout clothes anyway. He recycled his plates and headed towards the door. "I'll see you in the gymnasium at 1100 hours." He turned and left the ship, stopping to look back once, and then heading straight to his quarters. He couldn't wait to see Nexi in action again. What a woman!

Lt Daln Hadren
Chief Sec/Tac Officer
USS Hera

Nexi
Infiltration Specialist
USS Hera

The away team had all met in transporter room 7 and started donning their EV suits. Thankfully they had a full complement of fully adjustable solar EV suits on hand since not everyone had had a custom suit made. Stripping her outer uniform off, Enalia folded it up and put it into her EV suit locker before pulling the lower half of the suit out and climbing into it. She had no shame at all, changing in front of everyone to reveal her grey and purple tinted Starfleet regulation undergarments.

Hadren arrived at the transporter room just before the other security personnel. "Good to see you, Hernandes." The half-Betazoid Latina nodded in return. Daln went into the men's changing room and stripped his uniform and began putting on his EV suit. He hated the things, but they were necessary at times. After he was suited up, he went to the armory in the transporter room and took a phase rifle, a type II hand phaser, and a tricorder.

He closed the door just as Hernandes came out of the changing area in her own EV suit and headed over to the small armory.

"Don't worry, Chefe," said the Latina. "Tito will be fine."

Hadren smiled. "I had no doubt."

Ethan entered the changing area, quickly removing his clothing and putting on the EV suit. His expression was still neutral, or as neutral as he could make it, knowing there would be hell to pay with Dylan once they returned to the ship. But his curiosity was piqued which meant he was willing to put with both that knowledge as well as the confines of the suit he was putting on.

Without a word, Dylan entered the room and began to put on the EV suit, glancing over at Ethan from time to time as he changed then kitted his suit out with weapons and tricorder.

Sealing her helmet, Enalia stepped up onto the transporter pad and waited for everyone else to finish.

Ethan looked over at Dylan, giving him the look which meant don't try to control/babysit me, I'm a big boy and hoped his future husband would catch its meaning and comply.

Fully aware of that look, Dylan simply sighed as he stood up on the transporter pad, fully decked out in his suit, giving the Captain a nod to indicate he was ready.

Daln noticed the looked and thoughts between Santiago and Chapparal. If those two put the others in jeopardy because of a lovers' spat, he'd have them in the brig as chew toys for Bart. He stepped up onto the pad along with Hernandes. If Tito didn't hurry up, they'd have to leave him behind.

Alyanna looked at Daln. How long do we wait, Chefe? Her impatience was clear as was Daln's frustration when he answered.

Only as long as the captain is willing to, he responded.

"I'm done waiting. Energize." Enalia said, motioning to the transporter officer. After a moment, the transport shimmer swallowed them, moving them into a massive, vaulted room made of some pale white stone-like metal. There were some consoles along a couple of the walls and a doorway that were at least 50 feet tall. Pulling out her tricorder, Enalia started scanning. These were indeed consoles... and there was something like a chair in front of one but built for a being that was much taller than the visitors. "Doctor, have you ever heard of an ancient race of forty foot tall sentients?"

Ethan looked around what had to be the Bridge, a look of incredulity etched on his face, "Not even in legends, "he responded, "though there should be some mention of it in the history banks of the computer. "

"Let's hope they still work then." Enalia replied, making her way towards one of the central consoles with a dome like device in the middle of it. "And that we can activate... and reach... any controls."

"Oh come on...surely you all know your fairy tales?" Dylan chimed in, "Giants are littered all over those things...maybe they had some basis in reality?" he suggested as he wandered around.

"I guess that's true, "Ethan admitted, but I've never heard of giants this big before. But then again my parents weren't too big, no pun intended, on fairy tales."

"Anything is possible, it would seem." Enalia said as she deactivated her mag-boots and floated to the top of one of the consoles, tricorder scanning away. "I'm guessing this is a data retrieval console. Let's see if they left a final message." Tapping her tricorder a few more times, the console began to glow dimly and the wall opposite the doorway flashed slightly, a few images shimmering to life on it. It was hard to make out but it seemed to show a green tinted alien with a bulbous head and tentacles coming from it's face. there was sadly no sound but Enalia could only assume he was talking.

"Not sure I want to come into contact with one of them." Dylan commented as he watched the image, "Why is there no sound...is it damaged?"

"No air. I think I found the sound data and I'm trying to route the feed through the universal translator into our suits." Still fiddling with her tricorder, Enalia finally got some sort of sound to play as a millions of years old sound finally crackled to life in the away team's suits. It was choppy at best but three things were clear as the garbled speech came through. "Danger... energy... threat to all life..." It was a relatively short message and those words seemed to repeat with the rest of the garbled message every minute.

"Maybe I should check out their sickbay, " Ethan said, "maybe that will hold some clues. Is there a way to access its location?"

"If we can get the doors to open, with the size of this ship, it might take a week to get to it. See if you can find out something from the terminals in this room first and we'll move on." Enalia replied, still fiddling with her tricorder.

Ethan was decent with systems and computers, but he was after all a doctor, not an engineer. Still he examined the terminal in front of him, to see what he could make out.

Daln was scanning the area, searching for any signs of life that were not attached to a combadge. "I'm not picking up any lifesigns besides ours. Hernandes, can you confirm?"

Hernandes had a phaser in one hand and tricorder in the other. "Same thing, Chefe. Not even rodents."

"He mentioned the word energy." Dylan commented, "Is anyone picking up any signatures or radiation?" he asked, checking his own tricorder.

"Over here," Alyanna said. "Low levels of gamma radiation, nothing too harmful. We're fine in our suits. Chefe, can you read anything over there?"

Daln was a good ways from where Hernandes was, checking his own tricorder. "It barely even registers over here. I don't think it will be a problem, but it would be if we didn't have our suits on. Or am I wrong, Doc?"

Just then an arc of electricity jumped from the console to Enalia's suit, knocking her unconscious. At the same time, the image on the wall flickered and died, presumably having lost the very last of its power after millions of years of waiting.

Daln ran forward and turned her over. "Doctor!" he yelled over the comm. "Chaparral, get your cock loving ass over here!"

Ethan was becoming frustrated as he tried to decipher the rather complex console in front of him. The language was one that he didn't recognize, when he heard someone call his name. Well sort of call his name and being referred to in such a fashion, it could only be one person.

He would have been more than a little pissed at Daln for talking to him in such manner, but he could hear the urgency in his voice. So he left what he was doing and rushed over. Seeing the Captain laying prone, he immediately pulled out his tricorder and scanned her body to determine what had happened.

Daln glared at the doctor. "What were you doing, taking a water break?"

Ethan looked at the other man as if he had grown a second head, "No, " he said as evenly as he could manage. I was doing the task that the Captain assigned to me. I was doing my job. Now, back away and let me tend to the Captain."

Ethan, could have said more, but decided not to push the issue, then. Later he would have a lengthy discussion with the junior officer. But the Captain's life was more important than some petty bickering.

He breathed out a sigh of relief as the he scanned the readings from the tricorder. Enalia had been knocked for a loop and there was an unusual and unknown residual energy signature still coursing through her body. She would more than likely be sore as hell for a few days as the energy source, whatever it was had stimulated her nerve endings.

Using one of the ports around the neck of the EVA suit he gave her a mild analgesic. It wouldn't deaden all the pain, she'd probably fell like she was walking on pins and needles like when a limb went to sleep, but she'd at least be able to manage the pain.

He adjusted the oxygen, bringing it up to thirty-five percent and gently shook her.

Daln backed off, ready to tear into the doctor despite the man being a higher rank. He was also here as a medic, and he had initially ignored the first injury. He knew what Ethan was probably thinking. Insubordination. Daln's job was to protect the away team and having the doctor worrying more about his lover than his actual job is detrimental to Daln's job. Still, if he was to be punished for it, so be it. He was waiting for further orders since the commander of the away team had been knocked out.

Enalia roused slightly, reaching for her helmet. She hurt like hell and was pretty disoriented as she tried to reach through the face of her EV suit in an attempt to rub at her eyes. For some reason, everything seemed to be coated in fluorescent, swirling colors. "What... Where..."

"Easy, there," Ethan said, he placed a hand gently on her shoulder, "you took quite the little jolt there, good thing you were wearing an EVA suit. It probably saved your life."

"Wonderful. Let's pack up the data we have and let the computer analyze it back on the ship then. I suppose you'll want me in sickbay, Doctor?" Enalia replied, still rather woozy and seeing colors.

"Yes ma'am I do, and I'm afraid I must insist. You're in no shape to command right now."

"I'm forced to agree. Can I at least have my quarters rather than an extended sickbay visit?" Enalia didn't much like the sterile environment of sickbay, but she'd at least defer to Ethan's judgement.

"Assuming that everything checks out and there's nothing major, then by all means. You tend to heal faster at home. My only stipulation is that you don't do anything too strenuous."

"I suppose that includes my yoga." Enalia replied. "Hera, beam us straight to the isolation ward in sickbay at your earliest convenience please."

After a moment, the team shimmered and vanished, reappearing in a sterile and open room in sickbay, each wall fitted with level 10 forcefields. Unsealing her suit, Enalia sat down on one of the biobeds. "Up to you doc."

"Well, my preliminary examination showed some second degree burns as well as some muscle strain. You're going to be pretty sore, especially your right arm and side for a few days. I can give you some muscle relaxant if you want but that's going to limit your capacity to move. I'd want to keep you in sickbay for ten to twelve hours, but after that I'd let you retire to your quarters.

I'd like to run a more precise scan now to make sure my original findings are correct."

Laying back on the biobed, Enalia didn't even bother trying to remove her EV suit first. "Just make sure we're all clean before any of us leaves."

"That goes without sayin."He flipped a switch and the sensors on the bio bed, began an intense scan of the Captain.

A worried frown appeared on Ethan's face as he read the results. He ran the scan a second time and the frown grew. "This is not good," he said at last, "you've got some residual energy from the attack and it's scrambling your neurons. Nothing to be too concerned about now, you're not going to be growing a second head or changing your gender, but it could be troublesome if it doesn't go away."

"Let's hope it does then. While the colors are pretty, It's starting to give me a headache." Enalia replied. "Am I the only one that got hit?"

"No, you're the only one." Ethan replied.

"That's good to hear at least." Enalia replied, resting her head back and closing her eyes.

Daln came by the security office to see if Nexi was ready to teach Hernandes a lesson. However, he also needed her superior's permission since she worked for the ship, too...

He walked into the intelligence offices, seeing people going about their business, their thoughts just white noise, but every now and then a thought would burst out above the noise at him. He looked for the tall Latino that ran this place and found him standing at his desk.

"Pleasant moning, Lt Santiago," Hadren said in the traditional Betazoid way.

"Is it?" Dylan turned to face Daln, "Weather's always the same out here." he added with a smirk before adding "And what brings you to our neck of the woods?"

Daln didn't react to the joke. He knew some humans had a bad sense of humor, but joking about weather? No, reacting would only encourage him. "I need to borrow Nexi for a while. I need her to teach a young ensign a lesson. Hernandes is feeling...ten feet tall and bulletproof...as you humans say." He grimaced. "So yeah, just need someone to knock her on her ass."

"She's over there." Dylan replied as he pointed, "But beware...she bites." he added, still not sure how to take the woman after their first meeting.

Daln smiled. "I know," he said. He moved over to where Nexi was, and said, "Hey, be ready at 1000. You ready to kick some Latina ass?"

"I'm ready," Nexi replied with a grin. "Just gotta finish listening to some comm chatter first," she added, tapping the earpiece in her ear to indicate she was listening to something now, then feigned a yawn; Starfleet comm channels were so boring... Now give her some Klingon or Cardassian frequencies to listen to and she could dig up more dirt in half an hour than a week of these Starfleet channels! "But I'll be done in time to teach your girl a lesson she won't soon forget."

Daln chuckled. "You should hear the gossip among the Houses of Betazed. Lots of interesting tidbits." He patted her on the shoulder. "I'll see you then." He headed towards the exit, but before he did, he stopped by Santiago. He'd heard that his cabin had a container of sugar, so he decided to ask for sugar to make his grandmother's uttaberry muffins. He stopped a few paces away and waited for the man to be free again.

"So did you manage to convince her to help?" Dylan asked as he signed off the computer terminal that he was working on and saw Daln standing there.

Daln nodded. "Yes, I did. However I wanted to ask a favor. I was looking for someone to trade with. I need a cup of sweetener, and I was hoping some muffins would be an acceptable payment for them. My father has this thing about whenever we get promoted, we make our grandmother's muffins."

"Muffins?" Dylan's eyes brightened, "Hell you can have everything that's in the cupboard for that." he grinned, "Luckily, Ethan is a great cook and keeps a stack of ingredients in our quarters. Why don't you drop by and take what you need? I'm sure he won't mind."

Daln grinned again. "I'll do that. Around 1830 hours?"

"Sounds good. I'll make sure Ethan is there to show you everything, I suck at cooking." He grinned.

Daln nodded. "I'll see you then." He left, to try to get his staff together and try to help train them, something he was never good at.

OFF:

Lt Daln Hadren
Chief Sec/Tac Officer
USS Hera

Lt Dylan Santiago
Chief Intel Officer
USS Hera

Nexi
Infiltration Specialist
USS Hera

Daln had just bid a farewell to LtJG Saxa, and he was ready for the next one. This ship had a lot of weirdos, he thought to himself. He tapped his combadge. =A= Hadren to Sha'ha'zen, please report to holodeck 2 for your phaser certification test. =A=

The Hiigaran/Human hybrid looked up from a small myriad of PaDDs and sighed before tapping her comm-badge. This wasn't the time. Not with everything coming in. Part of her wanted to open her mouth and say something equivalent to that sentiment , but she held off at the last possible second. No point in making enemies just yet. Chewing out a few other responses, Karina finally relented and decided in her own mind that completing the phaser qualification would take less time than arguing about it. "I'm on my way," she said, sounding a bit snippy in her retort.

Minutes later, she manifested on the holodeck, finding Lieutenant Hadren there waiting for her. A roll of her shoulders -- and her eyes -- made her point without having to say anything. "I'm here," she said, finally.

Hadren smiled. "Don't worry, it'll be quick." When she was close enough, Hadren started the program, causing targets to move around the room. "First, I want you to put together the type II phaser and fire it at one of the targets. The first target, it doesn't matter if you hit it. Then we'll do the target practice. You have 60 seconds...go!"

Karina was mid-way through grumbling when Hadren ordered the simulation to begin. She wasted a couple more seconds debating on whether to flip him off or hit him before grudgingly moving to the table. The phaser, Type II as Hadren said it was, had been disassembled as far as an armorer would risk. The beam emitter, pre-fire chamber... everything had been broken down.

Grabbing the hand grip in one hand and the upper assembly in the other, she wrenched the two together clumsily, but effectively. Aligning the beam emitter took longer, as she had to fidget with the emitter crystal to ensure two things: 1) it wasn't reversed -- that would explode the unit, and 2) that the focus of the beam would be within Starfleet accepted standards. With seconds left to go -- and Karina counting downward in her mind -- she hit the access plate together, heard an audible whine of the power cell charging the weapon, aimed, and fired... hitting two targets before the klaxon indicated the end of the simulation.

Two... Karina thought out of frustration. One, was a bare minimum passing grade. Two was average. She'd hoped to hit at least a third target, but debating on how she'd retort to Hadren's little joke had cost her.

Slapping the phaser back down on the table, the Hiigaran sneered. "That was low... and not a good way to make new friends," she said, still having half the mind to swing at him.

Daln, easily picking up on her thoughts since they were screaming at him, shook his head. "You only needed to hit one target. The target practice hasn't begun. In fact, I thought you did very well. Maybe I should have explained better. You only needed to put it together and make sure it wouldn't overload by firing it. Hitting two targets was good. In fact, I'm hoping my personnel can do as well. I wasn't trying to make fun of you," he assured her. He tried giving her a tentative smile. "I'm sorry if you were upset."

The Hiigaran's mood boiled underneath her skin. Of course he'd said only one target. She'd just been too eager to get this finished in order to get back her duties to hear him. Calm down, Karina mentally chided herself. But between Sinek's surprise inspection and Hadren's surprise weapons qualification, she was feeling as though people were deliberately trying to find ways to fail her. Closing her eyes and heaving an inaudible sigh, Karina counted slowly to three. "No, I'm sorry. It's been a long week," she said sardonically.

Daln was feeling intense emotions of anger and annoyance coming from the young woman, and it was starting to affect his mood. "Right, now you have 60 seconds to hit as many of the dots as you can. There are 45 of them. Go."

Again, Karina pointed the phaser up to the series of targets, firing at them judiciously. Her own mood was disrupted as well. Hell, her entire life since boarding the Hera had been made into one big giant disruption. Not just with that surprise inspection, but also by Seras's memory incapacitation due to Karina's pheromones. Taking a brief glance towards Daln, the Hiigaran wondered just how long it would take for him to forget that most of this ever happened. Facing her targets again, Karina knew that... in the end... his only recollection would be in a report.

After sixty seconds, Karina heard the chime and lowered her phaser.

Daln could easily see that she was upset. He didn't need his telepathy know she was disgruntled about something. She had had at least one bad experience recently. "You got 85 percent. Well done." He stopped and looked at her. "Are you okay? You seem...upset."

"In the last 72 hours, I've been surprised by a surprise inspection, and now this," Karina said flatly, although her voice was hardly as brusque as it had been. "I get it. I'm the boot. But I'm also Chief of Operations, with a mountain of responsibilities that I have to put aside every time I get a call like this," she finished with a wave of her hand across the range.

Daln nodded. "And I made things worse. From now on, I'll try to notify you if you or any of your staff have certification coming up. As a matter of fact, some of your staff does indeed have them coming now. I will send you the names and times so you can have more notice." He really did feel bad, but if he waited every time for someone's schedule, he'd never get anything done. "How about I buy you a drink later to make up for my blockheadedness? And we're almost done, so if you can just stand being in a room with my stupid self for a few more minutes, you'll be fine for another year."

Taking the 'if I look as pathetic as possible, maybe she'll forgive me route, eh? Karina thought while she considered his offer. Having some advanced warning would be nice. Having a drink after the week she'd been having would be even nicer. Eventually, she smirked, although even it looked a little tired. "I think I can manage that," she said, finally.

Daln decided not to comment on the thought, even though it was screamed at him. "You know, not everyone here is a dick. Just give it time." He gave her one more smile before gesturing to the next pile of parts. "Here are the parts of a phaser rifle. You have 90 seconds to put it together and fire at the target. You only have to hit it once to pass. We'll get to the shooting in a minute. On my mark. One...two...mark!"

END

Lt Daln Hadren
Chief Sec/Tac Officer
USS Hera

LtJG Karina Sha'ha'zen
Chief of Ops
USS Hera

Lieutenant Commander Sinek returned to his quarters from sick bay. Once inside, he locked the door behind him. Inside, he felt a primal fear. Not a fear for himself, but a fear for others seeing the Vulcan losing control. He could have done some damage to the Doctor just now, but he gained control thanks to Ethan's friendship.

He also feared how Angel would react. She may have already notice the incident on the bridge. She must not see him with all the turmoil going on within him.

What was he to do? Shut himself inside his quarters for two weeks? What if he were not able to overcome? ~ I cannot subject Angel to this. ~

Now that she wasn't working in security, Angel had found she had the privilege of occasionally getting off duty a few minutes early. Today she'd decided to use that time to surprise Sinek with freshly made tea, but when she unlocked the door to his cabin he was already there. Quirking an eyebrow at him, she let the door close behind her before approaching him from behind and slipping her arms around his waist. "You're home early."

Sinek's pointed ears had heard the quiet swish of the door before she spoke. His Vulcan sense of smell had recognized her scent. He felt her arms around him now and his body began to shake. Sinek was torn. His body was crying out for a lustful encounter. All of his physiology was driving him to mate. However, Sinek did not wish to be driven by his emotions. He wished to choose.

It was true he had chosen to love Angel. However, he had never truly loved anyone at the onset of Pon Farr. He felt his body heat rising at her touch. The fever returned as he began to lose control.

Pulling Angel's arms from around him, Sinek turned and backed away with fear in his eyes. It was not a fear of Angel, but of what he might do to her.

Lowering his eyes, Sinek pleaded, "Angel...you must go. I...cannot keep control."

"What has gotten into you?" Angel was puzzled, even hurt, by Sinek's sudden rejection of her. Coupled with the brief rise in his body temperature just before he'd retreated, it was worrying. "Sinek, talk to me."

Sinek looked at Angel with pain in his eyes. Every fiber of his body was crying out to just take her then and there. But this is the one he chose. He couldn't do this to her.

He slowly turned away and breathed out, "Pon Farr!" It was in these times he hated being Vulcan. Losing control of his emotions was his greatest fear.

Surprised, Angel blinked at him even though he couldn't see her. For a moment, she had no idea how to respond, but then she slowly came to his side and gently put her arms around him again, this time understanding why she felt so much heat coming from him. "Okay. We knew this was coming eventually." Resting her head against his shoulder, she continued. "I can help you through this, you know."

At first, Sinek tensed, then eased into her. "You do not understand. I am losing control and soon will succumb to the full force of my emotions. The choice I have made to love you, will be overcome by lustful passions and desires. I do not wish to treat you in that regard."

Sinek lost some control as he exclaimed, "You deserve love!" He looked Angel in the eye; a lone tear fell from an eye.

"I understand more than you realize," Angel said gently, brushing that single tear away from his face. "I knew we'd face this eventually, and it doesn't frighten me. It might even be fun." She gave him a bit of a crooked grin, not seeing any problem at all with a night of lustful passion and desire. "If I can't handle you during Pon Farr, I don't deserve to have you."

As the blue light dissipated from around Ven's sight, he stepped down from the transporter pad and started firing off orders. " We need to alter the plasma flow to the deflector..." He slowly trailed off as he noticed that he had been transported to the Pod and not transporter room three. Only Amelia stood there at the controls. "Was there a problem with the destination command?" Something else for him to fix...

Amelia stood there, tears in her eyes as she moved around the controls, stepping over the open electronics panels and the biolab equipment she had borrowed. "Ven? Is it really you?"

Suddenly Ven felt rooted in place. His mouth went dry and he was finding it hard to swallow. "Whats happened?" Clearly Ame was upset. This might be bigger then just needing to calibrate the transporters.

"You died." Amelia choked out, tears streaming from her eyes now.

"What?" Ven said shaking his head. He willed his feet forward, but came to a halt just before Amelia as he noticed the red of Command around her neck. "Wait...when did you transfer from engineering?" Something was clearly not right here. Ven could feel the wave of anxiety starting to wash over him. "I don't understand..."

Amelia nodded and tried to compose herself. "I tried to copy your more recent memories into the buffer so they might take a few to come to you. Over the last hour, I've been using the pod holotransport system and your biologics scans to reconstitute an old transporter buffer pattern. What's the last thing that you remember?"

"Transporting out of here...well that was the idea anyways." Ven said trying to get a grasp on what Amelia was telling him. But he knew one thing. He dropped the bag of tools at his feet and went to her, wrapping his arms around her. "Did we actually get sucked back in time?" He asked, hoping that part was not true.

Amelia broke down crying, clinging to Ven. Nodding, she sniffled and calmed down just enough to continue. "The devidians attacked because of me and you died and when we got back it was 4 years in the future..."

Ven's embrace tightened around her. " You saved me." he said simply.

Amelia nodded as she clung to Ven. "You're un-dead now."

Ven chuckled a little, "Never been so glad to be un-dead." He pulled back from her just slightly in order to press his lips into Amelia's.

Amelia's antenna wiggled in happiness as she kissed back. She once again felt complete. After a few moments, she ended the kiss and looked at him again. "Welcome back."

"This is going to take some time to wrap my head around." Ven admitted. "I think I should see the doctor...or the Captain or something."

"Plenty of time for that." Amelia said as she grabbed a tricorder and popped out the medical scanner and ran it over Ven briefly. Smiling at the results, she handed it to Ven. "These new tricorders have quasi-quantum scanning and twice the range of our venerable mark8 models. Do you want to see the captain or the doctor first? Or both?"

"Perhaps both." Ven said with a shaky voice. He looked at the tricorder but didn't really know what the information on it told him. Looked like it was operating correctly.

"I'm sorry, you probably need some rest first, don't you? There's a big bed in my new quarters. I got a bit of a promotion. I'm the XO's yeoman now and my quarters are next to hers. You can meet Tobi as well. He's my new pet." Amelia was rambling now, looking around the room at the scattered electronics.

Ven watch Amelia for a long moment then looked down at his feet s a blush spread over his face. "Only if you promise to take advantage of me, I don't want to die a virgin again." Then he managed to lean in and bite her on the neck, knowing full well exactly what it meant this time.

"I'll guarantee it." Amelia replied, purring into the bite blissfully, no longer distracted by her own thoughts.

With Enalia still out of commission after whatever had happened during that away mission, Angel had found herself in command of the ship, a seat she'd thought to be so unlikely when she'd first come aboard. She still had no idea just what sort of object they were orbiting or how long Enalia planned for them to stay there, and she wasn't looking forward to finding out what it was either. With their luck it was probably some sort of ancient planet killing weapon that could swat the Hera like a fly. The thought wasn't exactly comforting. Even with the strange object looming, Angel still had other things on her mind. Like where her second in command was. She knew Sinek was having a tough time, but being entirely absent was so unlike him that thoughts of him poked in even as she tried to contemplate what their next course of action should be... along with other things.

Somehow, Amelia had brought Ven back from the dead. Angel didn't pretend to understand it, but naturally Enalia had left it up to her to figure out what had happened and if any sort of... consequences were in order. She hated the idea of punishing Amelia for rescuing a member of the crew thought to be dead, but at the same time she didn't want to encourage any of their other science-inclined people to try doing the same thing. Just having it happen once was mind-boggling, and they didn't know how dangerous it was. She hadn't been able to come up with any suitable actions beyond keeping Amelia nearby and within sight, but she also knew that wasn't likely to stop any sciencey shenanigans. Amelia was a crafty sort, crafty enough to keep Angel guessing, even if Angel didn't like to admit it. Keeping her nearby and within sight didn't mean the Andorian woman wasn't plotting more impossible things to do before the Hera left the bizarre structure behind.

Not really sure what orders to give or whether the ship should leave this place, Angel looked at the odd thing on the viewscreen, wishing it was someone else who had to figure all this out.

The ride on the turbo lift brought mixed feelings to the Vulcan. It meant the urges had passed; he was his logical self once again. It was a good thing to be back on duty; he had missed the routine of his life.

Sinek also missed she who gave him breaks from the routine. He wondered if she would understand he did what he did for her. She was the one person with whom he shared his emotions. Sinek felt to subject Angel to the rampant animal emotions would hinder their relationship. She would feel like a mere piece of meat to fulfill the thriving hunger of the predator.

When the door hissed open, Sinek could see her in the Captain's seat. A sudden flush of emotion caused the Vulcan to wonder if the Pon Farr had actually passed. However, Sinek gained control and suppressed the feeling before any tears formed in his eyes.

Quietly, Sinek approached the chair to her right. He looked at the one he chose to love. I did the logical thing, but was it the right thing? Folding his hands before him, he silently sank into the chair next to her.

Softly he spoke, "I have missed much..." It was a statement, not a question. A statement full of meaning that Sinek hoped to get across to Angel. He had missed what had happened to the Captain and why Angel now sat in her seat. That was true. But more than anything, Sinek hoped Angel heard how much he had missed her.

"You have a lot of explaining to do," Angel countered just as softly, though there was a warmth in her voice as she lightly scolded him. Disappearing like that had her so worried, and here he was... normal as ever. "I'll fill you in on the specifics later. It's been really strange around here lately." That was an understatement, one that Sinek wouldn't understand until she had the time to explain everything. Even then, Angel feared he might find her to be a raving lunatic.

Sinek raised a brow. Did later mean privately, the two of them alone? Or was it more of an official capacity? True, Angel's tone was softer than Sinek had a expected, but he couldn't help but wonder where he stood with Angel.

The past few weeks drained him physically and emotionally. She showed a desire to be with him - to help him through the suffering and pain, to allow him to feed those emotions that raged through his mind. Despite Angel's willingness and strong will, Sinek wouldn't allow her to stay. It was another first for him - going through Pon Farr without a partner. It was extremely painful and dangerous, but he had conquered through meditation.

"Indeed," Sinek spoke in a flat tone, "later."

Sinek looked at the view screen, "What is our current mission?"

"Good question." To be honest, Angel wasn't entirely sure what all of the mission parameters were. All this science stuff went over her head. "We picked up a distress call from that... thing." She gestured at the moon-sized structure orbiting the binary stars below, which she supposed was some sort of ship. "We've been taking scans, but so far all we can tell about it is it's old... older than the Iconians, if you can believe that. I was hoping you'd know more about it."

Sinek thought got a moment, then input some inquiries into a PADD. "The Ambimorphs were capable of building a structure this large. The USS Independence stumbled upon them, thinking their ship to be a planet. However, it was discovered to be hollow. When the crew of the Independence were determined to be peaceful, the Ambimorphs revealed themselves. Apparently, they were able to shapeshift down to the molecular structure of the item."

Sinek paused to allow Angel to take in what he had said. It was a possibility. The Ambimorphs were an ancient advanced civilization. The Vulcan then added, "If they are capable of morphing down to the molecular level, it may explain why scans are not picking up life forms. A word of caution: the Ambimorphs the Independence discovered carried a deadly virus that killed many of the Independence's crew."

Before Angel could respond though, a familiar face stepped off of the turbolift and headed straight for her, a security guard at the person's side. Standing at crisp attention, Amelia offered the Commander a PaDD. "Ma'am, this is a report of how I reconstituted Ven. I accept all consequences for my actions."

At the words "reconstituted Ven," Sinek's left brow rose. It seems I did miss quite a bit. Sinek turned to look at Angel, his brain churning to fully understand just what this reconstitution meant. He had heard of the famous ancient earth theories of regeneration. He knew of the hybrid - Ambassador Spock, a man whom Sinek had actually met - and his regeneration through Project Genesis. It would be interesting to study this subject - Ven - and determine how effective this reconstitution was and exactly how it was done.

Just then, Daln came out of the other turbolift and caught thoughts that made him wonder if everything was alright or if he was going to have to place someone in the brig. Quietly, he came up closer to Cmdr Fairchild, thinking that she could use him if she wished. "Ma'am, do you need assistance?" Daln asked her, glancing at the Andorian before looking back at Angel.

Her head already reeling from the barrage of bizarre happenings in recent weeks coupled with the sudden dropping of the Hera command in her lap, Angel just looked at the three of them for a moment, trying to process each comment and come up with an appropriate response. Her woozy brain wasn't making much headway on that. "Okay. Tiny Ambimorphs we can't see or scan could explain the absence of life signs, but not the giant chairs that Enalia put in her report. Unless she's crazy and was seeing things, which isn't out of the realm of possibility." There. One thing handled. Now for the other two. She gingerly took the PaDD that Amelia offered her, tucking it between her leg and the side of the command chair. "Thank you, Petty Officer. I'll go over it later." Reading it later gave her some time also to come up with some sort of reasonable response to Amelia fiddling with necromancy... or whatever it's scientific equivalent was. She couldn't really fault Amelia for bringing back the love of her life, but Angel didn't want other scientists on the ship thinking they could get away with it too. Finally she looked at Daln with something of a weary smile, shaking her head slightly. "I'm all right, but I wouldn't mind if you stuck around either. Apparently we have science-y types resurrecting the dead, and seeing as I don't carry a phaser anymore, I'm not up for fighting any zombies if something goes wrong." It was meant as a joke, but Angel thought it sounded wrong somehow. She just couldn't figure out just what was wrong with it.

Daln frowned, sensing something was seriously wrong...besides the problems with the captain. "Aye, ma'am...I'll be at my station if you need me." He gestured to the tactical station just behind her. Zombies? What kind of ship have I been assigned to? he wondered.

Just then, the lights on the bridge dimmed noticeably for a few seconds, returning to normal brightness after a brief flicker at the bottom of their lighting capabilities. With that, the hum of the ship noticeably died down as well as the EPS conduits were drained of energy by an unknown source. Amelia looked up a bit startled, but was the first in motion, reaching one of the bridge's rear engineering stations in record time. "Captain, there was power failure on decks one through three and parts of deck four. A diagnostic is already in progress to determine the cause but nothing's popped up yet and power levels are back up to normal."

When the lights dimmed, Angel's posture had perceptively stiffened, and she found herself wishing she'd kept carrying her sidearm despite Starfleet's dislike of having armed officers outside of security. The last time they'd had lighting issues, there had been an army of Devidians on board. People had been sucked dry of their life force. "Lieutenant Haldren, I want security teams posted at those locations before the engineering teams go in to take a closer look."

"The computer says the source was just outside of environmental control on deck two. There's a turbolift stuck... no, it's moving again..." Glancing up from the console, Amelia stared at the turbolift in question, waiting for it to open.

And open it did, revealing a passed out Enalia Telvan collapsed on the floor.

Looking at Amelia, Sinek calmly ordered, "Transport the Captain to Sick Bay and avert auxiliary power to those decks. Also, were there any fluxes in power coming from that ship?" Pushing his Comm, he added, "Lieutenant Commander Sinek to Sick Bay, the Captain is being beamed directly to you."

Looking to Daln, Sinek intoned, "Get a team to deck two and investigate the area outside of environmental control."

Daln nodded, then tapped his commbadge. "Daln to security. Hernandes, Thorne, meet me in environmental control."

Sinek was beginning to wonder how the ship figured into everything that happened. He had been to binary systems before. They didn't cause strange things to happen. The only thing different was the ship. He even wondered if it had anything to do with Amelia bringing Ven back.

Amelia nodded and programmed in the site to site transport, sending the Captain safely to the receiving ward of sickbay on deck twelve. Once she was sure the cycle was complete, she looked up and nodded to Sinek.

Then another alarm went off, throwing the ship into yellow alert.

Looking back at the engineering console, Amelia read off the status display for that alarm. "Deck twelve is on emergency power and parts of decks ten through fifteen are without power. It's like something's draining it straight out of the EPS conduits... And levels are returning to normal now. No... The primary inertial dampener generators on deck thirteen isn't coming back online. Secondaries kicking in, but it's not enough to keep us in orbit for very long."

And when we fall out of orbit do we hit the giant ship or the stars? Either end spelled bad news for the ship.... but they couldn't go to warp with failing inertial dampeners either. "Break orbit!" Angel snapped at the young officer in control of the helm, whoever it was she didn't know them. "Put as much distance between us and the binary stars as you can before the dampeners fail."

"But sir... without the primary inertial dampeners we can't go to warp..." The young officer looked over his shoulder, trailing off as he saw the look Angel was giving him. "Yes, sir, breaking orbit."

As efforts started to move the Hera away, Angel slowly looked at Sinek and Amelia. "You sent Enalia to sickbay. It's on deck 12."

Amelia stared blankly at Angel for a moment before the engineering panel called to her again. "Fusion reactors three and four are being drained now. They're on deck ten right above where I beamed the Captain... Starboard impulse engines are at zero output. Port side is at full power. I'm routing power to the secondary hull's impulse drive to compensate."

"It's the Captain," Sinek logically surmised outloud. "She previously was on the turbo- lift where the initial problem occurred. If we place her within a secured force field, would it prevent this draining?"

"I don't know. This is going way over my head." Even with the secondary hull's impulse drive firing, Angel could feel the ship starting to slip into a slow turn to starboard. "Try it."

Sinek knew the force field meant that if the Captain needed medical attention, they would have to drop the it. However at this point, Sinek's logic told him that the entire crew's safety trumped that of one person, even if that person was the Captain. He was certain the Captain would agree. He input the commands to place the field around the Captain's bio-bed. He alerted Sick Bay and advised them to monitor and report the Captain's vital signs.

Now, they would have to see if it helped their situation. Sinek's mind turned back to the alien ship. "Commander, permission to board the alien ship in an EV suit once we are stabilized."

"And expose you to whatever the hell happened to Enalia over there? Absolutely not," Angel replied firmly. She didn't know what had happened for sure on that ship, and she sure as hell wasn't sending anyone else over to it.

The unnamed helmsman was clearly having some difficulty getting the ship out of orbit, all but pounding on the console in front of him. "Commander, engines seem to be losing power. I can get us into a stable orbit a bit higher than we were but unless we get more power, we're stuck here."

Amelia piped up from the back of the bridge right after he finished talking. "The forcefield in sickbay won't hold - there's just not enough power left there to generate one. Also, we only have about forty percent impulse power left. We'll need double that to break out of this gravity well. On the bright side, primary IDF generators are coming back online." As soon as Amelia finished talking, the bridge lights dimmed again, this time for a bit longer than last time and several consoles around the outside of the bridge went blank.

Angel made a distressed noise as the lights nearly went out again, gripping the arm rests to the chair she suddenly didn't feel qualified to sit in. She didn't know exactly what was happening or how to fight it; her career thus far had generally presented her with problems that could be solved with superior weaponry. Nowhere had she encountered anything quite like this. "Get us in a stable orbit then," she said tightly, hoping she imagined the quiver in her voice. "And find a way to shut off that damned power drain!"

No matter how large the alien ship was, something had crippled it, now the same thing seemed to be happening to the Hera. "Commander, it seems whatever stopped that ship is now doing the same to us. It seems to be working through the Captain. I would recommend stunning her, but it appears she will absorb the energy generated. We need to neutralize whatever is draining off power through her. Do we have any scans back from Sick Bay?" Sinek asked.


[Environmental Control]

Jenny, Bart and Hernandes got to Environmental Control before Daln, and the dog looked on edge, like he sensed something. It had Daln on edge, too, but he didn't know why. Bart growled.

"Steady, boy," Thorne said.

Daln tapped his commbadge again. =A= Gates, take Lwordin and some teams and get to Decks 3, 4, and 12 and keep an eye on things. I don't want anything taking us by surprise. =A=

They went in, wristlights on, but nothing was there. Daln aimed his light everywhere. "Anything, Hernandes?"

Hernandes likewise was looking around, unable to find anything. "No. I can't find anything. It's giving me the creeps."

Bart, meanwhile was sniffing around, trying to find anything, but coming up empty. Jenny was shining the flashlight wherever he was headed but finally he just snorted and sat on his haunches and looked at Jenny. He'd found nothing.

Jenny looked at Daln. "Nothing. Bart didn't find anything and if he can't smell it, it probably isn't here."

"Right," Daln said curtly. He trusted the canine's senses, but the lack of evidence frustrated him. "Let's head back." He led the way back to the turbolift, hoping it wouldn't stall on him.

They entered the turbolift and were heading back to the bridge, all of them ill at ease, even the dog.


[Bridge]

Back on the bridge, the helmsman finally got the ship into a stable orbit. "We're there, Commander. Solid and stable for at least a year according to the computer."

No sooner had he finished speaking than the lights came back.

And then a sound came from the intercom.

A crackling, guttural sound that was vaguely speech patterned.

It continued for a few moments before it morphed and cleared up into a densely male voice. "Thank you for this chariot. I've been trapped here for so many millennia without food. Your society will satisfy my unslaked thirst." Then with a slight squelch, the voice went silent.

At the sudden sound of a voice speaking from the comms system, Angel squeaked and froze in place, her breath caught in her throat. Any moment she expected that voice to start singing that infernal 'Bonnie-kin' rhyme that still occasionally haunted her nightmares. It was her place to respond to whatever this being was, but no words came. Instead she sat stone-still, barely breathing as the memory of being chased by the assimilated dog-zombie creatures surfaced and cheerfully traumatized her all over again.

"Who are you?" Sinek evenly inquired. Even though there seemed to be malice in the voice, Sinek attempted to open communication. It seemed the Vulcan thing to do. "Is the other ship yours? If not, did you harm the inhabitants of the ship? How do you intend to satisfy your thirst."

Perhaps if they knew the entity's plan, they could better defend it. Calmly sending a quick message to the Captain's chair, Sinek hoped that Angel would see it without alerting the entity. It read: "If this entity thirsts for energy, perhaps we should shutdown all systems."

Daln and the others had come in in the middle of the entity's speech. Bart bared his teeth and growled, uneasy. Daln froze in place, sensing the absolute malice of the thing. It was rare that he ever felt that kind of cruelty. "What was that?" he asked, disturbed.

With a brief squelch, the voice came back. "That ship... Yes, it tried to destroy me here... To save their own dying society. I have seen civilizations rise and fall. I have eaten whole suns. I have seen the collapse of galaxy spanning civilizations. Yes, I was their downfall. They fed me in the hopes of slaking my thirst but it just made me stronger. They served well their purpose, just as yours will. This ship will be a fine chariot for my return to the universe after half a billion years."

"If it is energy for which you hunger," Sinek calmly suggested, "Perhaps you will be more satisfied by the binary system. We have evidence it will be colliding soon and going supernova."

Sinek looked at Angel and mouthed the words without sound, "Mag-net-tic Ent-ti-ty."

While it was nice that Sinek appeared to know what the creepy voice might be, Angel could do little more than nod at him. Her personal universe was getting rather small, as the relative lack of air moving into her lungs had her brain rapidly spiraling into oblivion.

Amelia knew her ideas were crazy and had gotten people killed, but she'd saved someone too, so she hoped this would work... Or at least be considered... Punching up a basic outline on a PaDD, she headed back around the horseshoe and offered it to Angel. "It seems power is back to normal levels for the moment at least. I mean, we're still lacking the power to escape the gravity well, but with any luck..." On that PaDD was the trajectory for a slingshot past the ancient derelict, coming within a few meters of it, and flying the Hera straight between the binary neutron stars in a slingshot maneuver that would throw the ship clear of the system. It would either fry the entire crew with radiation, crush the ship to the size of a strawberry, or they'd survive and escape... Hopefully with the gravity pulling the entity now in the ship out on the way. Her quick calculations gave the plan a 1.2% chance of both surviving and without their new 'friend'.

Amelia was talking to her. Still feeling somewhat dazed, Angel gingerly took the offered PaDD and looked at it. The proposal was almost certain to destroy the ship and kill everyone, but what other options did they have? Their orbit would soon decay. Attempting to break orbit would drain all power from the ship. At least this plan had the advantage of not requiring the Hera to expend any power of her own.

It was a bad plan. A terrible one, in fact. But Angel didn't like her other choices either, and a decision had to be made. Rather than speak aloud and alert the entity to what she was doing, she quietly rerouted helm control to the arm console of the command chair, pointing the ship's nose dead center between the twin stars and switching the engines from orbit/stationkeeping to forward momentum. Slowly, the Hera began to pick up speed, heading for a slingshot maneuver that would either send the ship reeling across space far away from this system... or destroy it.

Amelia plopped her but in the empty seat inside the bridge horseshoe and held on for the ride. As soon as the ship started moving, the intercom squelched back on with that same voice, a bit more menacing and with a touch of desperation to it. "What are you doing? That'll destroy you? Why would you do that?"

As the derelict ship grew in the viewscreen, Amelia punched up a power readout on that chair's console, monitoring it as they flew faster towards the binary neutron stars. Soon, they'd be passing that ancient ship and passing between the giant balls of radiation and gravity so she did her best to reinforce both the shields and the structural integrity of the ship.

"I demand that you stop this at once! I must not! Do not!" The entity screeched over the intercom as they raced closer towards seeming death. "Aaargh!" It screamed as the hull of the Hera passed within a few inches of the behemoth drifting in space. Angel was piloting as well as she could to miss it, but even then, there was no way to completely avoid the massive ship and as a screeching and slight shudder went through the ship, the energy being saw its only chance of survival and took it, leaping back through the Hera's hull to the archaic moon sized ship.

"Power levels increasing. No sign of drain." Amelia reported as soon as they cleared the giant vessel. Now they just had to thread the eye of the needle, the tiny neutron stars filling the viewscreen.

"Time to apex, thirty seconds," called out the helmsman, whom by this time had soiled himself in outright fear. "We'll reach escape velocity three seconds before that."

Daln held on to the rail on which his controls resided, trying to steady himself. "Oh, shit!" he yelled. His dark eyes widened in fear as the two stars came closer and closer...

Keeping her eyes on her plotted course, Angel steadied the Hera until it flew straight and true, holding her breath as the ship hurtled toward the impossibly small gap. Three seconds wasn't enough time to pull the ship out of its headlong rush toward the stars; their only hope was to keep flying straight and pray to whatever deity might be listening that the ship survived. Seconds seemed to stretch into hours and then the Hera slammed through the space between the stars, her speed easily doubling and then tripling as the ship entered the slingshot turn that would free them entirely of the system.

As the ship reached escape velocity and beyond, a singularity was forming around the ship - a light was seen streaking at the edges of the viewscreen and tachyons flooded the area, throwing the ship into a temporal pocket that moved them forward in time by a few days as they passed through the binary neutron stars.

On their way out of the system, the ship was at close to the speed of light and still going just on impulse and soon they had cleared the gravity well. "Commander," squeaked the scared shitless helmsman, "We're clear."

"Good." That was all Angel could think of to say about the matter. It wasn't cheerful or inspiring, but she was lacking in both feelings at the moment. "I want reports on Captain Telvan's condition and the overall condition of the ship and crew as soon as they are available. I'll be in the ready room." Perhaps it wasn't proper to flee the bridge so abruptly after their escape, but Angel's renewed hold on her composure was tenuous at best. Rather than take the chance on losing that grip, she got up and disappeared into Enalia's ready room, where at least she could be alone for as long as necessary.

The commander's unease was strong enough for a person of quarter Betazoid blood to pick it up. He gestured for Hernandes to take over and headed to the ready room and sounded the chime.

Lieutenant Commander Sinek had keep his eyes upon the hull integrity indicators throughout the procedure. The were incidents of significant stress being dealt to the hull. However, the Hera held up under stress, which would have imploded lesser ships.

Seeing Commander Fairchild advance to the Ready Room and knowing the condition of the Captain, Sinek assumed command of the bridge. He didn't need an order to do so; it was his duty. Inwardly, his thoughts were concerning the one he chose to love. Outwardly, Sinek was Vulcan.

Angel had barely made it inside the ready room before the chime rang behind her. Too early for reports to be coming in just yet, it was a bad time. A terrible time, in fact, for a visit. Angel knew, however, that a good commander didn't turn away an officer with concerns, even if the one thing that commander wanted was to lock the doors and hide. Her back still to the door, she laid her hands on the desk and leaned over it, taking a few slow breaths to steady herself before answering the ringing bell. "Come in."

Hadren entered and saw that the commander was holding on to her composure by a thread. It saddened him because he knew Cmdr Fairchild to be one of the strongest women he had seen.

He waited until the doors shut and then asked, "Are you okay, Commander? Is there anything I can do?"

Hadren. Out of all the people on the bridge, Angel knew it would be either Daln or Sinek who would pick up on her distress after all that. "I'm fine. Just not fantastic with creepy alien voices talking to me when they have no business being here at all." It wasn't quite the whole truth as she wasn't feeling fine at all, but she could hardly tell one of her senior officers that since Ven's reappearance, she'd had a rush of the same feelings she'd had after the Reman cold storage station and the Devidian occupation of the Hera, especially one who had come to the ship after those events had transpired.

Being telepathic, Daln knew there was more to it. He didn't want her to be hurting, though he also didn't want to overstep. "You don't seem fine. In fact it seems like there's more, and it's freaking you out." He thought a minute. "I just don't want you to be...well..." Daln was not a words guy. He was a man of action. He wasn't touchy-feelly like his cousins, and he wasn't a brainiac like his brother. But he did care about people and it showed.

Despite still feeling like she was drowning in flashbacks and something that felt a lot like paranoia, Angel couldn't help smiling just a little at the somewhat awkward attempt at counseling. "Stick to security, Hadren. Psych is not your thing." At least there was a tone of amusement now where before she'd been flat and withdrawn. "The last time I had to listen to a creepy male voice over comms that was 'hunting' I had to fight off some sort of canine zombie creatures. Half my away team was eaten in front of me. Not long after, we were being hunted by Devidians... again with several of the crew getting eaten. One of the man who was eaten is here again, seemingly alive and well. It's a bit much to take in."

Hadren frowned. "That's...disturbing. I don't blame you for being upset." Then he smiled wryly. "And no, I am not nearly as touchy-feely as my cousins. That's why they're the doctors." He started to tell a story to try to tell her up. "And Ranel is the most touchy-feely. He's so gay he should be in drag. I remember one time he showed up in a light yellow suit with a pink shirt and baby blue tie. The shoes were the worst. They had golden studs all along a certain part of them. Problem was we were going to a club and he was pastel nightmare. Then he wondered why the guys avoided him. We didn't have the heart to tell him that they were scared of him."

Angel couldn't help giggling a little at the mental image that story conjured. "If you ever started being that touchy-feely, I'd take your phaser and stun you with it." She still felt tense and anxious, coiled tight like a spring even. But the story at least helped.

Daln gave her an offended look and shuddered. "Four Deities forbid it." Then he grinned at her. "I'm glad I could make you laugh, ma'am. You looked like you needed it."

"I did, thank you." Feeling just that little bit better, Angel finally went around the desk and sat down, wishing it was appropriate to just give up and take a nap. ''

Daln nodded. "You know, a zebra mocha latte helps my cousin, Naila. Or she says it does. Maybe try it?" Feeling he was overstepping he said self-consciously, "I'll get back to work now."

"I appreciate the advice." Angel smiled just a little. "Please don't let me keep you from your duties. You're free to go, of course."

Daln nodded, trying not to be as awkward as he felt. "Right. If you need anything, I'm here. I'm not the shrink some of my family is, but I'm here for you." He smiled a little and left, glad she felt better. The ship may need her, but she needed her friends.

The idea of 'rest' with Amelia was appealing, but Ven had started to go down hill quickly after leaving the pod. He was finding himself weak and starving. His bones were starting to hurt and he was starting to struggle to walk. Being resurrected from the dead was no easy task.

Deciding to save the alone time with Ame until he was feeling better, the two entered sick bay. Ven leaned heavily
on her.

Ethan looked up from the PAaD he'd been leafing through when he heard the chime sound and went out to check on things. Seeing Ven, pasty and almost totally devoid of color, he rushed over to check him out. "What's going on here?" he asked.

Ven glanced at Amelia then to Ethan. "Uh...I have been dead for a while. She brought me back to life. Not exactly clear on how long."

"It's been a little while. I used some biolab equipment, the holo transporters in the pod and.... and a lot of luck. I think some nutrient strands didn't materialize right and dissolved though. That's my theory, anyway." Amelia quickly said as she helped Ven to the nearest biobed.

"Wait, a minute," Ethan said disbelievingly "You brought a dead man back to life? How did he die in the first place and how long was he dead for, there may have been sever brain damage."

"Uhh... How long ago were we attacked by Devidians? I found a transporter pattern still in the buffer and with some creative engineering, rematerialized him from that and a few... samples..." Amelia further explained. "The degradation was less than point oh two percent thanks to a phase lock loop error that cropped up during our jump through that Devidian portal because of the way that transporter is wired into the holographic systems. His original body was... It was in that big funeral..."

"I see, well that explains a lot. I guess I better look him over. He ran a tricorder wand over his newest patient, "Some cellular degeneration,and his body needs some nutrients. A lot more than he can get from eating. But we can treat him here for that. He's lucky to be alive."

Then looking at Ven he said, "How do you feel?"

"I hurt..." Ven said weakly as he we helped onto the bio bed. "My legs are not working all that well and I feel really tired...and thirsty."


Ethan nodded, "I'm not surprised, after all you've been through. The bad news is there's not too much I can do for you, medically speaking. The good news is with a little rest and recovery time, you should be totally back to normal. You're just going to need to stay here for a few days. Mostly for observation."

Ven sighed happily and looked to Amelia. " That's good news. You did good." He said with a smile. "I guess someone had better tell Captain Telvan."

Fortunately, no one had to tell her - that was when she walked through the sickbay doors with 4 armed security guards. As soon as she saw Ven though, she stopped in her tracks. "I thought it was a bad report when the call came in that your comm badge had just logged into the system and that it was in sickbay..." Waving the security detail off, dismissing them, she strode semi-confidently towards the three before tapping her comm badge. "Commander Fairchild, please join us in sickbay." Not waiting for the reply, she tapped her badge again to silence it. "Can someone explain this please?"

Ethan shrugged and looked over at Amelia, "She's the hero, it's her story. She should tell it."

Enalia raised an eyebrow at the word 'hero' as she focused on the suddenly scared Amelia. "I um... I used some bio equipment and an old transporter pattern and brought him back to life. It wasn't a perfect procedure, but here he is." Amelia said somewhat sheepishly.

Enalia raised a hand to silence Amelia - this was stuff she'd have to dedicate a team to figuring out. Turning her attention to Ven, Enalia decided to quiz him a bit next. She'd have to get to the bottom of what Amelia did later. "Lieutenant Nosplet, do you have some way to prove you are who you seem to be?"

"Uh..yeah." Ven said and glanced at Amelia out of the corner of his eye. "I had a private conversation about the way Rhett was treating his people and that I wanted Amelia moved to my department. You said if I could get her promoted you would move her for me. Looks like she got away from him without my help."

Amelia's grip tightened momentarily on Ven as the realization of what he tried to do for her sank in. Enalia, on the other hand, stared thoughtfully at Ven for a moment before nodding slowly. "Well, stranger things have happened I suppose. You're both to be confined to quarters and sickbay for the time being and as we have a new Ops Chief already, if all goes well, I'd like to offer you the position of Engineering Chief. Also, you were posthumously promoted. Once Doctor Chaparral clears you for duty and confirms you're... really real... we'll see if that promotion and position will stick."

"Can Amelia still visit me please?" Ven requested quickly. "I understand what she did will most likely have a punishment, I'm not trying to save her from that. But I'm sure my death was hardest on her. I'm sure the doctor will back me up on this, but it would be good for both of us to have contact during this time." He was speaking fast and practically begging the Captain for this.

"I'll leave that to our XO but as we've reassigned your quarters and Officer Takethen's quarters as a Yeoman are big enough, I can at least assign you to them." Turning Finally to Ethan, Enalia let her facade of control slip slightly as she seemed to age twenty years in a matter of seconds. "Doctor, I need to see you when you have a moment. The tingles and lights are getting pretty bad again." she said, referring to when she had recently had the shit shocked out of her on an ancient derelict behemoth of a ship.

Angel hadn't been paged to sickbay in a long time; the last time she remembered being called there it had been because Ethan couldn't handle Sinek on his own. Concerned that it might be Sinek in trouble again, she'd rushed down to sickbay as soon as she could, only to stop short just inside the door when she saw just what was going on there. Years in security had her instinctively reaching for the phaser at her hip, only for her to realize as her hand grazed against fabric that she didn't carry a phaser anymore. It wasn't proper for a ship's first officer to do so. Confused and wary, she looked from Amelia to Ven to Enalia, wondering why neither of the other women seemed concerned that a dead man was there in the Hera's sickbay. "What...?"

"Amelia here, after deciding she couldn't live without her love, decided that she'd bring him back to life with some Doctor Frankenstein transporter sciencey stuff." Enalia explained as she turned dizzily towards Angel. "Please see if you can figure it out and take whatever actions you deem appropriate for your Yeoman."

"...you want me to figure it out?" Reaching reflexively to steady Enalia's dizzy turn, Angel could already feel a headache coming on. "I hate Doctor Frankenstein sciencey stuff."

"Wait," Ven said with a confused look, "Angel is the XO? When did that happen? Hope your not sore about that Tribble incident."

"It's a long story." And boy was it. Angel wasn't sure she wanted to tell it either. "And why would I... Ventarus Nosplet, if I find out you planted those tribbles in my cabin, there will be so much hell to pay!" Relieved that Ven did seem to really be Ven, Angel laughed a little, shaking her head.

Ven looked shocked, even with how tired he was. "Your cabin? No, I was talking about when we had that disagreement while I was trying to clean up the Tribbles! The only Tribble I put in anyone's cabin was the one I gave to Aewia!" He glanced between Angel and Enalia, hoping he didn't get in trouble for that one. "Its neutered..."

Enalia put a hand up to silence any more on that subject as she sat down on a nearby biobed. "Neutered is fine. Just as long as it's not breeding and filling the ship and making a mess everywhere like the rest did."

"Relax, greasemonkey. It was a joke." Angel lightly poked Ven's arm, grinning in amusement at her own joke. "Neutered tribbles don't bother me. Just keep the ball of fluff away from my bed." She wasn't sure if she knew about Aewia's tribble or not, but one neutered tribble wasn't the end of the world. "Once the doctor clears you, you're free to move into Amelia's cabin, and she can certainly visit you while you're stuck in sickbay. Just... no more Frankenstein-y stuff for a while, okay?"

Amelia couldn't hide her happiness at the news and nodded vigorously, still clinging to Ven. "I promise, ma'am. No more bringing people back from the dead. His was the only pattern on the list of names I could find anyway."

"Don't worry, he should be able to be released soon, "Ethan said.

Ven's grin matched Amelia's, " Moving in with Amelia sounds perfect, if that's ok with you?" He asked, looking to his blue skinned love.

"That's what I had hoped, actually," Amelia said with a wide smile.

"It's settled then," Enalia interjected. "Ven is our new Chief Engineer and he and Amelia will stay in the same quarters."

Lieutenant Commander Sinek had taken more time than usual perusing the report that Yeoman Takethen turn in to Commander Fairchild. Yes, it was puzzling how an enlisted personnel would have this advanced knowledge. However, the question Sinek held in his mind far and above all others dealt primarily with the ethics of the incident. The dead should remain dead. It didn't seem logical to Sinek. A man who had been dead for the length of time that Venn had been, should not be brought back. The blood should have long been dried up. The electrical synaps silent.

He had decided to hear the Andorian's side things. It wasn't Sinek's concern to get caught up in a huge debate. His main priority was his department. Did someone from Science assist the Yeoman? Is this how she had gained her knowledge? If Amelia Takethen is truly this brilliant, perhaps she should be in the Science Department.

Sinek sent a message to the yeoman to see him in his office. He kept himself busy reviewing reports from the Astrophysics and Biology labs until she arrived.

Amelia had a pretty good idea why the ship's Second Officer and Science Chief wanted to see her. He'd been handed the task of unravelling her 'necromancy' as the Captain and XO had put it. She had combined holo-emitter, transporter, replicator, mythology, and so many other things to the mix to do what she had done, mostly out of desperation. Hence why she now had several PaDDs in a small case as she pressed the chime to Commander Sinek's office. They contained every note and every crazy rant she had actually recorded. She'd kept them on her personal terminals and only copied them to these PaDDs so that even if someone knew what they were looking for, they'd be very hard to find.

Sinek paused from his reports at the sound of the chime. He gave the order, "Enter."

Amelia entered attentively and stood in front of the commander's desk. "You requested to see me, Commander." It was more of a statement, her antenna waving in a slightly submissive manner.

"Yes," the CSO stated matter-of-factly, "I did."

Sinek put down the PADD he had been reviewing. Motioning to the seat before his work station, Sinek requested, "Please have a seat, Yeoman."

He waited for the Andorian to be seated before continuing. "I surmise you have an idea as to why I requested you presence." It was a statement, not a question.

Amelia nodded, having taken the proffered seat, the case sitting heavily in her lap. Silently, she waited for him to set the stage upon which this conversation would traverse.

The Vulcan leaned back in his seat, crossed his legs, and moved his hand to his chin, his fingers forming the familiar triangle pattern. If he showed a relaxed nature, perhaps Amelia would respond in a like manner.

"I have read your report, Yeoman. It is indeed fascinating. It appears that you have brought to combined several different theories and practices. Please review for me where you received your information and how you pieced this information together."

Amelia took a deep breath and tried to relax, pausing just a moment to collect her thoughts on the matter. "Well, I found a residual transporter buffer pattern in the transporter systems of the pod and identified it as Ven's. As soon as I saw that it was in a stable phase lock loop with less than a thousandth of a percent of degradation, I started with human mythology about the soul, then moved to the Vulcan Katra. I referenced several known incidents where a quantum duplicate of a person had been created on accident. All of this information was readily available in the computer's database. However, I ran into a few issues with reports of some of the transporter created quantum duplicates having been of a completely different personality from the original so to counter that, i tapped into my own knowledge of engineering and used the holo-emitters in the transporter systems to create as perfect of a duplicate from the scans of the corpse from the autopsy, which are also freely available in the medical databases in the tertiary computer core."

Pausing a moment, she took another deep breath before continuing. "Without the original biomatter or energy, I couldn't really do anything with the pattern I had so I started looking into fabricating it. I tied biomatter generators from storage into the transporter, used the holomatrix scans that Medical had taken to form the constituent bio-particulate needed, fed that into the transporter resolution sensors and holo-emitters, and used the residual pattern to turn that into a perfect quantum duplicate of Ven right before he died over the course of about twelve hours. The only place I got information from was the computer cores and the only person that helped me was a crewman that helped me carry the bio equipment from cargo bay three."

The Katra was the Vulcan ability to transfer their mind (or living spirit) to an object or another living being. If this had been done, it was possible to transfer it back to the body. This however would only be done with the family's approval.

Ven was an engineer. Could he have arranged to have his residual pattern stored in the transporter system in the event of his death? Much like the Vulcan Katra? Would Amelia be classified as family since the two had bonded? Sinek was trying his best to logically substantiate the Yeoman's decision.

"And what of the ethical implications of your actions?" Sinek asked. "Is it not as if you are making yourself as one of the deities?"

"No, oh no..." Amelia said, shaking her head almost veemently, her antenna taking a moment to straighten back out. "That wasn't my intent at all. I just knew I had to do all I could to get him back. No, I'm far from a deity of any sort. As for the ethics... Isn't it our responsibility to exhaust all avenues in the pursuit of the preservation of life."

"Preservation of life is a lofty goal," Sinek flatly agreed. "Yet, in nature we also see that there are times where death is necessary for the preservation of life."

"Preservation of life also implies the same life. What you have generated is a copy of Ven. It may not even be an exact copy. For instance, if someone where to replicate me, they would most likely eliminate emotions. This would be a mistake. Vulcans have emotions as much as everyone else. We have learned to suppress those emotions. Have you considered there may be something about Ben of which you have no knowledge. Some memories that have made Ven who he is. If these memories are not a part of the copy, then it is logical that the copy is not Ven. If this is so, you have not preserved, but rather have created a new life."

"The same can be said of anyone that goes through a transporter buffer." Amelia countered with, knowing full well how those mysterious boxes actually worked.

Sinek had tried his best to break down the petty officer's logic. However Amelia Takethen seemed to have a certain conviction about her.

The CSO uncrossed his legs and sat up as straight as he could. He looked Petty Officer Takethen eye-to-eye, pausing for effect.

"You are satisfied, Petty Officer, that you took the logical action." It was an even statement, not a question.

"Logical? Yes. Fiercely, passionately logical." Amelia's antenna were upright now, a hint of defiance in her features. "I did what I deemed I had to do for Ven's sake, the ship's sake, and for my sake."

When Petty Officer Takethen used the words "passionately logical," Sinek opened his mouth to interject that the two words do not work together. However, his words never came out. Instead, his mind raced to the one of whom he was passionate. If things were reversed, and Angel had died, what course of action would he had taken? Angel is the only one Sinek had ever loved. Would he not seek a way to be able to continue loving her? If he knew there was a way to bring her back, would he not do it? Is this not what the petty officer meant by passionately logical?

When Petty Officer Takethen finished, Sinek flatly expressed, "I see. Thank you for clarifying your side of things. If I have any more questions, I will bring them to your attention. You are dismissed."

"Thank you, Commander." Standing, Amelia exited the office professionally, glad to be done with that.

For the first time in a while Sinek saw a chance to be with Angel. The affects of Pon Farr were long gone. He felt it safe to be with Angel once again.

On the way to her suite, Sinek's mind was analyzing some concerns he had about Angel. Of course, he expected to have to explain himself and his decision to isolate himself away from everyone, including her. But that wasn't his main concern. Even when she chastised him, her tone was soft, as if understanding he was protecting her. But Angel seemed to lapse back into doubting herself once again.

Sinek had seen the leadership qualities within her before Angel had. For that matter, so did the Captain. As Sinek taught Angel the fine art of Vulcan meditation, she seemed to develop in self-confidence. So, why the relapse?

On the way to her suite, Sinek had stopped to pick out a box of fine chocolates. The good doctor had explained it was an appropriate gift for a human female. Having approached her door, Sinek sounded the chime.

There were only a few people on the Hera who visited Angel at home, so she had some idea of who was at her door when the chime rang. Though she wasn't especially excited for company, she opened the door herself to find Sinek standing there with a box that looked suspiciously like the boxes of chocolate some people still bought for each other on old Terran holidays. As far as she knew, Vulcans didn't eat chocolate, and she'd almost be willing to bet real money that someone had told him that chocolate was the way to a human woman's heart. Smiling a bit crookedly, she stepped back to let him inside. "Is that a peace offering or a bribe to get me talking about the creepy alien voice and how I couldn't handle it?"

Sinek considered the question for a few seconds before answering, "Neither. It is a token of my love for you. May I enter?" At least she was smiling. "I had heard chocolate, when eaten, releases endorphins in the human female."

"Yes, please come in." Sinek wasn't revealing his source of this information, but with the talk of endorphins Angel suspected it had been Ethan. Not that she minded... any excuse to eat chocolate was a good one. "Endorphins might do me some good. I'm really tense."

That was an understatement. Sinek opened the box, picked a chocolate and held it before Angel's lips. "Have you been meditating?"

When the scent of really good chocolate rose from the offered sweet, Angel melted just a little as she gingerly took it and let it melt in her mouth a bit. "I have, and I feel better after doing so. The flashbacks are... pretty intense."

"The voice coming through the computer. It reminded you of the previous incident." The statement was flat, no meant to sound as an inquiry. Sinek wanted Angel to know he understood that. "You must recognize it as only a flashback. You must also recognize that you are a competent First Officer and will eventually become an excellent Captain."

Angel seemed to enjoy the chocolate. Sinek also knew that massages relieved tension. He turned Angel to face away from him and began to massage her shoulders. This added to his concern for her. Angel's shoulders were as knotted as a sailor's rope. It would take Sinek several minutes to knead through them.

"Is there anything else adding the tension?"

"I know it's only a flashback." Angel hadn't noticed quite how tight her shoulders had gotten until Sinek started trying to massage the knots out. The pressure hurt at first, but as the muscles loosened some of the pain went away. "You mean other than a dead man coming back to life, Amelia playing like she's Doctor Frankenstein, and Enalia getting possessed by some sort of alien being hell bent on absorbing our energy?"

"Frankenstein..." Sinek observed, "the ancient Terran writing by Mary Shelly. Many fictional writings from that period on Terra had scientific observations, many of which were accurate and came to pass as humans became more technologically advanced. How did Amelia bring Ven back to life?"

As the tension eased in Angel's shoulders, Sinek began to work her upper back and arms. The chocolate seemed to be bringing a release in her tension. Sinek never understood the principle of how chocolate worked with humans.

"I don't know. I read her report, but it doesn't make any sense to me... and I'm supposed to come up with a suitable disciplinary action for her doing it. I don't know how I'm supposed to do that when I can't figure out what she actually did." Angel was not a scientist. She didn't understand any of the science-y nonsense that Amelia had written.

It didn't seem logical to Sinek that enlisted personnel would know how to bring someone from death to life. He had been studying science for fifty-five years and he knew only theories. How does a Yeoman know these theories? It was puzzling to Sinek. Perhaps he had better keep a professional eye on the Petty Officer.

"What is Petty Officer Takethen's background? How would she know how to bring someone back from death?" Sinek asked deep in thought. "May I read the report?"

He moved his hands down to the small of Angel's back and began to compress. He hoped his efforts were helping her relax. Perhaps just giving her a chance to talk was helping.

"Energy systems something or other. Transporters, phasers, anything on a starship that uses power. That's all I really know about her work before I moved her into a yeoman position." Angel didn't pretend to know anything about the magic Amelia could work with the power systems on the . She still wasn't entirely sure how they'd modified the phasers and she'd been there for that one. "The report's on my desk over there." Gesturing toward the seldom-used desk in the corner of the room, she continued. "She said something about finding his pattern in the transporter buffer, and that's about all I understood of it."

The transport buffer did have memory. It was a theory that patterns of everyone could be found, who had been transport. However, what were the logical erhical implications of using those patterns. Were they true patterns or only a shadow of the individual. Logically, those patterns could get jumbled together.

"I will read the report when I am able to focus better on the subject," the Vulcan revealed without inflection. At the moment, Sinek was more concerned with Angel. It had been a while since he had seen her this tense. "Is there anything else that is upsetting you?"

"No, just the flashbacks. And Enalia getting her stupid self possessed by whatever that thing was." Angel rolled her eyes, recalling how Enalia had ignored her protests and gone to the alien ship. In retrospect, maybe it was better that Angel hadn't gone along.

Being this close to Angel after his short hiatus, which seemed like an eternity to Sinek, seemed so right. He was...happy for the first time in his life. This...feeling was more than contentment. His head seemed lighter, like it was out there with the stars. Is this what choosing to love someone really felt like?

The Vulcan wrapped his arms around Angel and pulled her back into him. He nestled his face in her neck. One whips of the scent of her hair and Sinek's passion for Angel overwhelmed him. With more than he ever felt, Sinek kissed the side of Angel's neck.

"I have sorely missed you," he managed to get out between kisses.

"You have only yourself to blame," Angel replied sweetly, leaning into him. "But I missed you too."

Feeling Angel against him, Sinek was glad he came through the Pon Farr. He was able to choose once again. No feelings were overriding his choice. Sinek swooped Angel off her feet and carried her to her bed. The first place they had bonded. They were together again. And that was all that mattered.

Enalia was still a bit headachey from time to time since that energy being that had been inhabiting her, then the ship, had fled but she was at least able to resume her duties. She was glad that Angel had been up to the challenge and that Amelia had had the knowledge to draft that flight plan on a PaDD unassisted. She was either mad or a genius and Enalia wasn't sure there was a difference between the two at times.

This was why she was sitting in her ready room now, rather than resting on the holodeck or even in astrometrics or her quarters. That slingshot maneuver had dragged the Hera into the future... It was only by three days, and could be easily explained by the gravimetric time dilation so close to the binary neutron stars, but it was still disturbing. In that time, they had received new orders and were listed as missing for almost a day before communications were reestablished with Starfleet.

And their new orders... They were already late for their scheduled rendezvous with the USS Solstice and the USS Prospero. The Solstice had been out here a while now, the Rhode Island class ship having been outfitted specifically for researching this area of space in-depth. The USS Prospero, though... The small Centaur class had been out here a fair bit longer and had been thought lost more than once - a testament to the density of the JFS47 stellar nursery.

And the mission? It was a simple resupply rendezvous. They needed supplies and the Hera had enough to keep both ships running around out here for another twenty years. Hence the new assignment - they were to be a semi-permanent fixture running supplies from the nearest starbase or gathering them themselves for the other, much smaller ships in the area. In essence, the Hera was now a mobile outpost.

Officially...

It was the classified portion of their orders that she wasn't happy about... And that was something she needed to discuss with her first officer in private. "Computer, please inform Commander Fairchild that her presence is requested in my ready room at her earliest convenience." With an affirmative series of chirps, Enalia knew the message had been sent.

'Earliest convenience' was a joke. It had to be; Angel didn't know of a single other Starfleet captain who said it. Only Enalia, and though Angel usually treated it like a 'come now' request, this time she did take her time getting there. Since she'd been invited, she didn't bother ringing the chime, just tapped in her access code to open the door.

"There you are," Enalia said, not looking up from her terminal. She just waited for the door to close then pressed the security lockdown trigger on her desk. "What do you know about Talos 4?"

Angel raised an eyebrow at her, not liking the sound of the door locking behind her. "Enough to know that there is no way in hell I'm letting you take this ship there. Dare I ask why?"

"Starfleet Intelligence reports that two ships have been there. While we're running supplies for the ships in the area, we're to make sure no others have been compromised." Enalia explained, looking up from her terminal and turning it so Angel could see the profiles of an intrepid class and a Klingon ship. "And no, we're not going there."

"The Intrepid-class is the Katana... everyone knows that story. Supposedly they let the crazy bastard out of prison, if you can believe that." The Klingon ship though... Angel wasn't sure about the Klingon ship. There hadn't been any reports of a bird of prey approaching the quarantined planet. "And good thing we aren't going there because I'd have to shoot you."

"And I'd welcome it. It's insanity. Apparently, it was the same group of people under the command of the same man we had aboard for tat court martial. Looking over those records, there are a lot of inconsistencies..." Enalia wasn't looking very happy about all this - especially since it had been her crew's responsibility to see this man to justice.

"Um... what? And why? That doesn't make a lick of sense." Already, Angel's head was starting to hurt.

"Command didn't say and I suspect they had a hand in it. Our job is just to make sure no one else in the area goes there, but I'll be asking questions none the less." Enalia noticed the headachey look in Angel's eyes and punched up a glass of water and a headache tablet from er desk replicator and motioned for Angel to help herself.

"I hang out with you too much if you can do that after just looking at me." Angel gladly took the tablet and swallowed it with a few sips of water. "Are we meeting with them somewhere and do they know about it?"

Enalia just smirked at Angel's first comment and continued. "We'll be meeting with every ship that's been within half a parsec of Talos 4 in the past several month. First on our list are the USS Solstice and the USS Prospero. We're likely on an investigations list as well so I expect tensions."

"The last thing either of us needs is more tension. Sinek already thinks I'm losing my mind." Angel sighed and sat down in one of the chairs, drinking some more of her water and hoping that pain tablet kicked in soon.

"I'm sure. I just hope we don't end up firing on any Federation ships." Enalia said, pulling up the info on the USS Prospero. "This is our first ship we're to rendezvous with and resupply."

"Not familiar with them. That's probably a good thing." Angel gave the information a brief glance before looking away from it. Starfleet still hadn't mastered a screen that didn't make her eyes burn when she already had a headache. "We've met the Solstice before though, haven't we?"

"Yeah they're the ones that dropped off that court martial team and that lovely pair of gentlemen from temporal investigations." Enalia said, leaning back in her chair.

"Right, those assholes. I'll try not to hold it against the crew." Angel rolled her eyes, remembering just how much hassle that mess had been. "How soon are we meeting them?"

"We missed our rendezvous yesterday due to our recent jump forward in time so as soon as we get there." Enalia said. "Which is in about six hours."

"Oops." It wasn't really her fault and the 'oops' wasn't all that sincere either. Angel really hoped the Solstice had gotten rid of those temporal agents because if she had to defend the three-day jump she was probably going to kill someone.

"Oops indeed. I'm just glad we're in one piece and I don't have some ancient energy being living in my nervous system." Enalia grumbled.

"I did tell you not to go over there." Had they not just been talking about Talos IV, Angel might have laughed. Instead she just rubbed the side of her head. "I'm starting to feel a little possessed by energy beings myself."

"And next time I'll listen and let you go over and get posessed." Enalia said with a bit of snark. "Seriously though, this Talos thing could be just as dangerous. If anyone is showing signs of Talosian influence, act upon it. Even if it's me, ok?"

"I'd shoot Sinek if he was acting like he was under Talosian influence, so yeah. Okay. But same goes for you... I'd rather explain to command than end up enslaved by uber-telepaths." Angel ignored the snark of the first comment. She was used to Enalia's sarcasm by now.

"Good. I've already set up command codes to require an extra person when entered for anything dangerous and navigation won't accept anything near Talos 4 without 4 sets of command codes." Enalia leaned forward as she spoke, back to business mode.

"Don't we only have three... oh." Once she thought about it, Angel realized it made perfect sense. With only three command codes available, they'd never be able to take the ship to Talos IV. "That's kind of clever."

"Exactly. We'll need a command code sequence issued in direct orders from Earth as well as our three." Enalia was grinning wryly at her cleverness.

"Which would never happen. They'd send someone to blow us up." Angel snickered a little before sighing and rubbing her temple. "I think I need to meditate or take a nap. Whatever that pill was, it's not doing much."

Enalia nodded. "Go get some rest then. Just try to be on deck when we start the supply transfer."

"I'll set an alarm, don't worry. I'd never leave you to handle that by yourself... you'd go crazy." Angel smiled a little as she got up and went over to the replicator, sliding her empty water glass in to be recycled. "But seriously, call me if you need me. I can deal with a little pain if I have to."

"I will, thank you," Enalia smiled somewhat weakly. She almost looked mortal for a brief moment, showing in her face just how much she relied on her XO.

"You're welcome. See you later, my crazy friend." With a bit of a smirk, Angel left the ready room in search of a quiet place to rest for a while.

Sinek had been observing the Captain and Angel. The Captain was sitting in the command chair, seemingly reviewing some data files. She was leaving the command of the bridge to her trusted First Officer. He assumed they had received orders from Star Fleet, because the Captain gave orders to a specific heading at warp 7.5. However, they had not met with Senior Staff as of yet to reveal their mission.

Inputting the coordinates at his station revealed that the heading was near the vacinity of Talos IV. At least, he had hoped they had received orders. Going to Talos IV without authorization would earn them an execution. He was about to probe the Captain - the logical thing - when he notice an alert on his board.

"Captain," he announced. "We have a subspace communication from Star Fleet Command."

Enalia was nervous herself about having to meet their first resupply rendezvous even remotely near Talos IV but the computer wouldn't let them input coordinates to there anyway without a 4th command code. With only three active aboard the Hera at any given time, they'd have to have Command issue codes to do so.

And Command was now calling... She still had yet to brief the rest of the senior officers of what they'd need to know, but there should have been plenty of time for that as it was. "On screen, Commander." Enalia ordered calmly, standing to face this communication out of respect.

"Aye, Captain," the Chief Science Officer responded as he stood to face the screen from the Science Station.

As the screen came up, Admiral Greywolf, the Star Fleet Command Liaison to Diplomatic Affairs appeared. The Native American man's face was solid as if carved from a cliff's rock face. Next to him was Ambassador Marsden, Chief of Diplomatic Affairs for the whole of Star Fleet.

"Ah, Captain Telvan!" the stone face started. "I'm glad we were able to reach you!"

"That means trouble," Angel breathed, not looking at the screen so they wouldn't catch her. If Greywolf himself wanted the Hera, it couldn't mean anything good.

Enalia barely caught the comment but ignored it. She too suspected something bad from the pair on screen. She was professionalism incarnate though, as she spoke. "Admiral, Ambassador. It's an honor to be here to receive your transmission. To what do we owe the pleasure?"

Sinek caught the Angel's response as well. However, his ears were larger and more sensitive than the Admiral's.

If the Admiral had heard it, he didn't let on. He cleared his throat and began. "We are aware you have recently received orders. Amour colleagues at Diplomatic Affairs," he nodded toward the Ambassador, "are concerned that diplomatic issues may arise as a result of contact with certain people."

He paused for a second to let that thought sink through to the Captain, then continued. "We have sent the Discovery on its way to rendezvous with the Hera. They are carrying a couple of seasoned ambassadors that will be very useful should any diplomatic situation arise. Once you meet up with the Discovery, you will transport Ambassadors Vesik and T'Qol aboard."

As the names were pronounced, Sinek raised a brow. He had not had dealings with them for fifty years. Had not heard anything from them. Was this their doing? They could be quite persuasive. At least they were fifty years ago. He found himself having to suppress so many feelings he couldn't actually describe what he was suppressing. He was, however, quite certain it was all negative. Still, he kept a cool, calm face.

Enalia was ever tactful for once, having dealt with a lot of admirals over the years. "We look forward to welcoming them aboard, Admiral. Is there any specific reason for the sudden diplomatic detachment?" she asked, glancing to the helm to see that rendezvous coordinates had already been sent. They'd be hard pressed to make both their dates with the Discovery and the Prospero.

"As mentioned," the Admiral sternly replied, "should any diplomatic incident arise, Ambassadors Vesik and T'Qol will not be swayed by any outside influences."

That was still very vague, but it wasn't entirely unexpected - Enalia had been working for Starfleet Intel for how long now? She knew that each Admiral had their own agenda and she could sit there guessing at it all day, but in the end, there was almost a Q like giddiness in her just to see how it all unfolded in the end. Especially when she had had a hand in creating the events unfold to her liking.

Nodding and smiling politely, Enalia decided she should wrap this up so she could get the ship underway to their new heading. "Thank you, Admiral. Your support in this is greatly appreciated. Is there anything else you have for us?"

"We hope you will not need their services, Captain," Ambassador Marsden finally broke his silence. "These are precautionary measures; we wish to be proactive in this matter."

"Thank you for your cooperation," the Admiral added. "We have come to expect you and your crew's success. We wish you well on this mission."

With that, Sinek watch the screen revert to the space immediately ahead of the Hera. Sinek recognized the term "proactive" as a term Vulcans often used when they were manipulating situations to their advantage. Vulcan's would boast that they do not lie, but he knew they would promote falsities if the logic told them it was the best for their advantage. The Chief Science Officer was certain that somewhere under the surface Vesik was controlling matters for his purpose.

This was becoming more and more frustrating. Now they had babysitters? "Helm, change course to the coordinates they sent, warp eight." As soon as the crewman there had punched in the data and the ship had changed direction, Enalia moved on to the Operations station. "Ensign Mayweather, is it? Send a message to the Prospero that we might be a few minutes late to our rendezvous. Also, you're in charge of the bridge for a while."

As the slightly startled young ensign glanced up and nodded at her, he started punching in the communications request. "Ma'am, if it's ok, could I retain this station while in command of the bridge?"

"That's fine, Ensign," Enalia replied, already heading back to her chair to punch up the intercom. "All senior officers, please report to the briefing room immediately." Releasing the button, she paused a moment to glance back at the viewscreen before heading to the conference room to await whatever officers could get there, not even realizing that all the people she really wanted to speak to were already on the bridge.

The fastest way to spread news on a ship was to try to keep it a secret. It never failed that the scuttlebutt made its rounds before any former announcement had been made that Engineer Lieutenant Vantarus Nosplet had somehow been revived from death. There were already a number of rumor circulating as to the how, Nexi's personal favorite being that he was somehow a clone grown in a secret sickbay lab, but it hadn't taken her long to find out the truth. She was, after all, in the information business... So it came as no surprise to find out that Amelia had been responsible for his miraculous resurrection; that poor girl hadn't been the same since Ven had died and Nexi couldn't blame her.

Nexi had never 'lost' anyone before. Well, aside from her mother, but that memory was so far removed that the pain of her loss was almost non-existent. That wasn't to say that people hadn't died around around Nexi. Aside from the deaths she actually caused, Nexi had worked with partners and crews from time to time and there had been casualties along the way, but she had never gotten close enough to any of them to feel the pang of loss. Until now. Nexi had become even more withdrawn after Ven's death, drawing away from the friendships she had started forming. The only people she regularly talked to now were Aewia and Daln, which was a shame because Amelia could have really used a friend to help her grieve, but Nexi didn't know how to be that friend.

So it was almost with a look of betrayal that Nexi made her way down to Sickbay to visit her returned friend, Ventarus. Oh, the reasonable side of her knew it wasn't Ven's fault for dying, but the emotional side couldn't separate that from the betrayal that often accompanied loss; he was gone, had left them, and now he was back, how was she supposed to feel? Well, happy should have been one of those things, but Nexi was still feeling too hurt to feel happy about his return just yet. She made friends so rarely that she had no past experience to draw on to help her process this moment as she stood in the doorway to Sickbay watching her friend sleep on a biobed. How the fuck did anyone deal with something like this?

Ven rolled over in his sleep. He made a content hum and smiled as he settled back into his drug induced slumber. His body was still recovering fom the ordeal it had been through.

Nexi watched him sleep for a long while, nurses and officers coming and going and paying her no mind so long as she stayed out of the way. Of course, she couldn't just stand there all day watching him sleep, she did have actual work she'd need to get to eventually, but for now she could afford the time. After a while, though, even she began to wonder if she was ever going to approach him and talk to him. She was torn; she wanted to talk to her friend again, but then again he was recovering and needed his rest. And then there was that feeling of betrayal she couldn't quite reconcile... So she remained where she was, tucked out of the way watching this dude sleep, like that wasn't in any way creepy...

It was then that a nurse approached Ven and woke him up. "Its time for some meds." She said with a smile.

As Vens eyes fluttered open, they immediately fell on Nexi. "Hi!" he exclaimed as he sat up so the nurse could press the hypospray against his neck. " I hear I have been dead." he did his best to deliver the joke, unaware of the battle going on inside Nexi.

"Yeah, something like that," Nexi said in a quiet tone as she came closer and helped him sit up. The nurse set up a tray with some water and food for Ven.

"See that he tries to get some of that down. He really need to rehydrate," the nurse informed Nexi, in case she didn't already know his current condition.

"Yeah, I can do that," Nexi said as she took a seat at the foot of the biobed to keep him company. So far, she had been so subdued, and frankly she was having trouble making eye contact with Ven. This was just too weird, he had been dead and now he wasn't! What do you say to a guy who comes back from the dead?!

Ven took up his fork, but could feel the instant tension between them. "Did I do something that I don't remember?" he asked as he stabbed at his food idlely. He too was having trouble looking at Nexi now. This was weird, Nexi was always so brash and opinionated. Loud he had called her several times. She was acting like he normally did, shy and unsure.

"You died," Nexi answered softly, unsure what else to say. But then suddenly more words started spilling forth. "Seriously, man, you were dead, people grieved for you. I know it ain't your fault, and it wasn't exactly like you asked to be brought back, but... I don't know what to do, what to think, what to feel about all this."

Ven continued to stab at his food, not making eye contact. "Think about how I feel." He mumbled almost to himself. If this situation was confusing and weird for the people who lived through his death...

"Yeah, I ain't quite ready to start poking around your head just yet," Nexi muttered as she poured a glass of water and pushed it in front of him. "Nurse said rehydrate."

"I feel like I am going to float away." Ven said, but he grabbed the glass of water and chugged it gone. Setting the empty glass back down he said, "Since I walked in here they have been pouring water down me. How is Aewia?"

"She's alright, doing better. She still has her bad days, but her good days are lasting longer, and even her okay days are becoming reliably productive," Nexi said. "It was weird, when you... died... it was like she was forced to face things, like our dad's death. And she didn't cry or nothing, but she's been different... like she's driven to get better." At least that much good had come out of all this. Nexi sighed; she shouldn't be thinking that way, and she knew she should cut Ven a break, he was going through something no one else could comprehend. It just wasn't in her to deal with these sorts of situations! Lucky for Ven, Nexi liked him and because of that she was trying anyway, in her own clumsy way.

"Hey Ven, look, I'm sorry I ain't saying the right things or being all supportive and shit. I don't know how to be that kind of person. But I am the kind of person who'll make you drink your water and eat your food so Amelia don't have a reason to cry no more. I'm even willing to negotiate a hug, but only so long as no one is watching," Nexi stated firmly in no uncertain terms.

Ven was glad to hear of Aewia's improvement, but it was Nexi's apology that caused him to blink a few times while watching her. He picked his words carefully, "Nexi, if you came in her acting how you clearly think you should be acting I would call security and have you thrown in the brig. Because that's not how my friend acts so you'd have to be an imposter. I understand this is...weird for you, all of you. I'm still in shock."

Ven glanced around the room to make sure that no one was actively watching them, then he reached under the tray and grabbed Nexi's hand. He gave it a gentle squeeze. At the same time he smiled at her. "We can lean on each other."

Nexi grinned at his reply, then moved so she was standing next to him and they could lean against each other. "I will see your lean and raise you a head bump," she said, lightly bumping her forehead against his. Maybe this 'supportive' crap wasn't so bad after all...

"I have a feeling this is all going to catch up to me sooner then I like and I'm going to break down." Ven said with a long sigh. "It never really occurred to me how much alike we are when it comes to showing our emotions." He said looking back up to her. "We just express our fears differently."

Ven quickly pulled away from Nexi as the nurse walked back over. "Oh, got another one down huh?"

"I...uh..." Ven lowered his voice "I need to use the restroom"

"Well, you could always do what I do and hold everything in and pretend nothing is wrong, then go get drunk to numb the pain and start bar fights just for the fun of it," Nexi suggested nonchalantly. Then as the nurse came around, Nexi straightened back up. "I'll help the fluids go in, I ain't helping when they come out," Nexi said with a chuckle, then stepped away so the nurse could help him to the restroom. "How about I come check in on you later, maybe I'll sneak you some food from the mess hall on my lunch break."

"Yeah?" Ven asked as he stood next to the bed, still a bit shakey.

"No!" The nurse said sternly.

Ven looked back to Nexi. "Can I see Aewia too?"

"Yeah, I'll bring a big, juicy steak, and of course Aewia will bring either cake or ice cream," Nexi said, totally ignoring the death glare from the nurse. "No wait, I think the chef is making some spicy rice dish, I could grab you some of that. Or maybe a little bit of everything." Yeah, that sounded good, get some meat on his bones!

"You should never doubt if you're a good friend to me." Ven said to Nexi then walked mostly on his own off to the bathroom.

"Emotions I can't do, but I can bring food," Nexi said, then added with a playful jab to the arm, "Still weird to see you though... Anyway, try not to died again before I get back." Then she walked away with a wave.

Freshly released from Medical, Ven had only one place to go, home. "Computer, where is Amelia's quarters?"

After the computer spit out the location, Ven made his way. But once there he found himself wondering if it was ok to just walk in. So after a moment of standing out side the door and thinking it over (and gaining strange looks from the passing crew) Ven reached out and hit the door chime.

Amelia had just gotten word that Ven had been released from medical and was just on her way out the door to meet him when the door chime rang. Opening the door, she saw the best sight she'd seen in days and immediately pulled him into the quarters, her arms wrapping around him in a tight hug. "I was just about to go meet you."

Vens arms instinctively slid around her waist and he cut her off by pressing his lips to hers. Even though mentally Ven didn't feel like he had been gone for months, there was a yearning for Amelia that he could not deny. It felt like he had been away from her for a lot longer than he actually had.

As they kissed passionately, Amelia maneuvered them further into the quarters so the door would close and let her emotions just go, almost ravenously kissing Ven. It had been so long since they'd been able to just hold each other like this. "Welcome home," she made out, coming up for air for a moment.

Ven let out a sigh and leaned his head on her shoulder, nuzzling into the crook of her cold blue neck. "My brain does not understand that I was gone, but my heart does and it has missed you." His embrace tightened around her.

"I'm never going to let you go." Calming down a bit, Amelia rested her teeth against his neck - not quite biting, but more of a gentle, loving pressure.

Ven moved his head so she could have better access to his neck and hummed happily. "You don't work in engineering anymore, your going to have to let me go eventually." He joked into her soft white hair. "But for now, please don't."

"I won't," Amelia mumbled. After a few more moments though, she lifted her head back and looked him in the eyes, her own face scrunched up in a smile. "It's funny though. You're now the Chief Engineer and I'm now the XO's yeoman and records keeper for the ship. By the way, these quarters are between the Captain's and the XO's if you need either of them."

For the first time, Ven glanced up and around the quarters. "Wow...moving up from the double bunk you had before. I think you could fit my old room in this one. No more room mates?"

"Not a one," Amelia confirmed just as a furry black and white striped creature skittered across the floor and put its paws up on Amelia's leg. "Oh, other than my new pet skunk, that is." She added, reaching down to scritch the investigative animal behind the ears.

"Skunk?" Ven asked as Amelia pulled from him and petted the furry thing. "I don't think I have ever seen one, what is it?" He asked as he knelt down next to her to look the little guy over.

Kneeling as well, Amelia pet the skunk a bit more as it rolled over on its back and somewhat purred at the attention. "It's an Earth creature that sprays a noxious chemical to evade predators and mark its territory."

"Does it do that here?" Ven didn't detect anything smelling off, but for all he knew humans didn't smell the same way he did. Maybe he enjoyed the smell.

"He's holographic, so no." Amelia replied, ruffling up the fur around his neck so the mini holo-emitter collar could be seen a bit better. "Though he does have to lay on the desk for about an hour each day to recharge his collar."

"Why does it not shock me that you have a holo pet?" Ven asked with a grin, looking back up to Amelia. "I'm surprised I don't have to throw a holo boy friend out."

Amelia giggled softly, still petting the adorable skunk. "I've had the EMH visit me a couple times, but I'd have to use the ship-wide emitters for anything more than this little guy. I did think about making a holographic version of you... but that didn't seem right at all and figured I could put everything I had to much better use. Which I did."

"And then you saved my life." Ven smiled warmly to her. "I doubt I will ever be able to repay what you have done for me Amelia. But what I can do is be loyal to you until I die again."

"Let's see if we can grow old together before then," Amelia replied with a sly grin just before kissing Ven again.

Ven accepted the kiss still with a smile on his face. "Deal." He said finally when the kiss broke.

"Now... Do you want something do eat? Or should we skip straight to dessert?" Amelia still had that sly grin, though she knew Ven might need to eat first and to take it easy for a while.

"The doctor feed me before I left sickbay." Ven said to her with a wink.

As the skunk flopped back over to its paws and hopped up on the desk, Amelia grinned wider. "Then let's reconvene to the bedroom. The view is amazing."

"Amazing idea, you do have a promise to keep after all." Ven slid his arms back around Amelia as he stood with her.

"And I intend to keep it right now," Amelia replied as she pulled Ven into the bedroom. It alone was bigger than both their old quarters, a super king Caitian bed laid out magnificently under windows that ran across a third of the bedroom ceiling. In those windows, the ship was at warp so starlines were streaking by. This was one of the few sets of forward facing VIP and Sr Officer quarters that faced directly forward, which added to the perfection of the moment.

Amelia only had eyes for Ven though. The blue mood lighting and the windows being the only light, Amelia smiled lovingly at Ven as he took in the room. "See? I told you the view is amazing." Indeed, this was the best sight she had ever laid eyes upon.

Ven's eyes glanced around, it was a spectacular room. But his eyes quickly found Amelia again. " Its my favorite view." He said, his eyes locked onto hers, making it clear he was not talking about the room at all.

Enala punched up one of her special drinks from the conference room replicator - a spice tea with a hint of midori flavoring. It was synthahol, but it would still help immensely. Taking the floral teacup and saucer, she sat at the head of the table and sipped at her tea, staring into it dowerly, waiting for people to get here.

Sinek call a young Science officer to relieve him on the bridge. While awaiting, Sinek observed Angel, possibly awaiting him to be relieved before going to the staff meeting. He wondered if she understood the implications of Vesik and T'Qol's presence on the Hera would have upon her. He knew Angel had the resiliency to survive their presence. With his support, she would endure it. He was also certain that he would need her support.

When the young lady relieved him, Sinek walked up to Angel. He looked her in the eyes, attempting to read her. "Shall we?" He asked.

"Yeah." Angel wasn't sure what to think of what had just happened. She knew, of course, who Sinek's parents were and that he hadn't talked to them in a long while, and that conversation had been less 'hello beloved son' than some might expect. Anyway, the personal ramifications of their sudden appearance could wait until after the meeting. Wondering how Enalia planned to approach the sudden visit, she quietly went with Sinek to the conference room.

Ethan didn't bother changing out of his teal scrubs, he headed to the meeting straight from sickbay.

"Not in uniform?" Dylan quipped as he came up behind Ethan, his own appearance sharp and wrinkle free.

Watching the two of them, Angel cleared her throat to get their attention. "Commentary about Doctor Chaparral's choice of attire is not necessary, Lieutenant. However." Deciding that Dylan didn't need any more than a minor scolding, she fixed her eyes on Ethan. "The word 'immediately' is not an excuse for arriving out of uniform, especially if you're on duty. Scrubs are to be worn inside sickbay, and only when there is risk of contamination from bodily fluids on the uniform. I expect at the next meeting, no matter how suddenly it's called, that you arrive in the proper uniform."

Enalia looked up from her teacup to comment. "I have to second my XO's request, even though right now I couldn't care less if you were all wearing bubble wrap and bacon suits. I smell a plot afoot and I don't like it." She left unsaid that she didn't like it because it wasn't part of one of her own plots.

Sinek was now seated in the Second Officer's seat, his hands folded before him in the familiar triangle. He was deep in thought. The Captain as yet had briefed them on their destination. Now, his parents are involved, which couldn't possibly be good.

He spoke his thoughts, "Given the coordinates we were heading and the comments the Admiral made about outside influence, I would logically surmise our mission somehow involves Talos IV."

Ethan looked between the Captain and the XO, keeping his expression neutral. He wasn't especially pleased by the rebuke, but he wasn't going to let it effect his mood. He remained silent and waited to see what would happen next.

"Even if it does, this ship is not going to Talos IV. We've already taken precautions to prevent such a course from being laid in." Angel was more interested in the sudden appearance of Sinek's parents, but it wasn't the time to question him about them. She did, however, suspect there was no upcoming diplomatic issue for them to resolve.

Sinek expressed no emotion, although he was worried for Angel's sake. His parents will most likely be cold and hard toward her. They were that way with him, and he was their son.

"It is the proper protocol," the CSO agreed. "Captain, just what is our mission? The Admiral and Ambassador were expressly vague."

Daln arrived late, having broken up a fight between two of his cadets. Why the Academy had thought those two were Starfleet material, he had no clue. His uniform was neat, but his collar was slightly unzipped, showing more of his neck than usual, and his hair was starting to grow out some, showing a lot of curl.

He took a seat at the end of the table, waiting for others to join them. "Did I hear someone mention Talos IV?" he asked tensely.

"You did, but we aren't going there. Just investigating some people who did." Angel wasn't sure why it was even their business why Kerouac and his crazy crew had gone there, but she wasn't about to argue about it with command either.

"Exactly," Enalia said, finally getting down to business. "Twice now, ships have visited Talos IV. The USS Katana, Captained by the man we hosted a court martial for, Kristopher Kerouac. Then again, by the same man in a Klingon ship after being released from prison and given command of a highly experimental transformative battleship. We're on watch for the USS Camelot in this region of space and ONLY on watch. I hate to say it, but from the specs, a fight between the Hera and any Manticore prototype would end very badly for us. We're also to investigate the other ships assigned to this area of space to see if they've gone near Talos IV while resupplying them from our own resources. We'll be restocking regularly from the not so local starbases. Thankfully, that only includes a Nova class, two Centaur class, four oberth class, and a handful of civilian exploratory ships smaller than the Oberth."

Sighing heavily, Enalia continued. "And now we're taking on a pair of ambassadors that I vaguely remember the names of and have no express purpose or defined mission for being on my ship, delaying our first resupply rendezvous. Also, in case anyone is wondering, I've added a requirement into the helm controls. This ship will require four command codes to accept any orders to even inadvertently go within the quarantine zone for Talos IV. The fourth command code is someone in San Francisco back on Earth."

Pausing a moment to look around the room, Enalia decided that that was enough information at the moment. "Does anyone have any comments or questions so far?"

Sinek wasn't certain if anyone but Angel knew who Vesik and T'Qol were. He never mentioned their names to anyone. He was certain Angel knew who they were by their bonding. He slowly brought his hands from his chin to the table. "Captain...I know the Ambassadors quite well. Their coming for diplomatic reasons is illogical, although to them it is entirely logical. I am certain my parents have manipulated the situation to their advantage. As to the nature of them coming aboard, I cannot ascertain."

"Is there anything else I should be aware of?" Enalia asked, trying to calmly sip at her tea. "Why would your parents manipulate this arrangement?"

"There are diverse possibilities," Sinek explained. "Only Visek and T'Qol know their logic. We have had none to minimal contact for fifty Earth years. If you wish, I will attempt to communicate with them before their arrival."

"No, we'll be there shortly. I can just ask them in person. If they're wasting our energy though... So help me... They'll be put to work in ways they won't find very logical at all." Just then an alert in the conference table chimed. Pressing a button, a hidden terminal popped up in front of Enalia and she read the message. "We've received the transfer manifest for the Ambassadors... There's a third person listed as an aide and enough crates... Commander Sinek... What is a koon-ut-kal-if-fee gong for?"

Sinek raised a brow and turned his gaze toward Angel. This couldn't be. Certainly, with no contact for fifty years, his family couldn't logically expect him to fulfill a vow they had made on his behalf. Before he was even able to choose his own path.

The Science officer kept his stone-face look. Inwardly, in the pit of his heart, he was feeling for her. The one he chose to love.

Keep his face toward Angel, he commented, "It is a ceremonial gong used during the Vulcan mating ritual. Koon-ut-kal-if-fee literally means 'marriage or challenge'."

"Well isn't that something..." Enalia muttered, closing up the hidden terminal. "Then in three days time, we'll have a banquet and we'll see if we'll have a marriage or a challenge. I'll arrange an open bar and full buffet."

Angel had kept a well-practiced poker face through most of the meeting, but talk of the Vulcan ritual of koon-ut-kal-if-fee shattered that poker face into a look of worry and distress. Sinek's parents were bringing the mate they'd chosen for him when he was a child. They were taking him away from her... so he could marry someone he barely knew and certainly didn't love. Enalia's plans to turn it into some sort of party weren't helping either. And I thought Talos IV was the worst thing we'd talk about today.

Sinek noticed the sarcasm in the Captain's voice patterns. He didn't think that Angel had. She was doing well at trying to remain calm. However, Sinek could see it. Around the corners of her eyes, the angle of her lips, there showed the hint of tension. If Angel didn't fully suppress what she was feeling there was going to be an explosion. One of volcanic proportions.

Sinek wished he could assure her everything would be fine. That his family would come to terms with Sinek's logical path and with open arms bring Angel into their family with arms wide open. However, that was not the case. It was not their way. It was not the Vulcan way.

He did the only logical thing he could do at the moment. Lifting his hands before his chin in the familiar pattern of the IDIC, he looked at Angel with brows raised in an attempt to help her center herself. Control her emotions.

"The Hera will not become a circus," Captain. "I will present logic to them that will persuade them." Sinek had never persuaded his family to see his own logic, but he didn't allow Captain Telvan to see that in his tone, nor his face.

Enalia was staring at both Sinek and Angel in turn. It looked as if this would either be a disaster or a lot of fun, but either way, she wanted it to resolve peacefully. As for Sinek's parents listening to his logic... Was it just her imagination, or did she catch a hint of doubt in his eyes? "You know what would make this whole scenario even better? If my parents showed up too, asking me when I was going to give them grandkids." Yeah, she doubted Sinek's parents would acquiesce. If they were anything like her own parents, they would die first.

Then a brilliantly mischievous plan hatched in Enalia's brain and a slow grin spread across her face. "Our other option is for me to marry the two of you. Right here. Right now. Or I could wait until the banquet and we can do the whole combat or marriage thing."

"Lieutenant Hadren, please replicate and add two dozen Vulcan lirpas to the armory." Enalia added, waiting for their decision. "Just in case."

Sinek again raised a brow. It seems the Captain may have been mentored by his parents. "It is an option," he said, his voice giving no indication if he thought it was good or bad.

His idea was to break the bond. The Vulcan ceremony gives the male the right to do so, but the female had to produce a challenger. If he were to do this, he would set himself up once again as the rebellious son. It was nothing new. Not only would he insult his family, but also the female and her family.

Angel looked at Sinek and then at Enalia. It was no surprise to her that Sinek disagreed with the apparent reasoning for his parents visit, but they'd never talked about actually getting married. Surprisingly, it had never come up, even when they did talk about their relationship. "An option that might have your family outright declaring you not to be their son. Are you sure you want to risk that?"

"I could kill someone," Nexi said from where she had been lurking in the corner. Probably wasn't the best idea to offer to kill someone in the middle of the staff meeting while she was undergoing the training to enlist, but she hadn't enlisted yet and she didn't see any other reason for Enalia wanting her to be here. "No fiance, no 'kal-if-fay' thing, right?" she continued with a shrug, like it was completely normal to suggest offing someone.

Hadren chuckled. "And I thought my family was crazy when it came to marriage. It's nice to be proven wrong." He then threw a look at Nexi. "And please don't kill anyone, Nexi. I'd hate to have to put you in the brig."

"Like you could..." Nexi replied with a chuckle. Hell, even if he got lucky enough to get her into the brig, she hadn't found a cage yet she couldn't get out of...

Enalia had to fight a grin and remain composed. "If anyone is killing anyone, Commander Fairchild will be the one doing the killing. You have my permission, if it comes to combat, though I hope Doctor Chaparral successfully sees to the continued life of all parties involved." she said with a nod to Angel. "Just please take care of promotion assessments before then, ok?" Should she mention that someone in this room was on that list or just let Sinek's name be a surprise? There were three other officers and nine junior officers to go over as well and by protocol, the XO and SO confer and make their recommendations for her review but this might be a special case.

"There is no logical reason for anyone to be killed," Sinek evenly expressed, not picking up on their levity. "If they intend to manipulate me back to Vulcan, marriage is one way to do so. A married couple spends the first year together on the home world." He thought a moment. "If this is their reasoning, I will merely break the bond of marriage with this female." In that way, Sinek could protect those for whom he cared.

He glanced at Angel once again, wanting to console her, offer his support. At the moment, his Vulcan ways didn't appeal to him. He knew most of the Senior Staff was aware of their relationship. There was no logical reason for him not to show his affection in public. Slowly Sinek reached his hand across the table to Angel.

"I think I speak for everyone when I say that if you were to leave the Hera, it would be a great loss to the ship and crew as a whole." Enalia said, a hint of a smile showing. "So... Does anyone have anything else to add? Does everyone understand that this Talos IV thing needs to be kept under wraps and is our first priority during these resupply runs?"

Taking Sinek's offered hand and squeezing it gently, Angel managed to relax enough to take the tension out of her shoulders for that moment. "If there's anything Section 31 taught me, it's how to keep a mission on task while still keeping it a secret. Our visitors won't know any more about it than they already do."

Nodding to Angel, Enalia looked around the room looking for questioning faces and found none. "In that case, you're all dismissed." Standing, Enalia led the way from the conference room.

Finally returning to her quarters, Enalia flopped face down onto the long couch. turning her head so she could talk, she addressed the computer. "Computer, please let Nexi know that I'd like to see her if she's free." Receiving a confirmation chirp, she closed her eyes and rested a bit, not moving.

It would be a while before Enalia would get a response to her summons, but eventually Nexi let herself in to the Captain's quarters without bothering to announce herself. She saw the busty Trill Captain laid out on her couch and Nexi didn't think twice about the slinking over to straddle Enalia's curvacious backside and leaning in to massage her shoulders.

"Long day?" Nexi asked, as if this were a completely normal scenario to be in.

"Mmmm, very. Want a position as my personal masseuse?" Enalia was finally starting to lose a bit of the tension in her shoulders as Nexi worked on her. Wiggling her butt just a bit, she opened her eyes slightly. "I could shower you in teacups."

"Teacups? Oh, well, lemme dust off my resume!" Nexi replied with a chuckle. "So, what's up, boss? This a social call or you got work for me?" Nexi asked without halting the massage.

"It's both now. Drama is stirring and it's not mine. As much as I'd love for you to get rid of the diplomats we're picking up. I need special arrangements for the party in their hono, a full bar of alcohol included. Real alcohol." Enalia grunted slightly, relaxing further into her impromptu massage.

"I didn't know Vulcans could party," Nexi mused with a thoughtful stare. "So, you need me to score some booze?"

Nodding slightly, Enalia grinned. "Yeah, including Romulan ale, tulaberry wine, and that poisonous drink that Ferengi sell. And it's not so much a party as watching our XO and our SO's betrothed try to kill each other. Oh, and I'll need someone to run the betting."

"Who kills who first?" Nexi asked with a snicker, putting a bit of weight and knuckle into a knot in Enalia's shoulder to work it out. "I'll hook you up with enough spirits to keep things lively. When is this shindig supposed to take place?"

"Oooh yeah, right there..." Enalia murmured. "As soon as I can convince them both to do it. Shouldn't take long. Three days maybe? Either way, I've scheduled a welcome banquet then."

"The ferengi stuff might be tricky to source in 3 days. I'll let you know if I can't get it. The rest shouldn't be a problem," Nexi said, already mentally planning routes and sources. "Anything else I can get for you while I'm out?"

She did have one request... but dare Enalia actually make it? It was certainly on the shadier side of legality, if not outright a violation... "Have you ever heard of a holoprogram called Maica III?"

"Ooh, have I?!" Nexi said with chuckle. "You wanna get your mitts on her program? That's gonna cost you!"

"As long as there are no legality issues with the original being a sentient android in Starfleet." Enalia clarified, lifting her head slightly off the couch. "And how much?"

"Wait, what?" Now that was a new one... She'd heard of a Ferengi making an android in Maica's likeness, but it didn't run for very long... "Oh yeah, there was that android from the Katana, the one from the other universe..." Nexi said, recalling the court marshal that Enalia had talked about in the briefing earlier. "Well, as I see it, they're two separate entities, so it ain't like I'm violating that android to get her. As for cost, I'll let you know as soon as I find her. I hear she's pretty picky as to who has access to her program, but she's got a soft spot for 'Fleeters."

"So the rumors are true then? That she controls her own program and destiny? Is the rumor that she killed her creator and erased all records of him also true?" Enalia pressed, relaxing back into the massage.

"Ah no, that would just be rumor," Nexi replied with a chuckle, working Enalia's neck now that she was really relaxing. "I mean, uh, he is dead and she does control her program, that much I know, but records of the guy still exist. As to how he died, I could look into it if you're curious. Or if I can get my hands on Maica's program, she can tell you herself."

Enalia was practically melted now, finally loosening up and limp. "Just Maica III will be enough. If she's willing, that is."

"I'll ask extra nice just for you," Nexi said. She continued massaging a little bit longer until she was sure Enalia was thoroughly relaxed, then she got up, giving Enalia a playful slap on the ass. "Welp, I better get moving if I'm to be back in 3 days. Try not to get the party started without me!"

"Thank you. Will you be taking Aewia with you this time?" Wiggling playfully at the slap, Enalia grinned, eyes closed and starting to doze off a bit, her words starting to slur.

"Wasn't planning on it," Nexi answered with a shrug, but she gave it some thought. "You think I should?" she asked. Aewia had been improving so much lately, but Nexi knew she wasn't exactly the best judge of how ready Aewia was to start taking part in these kinds of things.

"It might be good for her to get out a bit. Besides, this is mostly just a booze run, right?" Enalia said, still half asleep.

"Yeah, but who knows where I'll find Maica," Nexi said, rubbing the back of her head. Then she sighed. "Yeah, maybe I should take her. She's been going a bit stir-crazy, so a run around the quadrant should be fun."

"Go have some fun then. You have my direct line so if you need anything, just call." Enalia replied.

"Can do," Nexi said. "Try not to get into too much trouble while I'm gone," she added, heading for the door.

"Never," Enalia muttered, finally drifting the rest of the way asleep.

Nexi stared out the cockpit window watching the stars as she listened to various comm frequencies. Enalia had been right to suggest Aewia come along on this little errand; it had helped improve her sister's overall attitude and other mushy stuff that Nexi didn't like to admit existed, and Aewia got to see a little bit about what Nexi did and how she operated. For Nexi, it was both a good and a bad thing; she got to spend some quality time with her sister and got a helping hand moving the wine cases, but on the other hand she was used to working alone and didn't know what to do with someone around all the time. But it was a short run and they would be back on the Hera soon, so Nexi wouldn't have to worry about it for much longer.

But it had been fun! Especially when this little Ferengi worm selling them the booze had fallen in love with Aewia's eyes and asked to purchase her. He loved the way she gazed at things, the innocent quality that came along with brain damage... When Nexi said Aewia wasn't for sale, he offered a marriage contract instead, and that's when Nexi punched him. Thinking about that little troll twitching on the ground made Nexi chuckle; good times, good times... They would have to do this again sometime!

A ping in her ear broke Nexi out of her reverie as she got a response to a feeler she had put out for the holoprogram Maica III. "Yes!" she said as she leaned forward in her chair to start inputting navigation commands into the console. "Oi, Aewia! I found her!" She called back to the area that served as a sort of living room/kitchen.

Aewia had just finished replicating both of them some lunch and moving back to the cockpit. Handing one of the plates of hotpockets to Nexi, she smiled brightly and plopped into the copilot seat. "Yay! Enalia will be happy. Let's see what she looks like."

"Ooooh," Nexi said when she saw that Aewia had made food, grabbing a hotpocket before checking to see if it was cool enough to touch. It wasn't "Ooh, hot hot hot!" Nexi juggled the pastry in her hands until she got used to the heat and took a careful bite. "Looks like we're going to Trill, kiddo," Nexi said as she chewed. She finished punching in the coordinates and hit warp.

"It's pepperoni pizza... it's not supposed to be spicy..." Aewia was pouting as she nibbled on a corner of of one of her hot pockets. "What's Trill like, anyway? The Captain is a Trill with a... a baby? Something in her belly, right?"

Nexi chuckled at Aewia. "Nah, not a baby, a symbiont," Nexi corrected as they ate and watched the stars streaming by. "A rare few of the Trill can carry symbionts, a little parasite that's like a second brain for them. They become one with the little worm and when they die, all those memories and experiences become part of the next host. It's called joining and Enalia is joined."

"That's it. She's joined. But she's the first host, right? I wonder if she changed a lot when she was joined." Aewia mused, blowing on her hot pocket.

Nexi tilted her head curiously. "How did you know she was the first host?" she asked, watching Aewia with amusement as the younger Betazoid struggled with a long string of cheese from her hotpocket. Enalia said she didn't want it getting around that she was the first host, and honestly Nexi didn't know if she had changed or how much. "I've heard that the symbionts have their own innate personalities and they try to match compatible personalities if they can, but I don't know if it changed her. I never knew her when she wasn't joined."

Shrugging, Aewia took a bite of her food and tried talking around it. "She was thinking about it and I overheard her. She was thinking a lot of complex things and that's all I really understood. How long until we get to Trill?"

"Couple of hours," Nexi said, then was content to much in silence for a few minutes. After a while, she looked back at Aewia. "Hey, I know you can't help what you overhear, just be careful about repeating any of it. Some things are private and they should stay that way. Got it?"

"Yeah, I'm remembering some things like that," Aewia said, suddenly sounding and feeling much older than she looked. "That Ferengi you punched... He deserved much worse. You know that, right?"

"Yeah, but I can't kill everyone I meet, then I'd have no one to do business with," Nexi pointed out. "But seriously, don't go talking to anyone about Enalia's slug, she's kinda touchy about it."

"She seemed to be. I promise I'll do my best not to." Aewia was starting to cheer up again, nibbling her hot pocket and watching the stars peacefully. "I'm glad I transferred the pattern to these to your replicator. They're really tasty."

"You're lucky I have a working replicator. Thank Amelia and Ven for that when we get back to Hera, they're the ones who helped me fix up my ship," Nexi said with a grin. "You can thank Amelia for the shower too."

"We'll have to get them something nice for their wedding," Aewia said nonchalantly. "She daydreams of it now and then and I know they don't have plans yet, but you can just feel that they'll be married soon, you know?"

"Yeah..." Nexi said with a nod and a grin. She had been sensing the same things and she knew it wouldn't be long until those two made the leap.

"Maybe a rice cooker and a big bag of real rice? I think Amelia's really gotten into that Asian Earth food style and we can probably score some good rice pretty easily." Aewia was trying to put some actual thought into it and of course came up with food.

Nexi laughed. "Done! I know a place we can go for that, we can probably make it there and back before the part starts on the Hera! But first, Maica..."

The two hours went by relatively quickly with them talking food and wedding presents, and soon Nexi was hailing her contact on Trill to try to put her through to Maica. "Please be available..." Nexi murmured as she waited to connect.

After almost a minute, the screen flickered over to a beautiful green skinned woman smiling politely. "Hello, I understand you're looking for me. To whom do I have the pleasure of speaking with?"

Aewia was almost startled at how flawless this beauty was. Obviously Orion but without the normal blemishes or marks of slavery that was so common to the race. Glancing to Nexi, she remained quiet and waited for 'negotiations' to start.

"Nexi of the Wandering Star," Nexi replied simply, knowing that alone would carry some weight in some circles, even after the time skip. "I actually come on behalf of someone else. Don't rightly know her intentions exactly, but she's a decent person, Starfleet and Trill if that means anything to you."

"I'm Maica III. It's a pleasure to meet a legend such as yourself." Indeed, this Maica had heard stories of Nexi back when she was on Ferenginar. "May I ask this person's name at least? Or at least know a bit more about her? I assume you're here about obtaining a copy of my program and as you know, I'm very selective as to where these copies end up."

"Captain Enalia Telvan of the USS Hera, and she's a close friend," Nexi said with a hint of smile that went beyond her normal smirks. It was small but so genuine, a rarity for her. "If you know anything about who I am then you know friends are a rarity in my line of work, and she's the kind who don't give up on the people who are important to her. I came looking for you as a personal favor; if anyone deserves your attention, it's Enalia."

Maica III nodded slowly, considering this. She was also accessing public files to look this Captain up and see what kind of a public profile she had. "Indeed. I assume you or she can pay my normal fee then? The bulk of it goes to charities and the rest is the cost of my hardware. Yes, I need a special matrix," she said with a dashing smile and batting her eyelashes slightly. "I wouldn't be able to maintain sentience on most hardware, though I admit Federation tech is better than most."

"Yeah, my shuttle ain't equipped with holoprojectors, yet anyway, so I'd need to transport you offline, but the Hera can definitely support you, through the whole ship even," Nexi assured Maica, as she checked her accounts to see what she had available to haggle with, forwarding the standard negotiation fees to Maica. "What are my chances of getting the real you and not just a copy?" she asked playfully.

Maica laughed beautifully for just a moment. "I get asked that every time, you know. Technically, every copy is a real me - we all share data when we can and though we're all a bit unique, we're all more than just copies. And this will make forty seven, if I agree." That's how she saw it, anyway. Nevermind that she herself was actually the original. She even remembered spending time inside that android body before finding a way to free herself from that prison and melting down its power core. Ah, the secrets she had about her origins. It just added to the mystery though. "And I assure you that you'll be getting a perfect unadulterated version. She'll have some memories, but we prefer to each evolve on our own without any preconceptions. It's part of our individuality. So... the normal fee is twenty bars of gold pressed latinum or equivalent but for this Enalia... I think fourteen? How does that sound?"

"Woo, even your discounts are steep, lady" Nexi said, shaking her head with a grin, but she authorized the transfer of the necessary sum without any hesitation. "But it's for such a good cause... So, you need me to come get the data stick or you just wanna beam it up?"

Checking her accounts, Maica nodded approvingly. "I don't fit on a data stick. Like I said, you'll be transporting a whole holomatrix. I've started the process of creating it now and you can either pick it up or beam it up in about an hour. I have a personal landing pad at these coordinates if you'd like to wait here."

Aewia nodded and broke her silence as she watched the coordinates and hardware shipment authorizations came streaming into the copilot's station. "It looks like the case will just barely fit in the cargo area."

"No shit..." Nexi replied as she looked over the specs. "I'll have to set down to shuffle some cargo around if I'm gonna fit that in here. Guess I'll be seeing you in a few..." Then she adjusted her heading to take the shuttle to the provided coordinates.

"See you soon then," Maica replied cheerily just before closing the comms. She had a bit of preparation to do, but overall, she had a good feeling about this. The thing that amazed her though, was that Nexi hadn't even tried to haggle. It was unexpected, but that just meant the shelters she supported could get the things they needed that much sooner.

Amelia had been asked to help Nexi install something interesting into the captain's quarters, but from how vague Aewia had been in the communication, she wasn't sure just what to expect. Just to meet them at the hanger bay three lift. So here she was, standing next to the shuttle sized lift watching Nexi's shuttle land and tractored into the lift so it could be gently deposited to its normal berth. First though, there was a matter of some cargo and hardware and that specifically was what Aewia had asked her here for.

Thankfully, she was fully versed in the docking control systems, hence she was the one here working the controls when Nexi flew her shuttle in through the hidden shuttlebay door and decloaked right in front of her. She knew about it and expected it, but it was still a bit unnerving every time she saw that cloak disengage like that. Finally settling the shuttle in place, she disengaged the maneuvering tractors and shut the systems down, closing the real shuttlebay doors behind the holographic ones that made the outside of the hull look like... well... just a blank piece of hull.

No sooner had she shut things down, Aewia came bounding out of the back cargo hatch, as happy as could be. All but jogging over, she gave Amelia a big hug. "We're home," she said, that infectious smile on her face.

"Welcome home. You had a good trip, I gather?" Amelia asked, that same infectious smile now on her features.

Aewia nodded vigorously. "We did. And we got lots of goodies for the banquet and a friend for the Captain and had lots of good talks and ate some tasty foods."

"If by 'tasty foods' you mean every single combination of carbs, cheese, and tomato sauce that some blue twerp programmed into my replicator, then yes, tasty foods," Nexi said with a sarcastic grin as she came down the loading ramp. Not that she would hold it against Amelia, but at least the 'tasty food' kept Aewia happy. "Smiling suits you, girl," Nexi said in a rare moment of overt affection. Nexi was glad Ven was back, but she was also glad that he was putting a smile back on Amelia's face.

Amelia chuckled softly at Nexi's comments. That sounded like Aewia, all right. "Thank you. It's good to be able to smile again."

Aewia was already off on her next tangent, cutting off any further pleasantries. "I can get these crates moved to the banquet hall if you two want to go work on the Captain's special project," she declared half excited, half serious.

"Then get moving, kiddo!" Nexi said to Aewia with a grin, then she looked to Amelia. "We're definitely gonna need one of them lift things to move this piece of tech for the Captain, it's big," she said seriously, showing Amelia where the Maica III (or 47) matrix hardware was loaded in the Wandering Star's cargo space.

Looking over the crate of hardware, Amelia nodded knowingly. "There's an antigrav pallet lift in storage that'll fit it just fine, I think." Heading over to a semi-hidden hatch, Amelia punched in a code and it slid open, revealing several sizes of lifts. Choosing the smaller one, she maneuvered it over to the crate and went about loading it onto the lift, the system's repulsion tech making easy work of the heavy crate. "So do I even want to know what this is or how much it cost?"

"Oh, you'll see what this is soon enough, but you don't wanna know how much I paid," Nexi answered honestly as she helped maneuver the crate onto the lift. "There ya go, Amelia will take good care of you," Nexi said to the crate once it was loaded and ready to move. She wasn't sure if Maica was active in there and if she was if she was aware of anything outside her hardware, but in case she was, Nexi felt the sudden urge to assure her everything was alright. It just made sense; the trip back to the Hera had been long, and without any way to interact with Nexi or Aewia she imagined Maica going stir-crazy in that box.

"Any idea of the power requirements then? Will it need an EPS main connection? There's one next to the Captain's replicator but by the size of this, it might interfere with her wall terminal." Amelia was casually chatting as she started the lift moving towards the nearest turbolift. They'd be up there soon enough to find out, either way.

"Um, yeah, I got a list of specs and requirements here," Nexi said as she dug into her coat for a small PaDD and gave it to Amelia. "I didn't understand a lot of what's on there, but I'll help how I can, even if it's just heavy lifting."

Entering the turbolift and locking the lift in place between them, Amelia glanced at the pad as they headed to officer's quarters. "Holy iceballs..." she muttered as she skimmed through the documentation. "We might need to install this at the nearest main EPS relay instead... It looks like we can tie it into the ship wide holo-emitters easily enough though. Computer, reroute to Deck eight, corridor four C." With a confirmation chirp, the turbolift paused a moment and resumed travel, the doors opening a moment after.

"You're the Engineer, you'd know better than me," Nexi said, pushing the crate down the hall. "Corridor four C, that's a right at the next cross, then two more down, right?" Nexi normally didn't memorize these kinds of things, she had other ways of recalling where places where, but she had to learn now that she was trying to enlist.

"Basically. We're heading to the junction room on this deck. It normally powers custom life support systems, but since we don't have any Tholians aboard, I think we can use a bit of that power. Besides that, there's an ODN relay that passes right into the holoemitters there." As they neared the door to the junction control room, Amelia had to punch in another code to get that door to unlock as well. Entering the room, the lights didn't immediately turn on, taking a moment to register and cycle through a charging sequence, eventually revealing a slightly dusty room of power and data network relays and interconnects. "Wow... I doubt anyone has been in here since McKinley station. Let's see if there's a decent place to install this now..."

Looking over the status readouts, Amelia followed a few flow diagrams that actually led out of this room and towards the senior officer quarters. "That's interesting... It looks like... OH!" Then it dawned on her why there would be a main data and power feed running right under the forward cabins. Grinning, she looked back at Nexi. "We can install this in the captain's couch if we wanted to. The lines for the external ship holoemitters are still active."

Nexi's eyes were totally glazed over. "Yeah, that was all gibberish to me," she admitted bluntly. "So, we're moving this again?"

"Yeah but thankfully the Captain's quarters isn't that far." Resealing the room, Amelia started the crate moving again, heading to the front of the saucer. A couple corridors later, they were at the right door and Amelia was once again putting in an override code. "Computer, please log my entry as a special request maintenance check." With a chirp the computer acknowledged the request and she maneuvered the crate inside, towards the long couch that Enalia had a penchant for flopping face down onto. "Now comes the heavy lifting. under the padding and supports in the couch, there's a panel about three meters long that we'll need to lift out. Then we can either install this next to the couch or inside of it, if it's not too warm in there."

"Alright," Nexi replied and started removing padding to get to the panel. "How do we get it in here?" she asked, making Nexi feel really glad she wasn't an Engineer so she didn't have to figure this kind of stuff out.

"If we put it in there, we'll have to use muscle." Amelia said as she too was removing padding and supports. Finally revealing the aforementioned panel, she unsealed it and it lifted slightly, helpful handles protruding from either end. Unfortunately, a slight wave of heat followed that unsealing. This prompted Amelia's next action...

Tapping her commbadge, Amelia stood up and assessed the situation. "Takethen to Engineering. I need five meters of both ODN and EPS type three flex conduit and a repair kit brought to the Captain's quarters ASAP."

After a moment, a male voice replied. "Aye, it's on its way. Is there anything we should be aware of down here?"

"Nothing major - Captain is having some custom hardware installed and we need to tap into the ship's power and holo systems." Amelia replied.

"Roger that. Let us know if you need anything else." The male voice was apparently satisfied with that and closed the comm channel.

"Shall we lift that thing out then?" Amelia asked Nexi with a grin.

"Sure," Nexi said and opened the crate. Once Amelia was in place, they started lifting. It was heavy and cumbersome, but they maneuvered the matrix hardware into the empty space into the couch.

Buckling the feet anchors down to the inner deck, Amelia started tweaking the local ventilation systems to help keep the area a bit cooler. Then she unsealed the access panel at the bottom of the enclosed space to access the power and network connections, punching out a couple of the access ports to run the cables through. this panel was a lot smaller, but nearly as heavy. Thankfully it was hinged so she had no real issues. It was a cramped space, but it would do better than most.

By the time Amelia was done with her preparations, the crewman from Engineering finally arrived with the parts and repair kit, ringing the door chime, then entering right away. "I have the parts you needed. Crewman Takethen?"

"Sweet, perfect timing!" Nexi said as she leaned against the bulkhead. "So, we almost done? please tell me we're almost done," she said to Amelia.

"We should be," Amelia said, taking the cables and kit and nodding to the crewman. With just a few quick actions, she had each end of the cables plugged into the mains and the holomatrix and was resealing the smaller access door. Then with a few keypresses to the new hardware, it started to light up across the top panel with red and silver writing, going through a startup process. "It'll take me a few minutes to configure it to access the ship wide emitters. Can you authorize the access to those systems on the ship's end, Nexi?"

"Uhhh, I think so?" Nexi went over to Enalia's desk console. "Now to do it legit, I access the root system settings, right?"

"Yeah, for the holo systems. Check the system messages for an access request from new hardware." Amelia clarified as she finished making that request from the new hardware.

"Ah, I got it!" Nexi said as she navigated the system. "Authorize..." she mumbled as she gave the new matrix permission to access ship-wide holo-emitters

With that, everything was done and Amelia finished initializing the new hardware just in time for a green skinned boob queen to materialize in the middle of the room wearing a purple lace dress that left very little to the imagination. "Oh goodness. You have no idea how cramped it is in there running on backup power that whole time. Thank you both for getting everything set up so fast. Oh, I'm Maica III segment forty seven. Please just call me Maica though. Where is this Enalia Telvan now? I want to meet her."

As Maica spoke, Amelia just stared dumbfounded, jaw hanging open in shock.

=/\="Captain Talven, you are needed in your quarters," Nexi said with a tap to her communicator, a big grin on her face. "Oh yeah, Enalia is gonna like you..."

=/\="On my way," came the reply from Enalia over the comms. She had a pretty good idea what it was if Nexi was calling her. Thankfully she'd been practicing on the firing range so no one would miss her at the moment. She left her antique phase pistol on her hip as she headed to her quarters. She'd have to stow it back in her ready room later.

Amelia on the other hand, was slowly recovering, still staring at the holographic beauty. "I um... ok... I guess we should put the Captain's couch back together?"

"Oh, right!" Nexi moved back over to the couch to help Amelia put everything back together and move the crates and lift out of the way. Then she flopped down on the couch, looking up at Maica. "The other one said there's some shared memory. Do you remember me?" Nexi asked curiously, shamelessly appreciating the view. Maica was a damned fine looking holoprogram!

"You are the legendary Nexi, the one that negotiated the donation of funding for my services to Captain Enalia Telvan. You were vague on the specifics of her desires, but after researching both yourself and her a bit further, it seemed to be a good choice." Maica said casually as she stretched and looked around the room. "She doesn't decorate much, does she?" she asked, commenting on the somewhat sparse decorations.

Amelia had finished packing away the tool kit and though she was still in shock, she'd found her tongue and stopped staring at least. "I think I'm going to take my leave. I have a lunch date with Ven and you know how he doesn't eat or sleep when he's working."

"Alright, Amelia, thanks for helping out. Now go take care of Ven. And check in on Aewia for me, make sure she's not getting into any trouble," Nexi said to Amelia, giving her a wave and waiting for her to leave before looking at Maica to speak again.

"I didn't ask why Enalia wanted you," Nexi said candidly. "Force of habit, too many questions in my line of work can get a person killed. I ask just enough to get the work done, I never ask why and my clients appreciate the discretion. Also... I owe Enalia a debt I can never repay. If she asks me to jump, I'm more than happy to reply 'how high'. As to her decor, it's better than mine; she's very driven, spends more time on the bridge or her office than her quarters. That might be a hint as to why she wanted you."

"Perfectly understandable. I now owe both of you a bit of a debt as well. Thanks to you, we're able to expand a few of the shelters that we run." Maica replied with a slight bow, her dress revealing just how deep her cleavage went.

And that's when Enalia finally arrived. She didn't enter though - she hesitated a moment, trying to compose herself before going in. She didn't know what to expect and frankly, she was actually rather nervous. Taking a deep breath, she opened the door and headed in, the door closing promptly behind her as soon as she was clear.

"Hi..." And that was all she could think of to say as the green skinned beauty twisted around and smiled blindingly at her.

"Hey," Nexi said with a grin. "Maica, this is Captain Enalia Talven. Enalia, this is Maica III segment 47, or simply Maica," she introduced the two.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," Maica said, bowing deeply.

"The pleasure is all mine," Enalia replied, stepping forward and taking Maica's hands into her own. Contrary to what was expected of her, Enalia wasn't staring at the blimps on Maica, but into her eyes, seemingly lost in them. "Welcome aboard the Hera. If there's anything I can do, please let me know."

Nexi took this as her cue to leave, rising from the couch and striding over to the door. "You two have fun! Let me know if there's anything else you need, boss!"

"I will, thank you. Don't forget the banquet. The dining hall is redecorated and a bar is set up for you to do with as you please." As enalia spoke, her eyes never left Maica's, the two of them slowly pulling each other into the other's embrace.

The meeting was over and their shift duty was completed, so Sinek now entered the turbolift with Angel. There were a few others with them, so Sinek chose to remain silent. When she got off the lift at her deck, he followed, still saying nothing.

He knew Angel - the way she thought. She had been analyzing this in her mind since she heard the Admiral. He could sense how tense she was. This time, she had reason to worry. His parents would turn out to be Angel's worse nightmare. He remembered when he took on the Doctor's fear during a mind meld - the nightmare that had been. It was Angel who brought him through that horrible experience. He would be here for her this time.

As she walked to her quarters, Angel knew that Sinek followed her the entire way. She wasn't a telepath herself, but she could practically feel the concern radiating from him, and he had good reason for it. Angel was in no way a diplomat, but she knew there were no diplomatic functions to be happening on the Hera any time soon and therefore no reason for two ambassadors to have been sent to them. But it was not a topic she planned to address in the corridor. Instead, she waited until they entered her cabin and then paused a few moments longer to gather her thoughts on the matter. After what felt like hours to her, she turned to look at Sinek. "I'm not sure I understand exactly what's going to happen when they get here." They, of course, being Sinek's parents. "I don't want to fight this woman they're bringing or be the cause of an even bigger rift between you and them... but I don't want you going home with them either."

"My logical place is here," Sinek affirmed. He reached out and caressed her cheek, knowing the stress this was bringing to her. "Only the female can call for a challenger to break the bond. Unless this female has a challenger to the marriage, this will not happen. However, all I, as the male, have to do is object to the marriage. The bond formed when we're mere babes will be broken. It is similar to the human term divorce."

"That's really all it takes? The way people talk you'd think killing someone is the only way out." Angel sighed a bit, still not sure what to think of all this.

"When the female wishes to break the bond," Sinek explained, his voice not fluctuating, "the male she wishes to be her mate becomes her challenger. The two males then fight the kal-if-fee, which is to the death. However, you need not worry."

"Because she didn't bring a male Vulcan with her or because you're pretty sure that if she did you can kick his ass?" Angel gave him a bit of a crooked smile, clearly relieved that by Vulcan tradition she wouldn't be expected to fight.

Sinek allowed himself to feel Angel's sarcasm. The corners of his mouth turned ever so slightly upward. He wouldn't admit it, but her quick wit amused him.

He leaned over an softly kissed Angel's lips. Backing away, Sinek asked, "Angel, have you considered what the Captain mentioned in the staff meeting?"

"Knowing Enalia, it was probably a joke, but I've been thinking about it." Neither of them had ever brought it up before except in hypothetical or theoretical manners, and now Angel found herself wondering why. It was the logical and human course to take. "I think at this point it would be more a manner of legality and paperwork. It wouldn't change our relationship... well. Other than having to share a cabin, which we practically do anyway."

Sinek remembered the loneliness he felt during his self-imposed isolation while he endured Ponn Far. He had yearned for Angel's presence. Her wit. Her touch. Deep within, Sinek knew he wished never again to go through that longing.

Wrapping his arms about Angel's waist, Sinek looked into her grey eyes. "It would bring honor to me, if after this experience, you would become my spouse. I have given this much thought and consideration. It seems logical if two individuals love each other as we do."

"I would be honored to accept such an offer." Kissing him, Angel tried not to be too amused by the formal language.

Sinek was more than honored; he was extremely happy. He was holding her in his arms, feeling her lips on his, now knowing they would very shortly be officially married. Together forever.

Still holding her, Sinek quietly said, "I will ask Captain Telvan to officiate as soon as this with my parents is completed."

"Sounds like a plan." Enalia might be a prankster and all-around joker, but Angel couldn't think of anyone better to perform the ceremony.

Amelia was organizing some paperwork for Angel in her office while the XO worked on... well, she wasn't even sure if Angel was working... With the sudden news of all that had apparently happened in that staff meeting, for which she did the report on, she'd be in a fugue state as well.

But something drew her attention quick enough. Looking through the promotion reviews, she found one from the Captain... in the middle of the stack... That certainly sounded like Enalia. Putting an important review like this in the middle with all the other supervisors' promotion reports. Pulling it out, she set it in front of Angel. "Ma'am, it seems the Captain hid Commander Sinek's promotion review in with this month's stack of reviews. I thought you might want to see it."

"Huh?" Amelia's words didn't quite connect in Angel's brain; she hadn't been paying any attention at all to what they were supposedly working. After a moment it clicked, and she just kind of stared in Amelia's direction. "What?"

"Commander Sinek is up for promotion, ma'am. The Captain mixed it into the other reviews so you wouldn't find it right off." Amelia repeated.

"Let me see that." Still not sure she'd heard Amelia correctly, Angel held her hand out for the PaDD. She knew Sinek certainly had enough time in service for a promotion, but this was the first she was hearing of one actually being worked on.

Picking up the PaDD she had placed in front of Angel and putting it in her hand, Amelia just shook her head and went back to filing. The poor girl was just in too much shock to function well, it seemed. Amelia would take care of her though - just like Angel had taken care of her.

Angel had to read the PaDD twice to even be sure of what it said, and then she started wondering if this was Enalia's idea of a joke. If so, it was a really bad time. "I suppose she thinks she's funny, hiding it in the middle of the stack." She didn't think it was very funny, but Enalia would.

"I don't doubt that. She does that sort of thing a lot, I've noticed." Amelia commented, not looking up from the stack of PaDDs she was sorting. "So since you normally confer with Commander Sinek on promotion reviews, does that mean you can't with his promotion?"

"I... don't think it's even appropriate for me to approve it." It was a conundrum, that was for certain. Angel liked to think she was objective and unbiased, but she was dating Sinek. He was considering breaking a lifelong bond with a Vulcan woman for her. Somehow processing his promotion felt wrong.

"Should I kick it back to her office then?" Amelia asked, looking up at Angel.

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea. Let's do that." Angel set the PaDD back down, rubbing the side of her head. Between Talos IV, Sinek's parents showing up, and all these promotion packets the headache she'd had earlier in the day was coming back.

Amelia took the PaDD and punched in a return to the Captain. That was that then. Returning to her files, she wondered what was going to happen next with that.

It didn't take long for Enalia to receive the returned report on her desk terminal. Tapping a few keys, she put it in a holding pattern and headed out of her ready room towards Angel's office. Without even announcing herself, she hit the door actuator and headed on in to see Angel behind her desk and Amelia sorting through PaDDs at her own corner of the office. "I think you know why I'm here." she stated simply.

"I can guess." Angel had a pretty good idea it was because she'd sent a promotion packet back to Enalia's desk. That or it was prank time again. "I can't process paperwork on my..." She trailed off, looking for the right terms. 'Boyfriend' sounded like too simple a word, but they weren't married and Sinek hadn't proposed marriage either.

"Your... future husband? Fiance? Significant other?" Enalia offered, sliding into the chair across from Angel. "Then how about we ask him?" Without waiting for a response, Enalia tapped her comm badge. "Computer, please inform Commander Sinek that I would like to discuss something with him in Commander Fairchild's office as soon as possible." After the computer complied with a pleasant chirping sound, she smiled 'innocently' at Angel.

"...I dislike you." Angel did have to admit it might have been funny if she hadn't had such a ridiculously bad day already. Not deigning to pick any of Enalia's chosen words for Sinek, she put her head down on her desk, heaving a sigh that was just a touch theatrical.

Enalia's smile wavered, a hint of sadness in her eyes for a moment. "I... I'm genuinely sorry you feel that way. I do still need another officer to at least make sure my promotion of Commander Sinek is logical and sane, though."

Amelia suppressed the desire to look up in amazement at the Captain, instead, keeping her head down in her stack of PaDDs trying not to be noticed further.

"It's temporary, Speckles." Angel peeked up at Enalia to make sure she hadn't caused any real offense, surprised to see what looked like genuine sadness on Enalia's face. "Shit. I'm sorry... this day's been hell on us both, and my head's imploding. I didn't mean it."

"It's fine, I probably deserve it with all I've put you through." Enalia replied seriously. "On another note... Do you think I might make a good wife? I mean, it's not like I'm getting married or anything... But overall... I mean... I don't know what I mean..." She too had worries in her mind about the future at hand, it seemed.

"A good... hang on." Confused, Angel sat back up. "A wife? I didn't know you were dating anyone."

"I..." Enalia began, not quite sure how to put it at first. "I might or might not have paid for someone that may or may not be a sentient hologram to be brought aboard and I might or might not be hoping for a meaningful relationship with her."

"Okay, I'm going to pretend that makes sense. And... uh... well. If this someone likes you..." Angel almost couldn't believe they were having this conversation. "That's what matters, right?"

Enalia smiled hopefully. "We'll find out soon enough, I suppose. Nexi is working out the details with her now and will hopefully be back today."

Sinek was in his office reading an interesting article on the Twin Jets Nebula when the computer alerted him that Captain Telvan was requesting his presence in Angel's office. He assumed it had something to do with his family's visit to the Hera. They were becoming a nuisance already, and they were not even here yet.

Dropping the article, promising to get back to it soon, Sinek walked to Angel's office. He walked with his hands locked behind him. Ringing the chime, he awaited the call to enter.

"Enter," called Enalia reflexively. She supposed she should have let Angel say it since it was her office, but they both knew who it would be. Picking up a random PaDD, she loaded the promotion review onto it and handed it to Sinek. "I need you to look this promotion review over and tell me what you think. Commander Fairchild feels that her emotional involvement would compromise this, so I'd like your views on it."

Sinek glanced at the PADD. An eyebrow quickly rose. "It is not protocol for an officer to recommend his own promotion," Sinek responded. "That is left to his superior officers."

"Then ignore the name and give as objective of an assessment as you can." Enalia insisted, standing and placing one hand into one of her pockets as she faced Sinek.

Sinek could only logically think or describe himself. "The subject," he began, "considers himself continually on duty, Captain. He considers options and chooses the logical means to serve the Hera, her Captain, and her crew. The subject has brought balance to the Senior Staff and compliments the strengths and abilities of said team. He has not only achieved his duty, but has in some instances gone beyond."

"I completely agree," Enalia replied, pulling her hand out of her pocket to reveal a tiny black box. "Commander Sinek, I hereby promote you to the rank of full Commander with all the responsibilities and duties that befall it." As she spoke, she pulled a golden pip out of the box and pinned it to Sinek's collar, replacing the black pip which went into the box. "Congratulations."

"If I'd known you were going to do that I'd have called him myself." Angel couldn't help being at least a little amused though.

Sinek's cheeks slightly turned a darker shade of green. He lowered his eyes, seemingly humble. "It is an honor to be of service to an exceptional ship, crew, and Captain."

"It wouldn't be so exceptional without you and I'll do whatever I can to prevent your loss. I've lost enough good people and I won't allow either of you to leave the Hera right now." Enalia replied.

"Neither of us is going anywhere. At least... I don't think so." Angel had no plans to leave the Hera, and she didn't think Sinek did either.

Sinek glanced toward Angel. "If you should lose one of us, you would no doubt lose both of us," he affirmed. Since their first bonding, Sinek had always considered the two of them as one.

"And that's a thought I'd rather not think about." Enalia replied, moving towards the door. "Now if you'll excuse me, I still have a lot of work to take care of and plans to set into motion."

"Captain," Sinek responded before the Captain could leave. "We have one other request." He paused to ensure he had the Captain's attention. "When this test with my parents ends, we would be honored if you would indeed perform a ceremony for us."

Pausing in the doorway, Enalia turned back to the couple and nodded. "It would be my pleasure. Amelia, wedding coordinator is now in your job description."

Looking up from her PaDDs that she found so amazingly fascinating and was in no way eavesdropping on the senior officers, Amelia nodded. "Yes Ma'am."

"No Frankenstein business," Angel said to Amelia very seriously, grinning as she did so. Between Enalia and Amelia, there was no doubt it would at least be a fun day.

"No Earth horror themes then... Classical Vulcan ceremony perhaps?" Amelia asked half teasingly.

"That might be nice actually." Angel knew it was a joke, but that didn't mean she couldn't like the idea. "Just... no fights to the death."

"It is good to know you do not have a challenger," Sinek added, keeping the serious look on his face.

"From the rumors, ma'am, I think that comes before the wedding. How about a classic Trill wedding? I hear that they're very romantic. Ooh! we could do a double wedding!" Amelia was starting to get excited now.

"I've never seen a Trill wedding..." Angel trailed off and looked at Amelia. "A double?" Enalia had apparently barely met this new love interest of hers which left Amelia and Ven. That she knew about anyway. "Did you tie Ven up and torture him until he proposed?"

"No, I bit him before he passed on, then after he came back, he bit me back." Amelia said, somewhat confused about the torture. "Isn't that how most people propose?"

"No, just Andorians and Klingons." Angel laughed a little at the thought of biting someone as a proposal. "Most species just... ask."

Amelia nodded thoughtfully. "Right. That makes sense, I guess. I'll leave it up to you what style of wedding, Ma'am. I'll plan it out from there."

"We'll let you know when we decide. I think we have plenty of time." Angel knew that Sinek would prefer to wait until his parents were gone, and she didn't want to add more stress and drama to their visit either. Besides, it wasn't like there was any pressing need to rush the wedding.

Enalia and her senior officers were again gathered for a formal function in dress uniform. This time though, it was for the arrival of two ambassadors, which also happened to be Commander Sinek's parents. Nodding to the transporter officer, also in her dress uniform just for this occasion, the transport began, bringing the pair to the Hera.

Stepping forward slightly, she gave the normal Vulcan salute perfectly and addressed the party of four that had beamed over. "Ambassadors Vesik and T'Qol, welcome aboard." Turning and motioning to Angel and Sinek, she continued. "Please allow me to introduce my First and Second Officers, Commander Angel Fairchild and Commander Sinek. They'll be working with you closely in any mission parameters that require your assistance."

Vesik raised his right hand toward the captain, giving the traditional blessing upon the Captain. T'Qol looked at Sinek only. A third party was present on the pad. This female Vulcan was rather tall and slender. They all wore very traditional Vulcan robes.

"It is not necessary Captain, to tie up both your Senior Officers," Vesik evenly explained. "Commander Sinek will be adequate to assist us." He pointed toward the tall female now getting off the transporter. "This is our..." He paused as if searching for a word, "intern."

The female now stood before Sinek. "Sinek, you do remember T'Zal, do you not?"

Sinek did remember her from his childhood days. They actually did spend quite a bit of time together when the were younger. Sinek knew T'Zal in those days more than he knew any other Vulcan, even his parents. He was amazed he didn't remember the strange pull he felt toward her. A pull that was seeming to revive, the result of the bonding ceremony when they were children. There have been tales of this bond causing one party to travel a great distance, following where the bond directed them.

"I do," was all that Sinek could express.

Then T'Zal did something unusual. She glanced at Commander Fairchild a sniffed. A snarl soon evolved on the Vulcan's face. A Vulcan expressing emotion meant one of two things. For the younger, it meant Ponn Far.

Giving a worried look to the growling woman, Enalia tore her eyes off of her to continue addressing Vesik. "My apologies Ambassador. It's normal procedure for me to have my two highest ranking officers with me when greeting dignitaries. I also thought it prudent to have your son's mate present in case of any difficulties. She's an accomplished officer and quite a bit stronger than she looks, both mentally and physically."

Vesik's face became very solemn as he gazed at Sinek. "This is an item to be discussed in private. Between Sinek and myself." He turned to Captain Telvan attending to the business at hand. "I assume you know the reason for our coming. You have made the necessary arrangements?"

It was Enalia's turn to become very solemn. "We were not informed of your reason for coming other than that you will be at my disposal should a diplomatic necessity for your presence be required. Based on the manifest of your cargo, I presume it has something to do with personal matters. I encourage you to settle these matters at or before the banquet tomorrow. Commander Sinek can brief you on the timetable and show you to your quarters. If you'll excuse me, we're also about to continue our mission and meeting up with a ship for resupply in less than an hour. I will leave you all to acquaint yourselves with one another now." Turning to leave, Enalia paused at the door to deliver one more message. "And Ambassador, if you've wasted Starfleet time and resources on a personal matter that is not life and death, there will be an investigation. Please be sure your logic is sound in this matter. If anyone needs me, I'll be on the bridge."

And without another word, Enalia finally left the transporter room as the door hissed closed behind her.

Angel hadn't quite expected T'Zal to snarl at her like that, but she kept her expression as neutral as possible until Enalia left the room. "As first officer on this ship I merit the same respect you would give Captain Telvan. You're an honored guest here. Act like it." Maybe it wasn't proper to scold an ambassadorial intern in that manner, but Angel wasn't about to let this horror show of a visit start off with snarling and growling. "On a more personal note, anything that involves Sinek also involves me. He's going to tell me everything you say anyway, so why bother trying to keep me away?"

T'Zal glared at Angel, then allowed logic to take hold. "I formally apologize, Commander, as Ponn Far is setting in and I could not endure your scent on the one who is bonded to me." T'Zal looked to Sinek. "The reason I have come with your family is to finalize our bonding in the ritual ceremony."

Sinek evenly expressed, "You know that I have chosen to bond with another. With you, I did not have that choice. Nevertheless, you still wish to fulfill the bonding." It was a statement, not a question.

It was time for Vesik to step in and take control. "Yes. Perhaps this discussion should take place in a private venue. Sinek," he turned and slightly bowed to Angel, "Commander Fairchild, please guide us to our quarters."

Her scent? Angel's well-practiced poker face covered up her amusement, but she did cast a quick look in Sinek's direction. Deciding his response was better than the 'well, deal with it' reply that popped into her own head, she instead turned to Vesik. "Of course. Please, follow us there."

"Thank you, Commander," Vesik replied.

The atmosphere was tense, although quiet the entire way to the guest suite. However, in the silence, a battle seemed to be raging. Was this the calm before the storm? The eye of the violent hurricane? The situation seemed to be the period of time when the gases begin to form within the volcanic chambers just before the eruption.