“I thought we agreed Central Complex would be off-limits.” Director Shenia said in a double-edged tone. One part annoyed, another sounding pleading. 

Commander Tierra, her voice tinged with urgency, addressed Director Shenia. “Director, we’re in a critical situation. We need immediate access to your main fusion reactor assembly.” Tierra glanced at Gray, silently urging him to support her plea.

“Director, it’s crucial that we reconfigure the assembly,” Gray emphasised, his tone serious. “Without it, we risk not being able to restore Cloudbase to its full functionality. This could lead to severe complications.”

Appreciating the backup, Tierra turned back to Shenia. She knew the director wasn’t being difficult on purpose; however, she wasn’t making their repair effort any easier. It had been a few hours since the battle with the Hirogen, and even though the Entharans, with their unique expertise and advanced weapons, were able to come in and help in the final moment against the Hirogen, the Odyssey crew still needed to aid with cleaning up the mess the Hirogen had caused. Though Cloudbase had been saved, it was heavily damaged, and people were injured. Fleet Captain McCallister had agreed to help with repairs and beam their injured over to Odyssey’s more extensive medical facilities. Gray was leading the SCE unit, which was working extremely hard, but when he had hit a brick wall with the primary power source, he had called Tierra to lend him a hand. She was more than happy to beam over with other engineers and help him. 

Shenia gazed at both Starfleet engineers, squinting at them as if she were a Romulan agent, suspicious of their motives. “I’m sorry, we have classified research here. Consider your work here done.”

Gray sighed heavily, his tone filled with determination. “With all due respect, Director, we’ve come this far, and I don’t intend to leave what I and my team have started half-finished.”

Sensing Gray’s agitation, Tierra stepped in with a more calming and soothing tone. “Ma’am, if you check the plasma injectors, you’ll see they are repaired and ready to go. We are almost there.”

Director Shenia hesitated at first before turning to the nearest holographic control. She tapped a few buttons, and a new display showed exactly what Tierra said. “They are back online,” She said, sounding surprised. “And so quickly and efficiently.”

“You’re welcome,” Gray said, almost through gritted teeth.

“I’m sorry, Commander,” Shenia replied. “In the last few hours, your teams have turned our station upside down, and I’ve not seen any improvements until…” She paused. “Now.” She admitted. 

“Director, we understand that your work here is precious to you and your colleagues, and we didn’t mean to cause any chaos. But to get the work done, we’ve had to turn a few things upside down that weren’t already messy because of the Hirogen,” Tierra explained.

“Very well,” Shenia appeared more amiable and pressed a few more buttons on her display. “You have full access.”

“Thank you,” Gray said, his tone close to sarcasm.

Shenia thanked them again before leaving them to finish their work. 

After she was away from them both, Gray let out a huge sigh. “Thanks, Tierra,” he said in a low tone.

“What for?” Tierra asked back as she started to check over the assembly’s interface controls.

“For stepping in like that,” Gray admitted. “Perhaps I need to spend more time with Craigen or Captain Duncan to perfect the diplomatic vibe.”

“Not every away mission needs a diplomatic approach,” Tierra replied with a smirk. She knew Gray didn’t mean to almost lose his cool with the director, but they were meant to put Starfleet’s best foot forward with the Entharans – as per their captain’s order. “However, this one certainly needs it.”

Gray nodded in agreement. “Director Shenia is so precious over everything,” He shared. “Every time one of our engineers has tried to do something, either she or one of her colleagues has been there to either slow the process down or block us from trying to do our job.”

Tierra understood and empathised with Gray a lot. “From what I’ve gathered about the Entharans, though they love to trade with outsiders and make a big deal over every transaction, they are very possessive over what they create before sharing it with outsiders.”

“I get that,” Gray replied. “I do; I’m sure the same would be said if the Gorn tried to offer help to a Federation station like Deep Space Nineteen.”

“First off, I’m not sure if the Gorn know their way to the Alcott Sector, and secondly, I’m not sure the Gorn would help out,” Tierra replied. “Some people are happy to help others, while others…” She paused as she considered their current situation. “Well, it’s not in their nature to be there for others.”

Gray nodded solemnly. “Yeah, I suppose everyone is different regarding how they react to help.”

Tierra was about to say something when she noticed Jaceon’s arrival. The young Brunali man that Gray had saved from the Borg a couple of months ago was slowly returning to the life he knew before being assimilated. She smiled at him as he approached them. “Jaceon, I never knew you wanted to join Starfleet?”

Jaceon looked down at his outfit—a Starfleet excursion uniform minus the jacket. Dirt was smeared across his forehead, his hair was pushed up in different directions, and other grimy marks were smudged across his black undershirt. “I’m not officially with Starfleet, commander.”

“I gave him a provisional field appointment,” Gray commented. His focus was still on his work on the primary reactor. He picked up one tool and glided it across what they were working on. “Turns out that as S-C-E unit leader, I have the authority to appoint provisional members when needed.”

Impressed with Gray’s decision, Tierra showed her approval, nodding. “Nice,” She said. “So we get an extra pair of hands to get this work done.”

“No,” Gray replied with a grin, “I get an extra pair of hands as Jaceon is technically my engineer’s aide.”

“Provisional aide,” Jaceon reminded him. He turned to Tierra, “I wanted to be a bit more useful while on the Odyssey, ma’am, so if I can help out with what knowledge the Borg gave me, then I want to.”

Tierra liked Jaceon’s sentiments. “Well, I’m glad you’re here to keep Commander Gray in check.”

“Hey!” Gray replied in defence with a chuckle. “I’m keeping an eye on him!”

Jaceon laughed a bit before responding. “Yeah, yeah, we all know that the only one you’re keeping an eye on is Lieutenant Kel-”

“JACEON!” Gray almost shouted at the top of his voice before he realised where he was. “Not cool! Remember what I said about what happens on R&R stays on R&R!”

Tierra grinned even more. She knew Gray and Keli had been hanging out with each other a lot lately since they destroyed the Borg transwarp hub and saved Jaceon. She had wondered if something was happening there, and now she knew there might be. 

“Odyssey to Commander Tierra,” spoke Lieutenant Jonarom over her combadge.

Tierra tapped her combadge. “Go ahead, lieutenant.”

“Sorry for the interruption, ma’am, but Fleet Captain McCallister wanted an update from you and Commander Gray.”

“The work is proceeding ahead of schedule, and we’re close to bringing the final parts of the main fusion generator online,” Tierra reported.

“Tell the captain we should be done within the next two to three hours,” Gray added.

“Understood. We’re preparing another flight of shuttles with additional supplies to head towards Cloudbase,” Jonarom said. 

“That’s great to hear,” Tierra stated. “If we complete the work sooner, we’ll be in touch.”

“Acknowledge, ma’am, I’ll let the captain know. Doctor Slyvexs has her hands full with the injured, so I promise we won’t leave without you.”

Liking his sense of humour, Tierra nodded to herself. “Thanks for the update, lieutenant.”

 “If you need anything else, please let me know. Odyssey out.” Jonarom ended the call there.

“So, can we get this work done?” Gray asked his comrades. “I really want to be gone before Director Shenia tells us ‘no’ again!”

Agreeing with his suggestion, Tierra took a deep breath and returned her focus to the task at hand. Deep down, she was eager to know more about Gray and Keli; however, she knew she would have to get Jaceon on her own to get the details. She would certainly pull rank as the senior most engineer on Odyssey.