“They’re installing the new equipment for labs one through three over the next three days, but then we’ll have to carry on to DS17 for labs four through six…”

Bohkat found himself automatically nodding in acknowledgement of Anand’s words, even as the other man’s voice grew more distant with each step he took down the airlock corridor. Bohkat’s feet both remained firmly planted on the deck plating of the USS Babylon.

Anand stepped out of the corridor onto Caireann Station, disappeared around the corner, and for a moment Bohkat thought he was free and clear. Until Anand darted back into view and shouted down the corridor.

“Are you serious??”

Bohkat felt his shoulders rise as he breathed deeply in through his nose and sighed in a long exhale. “Worth a shot,” he said, loudly enough that it would carry down the corridor. He stepped over the threshold into the airlock tunnel, resigned to his fate. Anand gave a full-body eye roll and crossed his arms as he waited.

“What do you want me to do on the station?” Bohkat asked, perhaps more loudly than necessary now that he was halfway down the corridor.

“Whatever you want to do,” replied Anand, matching his volume.

“I want to stay on the ship.”

“You have been on that ship for fifteen months. You didn’t set foot once on Starbase 38 in the nearly two weeks we were there!”

“I was overseeing the astrometrics lab reconfiguration.” Bohkat leveled off his voice as he caught up to Anand and stepped onto the station.

“I know! I was there! We were supposed to do it in shifts!” Anand threw his hands up in frustration as he zipped around to stand between Bohkat and the airlock, as if Bohkat might still try to make a run for it. To be fair, he was seriously considering it.

“Zamora says you were looming,” added Anand.

The statement hit Bohkat like a static shock: not painful so much as startling and annoying. He wanted Zamora’s constant approval, and though he knew there were times he’d end up stepping on her toes as her superior officer, he could admit that hovering in her workspace when he should have been off duty should not have been one of those times.

His response came out as something between a growl and a grunt, and Anand took that as his cue to start leading him out of the docking ring and onto the station proper.

“Good. Thank you,” said Anand, “Just do a couple of laps around the promenade for all I care.”

“This seems to be more for your benefit than mine.”

“It can be both those things!”

They were both stopped in their tracks by a shriek and a sudden flurry of movement. Bohkat had no time to react before a woman pounced Anand and delivered a crushing hug.

“Bhai-sunshine!” she called him.

Anand’s laughter sounded nervous, as if in shock. “Didi?”

Bohkat did not have to engage his detective brain to figure out that Anand was as surprised by this meeting as he was. Another woman walked up to them, smiling widely, and offered a small wave to Bohkat. He nodded to her, and they both watched Anand lift the slightly-shorter woman off her feet in a hug.

Once her feet hit the ground, she pulled back and squished Anand’s face in her hands. “I’m so glad that you’re here and you’re safe!”

“I think that’s my line,” he said, gently removing her hands. He held an arm out towards the other woman. “Esen!”

Another hug, though not quite as intense. Bohkat noticed the woman who had just jumped Anand now regarding him with a broad grin and shining eyes and quickly averted his gaze. Once she turned her attention back to Anand, he’d have to make a quiet escape. Perhaps all the way back to the ship.

“What are you doing here?” asked Anand.

“I requested your itinerary and made a detour here to see you,” said the first woman, “After informing my superiors that I hadn’t hugged my little brother in over a year and that such a state of affairs was completely unacceptable.”

“I made a smaller detour,” the other said with a smile and a shrug. “I was training new investigators in the Lioh system.”

Bohkat realized with some irritation that they were all looking at him now. Curiosity had gotten the better of him, and he’d missed his chance to slip away.

“This is my executive officer, Nevahl Bohkat,” said Anand, and despite his irritation, Bohkat managed a polite and deferential nod to both.

Anand gestured to the shorter woman with long hair, the one who’d jumped him. “This is my sister, Sandhya Anand.”

She pressed her palms together and was still smiling as if she were holding back laughter. Bohkat took note of the pips on her uniform: Captain Anand. ‘Oh no, there’s two of them.’

Anand gestured to the taller woman with short-cropped hair, also wearing a uniform in command red. “And my friend, Esen Burakgazi.”

Burakgazi (Commander Burakgazi, he noted) leaned forward and shook his hand. “His ex-wife,” she clarified.

Anand furrowed his brow. “That, too,” he said with hesitation.

Burakgazi shot him a grin and elbowed him in the chest. “C’mon, I think that’s a higher tier than just ‘friend’. You’ve had plenty of friends, but you’ve only married one of them.”

The look on Anand’s face seemed to indicate he thought her statement less a joke and more a cosmic revelation. “That’s a very good point.”

“Anyway, we’re taking you to lunch,” she said as she took him by the elbow. “This station has the best Xindi-Aquatic sushi restaurant in the sector, or so I’ve been told.”

“Perhaps Bohkat would like to join us?” asked Sandhya.

Bohkat felt his entire body clench. The last thing he wanted–even less than hanging out on the station or ‘doing laps around the promenade’–was to sit through a meal with adoring siblings and ex-lovers who were still friendly with each other. The only element of relief was the fact that Anand’s face was journeying through a series of expressions which suggested that he didn’t want that, either.

Bohkat was about to politely decline when Anand’s combadge chirped. “Zamora to Anand.”

Anand tapped his badge. “Anand here. What is it, Lieutenant?”

“We need you back on the ship. Some of the lab equipment on order had to be swapped out, and you have to sign off on everything again.”

“Can’t I just do it from a PADD?”

“I want you to come and do a visual re-inspection before you sign off. Some of the equipment is non-standard. One of the computers is hot pink.”

“Hot pink? Like the color? What’s wrong with pink?”

“It’s non-standard.”

“Fine. I’m on my way.”

Anand deflated. “I’m sorry. Maybe we could–”

Sandhya reached out and actually patted his cheek. “Don’t worry, Bhai! We’ll collect you for dinner instead.”

Anand smiled. “You’d better!” And in an instant, he was gone.

As the two women watched him leave, Bohkat turned to sneak away in the opposite direction. He startled when he felt a presence close in on either side of him.

“Just the three of us then, I guess!” said Burakgazi.

“I hope you like sushi, Commander!” said Sandhya.