Yuulik had taken her breakfasts in the waystation’s customer canteen for days already. The food was bland, but the sunlit windows beat the crowds of the full-service restaurants. If Nova wasn’t going to be meeting her for coffee, the sensory experience of eating breakfast had lost some of its flavour anyway. The gruel the Rasokans served would be good enough.

When the doors opened for Kellin Rayco, Yuulik knew her precious solitude had shattered. As if he didn’t already repli-tailor his uniforms to cinch in the midsection and stretch across his broad shoulders, he was only wearing a green wrestling singlet, rolled down to the waist. Like a Sutherland-class struggling to change direction at warp speed, Kellin lumbered towards the buffet. His gait looked stiff. He piled a bowl of the blue soupy slop on his tray and a massive tower of green food cubes.

Kellin dropped himself in Yuulik’s booth without asking, but at least he yanked the straps of his singlet up over his shoulders.

“Well, aren’t you a sweaty mess?” Yuulik said instead of good morning.

Grinning at Yuulik, Kellin only replied, “Thank you,” at first, and he dabbed at his pecs with a napkin. As if they were already mid-conversation, he excitedly added, “I thought the athletic centre on Almagest was substantial, but the Rakosans sure know how to roll out a welcome mat! Or a wrestling mat in my case.”

Narrowing her eyes at Kellin over the lip of her mug, Yuulik asked, “You and Nune?” Then she took a sip of the cocoa-like drink.

Kellin raised his eyebrows at her, teasing, “You’d love that, wouldn’t you?”

Tilting her head to the left, Yuulik put down her mug and retorted, “If you shared two brain cells between you, they might start to multiply.”

“Not Nune,” Kellin said, while he chewed on a food cube. “One of the lower-ranking Kazon, called Rordih, has been asking me about wrestling while Vuldu and Elbon see who can scream the longest. Can you believe a warrior culture like the Kazon has no martial arts? I asked Rordih how he knew about wrestling, but he said I had used wrestling metaphors throughout our negotiations.”

With a self-deprecating head shake and a chuckle, Kellin said, “Yuulik, I don’t even remember mentioning wrestling. I would have loved to teach him anbo-jyutsu, but the rules to wrestling seemed an easier start.”

“Something was easier, sweaty,” she snarked.

“Look who’s talking,” Kellin turned it back on her with a wit she wouldn’t have expected. “Nune said you propositioned him! You always told me he looked like a rat. After it had been drowned.”

The thought of this story being garbled through gossip frequencies brought about a swell of nausea for Yuulik. Rather than be overwhelmed by it, she couldn’t let it stand. Indignant at being misquoted, Yuulik banged her fist on the table.

“I told him we should have a baby! Non-sexually!” she shouted.

Kellin shushed her a couple of times, flapping a hand at her. “Since when do you want a baby?” he asked.

Glaring at him, Yuulik said, “You wouldn’t understand.”

Staring right back at her, he put a hand on her forearm. Kellin said, “I was interviewing surrogate mothers on Starbase Bravo before we were assigned to a tour of the Delta Quadrant.”

“Great galaxies!” Yuulik exclaimed. How hadn’t she known that? When was the last meaningful conversation she had had with Kellin? But she demanded, “Are you going to do it?”

Shrugging helplessly, Kellin popped another couple of food cubes in his mouth. “I don’t know,” he said. “Are you?”

“What else is there to do?” she said wryly. “This planet has all the charm of an empty holodeck grid.”

Kellin didn’t appear to take her too literally. He went with it, saying, “The Kazon are getting restless too. I don’t know how much longer they’ll wait here if the Vaadwaur don’t materialise in the skies. That’s why I took a chance to ask Rordih to meet me for a wrestling session before negotiations. I got him into a choke-hold and wouldn’t release him until he answered a question. He submitted.”

“And what did he tell you?” Yuulik asked hungrily.

“He gave me the coordinates for where they planned to expand their defence net,” he said. “Now we have their flight path for when they were attacked through Underspace. Maybe they unwittingly saw something the Vaadwaur didn’t want them to see, or were headed somewhere the Vaadwaur didn’t want them to go.”

Yuulik folded her hands on the tabletop. She leaned in. She clucked her tongue.

“And what did you tell him when you submitted?” she asked.

“Our prefix codes,” Kellin said, shrugging it off.

The memory came back unbidden. Sliding a blade into the chest cavity of Kellin’s Changeling imposter when he revealed Constellation’s prefix codes to the time lost Jem’Hadar. She felt a sympathetic pang in her chest at the same time. Changeling-Kellin’s gurning face, spitting gelatinous fluid at her, still haunted a nightmare from time to time.

Even if the Changeling imposter was dead now, she said, “Don’t joke about that.”