— Starbase 86, Promenade —

The Starfleet engineer watched as worker bees positioned the tactical pod atop the Luna-class starship. Lieutenant Commander James Young had never been comfortable with a staircase working on his ship, but after ramming head-first into the Devore Imperium’s battleship it was not as if his engineering team was capable to tackling this themselves. Still, it felt wrong somehow, as if the fate of the USS Luna was on him.

A soft hand touched his shoulder, causing him to turn from the statin’s large window to see Lieutenant Diya Acharya nod at him. She smiled warmly, “Hey there you are.”

The diplomatic officer was everything he was not, even though they were both human. Young knew that he tended to be a bit oblivious to human (and non-human) emotional needs focusing instead on easily identifiable things like what was wrong with a warp core. Nuclear physics was much easier than non-tangible things like emotions. There were only a few ways to split an atom, but a person seemed to be an infinite well of contradictory information. Through Acharya he was slowly learning, though she was not the first woman he’d dated who’d managed to offer a softer more empathetic side of him.

“Hey,” he said, not trying to be a man of few words, but not really having much else to say.

His coworkers tended to marvel at his success with women, particularly since he seemed to be oblivious to his natural charm. Ensign Constable had, perhaps correctly, noted that if his face was not so dam symmetrical he’d never get anyone’s attention. He was not sure if that were true or not, but Constable tended to have good judgment so he was willing to take her word for it.

“You know you’re not back on duty until Monday,” Acharya said, “We could go dancing or to dinner. Or do something else.”

She let her voice trail off suggestively. She bumped her body against his arm, and while he was not an overly large man he was solid and she was much smaller, bouncing off him. The crew had been given a few extra days off thanks to the Luna needing more work to restore it and the captain and first officer both being on leave one for having her leg eaten off and the other on her honeymoon.

“Your Bollywood dancing is hard, I can’t keep up. I end up sweating and wanting to pass out,” Young said, “what’s the other option.”

“Something else that would leave you sweating and about to pass out,” Acharya said coyly.

“What’s that?” Young asked, still distracted  watching the Luna.

“You know,” Acharya said.

“No, I don’t,” Young said still staring at the Luna.

“Forget it, you have dinner with your ship. I’ll see if Eshita Das wants to have dinner with me,” Acharya said frustrated.

“Then you can do the thing you’re suggesting with her,” Young said, trying to be helpful but still focused on the ship.

“Maybe we will,” Acharya said, annoyed both at Young and at herself for letting him upset her.

“Sounds good,” Young said flashing a thumbs up.

“Just to be clear, you want me to have a romantic dinner and then make love to my girlfriend Lieutenant Eshita Das,” Acharya said.

Young began to nod, “Yes, wait what?”

Acharya rolled her eyes and stomped off, leaving Young to rerun the conversation through his head to see where he’d gone wrong.

— Starbase 86, Quarks Bar —

The franchised bar was busy as usual as Lieutenant Diya Acharya related her story to the science officer and doctor. Lieutenant Eshita Das laughed, particularly at the end enjoying her friend putting the Chief Engineer in his place. Though they were friendly, it was true that Young was a bit awkward, and that had made for some awkward moments.

Doctor Thomas Elordi frowned. He was not as blinkered as the Chief Engineer, but he knew that he was the odd man out here. He too could say and do dumb things that the two women, who had bonded since meeting aboard the USS Luna, found insufferable. 

Trying to move the conversation forward, and away from the failings of the Lieutenant Commander, Doctor Elordi put out his hands and said, “And here you are.”

“Here I am,” Acharya said, triumphantly. She knew she’d overreacted, it was like expecting a Ferengi to ignore an opportunity for profit, Young’s first love would always be his ship. She was just having to fit into that equation, but he also had to make time for her. Now she was intruding on the date between her friend and the handsome Assistant Chief Medical Officer.

“I should just date a Vulcan,” Acharya mumbled, mostly to herself. At least then it could not possibly be that he did not care for her, just that he was Vulcan and cold and logical.

“The aging thing would get to you,” Das said, “Growing old and grey while they looked like they were in their thirties. It’s just a recipe for feeling bad about yourself.”

Resigned that his date with Das probably not getting off the ground thanks to the third nacelle they’d picked up in Acharya Elordi sighed and signaled the Daboo girl serving drinks for another round. He’d have to have a man-to-man talk with Young later about not ruining both of their love lives with his obsession with the Luna.

“Does Doctor T’Rala talk at all about him?” Das asked Elordi, knowing that the Chief Medical Officer had dated the Chief Engineer before she’d been deployed to a lost Roman colony for a while. 

Not wanting to gossip and tell tales outside of the medical clinic he shrugged, “A bit I guess. I don’t know she’s fairly talkative, usually with patients it’s mostly to reflect what they’re talking about. If they broke up she’ll bring it up, but not usually unprompted. We tend to, you know, talk about medical stuff. But Young isn’t here, so let’s drink, and have fun. We’re not on the ship, we should enjoy it while we can.”

They had all seen the weapons pod being lowered onto the Luna, the work had taken a few hours. It meant that whatever their next assignment was it was biased towards tactical, thus probably dangerous.

“You know I expected much more exploring on an explorer,” Das said, rubbing Elordi’s leg.

“I think with everything we got kind of stuck defending Romulan colonies,” Acharya said, “The Klingons keep advancing, and there’s not a lot to be done. We kind of can just stand around looking concerned.”

The other two nodded in agreement, knowing the diplomatic situation was tricky. They had treaties with both sides, and nobody wanted a new war with the Klingons. 

The trouble was, it felt inevitable eventually.