—- Chief Counselor’s Office —-

“I almost got into an argument with the Captain about the ship being small,” Commander Andrés Sánchez said.

”You don’t insult a new Captain’s command, it’s what Cruz has spent her adult life achieving and someone close to her had to get badly hurt for it to happen,” Lieutenant Kolem said, “Even if she didn’t feel sensitive about you being so much more than her…”

”Attractive,” Sánchez joked.

”I was going to say, well off. You’re tying her pride in the ship into her confusion about her place outside Starfleet, and her life. As her brother that makes sense, as her XO you’re supposed to have her back,” Kolem said.

”But what you meant was attractive,” he joked.

”Stop flirting, I also said we couldn’t bring you onboard as my boyfriend,” Kolem said, “And I need time single, to learn to appreciate me.”

”I appreciate you, your hips, lips, eyelash tips,” Sánchez smiled.

”This whole Latino thing it working for me,” Kolem admitted. She set down her note pad, which mostly consisted of doodles anyway since Sánchez was not there for a formal session. He was not her patient, and the crew had been divided between her and her fellow counselor who did not know the senior staff so well.

”We can keep it confidential between Doctor and patient,” the Commander said picking her up off the couch and then sitting down with Kolem positioned in his lap.

”To be clear I’m not your doctor,” Kolem said softly, “and this is just….”

Sánchez kissed her neck, “A one time indiscretion.”

”Yes,” Kolem said closing her eyes.

”A one time, slip,” he said laying her down on the couch.

—- Nine Forward, Lounge —-

The name had been cheeky, but had stuck. Nine Forward, when the ship only had eight decks, and the lounge was on the seventh. Hume recognized this time in a ship’s tour, when couples were being formed. They were all fairly young, and with a month posting couples formed and held for a bit. Some lasted beyond the mission, others were just temporary. 

Lieutenant Junior Grade William Hume had tried to make his permanent, but had failed. He realized now that his own stupidity was to blame, and that he had done something with the goal of hurting Lieutenant Kolem, and so was done with her. Or she was done with him at least.

He nursed his beer, trying not to feel sorry for himself. Lieutenant Thomas Winfield joined with Lieutenant Akane Sone and new security officer Lieutenant Junior Grade Rosa Flores. Hume nodded at them, noticing that Sone and Winfield pressed against each other as they were entering the booth. So one of his closer friends had paired off, likely either during their downtime or before all the men aboard had been poisoned.

”Is everyone with someone now?” Hume asked, more complained.

”I told you not to cheat on Kolem, you don’t try to trick a Betazed,” Winfield said, “Besides she’s right to be mad, you’re better than that.”

Flores asked, “What did you do?”

”I slept with someone,” Hume said.

Rosa laughed, “That’ll do it.“

”Not just anyone, but the weird one who wants to be a Borg,” Sone said, “Lieutenant Maria Cortez.”

”She hypothetically wants to be a Borg, not really,” Hume said defending her.

”Where ever you go there’s a gal making us look bad,” Flores said, “But you’re the one who slept around. That’s lame. I’d dumped you too.”

Hume grimaced, he knew he deserved it but he was hoping that his friends would eventually lighten up on him. They were lower deckers, while Kolem had gone on to become the ship‘s Second Officer and a certified upper decker. Truthfully there was not much left for them, they were now moving in as different circles as you could and still be on such a small ship.

”It was a mistake,” he said, though he knew as many times as he said it it was not going to convince Yuhiro Kolem to take him back.

—- Bridge —-

Stepping out of the turbo lift and onto the bridge Winfield saw that they were in the middle of something. The Captain signaled for him to take over on flight controls, and Lieutenant Junior Grade Flores who had come up in the turbolift with him filled in on tactical. 

“We’re following a ship, came out of nowhere, I think it’s the True Path,” the CO explained, “stay just within our sensor range. Keep shields down for now, we don’t want to light up and scare them.”

”Yes Captain,” he said taking over for the last shift. Pr’Nor was the only pilot that was maybe better than him on the ship, though Winfield would dispute that.

“I was just on Earth Lieutenant Winfield, you father owns a restaurant there right?” the Captain asked, which meant this cat and mouse game had been going on for awhile and she was bored.

”No ma’am, it’s on Starbase 23,” Winfield said.

Cruz nodded, “Sorry, I thought it was Earth, but it’s southern food right?”

“Yes ma’am, gumbo, po’ boys, things like that,” Winfield said.

”Well maybe I’ll find my way out that way one day,” Cruz said, “I love a good po’boy.”

Winfield smiled, he knew that Cruz likely had no idea what they were, but he appreciated her attempt. Po’boys were not popular as far south as she was from, and if they had shrimp down there they usually went in tacos, not sandwiches. The Captain seemed nice, down to Earth. Her initial buttoned up all business Starfleet appearance had faded quickly, and she’d been a good XO. Winfield was not sure if she was ready to make the step up to Captain, but then it was not as if he’d have wanted anyone else on board to do it. 

“Hang back,“ Cruz said standing as four more blips appeared on the screen.

”We have multiple contacts,” Flores said.

”Dorian can we get ears of that,” Cruz asked her Chief Strategic Officer.

”Negative, not unless we get close enough that we’ll be seen,” Dorian said.

”If that is a hostile four against one isn’t great, we’d probably survive but…” Flores voice trailed off.

”But we don’t want to limp back to Starbase again and less than a week after leaving,” Cruz finished for her.

”Let’s just relax here,“ Cruz said, “Flores keep an eye on those ships, if any of them move I want to know. Also radio silence from here on out, only communication between the Captain and Starbase 72 is allowed. Institute that.”

—- First Officers Quarters —-

“We’re on communications blackout,” Sánchez said running his hand down Lieutenant Kolem. 

She pulled the blanket higher and shivered, not from the temperature, but his touch. He was a much more experienced man than Willam Hume had been, who’d been all enthusiasm and awkwardness. She bit her lip, “Something must be going on the bridge.”

”They’d call us if they needed us,” he pointed out.

”I like that logic,” Kolem said, “Besides after the Borg this is what I deserve.”

”Oh so God gave me to you because you deserve me?” Sánchez joked.

”Yup, and you thought nobody believed in God anymore,” she said.

”I would if God gave me good treats like this every day,” he said, “but I am afraid he won’t.”

”Watch speaking so lightly about God around your sister’s squeeze, Andorians are still believers,” Kolem cautioned. He dark hair framing her face on the white fabric of the pillow. Sánchez rolled over and propped himself over her, leaning down to kill her lips.

”My mother still is. But let me ask you, can you feel my mind?”

Kolem nodded, “All minds on the ship, but yours is closest right now so I feel it the most centrally if that makes sense. It’s wise, and brimming with knowledge and smarts.”

”Flatterer,” he said.

”It’s my job, keep you and your sister equally flattered,” she replied.

”Hopefully not equally.”

”Well not quite equally.”

—- Bridge —-

It had been a full day before the four ships began to move. Hanging back the USS Seattle remained unseen as the ship’s all broke in individual directions. Before that they had seen transporters used, and things beamed to and from the surface. It was not definitive proof of terrorist activity, but it was something and it ’felt’ suspicious which was all Captain Cruz had to go on. 

“Commander Sánchez, take a team down and explore the area, see if you can find out what’s so interesting about this place,” Cruz said after scans turned up no civilization and no intelligent life. Not a camp then, at least not one that was occupied. 

Standing he nodded, “Miller, Jara, Hume, Flores, with me.”

He exited the bridge followed by the Chief of Security and Science, with Lieutenant Jara calling more security personnel to round out the team. Down in the science labs Cruz knew that Lieutenant Sone would already be mapping what she could of the planet and hopefully coming up with her own name for it, better than Cruz’s first attempt months ago.

—- Unexplored Planet X —-

The team that beamed down were met with a lush forest that Lieutenant Commander Miller immediately began to explore the edges of, fascinated by the flora. Commander Sánchez had them split up, and while he understood the biologist’s interest in nature, he was a science officer himself, he did not think pirates or terrorists would come here just to see leaves that smelled like farts.

”Over here sir,” Lieutenant Junior Grade Hume yelled, waving after about ten minutes. The team converged on his point to see a temple. Old and covered in overgrown plant life. To Sánchez it reminded him of the Mayan temples on Earth in his native land of Mexico. 

“Miller do we have an archeologist on board?” he asked his Chief Science Officer.

Miller seemed to consider it, “Lieutenant Drake. I’ll call him down.”

Ten minutes later the blue suited Lieutenant who had never been on an away mission was with them. He lead the way as they entered the temple, shining hand held torches to light up the areas shrouded in darkness. 

“We’ve had a great deal of looting I’d say,” Drake said, “This is similar to after the French or British visited temples in other countries. They’d plunder them.”

”For what purpose?” Sánchez asked.

”Money, black markets still pay top latinum for this stuff,” Drake said.

Using his communicator the Commander called back to the ship, and had them scan for temples like the one they’d found. There were 128 across the planet, which meant a veritable fortune for smugglers, pirates, and terrorists who were willing to plunder a long dead civilization. Given that respectable Earth governments had historically done that then it was not much of a stretch to imagine the True Way or something doing it today.

—- Captain’s Ready Room, Four Hours Later——

Commander Andrés Sánchez paced as his sister and Captain read the PADD with messaged from Starbase 72 about what they had found. A Gagarin-class vessel was on its way to supervise and protect the planet while a Sutherland-class vessel arrived and catalogued what was left. The Seattle was to head to a few suspected black markets and see if they could track where these sales were originating from. The trouble was that if the Seattle showed up, they would do so with a big metaphorical klaxon sounding letting people know that Starfleet was there.

“We have the Nirvana, our Waverider-class ship, I’m having engineering pull off or paint over and Starfleet insignia. You’ll be able to go using it, and pose as interested buyers,” Cruz said, “We’ll wait out of sensor range of the market and hide outselves in a nebular that we’ve spotted. It should interfere with passing ships’ sensors enough that we don’t get spotted. Take Jara, Miller, Kolem and yourself.”

He continued to pace, “You going to decorate this place? It looks a bit bare?”

Cruz shrugged, “I don’t really own anything. I have a few awards from Starfleet but honestly I didn’t own much as a kid and have never really been into physical things. Hawthorne had a bunch of coffee stuff, said it tasted better to grind his own beans than replicate a cup.”

”Sounds like father, he was obsessed with beans from down south, used to buy them by the bag, and grind them for his coffee himself,” Sánchez said.

Cruz was quiet for a moment, then she leaned forward in her chair putting the PADD down, “Would I have liked him?”

”I don’t know. I do know he would have been delighted by you,” Sánchez said, “He was, he had clippings the local paper did a thing when you became Commander. An interview with you. He kept that, we didn’t know why.”

”So he knew about me but never reached out,” she sighed, one step forward to liking him and it seemed to be followed by one step back.

Sánchez shrugged. He realized having a father, and one with the resources of theirs, could have changed the course of Cruz’s life. She’d grown up wanting for so much, and then had to fight to get where she was. While cash was no longer in use within the Federation influence was and their father had greased the wheels many times in Sánchez’s life, and he was not sure what it would be like without the help.

And then there was just having a father who loved out not from afar, but from up close. 

“Well he sounds nice, I might have liked him. Get your team ready,” Cruz said no longer seeming to want to talk about the past, or their shared family.

—- Nirvana —-

The ship departed the USS Seattle and travelled towards the nearest black market. It hit warp speed as soon as it was far enough away from the main ship. At these speeds they were at least a day out, meaning that the bunks would need to be used, and Sánchez had divided it by Lieutenant Commander Miller and Lieutenant Jara in one suite and him and Lieutenant Kolem in the other. He did not mention that he and Yuhiro Kolem had already had one intimate occasion.

It was not until Assistant Chief Engineer Vanessa Constable wandered out of the third suite that they realized they had more crew than they had planned for.

”Sorry I caught a nap, had a long painting this thing to make it look less like a Starfleet mobile,” Constable said, then noticed the starfield passing by as warp speed out the window, “Umm are we off the ship?”

Sánchez rolled his eyes, “Yes, you get to join the away team.”

The yellow clad engineering officer looked panicked, “I don’t do away teams, I’m a grease and money wrench kinda gal.”

The Commander smiled, “You are now. Take the spare room, replicate yourself some clothes and come up with a back story.“

“We’ll now we’ve got someone to fix us if we break down,” Lieutenant Jara the Chief Security Officer grinned enjoying the Ensign’s discomfort at being taken along on the mission.

—- Waverider —-

The rest of the night passed uneventfully. They had to fly so long because the USS Seattle had wanted to stay out of sensor range and wanted there to be no chance of being associated with its waverider shuttle. In the morning the small crew awoke and changed into civilian clothes. Ensign Constable did her best to further make the ship look old and non-Starfleet despite being a brand new Starfleet vessel. This mostly involved hitting things with a pipe. 

Lieutenant Kolem played the role of the communications officer, if there was such a formal position on a pirate’s ship, and opened hailing frequencies as they approached. The black market was on a K-Type like station that was just as old as the Federation might have, but far more run down. It seemed that if not for the fact that they were in space the station might fall out of the sky at any moment.

The station was not as helpful as Kolem was used to with Starfleet, but seemed unconcerned about the smaller ship. Its staff certainly did not care who or where the crew was from, as long as they caused no trouble once aboard the station. The docking fee was paid for out of a small fund that the away team had been given for such things, and honestly that was all that the people on the other side of the comm cared about.

”Once we’re in split up, and look around. Anything old and from our temple site,“ Commander Sánchez said, “take phasers but keep them hidden and only use them on stun and only in emergencies.”

He distributed phasers to everyone, and then the group split into three with him and Kolem checking the market and Constable looking at the docked ships. That left Jara and Miller to check out the social scene. With the ship locked behind them, the team split up with Constable browsing the ship’s that had also docked and the other four splitting into their groups of two to head into the station.

—- Team 1, Sánchez & Kolem —-

“So we’re a married couple and like older things,” Commander Sánchez reminded her.

Lieutenant Kolem smiled cheekily, “Clearly I like older things if we’re married.”

Pretending to be wounded Sánchez clutched his heart, “You wound me madam.”

They browsed through stalls of fabrics and ship parts. It seemed that the only qualification you had to sell something there was to have something to sell. Not all of it was even illegal, it was simply going for a price, and that no longer had a place in the currency-less Federation. Yuhiro Kolem did not own a lot of civilian clothes any more, as she was clad nearly constantly in her uniform, but if she did she found a few nice pieces she would like to have added to her small collection.

They finally came upon a slender man, who looked extra especially seedy. He was selling weapons, though most of what he had on display were old Kilgon, Romulan, Cardassian, and even a few Starfleet items. Sánchez picked up an old Kirk-era phaser and admired it.

”I like this, might you have something else, something older?” he asked setting it back down on the table.

The man nodded and pulled out a ceremonial dagger, likely Cardassian. It looked a few thousand years old, possibly pre-warp. Kolem picked it up and ran her finger along the blade drawing blood. She made a noise and then carefully set it down.

”Not quite as old as we were hoping. Still sharp, that’s impressive, but we’re not arms dealers we are collectors. You show us a few pre-warm Romulan things, and it barely gets interesting,” she said. She could tell he was holding something back, that there was more here. It she was a full Betazoid Kolem figured that she’d be a wonderful intelligence officer.

”Old well I haven’t gone through them yet, but I do have a few things. At a premium of course,” he said reaching under the table where the weapons sat a pulling out a large crate. He set it down with a solid thud and opened it. Though neither of them were experts in archeology, both of the Starfleet Officers could tell that the items inside had come from the temple they had been at.

Lieutenant Kolem reached in and pulled out a necklace, “I like this.”

Sánchez nodded, “The lady will take that, and we’ll take this idol.“

The vendor nodded closing up the crate after the Commander had taken the idol and naming what sounded to Kolem like an outrageous price. They had been given some currency for this assignment, but not that much.

Sánchez tossed the required bars of gold pressed latinum onto the table, “If you get more, we may be interested in seeing them.”

”Of course sir,” the man smiled, “And you and your lovely wife enjoy.”

Kolem nodded, but said nothing until they had moved away when she asked where the money had come from, where had Sánchez gotten his latinum?

”We sell wine outside of the Federation to, just like every Starfleet ship seems to have at least one bottle of Romulan ale, a real Earth wine is the sought out commododity in the galaxy. We all crave authenticity,” he said as Kolem put the necklace around her neck and tucked it under her leather tunic for safe keeping.

Commander Sánchez put the idol in a satchel, “We’ll run tests on this back at the ship. Let’s get something to eat. You look good in leather by the way, kind of a mirror universe version of Kolem. I like it.”

In the light he could swear Kolem’s eyes seemed to glow, “And do you like this mirror universe version of me?”

”I do,” Sánchez said flirting, “All leather and badass.”

Kolem just smiled.

—- Team 2, Jara & Miller —-

“You know you’re just a Lieutenant, yet you always act like you’re in charge,” Lieutenant Commander Miller said as they scanned another shopping crate. Their study of the social areas of the station had come up empty, and now they were searching shipping crates that had piled up by the doc.

“Look Plants, you’re smart but you’re not street smart, you need guidance,” Jara said peering into a crate and finding only a type of vegetable that she did not recognize. She shut it and moved on. As smart and good at her job as Miller likely was, she lacked the real world experience, and so Jara had learned that the well intentioned and book smart Starfleet Officer was not a good field commander. At least not in her estimation.

”My name isn’t Plants, if I was so cleverly named I’d be Botanist,” Miller said.

They heard footsteps approaching.

”Quick duck in a crate,” Jara said and shoved Miller into a crate and then leaped in behind her shutting the door. There was the sound of foot steps, then muffled voices followed by a mag lock engaging and then footsteps.

Miller pulled out a torch and examined the crate, “Hey it’s the artifacts we’re looking for.”

Jara pushed at the door, it wouldn’t budge. Then suddenly the crate rocked, and both women realized they were being lifted by something mechanical and carried, likely a mag lift of some kind. There was talking then they moved some more, and finally were set down, allowing for more muffled discussion and then the sound of footsteps as people departed.

”Jara to Constable, Jara to away team,” Jara said trying the communicator she had hidden on her.

”Walls are too thick, interference,” Miller said “same goes for our…”

Any warining came too late as Jara pulled out a phaser and tried to cut through the door. The beam reflected back at her but made no damage to either the door or the wall it eventually hit after the Chief Security Officer had ducked out of the way.

”That went about as well as I expected,” Gabriella Miller said dryly as Lieutenant Claudia Jara got off the ground where she had thrown herself.

”Shut up,” Jara said.

”That’s ’Shut up ma’am,’” Miller teased.

Jara grumbled. Feeling humiliated that for all her talk of street smarts she had gotten them trapped in a shipping container and now they were being moved to somewhere.

—- Waverider —-

Aboard the Nirvana Sánchez set the idol down on the main table and looked at Ensign Constable. It was well past when they were meant to be back and though he and Kolem had been delayed there was still no sign of their Chief Science Officer or the Chief Security Officer.

”Where are Jara and Miller,” he asked.

Constable shrugged, “I saw them poking around the docks looking at storage containers, but someone came and I had to move on.”

The Commander swore, they had lost two officers, and they had to get back to the USS Seattle while the trail was still warm. 

”What’s wrong,” Kolem asked.

”We lost Jara and Miller,” he said.

Kolem nodded, “And this one doesn’t know where they are?” 

Kolem pointed to Constable who shook her heard, “This one does not.”

”Let’s give it an hour, then set course for the Seattle,” he said, “Captain’s going to be mad.“

Kolem nodded, “Yes, the Captain will be mad.”

Constable rolled her eyes, and got to work on pre-flight checks preparing the ship to leave the old station as soon as they had given it yet another hour for the return of their crew.

—- Ready Room —-

”You lost Miller and Jara?” 

As Commander Sánchez had predicted the Captain was more than a little annoyed. She stood up from behind her desk and put both of her hands down on it, using it to hold herself up as she looked at her First and Second Officers. The news that they had returned without either the ship’s Chief Science Officer or Chief Security Officer was alarming. Starfleet did not just lose people without a trace.

Or at least it was not supposed to.

As soon as they had gotten out of weapons range of the station Ensign Vanessa Constable had called the USS Seattle to pick them up, and the ship had made the rendezvous in about six hours. The two senior officers had found time to to to casually return to their quarters on the Waverider for some personal time, which Constable had noticed but also had not commented on.

”I may know where they are,” Constable said, the Assistant Chief Engineer walking to a panel on the wall, bringing up the user interface and navigating through to a schematic of a transport ship.

”The G-56 transport ship has a security protocol that few people seem to know about. If stolen once a day it hails its owner and tells them its location. Well I programmed the transport ship of our smugglers to think it was stolen and the USS Seattle was its owner,” the Ensign explained, “Meaning that once a day it should hail us with its exact location.”

The other three looked at her, “And won’t that be stopped by the smugglers?”

”The system is designed to do it covertly, so it’s not discovered. Unless they’re specifically scanning for it, which is unlikely they won’t see it,” she explained, “I saw them hide in a shipping container, and then I had to hide. When I got back the container was gone, so I tagged the ship.”

Captain Cruz sighed, “Alright, at least someone’s on the ball. We’ll wait for the call, then go get out people. What else did we find out for all this?”

Commander Sánchez set the idol down, “We got this off an arms dealer. Meaning our suspects are funding arms by trading these items. When we find them, I assume it’ll prove to be the True Way.”

”We can’t leapt to conclusions, but I tend to agree with you,” Cruz said, “Aright, very good. Take a rest, get cleaned up, and we’ll be underway as soon as we have a destination.”

—- First Officer’s Quarters —-

Commander Andrés Sánchez lay on his beg as Lieutenant Kolem collapsed beside him still wearing the necklace from the station. He could have sworn it was blue, but now it was a vibrant purple. He admired it sitting around her neck the chain a light gold that suited her skin tone. She law beside him pulling the covers up around herself.

”Adriana wasn’t happy,” Sánchez said.

”Well nobody likes losing their followers,” Kolem observed, “but the Engineer seemed to satiate her.”

”Ensign Constable,” the ship’s First Officer was slowly learning everyone’s name, which was possible on such a small ship. Kolem had known everyone’s name, so it was odd that she kept forgetting Ensign Constable, but then again they had a lot on their mind.

”I think of her as the plain one, and you the attractive one,” Kolem said.

”I guess,” Sánchez had not really thought about which of the crew was plain and which was not. Truthfully they were mostly young, in good shape and in the prime of their lives. The only exception being Lieutenant Commander Tashai, but she was an El-Alurian and it was hard to compare them against other species, at least age wise.

”I guess,” Kolem said mimicking his voice, she smiled, “You care too much what she thinks you should care more about what I think. You should be devoted to me.”

”I think it’s a bit early in the relationship for that,” Sánchez said.

”No, it’s not you will be devoted to me,” Kolem said, and her eyes glowed. 

For a minute Sánchez felt confused then he felt panic looking into her eyes which were now infinite pools. He had never seen something it was like all of space inside a woman’s head. She smiled as he felt himself falling into her eyes, losing himself and then the panic left him as he was replaced with a worshipful devoutness, a sureness about his place in the universe and serving his god that he had never felt.

”I am devout my Queen,” he said.

Kolem smiled, “Good I will learn about this time I am in, and then we will make worshippers of this entire crew, even our Captain. Then this fleet of theirs.”

”Of yours,” he said.

”Quite right of mine,” she said and smiled, now a planet would not hold her. Now she could really have the stars.

—- Bridge —-

“We’ve got a signal,” Lieutenant Junior Grade William Hume said as he looked down at the readout. He looked up at Captain Cruz, “It’s in the demiliterized zone, on a former human colony there. Now it’s a suspected True Way base.”

“Okay, set a course,” Cruz said, “We’re going to have to avoid any Cardassians on our trip, so do your best to do that. Give all contacts to the conn. Mister Winfield give me maximum warp.”

“Yes ma’am,” Lieutenant Junior Grade Winfield nodded, setting in a course to the planet and sending the ship into maximum warp. The stars on the view screen went from static as she ship remained still to streaks of light as it jumped into warp.

Cruz looked around the bridge, “Lieutenant Dorian, update Starfleet that we have a location. Have them send a few Reliant-class ships to shut down that black market. Let’s get in, and get our people first and worry about anything else later.”

The crew set about carrying out her orders and after about an hour watching the stars whiz by on the bridge she went into her ready room to read up on reports and hail the USS Obama where she eventually got through to Captain Shraa.

”BolIans,” Shraa said rolling her eyes.

”Well I’m sure whatever the problem with the Bolians is you’ll get through it,” Cruz smiled.

”We have a delegation on board. A VIP real big deal, so he keeps insisting anytime he shouts at me for anything,” Shraa said, “I did not join Starfleet to be a waiter Adriana.”

”As much as they can be awful, ambassadors keep the peace, and we should thank them,” Cruz said, “Without them we’d be at war with everyone.”

”Sounds kind of nice,” the Andorian Captain said then smiled, “I miss you, you going to be on Starbase 72 soon?”

”I lost my Chief Science Officer and Chief of Security, as soon as I get them back you’re on,” Cruz said.

”This time though don’t bring your exes along,” Shraa said. 

Her door banged, as someone ignored the chime and instead went straight to pounding on metal to get her attention. Across the galaxy Cruz could hear shouting and she rolled her eyes, knowing that it was likely the Bolian diplomat that Shraa had spoken about.

”I’ll let you go,” she said.

”I’ll see you soon,” Shraa said and ended the communication.

—- Inside A Shipping Container, ? —-

Lieutenant Claudia Jara stretched and in doing so nudged the Lieutenant Commander at her feet. Gabriella Miller woke with a start and looked around at the inside of the container that was still lit up with only a hand torch. She had fashioned her blouse into a pillow and was wearing only a bra on top, but being woken up made her redress.

”What’s our status?” she asked, standing.

“Same, stuck in a box. The box isn’t moving who knows if we’re on a ship or not,” Jara said.

”We’re on a ship, if we were’t Starfleet would have been here by now,” Miller pointed out, “I am assuming the’ll be raiding the station if they haven’t already.”

”So what we’re just stuck?” Jara said.

”For now, yeah, unless you want to try to disintegrate yourself again,” Miller said. The blonde officer watched the brunette crewmate with a careful eye. While she tried to be optimistic about everything it was (perhaps as part of her job) in Jara’s nature to be pessimistic. Of course growing up on Turkana IV had likely given the security officer many reasons to want to project a worldly and rough image to the world.

”Great I’ll try to sleep on this metal floor some more,” Jara grumbled.

“Lieutenant why have you never hit on me?” Miller asked, “You hit on everyone else, the Captain, our Romulan doctor. Even Lieutenant Kolem and she’s the straightest woman I ever met.”

Jara was quiet then looked at Miller, “I don’t know. You seem so… well put together. Believe it or not I’m not perfect.”

”Oh I know,” Miller said, “But I’m more perfect than the Captain?”

”Well she’s a hot mess,” Jara said, then added, “Idiom, if you haven’t heard it.”

”I’m not a Vulcan meeting humans for the first time,” Miller said, “Look Jara, I’m not perfect.”

”It’s Claudia,” Jara said.

”That’s a nice name,” Miller said, “Call my Gabriella.”

Jara nodded, “I’m sorry if you think I didn’t hit on you because you weren’t good enough or something.”

”I assumed it was you found me boring,” Miller said.

”You are boring Gabriella,” Jara said, “You talk on and on about plants reproducing and…”

”I was hitting on you,” Miller said.

”What?”

”I was trying to flirt with you,” Miller said, “Talking about how plants are seeded, clearly it didn’t work.”

”No, it didn’t,” Jara laughed.

”I could explain the role of fertilizer in the process,” Miller said approaching Jara.

”I’ll try to pay attention,” Jara said approaching Miller.

Miller parted her lips and turned her head, “I’ll explain all about the birds and bees.”

”I’m all ears,” Jara said.

—- USS Seattle, Engineering —-

“Why don’t we get missions where we sit somewhere and host a conference of something?” Lieutenant Commander Young complained.

”Maybe because we’re a tiny scout ship,” his Assistant Chief Engineering Officer said. Ensign Constable knew that Young was just complaining to complain. They were well stocked and the engines were running like a dream. The Chief Engineer liked acting like it was all falling apart on him, perhaps driven by the mission with the Borg and how they’d actually broken down when they most needed their speed.

Young sighed, “A peace conference with the Klingons or something.”

”We’re only a few hours out, it’s fine,” Constable said looking at the readouts on the main screen in engineering. She set her hands on her hips and looked at the reading sternly as if she could scare them into behaving, and Young assumed she might actually be able to.

”Kolem and Sánchez are acting weird,” Constable said, “But then they’re together so…”

”They are, isn’t she dating Hume?” Young asked.

”No, that ended awhile ago, keep up,” Constable said.

”So wait isn’t Sánchez the Captain’s brother?” Young asked.

”Half-brother and yes,” Constable informed him, “Anyway they’re both acting quite weird since our stop at the station. But then young love.”

”You’re younger than both of them,” Young pointed out.

”But I’m not in love,” Constable said, “Except with economic justice.”

”Why do I have the only socialist engineer in the fleet?” Young asked.

”Because secretly you too love economic justice,” Constable said.

”No I think it’s because I’m cursed,” Young said, “Tell me if the readings get funky I’m going to bed.”

—- Bridge —-

The USS Seattle dropped out of warp and eased through the solar system on impulse power. The crew scanned the planet and plotted the course that would take the nimble little Rhode Island class into a stable orbit around the abandoned world. Finding the two missing officers was priority one, and dealing with an arms dealer or worse a The True Way terrorist camp was the secondary objective.

”We have established orbit around the world,” the Chief Flight Control Officer Pr’Nor said in her usual toneless informative way. Whether she was flying rings around a firing pirate vessel, or docking she sounded the same. 

At tactical Lieutenant Junior Grade Rosa Flores scanned the surface, “Humanoid life signs present, seem to be a mix of humans and Cardassian. We have a contact on our sensors coming in fast ma’am.”

Captain Adriana Cruz looked up at the view screen to see a Galor-class Cardassian ship leap into view, and establish its own orbit around the planet. Cruz studied the ship, wondering what the Cardassians were doing there, and what that meant for the fate of her two lost crew members.

She tapped her comm badge, “Bridge to Engineering, it may get spicy in a minute.”

The sound of Lieutenant Commander Young’s voice sighed, and replied, “Yes bridge. We’ll fix what you break.”

Nodding to Lieutenant JG Flores Cruz had the ship hail the Cardassians, as she smiled broadly, “Hello!”

Cruz attempted to sound excited. Back on Earth when the cops had caught her she had discovered that most of the time she could talk them out of arresting her as long as she was overly effusive and could feign innocence. It had worked extremely well until it had not and she actually got arrested.

”What are you doing here Federation?” the Captain asked, not bothering to introduce himself. This was not a good sign, the fact was the most likely reason the Galor ship was there was because this ship was allied with The True Way, and had come to either drop off weapons or pick up something. It was extremely unlikely that they had just shown up because they were pursuing their own investigation. The fact that the Captain of the ship was not introducing himself meant that he did not see the USS Seattle as a permanent worry in his life. Just like you would not introduce yourself to a mosquito.

It was an apt comparison, though likely long in the tooth, the Galor-class could duke it out with a Galaxy-class and Cruz and the Seattle were not that much of a worry to it.

“We found a The True Way camps, and two of my officers are down there,” Cruz said, “We have a Manticore Class ship coming to help clean it up.”

It was a bluff but hopefully the mention of that would get Lieutenant Dorian in Strategic Operations to call for backup. Hopefully it was not too far removed and too late.

”We’ll handle it, withdraw now,” the Cardassian said.

Cruz looked down at her seat’s panel, where Dorian had sent her a simple message written in text, as opposed to spoken. A Excelsior II Class was twenty minutes out and on its way. Twenty minutes, Cruz doubted that the Cardassian would let her tap dance for that long, or put up with her games, but the longer she could stretch it. At least with an Excelsior II ship there they’d even the odds a bit.

“Well I really would, I don’t particularly care about this planet, and I’d love to have you do my dirty work, but you see as I mentioned I have crew down there. You know crew right, always getting themselves into situations that I have to save them from with my secret weapon,” Cruz said.

This interested the Cardassian, “What is your secret weapon?”

He nodded to his crew off screen, apparently signaling that they should rerun scans of the smaller Rhode Island Class vessel. She knew that she could not keep this going for long and stood putting, walked towards the screen and put her hand on Pr’Nor’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze. The pair had not practiced a secret message, but Cruz hoped that the Vulcan would start to make plans for evasive maneuvers.

”Well if I told you that it wouldn’t be secret,” Cruz said. 

The Cardassian looked less than pleased with the answer.

”Captain, the Cardassian shields are up,” Rosa said, “They‘re targeting us.”

”Now why would you do that? Okay, I’ll tell you, the secret weapon is gumption,” Cruz said.

The Cardassian looked at her, not quite sure what to make of the situation. He finally seemed to decide that everything would be much more simply once he had destroyed the USS Seattle so he put that reality into motion. With a curse word, that Captain Cruz was certain had been in Cardassian but had been translated, he cut the transmission.

The USS Seattle rocked as phaser fire hit its shields. Cruz sat down. 

”Pr’Nor evasive maneuvers, keep us alive until help comes,” Cruz said.

”It is statistically unlikely that we will survive this encounter,” Pr’Nor pointed out.

”Good news then, when we all blow up nobody will say you did a bad job flying,” Cruz said.

”I am an excellent pilot,” Pr’Nor said as the ship leapt forward, turning and twisting.

”If the ship blows up that’s a demerit on your record,” Cruz said, “Flores save our torpedoes but fire phasers at their weapon systems. We’ll try taking them out when we’re not running for our lives. Now let’s see how long we can keep dancing. Metaphorically speaking Lieutenant.”

Lieutenant Pr’Nor was focused on her duty station but was able to nod, “Thank you for the clarification Captain.”

The Seattle rocked once more. This time the back of the ship was hit with something, a the rest of it was thrown or course and began trumbling. Cruz was tempted to get out of her chair, but a had a feeling that it would be impossible to keep her footing if she did stand. As it was she had to grip the arm rests or her seat. The ship’s strikes against the larger ship’s weapons seemed ineffective but it was the best they could do if they were to hold back some photon torpedoes for later. The ship rocked again as it was stuck, the shields dipping at the much smaller Rhode Island, hitting locations that Pr’Nor had visualized in her mind. It was a tough task, because avoiding Cardassian fire meant being unpredictable and Vulcans were not particularly suited to creativity and unpredictability.

”Shields down to seventy-two percent,” Lieutenant J.G. Flores said, firing off another barrage of phasers.

”Our backup has increased speed, ten minutes,” Dorian said.

Luring the Cardassians into a planet’s atmosphere seemed both unlikely and pointless. It had worked against pirates but the Cardassian ship was unlikely to have difficulties in gravity the way that patched together pirate ships had on their last mission. It was pointless to order people to keep them alive for ten minutes, that much went without saying. The trick was figuring out how they were going to stay alive for that long.

”Flores start using torpedoes, fire at will,” Cruz said still wracking her brain for that one neat trick that would let her live to see the arrival of backup. The ship only had so many lives, and Cruz was begging to think that like a cat they had used up all nine. She had to think of something, something clever that would get them through this. Somewhere in the range of ninety-five lives were counting on her.

“Get behind it, get it turning, its systems are old, we gotta make them work for each shot they hit us with,” she said, not sure that simply being a harder target was the way out of this. The ship rocked again and she tumbled out of her chair as damage reports started to come in from all decks of the ship.

”Get that moon between us and the Cardassians,” Cruz said gesturing to the screen, trying to put distance between them and certain death. 

It was not enough, but it was something. A bit of extra shielding, at least for a moment as the ship cowered and hide from their pursuer. 

“We have something on our scanners,” Flores said.

”Our backup?” Cruz asked.

”Wrong direction, three Galor-class ships,” Dorian said as three more ships dropped out of warp.

”We’re being hailed,” Flores said.

“On screen,” Cruz said. Not that she had much choice, an unwinnable fight had just turned extra special unwinnable. 

“This is Gul Brazack, we are here to investigate some intelligence we received about The True Way,” he said.

”I’m Captain Cruz, we’re here for the same reason, and we have two officers down on the planet,” Cruz said.

”Well we do not wish to carry this conflict on any further, we will be departing. I trust you will deal with this camp for us,” Gul Brazack said.

Cruz nodded, “Please take your ship with you, I’d suggest it’s Gul was making a tidy profit off the terrorists.”

”Yes, we will take it with us, as you say. We will look into any corruption in the ship’s crew,” the Gul said.

”All four Cardassian ships are departing the system, the three are flanking the original,” Flores said.

”Call off our backup, do a damage assessment,” Cruz said, “and ready an away team.”

—- Personal Quarters, Assistant Chief of Security William Hume —-

Lieutenant Junior Grade William Hume had just gotten off shift. One of the advantages of being a section head, or assistant section head, was that he got his own room rather than having to share with someone. Even that was an improvement on the hallway living on the USS Anaheim, his last posting before he had come with most of senior crew over to the USS Seattle. Now he had his own room with a bathroom which was probably the most valuable piece of real estate on the ship. It let him unwind in the sonic shower for a while before putting on a fresh uniform with plans to head to the forward lounge.

He was half way through buttoning up his uniform’s outer layer when his door chime rang. He was surprised to find his ex-girlfriend Lieutenant Yuhiro Kolem at the door an odd smile on her face. He did not recognize it as the smile of someone possessed by a several million year old deity, but that’s to be expected as not many could have.

”Kolem,” he said as she pushed past him into his room.

When she said nothing, he followed it up with another attempt at interaction.

”Can I help you?” he asked, not quite sure what was going on.

Kolem smiled at him, in a way that he took as flirty but would probably be better described as a venomous snake smiling at its prey.

”Lieutenant Junior Grade Hume. You will be a valuable asset, will you not?” Kolem asked him.

He nodded, not quite sure what he was agreeing to. He’d made Kolem mad enough by cheating on her with Lieutenant Maria Cortez that he felt obliged to try to make it up to her. “Of course anything you need,” he said.

”I don’t need anything, I expect your devotion,” she said, turning and staring at him. Her eyes seemed even darker than usual, if possible. Like pools deeper than black holes, they seemed to pull him in. He felt giddy as he fell into her being, the world seeming to dim around him as he saw only the deep pools in front of him.

He nodded and smiled, “I am devoted.”

She smiled, “Good, soon everyone will be.”

—- Planet’s Surface, Abandoned Federation Colony —-

The USS Adventure had arrived to bolster the person power going down to the surface. The Seattle sent fifty people, the Adventure sent another fifty. Armed with phaser rifles, the terrorists had surrendered fairly easily, and not a shot was fired. They were rounded up, and set back to the Excelsior II-class star ship since the smaller Seattle did not have the room in its cells for them.

Which left finding the two mission officers from the Seattle. Captain Adriana Cruz, finding her First and Second Officers strangely busy with non-Starfleet related things, was down on the surface with a tricorder looking for her Chief Science Officer and Chief Security Officer. There were officers all around going through the evidence, and the weapons at the terrorist camp but finding Lieutenant Commander Miller and Lieutenant Jara fell to her. Well to her and Lieutenant Junior Grade Flores who had joined her on the sear…

”I’m getting two life signs in this crate,” Flores called. 

The two women set about disengaging the mag lock and opening the door to the container. There on stolen artifacts were her two officers, sitting waiting. At the sign of the Captain they leapt to their feet.

”Ma’am,” Jara said.

“We got locked in,” Miller said, the science officer gesturing to her and Jara.

”Well I can imagine the trip was uncomfortable enough I don’t need to lecture you,” the Captain said.

The two exchanged a meaningful glance and nodded. Jara spoke, “Umm, yes, uncomfortable indeed.”

“Well as long as you didn’t curse my ship by doing something embarrassing on the ancient artifacts,” Cruz said, “Go have a shower, get some food. I’ll read your reports in a few hours.”

”Yes ma’am,” Jara said and the pair beamed up to the ship.

—- Ready Room —-

After sending off the action report for the mission, including Jara and Miller’s accounts, Captain Adriana Cruz was sitting in her ready room. Her crew was recuperating from fighting the Cardassians, and being lost. Chief Engineer James Young was performing some much needed repairs, and she had called her First Officer (who was also her half-brother) Commander Andrés Sánchez and her Second Officer Lieutenant Yuhiro Kolem, into her ready room as they had been stanglely not present during the last week or so.

The fact that they had shown up with her Assistant Chief of Security Lieutenant Junior Grade William Hume was odd too.

”Look I try to give you all some latitude, but you can’t just not be there when we’re fighting the Cardassians,” Cruz said trying to balance being the boss with the mentor to Kolem that she wanted to see herself as.

“We had other things to attend to,” Sánchez said.

”Well we almost died, so what’s so important that it takes precedence over us all dying?” Cruz asked, “And why is Hume here? I can imagine what you’ve been up to the two of you, but Hume. That’s a whole lot weirder.”

She got that people had human needs, and desires. Even non-humans mostly had the same needs and desires. She had them, and going AWOL and vanishing into a new relationship was one thing, but this was something else. They’d been up against a Galor-class warship, and had it not been for the complicated political system on Cardassia they’d be dead.

”I’m finding this dull,” Kolem said.

”What?” Cruz asked shocked that this was her Chief Counselor who was usually much more respectful.

With a gesture from Kolem the two men stepped forward, grabbing the Captain and holding her in her chair.

”Once you’re devoted to me, we’ll take this whole ship,” Kolem said smiling.

Cruz struggled, but looked into the dark haired woman’s eyes, feeling herself falling into the endless pools.

—- Ready Room —-

What happened next was a flurry of activity that after the fact Captain Adriana Cruz had issues putting down on PADD. Lieutenant Claudia Jara entered the ready room and saw the Captain being manhandled by two members of her senior staff, and a third staring into her eyes and something seemed to be up. When she got no response from either her Assistant Chief of Security William Hume or the ship’s first officer she called in Lieutenant Junior Grade Flores and a fight broke out. While the Seattle was a small ship, it had enough crew to subdue the three people and force them into the detention centre on the ship with little drama.

Aside from feeling ill the Captain was fine, though she had to have a full medical scan just to be sure. Scans were also conducted on the three other officers as well as on the necklace Kolem was wearing. Following the completion on that and a break to reach out to some outsiders the senior staff, with the exception of the First and Second Officers met again in the conference room.

—- Conference Room, 3 Hours Later —

“The following is a report I got from the Grimson-class ship USS Jones that is doing an archeological exploration of the temple we found, which seems to be where this necklace comes from,” Lieutenant Commander Gabriella Miller said, “Given that this language is a few million years old, pre-dates humans even existing and has been lost pardon the translation. There were five people who were exposed to the sun being upset. I imagine that means solar flares. They gained great power, and could not be killed. At first they helped the people, but soon they became rulers. Eventually the people rebelled, and sought to destroy them, but could not. Eventually the rulers, or super beings, were trapped in these crystals, though the process is not clear. Basically it seems that their brains were removed and ground down and their spirits were put in the gems.”

”So how did that get into Lieutenant Kolem?” Captain Cruz asked.

Tashai answered, “She is a empath, half-Betazoid. To use her abilities she has to open herself to the thoughts of others.”

”So I could handle the crystal, or Sánchez and not be affected,” Cruz said.

”Correct,” Tashai said.

”So should we break the crystal or what?” Cruz asked.

”No, I would guess that Kolem’s essence went into it, when it was pushed out,” Tashai said, “It has the same aura as Kolem.”

Tashai was an empath too, though not as directly as Kolem. Still her abilities were such that Cruz did not doubt them, or find it odd when she insisted a crystal necklace was the ship’s Chief Counselor. 

“Medical options?” the Captain asked.

Doctor Va’Tok shook his head, “Medically she seems quite like Kolem, which is why our transporters did not read anything odd. On a medical scan all three of them appear normal, save for reduced brain wave activity on Hume and Sánchez.”

”Because they’re not thinking for themselves?” the Captain asked.

”I would assume so,” Va’Tok nodded.

So let’s work the problem, back here tomorrow and bring me your dumbest, most insane ideas. Also any good ideas,” Cruz said, “Because right now I don’t want to lose my crew members, but I don’t know what to do. Also Dorian put an alert out about the other crystals if they’re stolen it’s just a matter of time before the infect someone else.”

”Also,” Cruz added, “Nobody visits Kolem alone, we need at least one other officer there to watch over them. I doubt force shields can stop her weird mind control thing.”

—- Ready Room —-

Cruz smiled at Captain Shraa the Andorian as the other woman came on the screen. It was good to see her, no matter what went wrong, there were still positives in the universe.

”I’ve been arrested,” Shraa said.

”What?” Cruz asked, surprised.

”I hit the Bolian ambassador we had aboard. The one that was making my life Hell. I got court martialed and am at Starbase 72 awaiting trial,” Shraa explained.

”Well that tops my senior staff trying to brainwash me into a cult,” Cruz said, “I’ll set course for Starbase 72. We need some Cardassian scratch marks taken off our hull anyway, plus I need some real gelato, the replicators just don’t do it justice.”

”I don’t know what you’ll be able to do,” Shraa said.

”I can be persuasive,” Cruz said, “Plus conjugal visits.“

”I don’t know if I get those,” Shraa said.

”I’ll appeal on the basis of the Geneva Conventions,” Cruz smiled.

”What’s that?” Shraa asked.

”It’s an Earth Island where bisexuals live, Geneva,” Cruz lied.

Shraa nodded, “I should go to Earth one day. I know this woman who owns a winery there.”

”Half of one,” Cruz said, “But maybe a full one if my half-brother stays a cultist. Okay, out next destination is set. I’ll be there soon.”

”I’ll be here, in my cell,” Shraa said.

—- Conference Room, The Next Day ——

“Well I did ask for stupid plans,” Cruz said. The plan that Doctor Va’Tok had come up with was truly like something out of a slapstick holonovel. It would have been funny if it did not involve almost killing her friend and Second Officer. 

“We can assume that dealing with Kolem will deal with Hume and Sánchez. We also know what our individual wants to exist beyond the life of this body. She has done so for millions of years,” Va’Tok explained.

Tashai the Chief Operations Officer nodded, “We have setup a distortion field, one that prevents telepathic energies from breaching it. We put Kolem in it, with me and the necklace.”

Va’Tok continued, “Doctor T’Rala is not telepathic, being Romulan she has no empathic abilities. She will administer a drug to stop Kolem’s heart.”

“And?” Cruz asked.

”The being will leave Kolem’s dying body for Tashai’s fresh body. You stub Tashai with a phaser leaving it trapped with nowhere to go,” Va’Tok said, “We will then trap it.”

”And Kolem?” Cruz asked.

”After we have trapped the spirit, as we are calling it, Doctor T’Rala will revive Kolem and presumably with the necklace on her ‘soul’ as we are calling it will be restored.”

”This is our best plan?” Cruz asked.

”We could wait several months for a more detailed report from the USS Jones,” Va’Tok said, “This is an unexplored area of medicine. Perhaps on Betazed they may know more, but we do not have Betazoid crew members aside from Kolem. And on Betazed there would be more bodies for our ‘spirit’ to take over.”

“Good job, I hate this plan, but it’s the best we have. Alright let’s do it,” Cruz said.

—- Sickbay —-

For dealing with a millions of years old would be conquerer the solution did seem quite slapstick to Captain Adriana Cruz. It required her engineering department to build a device that looked in no small part like a twenty-first century hand held vacuum attached to a glass bottle and her Assistant Chief Medical Officer to prepare a toxic cocktail that would temporarily kill her Chief Counselor. She then had to make up a Starfleet penal justice code that gave her the right, however fictitious, to put the woman to death.

”By my right as captain of the USS Seattle I hereby sentence you to death effective immediately,” Cruz said after the body of Lieutenant Kolem was marched into the sickbay which had been surrounded by a force field meant to block telepathic energies. Doctor Va’Tok had been banished being a empath himself and only the non-empathic Doctor T’Rala a Romulan and the empathic ’bait’ Lieutenant Commander Tashai were allowed in. A few other security guards who were armed with weapons set to stun were allowed in including Lieutenant Junior Grade Flores and Lieutenant Jara. 

The trial was, of course, a sham, to convince an invader who had been alive millions of years before humanity, or the Federation, that such a thing would be used to deal with a rebellious second officer. But upon the completion of the mock trial Doctor T’Rala pressed a hypospray against Kolem’s neck, as if she were administering a toxin that would kill the woman. Truthfully it would just stop the heart, and put her into a coma-like state for long enough to convince the ‘spirit’ or whatever they were calling her other worldly inhibitor to leave the body. Kolem tensed, her muscles tightening as if in the grips of death, and she shook violently in a very unpleasant sight. As she collapsed Flores and Jara moved her to a biobed where her vitals were monitored, and then suddenly a purple energy-ish gas form emitted from her mouth. 

It made a beeline for Lieutenant Commander Tashai, the El-Alurian being the most likely secondary home for the being. Having drawn out the creature Captain Cruz hit Tashai with a stun phaser blast, knocking her out so at least for the moment her mind was not empathically open to possession. 

”Use the device,” Cruz ordered and T’Rala pulled out the hand held vacuum device, and attempted to suck it up, which worked better than it should have. Once in a containment field, they were able to restart Kolem’s heart and awaken Tashai. 

“Now assuming Doctor Va’Tok’s plan worked we will be able to restore Lieutenant Kolem via the necklace,” Tashai said, rubbing her head as she recovered from the phaser blast. They placed the necklace around the Chief Counselor and waited as her life signs steadied and her brain wave patterns returned to normal.

After a moment Kolem sat up, “Where am I? Last thing I remember I was on the Nirvana.”

Captain Cruz smiled, “It’s a long story, welcome back.”

Tashai interjected, “I imagine Lieutenant Junior Grade Hume and Commander Sánchez are better now too, as their situation, was derived from Kolem’s.”

Cruz nodded, “I suppose I should go to the security office and confirm they can be let out. Kolem just rest, I’ll talk to you soon.”

—- Ready Room, Next Day —-

“Feeling better?” Cruz asked her brother, and First Officer.

”Much, I am sorry for the role I played,” Sánchez said.

”This is why we don’t try to impress women with pretty things bought from arms merchants,” Cruz teased.

”You would have done the same,” Andrés Sánchez said.

”Maybe, but I don’t actually have any money,” Cruz said.

”You do, I have it in a non-Federation account for you,“ Sánchez said, “Also I am quitting. I handed in my resignation, when we get back to Starbase 72 I will be returning to Earth.”

”We all get possessed by ancient beings once and awhile,” Cruz said, “Don’t let that stop you.”

”I made the decision before then, with father dead someone needs to run the winery, and it should be me,” Sánchez said.

”I could run a winery,” Cruz said.

”No you couldn’t. You know nothing of wineries and barely anything of wine,” Sánchez said, “Besides you are meant to be here, you are a good Captain. I am an okay First Officer. I do however have a gift for you.”

He had entered the Ready Room with a duffle bag and searched around for it pulling out a bottle of wine. Cruz did not see the difference between it and the family’s previous wines at first until she noticed the label said Sánchez-Cruz Vineyards. It was a sweet, if ultimately pointless gesture.

”You had a fake label printed?” she asked.

”No this is out newest batch. You are half owner, the winery’s name should reflect that. As much as you feel otherwise we are family,” Sánchez said, “Father would have been proud of you.“

”Thank you, I don’t really know what to give you in return,” Cruz said.

”You saved my life, saved Kolem, that is enough,” he said.

”Well it looks bad on my record if I kill too many First Officers,” Cruz smiled, “You were a good XO, but you need to do what makes you happy. I think this will be the thing that makes you happy. Now I need to pick a new XO.”

”Well hopefully the next one won’t own a winery,” Sánchez joked.

”Or hopefully they do and I get more wine. You’ll need to keep me supplied, even from Earth,” Cruz smiled.

”Yes ma’am,” her half-brother said.