“Fleet Captain’s log stardate seven-eight-six-two-oh point two. The Odyssey remains in orbit of the Entharan colony on Gerina Four. The Entharans have been excellent hosts in providing places for the crew to take some R&R and have been keen on engaging with us over trade. We plan to break orbit tomorrow to rendezvous with the Themis in a few days.”

Bathed in the soft glow of the transporter room’s ambient lighting, Jen looked around the room and was pleased to see that it was one of the junior enlisted crewmembers on duty. He thanked him and gestured for his companion to join him as they left the room together. Smirking somewhat, Rosle adjusted the strap from her bag over her shoulder as she quickly caught up with Jen as they entered the main corridor. 

The Odyssey appeared almost lifeless as they made their way towards the nearest turbolift. They walked side by side, and once they felt more comfortable, their fingers intertwined. Jen smiled at Rosle, and she reflected the same sentiment. Tapping on the turbolift’s panel to summon its next available cart, Jen chuckled a bit.

“What is it?” Rosle probed him.

“This,” Jen replied, looking down at them holding hands, “us.”

“Are you embarrassed?” Rosle asked, almost sounding hurt.

He turned towards her. “Not in the slightest,” Jen answered. “I just never thought we would…” The joined Trill paused as he tried to find the words. “You know, do what we did!”

Rosle giggled. “Hey, you were the one looking for a climbing buddy!”

“I know, but in all my lifetimes, I’ve never climbed an alien mountain nak-” Jen stopped speaking when the turbolift lift doors opened.

Standing in the cart’s centre with a PADD in her hands, Commander Tierra looked up at her two colleagues. “Lukiz, Rosle, welcome back!” She greeted.

 Glad he had stopped himself before Tierra had heard him finish that sentence, Jen turned to the Deltan chief engineer. “Thanks, Tierra. How’s things been here on the ship?”

“Oh, all quiet,” She replied as she made room for them to enter with her.

“That’s good,” Jen replied as he smirked at Rosle before calling for the decks their quarters were on. 

“How was the climbing?” Tierra asked them.

“It was good,” Jen answered.

“Yeah, really good.” Rosle enforced. 

“That’s…good,” Tierra said.

Jen noticed the awkwardness with Tierra and so quickly tried to change the subject. “I hear Craigen has completed some successful deals with the Entharans.”

“Yeah, he hasn’t stopped. It would seem several high-profile Entharan businesses were keen to be the first to open a rapport with us,” Tierra said. “I’m not entirely sure yet what the outcomes of their offers are, but Craigen tells me our cargo bays will be loaded with supplies to keep us going for the next five years.”

“Sounds like you’ll be busy over the coming days with the inventory, Commander,” Rosle said, winking at Jen.

“The joys of being a Chief Operations Officer,” Jen sighed. “What about yourself, Tierra? Did you get a chance to take a break?”

Tierra nodded back at him. “A couple of days visiting a lovely secluded beach on one of the tropical islands with Lillia and Jameel.”

“Ah, nice,” Rosle enunciated. “What did they think of the colony?”

“They liked it,” Tierra replied. “Jameel thought it was like a cross between Risa and Ferenginar.”

“The Entharans are as keen to make good business as the Ferengi,” Jen remarked. “However, unlike the Ferengi, they actually have a standard of behaviour they appear to follow for any business transaction.”

The turbolift eventually arrived at Tierra’s destination, “Well, this is me. I’ve got a subspace call with Abbej, so I’ll see you both at the senior staff briefing tomorrow morning.”

“Sure, give Abbej our regards,” Jen said as the turbolift doors closed after she stepped out.

The moment the lift resumed, Jen turned to Rosle and immediately pulled her into a close embrace. Within seconds, they were kissing one another. After a few moments, they pulled away, and both laughed. 

“That was the most awkward small talk I’ve ever had,” Jen admitted.

Rosle nodded in agreement. “I know, right?” She kept her hands around Jen’s neck. “Do you think she suspected anything between us?”

Jen shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know,” He then kissed her briefly. “And I don’t care.” He added before kissing her again.

The door chime went off.

It went off again.

It went off four times before Flemen eventually got out of bed and headed out of his room towards the main entrance. Under his breath, he grumbled and wondered who was calling in on him on the day he could sleep in. Without realising it, he answered the door, just wearing his boxers, and was met by the sudden embrace of his godson, S’Tem, jumping into his arms.

“Uncle Craigen!” The youngster squirmed as he tightly wrapped his tiny arms around Flemen’s neck. 

“S’Tem, this is a nice surprise!” He answered as he put his arms around S’Tem’s legs and saw his friend, Tomaz, standing in the doorway. 

Tomaz looked at his friend, “You weren’t still sleeping?” He asked.

Flemen nodded but ushered his friend in. “Yeah, I hoped to spend most of the day in bed.” As the doorway closed behind Tomaz, Flemen realised why they were there. “Oh man, I forgot. We were planning to go on that harbour tour today, weren’t we?”

Chuckling, Tomaz shook his head. “Well, someone,” He said, pointing at his son, who was still holding onto Flemen for dear life, “didn’t forget and has been up since oh-five hundred hours, bouncing around our quarters about it.”

“And visiting the Entharan zoo, and then you promised to book us tickets for their hovercar races!” S’Tem added, his tone laced with excitement.

“I did, didn’t I?” Flemen said, realising he couldn’t let S’Tem down, even if he wanted to go back to bed.

“Hey, we can come back later if you want, Craigen,” Tomaz offered his friend.

Flemen shook his head. “Nope. I made a promise to my godson, and I plan to carry it out.” He passed S’Tem back to his father. “Let me go and jump in the sonic shower, get changed, and then we can get going.”

“We’ll make you some breakfast while you get ready”, Tomaz offered.

Flemen appreciated it and quickly rushed back to the privacy of his room to get himself ready.

An hour later, after eating his breakfast, Flemen was walking down the corridor of the Odyssey with S’Tem on his shoulders as he and Tomaz made their way towards the transporter room. 

“So, I take it based on the briefing remarks I got from the captain this morning that yesterday’s meetings went well?” Tomaz questioned.

Flemen nodded with a sense of achievement. “That’s putting it mildly. We’re getting a hefty amount of supplies in exchange for our detailed scans of the Verkien System. The businesses we’ve shared that data with will work together to establish a new frontier outpost to expand the Entharan’s influence deeper in the region and begin mining the resources there.”

“Isn’t it a bit far away for them?” Tomaz asked as they turned down a corridor. “And what will the Benthans say?”

Flemen shrugged. “The Benthans aren’t that bothered, and the Entharans are thrilled with the prospect of developing the system further. They’ve already sent a scouting mission.”

“That soon?” Tomaz said, surprised to hear just how eager their current hosts were.

“One of the delegates, a wealthy guy called Korvain, wanted to ensure that no one else claimed it,” Flemen explained.

“You did explain that it’s in a really remote area with barely anyone else nearby,” Tomaz checked.

“The captain did, but Korvain insisted he didn’t want the Hirogen to turn it into another hunting ground,” Flemen shared. “That’s one thing I’ve heard the most from the Entharans these past few days. Hirogen this, Hirogen that.”

“Craigen, they do sit near the borders of the hunting territory,” Tomaz reminded his friend as they approached the doors to the transporter room.

“Dad, aren’t the Hirogen, the big scary guys you mentioned who like to hunt everyone?” S’Tem asked.

Tomaz looked up at his son and nodded. Before he could say anything more, he was stopped by the sight of the transporter room door opening in front of them. Jen and Rosle were walking out, almost hand-in-hand. Both Tomaz and Flemen stopped in their tracks; their eyes were wide open at the scene before them.

“I know they were going rock climbing with each other, but I didn’t think that would happen,” Flemen remarked in a low tone. 

“Me neither,” Tomaz whispered back.

“Good for them,” Flemen stated as they watched their colleagues head down a junction towards the nearest lift. 

“Are they in love, Uncle Craigen?” S’Tem asked as they approached the transporter room.

“Apparently so,” Flemen answered, pulling S’Tem off his shoulders.

“Damn, and I thought she had a thing for Gray,” Tomaz said as the doors to the transporter room opened for them.

“Obviously, the Entharans aren’t the only ones who are quick to move in on something good,” Flemen stated before they walked onto the transporter platform and asked the crewmember on duty to beam them down to the planet. 

“This is a really good exchange,” Banfield commented before sipping on her raktajino and continuing to read the contents of the deal that had been agreed upon with the Entharans.

“I know, right?” McCallister said, pleased with himself as he took a mouthful of scrambled egg.

“Craigen must be buzzing from this,” Duncan added.

McCallister could only nod as he swallowed his breakfast.

Sitting around in McCallister’s ready room, the three most senior officers on the Odyssey had met for breakfast so McCallister could update them both ahead of the senior staff briefing scheduled for the following day. It was an informal meeting as, technically, they all had the day off, but neither of them minded seeing the good news.

“I mean, this is a really good deal,” Banfield repeated as she placed her warm mug on the table they were sitting around. “The supplies we are getting are probably more than Starfleet gave the entire squadron before we left Starbase Thirty-Eight.”

“That’s only the first part,” McCallister said as he placed his fork down and picked up his glass of orange juice. “Once they have completed their own surveys and if they like what they find on Verkian, we will get a very impressive finder’s package.”

“I’m surprised they’ve not explored it themselves?” Banfield enquired as she picked up a slice of toast.

“I asked the lead Magistrate about this, and she told me that their people rely heavily on the trade of others. They don’t normally go out of their way to explore like we do,” McCallister explained as he took a sip from his drink. “She’s confident that setting up an outpost on Verkian will encourage many Entharan businesses to expand their operations, create more trade and jobs, and further improve Gerina’s economy.”

“I bet! The first businesses to invest in such a venture would have a powerful influence on Verkian’s development,” Duncan noted.  

“One of the more high-profile businessmen we met, a gentleman called Korvain, has already sent out a scouting mission. From what I’m told, he is very rich and very influential among many on Gerina; no one can rarely say no to him.” McCallister said as he put his glass down and tucked back into his breakfast. “I did invite him for a tour of the ship, but he wanted to see how lush the moon that Karyn and the cadets studied was.”

“Talking of cadets,” Duncan said after swallowing several mushrooms, “Tobias and I still can’t get anything out of Jordan about what’s happened between him and Alfie.”

McCallister rolled his eyes. Since the cadet training excursion last month, both families noticed a change in their sons’ behaviour towards one another. Neither of them socialised with one another anymore, and neither of them wanted to talk about what had happened. 

“Well, my two are keeping quiet about it,” Banfield added, mentioning Athena and Brook. 

McCallister sighed before speaking up. “Karyn and I have stopped pushing the issue with Alfie. He seems to be just focussing on his work and studies for now.”

“Same with Jordan,” Duncan shared. “Teenage dramas, hey?”

McCallister smirked. “Let’s hope it’s only that and not another Borg body-snatching plan.”

“Fingers crossed,” Banfield said, smirking. “Hopefully, whatever it is will blow over.”

“It’s been almost a month,” Duncan commented. “The counsellor in me wants to sit them both down and have a session with them, while the father in me thinks giving them their space is best for now.”

“Agreed,” McCallister said with an affirmative nod. “If not, let’s stick them both on duty in Cetacean Ops, scrubbing the air filtering system with their toothbrushes.”

“I’m sure Commander Quendez would appreciate that!” Duncan chuckled, mentioning the head of their cetacean operations before discussing a different subject. “Any news from Bexa?” 

McCallister nodded. “Yep, she sent me a message last night to say we will see them in four days.”

“That’s great news,” Banfield said. “You must be pleased to hear the Constitution is safe.”

“Safe but lost,” McCallister stated. He was happy that his brother’s ship hadn’t been destroyed; however, having him three years away wasn’t what he had planned. “If anything from their datastream is to go by, hopefully, it won’t be the whole three years, and they’ll be able to find an underspace corridor to get them back sooner.”

 “Any word from the Turei about that?” Duncan asked as he cut a piece of bacon in half.

“Not yet,” McCallister shook his head. “I’m doubtful they will know about any underspace corridors that far out. Their maps aren’t the most useful or reliable.”

“What is it that Mettex tells his aide?” Banfield asked aloud, mentioning Slyvex’s husband, who worked in the science department as a civilian specialist. “Ah, yes!” She clicked her fingers as she did an impression of the Denobulan man. “Optmisim!”

McCallister and Duncan both burst out laughing at Banfield.

“That was an awful impression, Corella,” Duncan retorted between his chuckles.

“It was a good try,” McCallister assured her. “I appreciate your positive outlook on it, and it’s nice to see you’re optimistic.”

Banfield joined her colleagues with their chuckling. “I only become an optimist after meeting you two!”

“Hey, it’s been over a year since you joined us, Corella. You’ve got to give us some credit for how we’ve influenced you!” Duncan jokingly said. 

“With the amount of trouble we’ve gotten into in the past year, optimism is the only course of action now!” Banfield smirked. What’s that famous saying: If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em?”

“Here’s to our second officer,” Duncan said, raising his mug of tea. “The newly reborn optimist!”

“Here, here!” McCallister said, lifting his glass.

Banfield sighed and joined in.