Mizu flopped her back on her bed, wearing mostly her top and starfleet issued undies. “Ugh, feels like we have been at warp foooooor-eveeeeeeerrrr.” She groaned.

Ruby finishing up his reports on his duties he did today, just brief really, following the ‘Keep It Simple Stupid’ method before setting the padd down and leaning back in his seat. “We have been at Warp Five for only a few days, Mizu.”

Eli came out of their shared bathroom brushing her teeth. “Yeah but, we won’t arrive at Devron for at least a week.” She said, which made Mizu groan even more, after taking the toothbrush out only to stuff it back in and returning to the bathroom.

K’Roll laid there in his bunk, tucked neatly under the covers as he stared up at the ceiling. “So we pick up some extra, tedious duties. Make the time go quicker.”

Mizu sat up on her bunk. “You don’t get it. You heard the Captain. We are all due for shore leave. Hell, I bet the entire fleet is going to kick back and drink martinis long before we get to Devron to enjoy our own.”

K’Roll grunted, “Price we paid for defending ourselves against a superior opponent.”

Ruby chuckled, “I don’t know about superior, but definitely had us out matched, that’s for sure.”

“Oh come on! This old girl can take on a hundred Vorcha Attack Cruisers and still come out without a scratch!” Mizu folded her arms across her chest.

Eli came out of the bathroom and sat down on her bunk beneath K’Roll. “You don’t know your classes all that well, do you, Mizu?”

“Pfff. Please. It’s not about the ship, it’s the crew. Captain Carter will out match a hundred Klingon Captains without a blink of an eye!”

Ruby tilted his head, “You got a thing for the Captain?”

Mizu gasped, “What?! No! Ew! Man old enough to be my grandpa. Just stating the facts, bro. He’s got a ton of experience under his belt. He was on this ship during the Dominion War. It was no surprise that we kicked that Klingon Raider’s butt.”

“He’s going to retire.” Said K’Roll.

Mizu gasped again, grabbed her pillow and tossed it up at K’Roll’s face. “You take that back!!”

K’Roll had blocked himself perfectly before grabbing the pillow and handed it to Eli who returned it to Mizu as long as she promised not to throw it again. “It’s true. I overheard the Chief and Doctor Pearce at the mess hall. Vakai got a battlefield promotion, then his pals got their promotions too. Soon as they leave this ship, Captain Carter plans to retire.”

Mizu placed her pillow back on her bunk and glared at him. “I don’t believe you! He is a career man, he loves this ship, he won’t give up until they transport him to an olds people’s home. Even then he’d find a way back to the Centaur.”

Ruby sighed, turning his seat around to face them. “Face it, Mizu. He’s right. Captain Carter has been in Starfleet and in Command for a long time. Heck, a lot of people are still surprised this ship still flies. And we learned a lot on carrying out manual diagnostics and doing adjustments and submitting things for maintenance to look into. We all have done our bit to keep this ship in tip top shape for the Captain but how long do you think that will last? And what about the torpedo pod? That thing got a hole the size of a runabout. Only one tube works. If Devron replaces the pod, we will be lucky, or we will be looking for a new assignment after shore leave.”

Mizu groaned and plopped back down on her bunk. “And here I was enjoying the dirty work that this ship required.”

“At least we were part of history!” Said Eli.

Ruby chuckled, “That is true. We got to board a Tkon Space Station in orbit of a steampunk civilization.”

“If only we could have gathered more data on their weapon technology. They were the most powerful people six hundred thousand years ago.” Said K’Roll.

“You know Starfleet isn’t about better weapons.” Said Eli.

“Yeah, but we could have used them against any foe that threatens the lives of millions. Like the Borg.”

Ruby shrugged, “I think Starfleet has that covered. But if we did get reassigned to a new vessel, I hope we all get the same one.”

“So what? You can try pranking K’Roll again?” Mizu asked with a grin.

Ruby chuckled, “Nah. I just don’t want to turn into Barclay and land an assignment with a Holodeck and create Holodeck friends that look like you guys.”

“Hey! He got over that and became a valuable asset to Starfleet. Even made it possible to communicate with Voyager when they were still in the Delta Quadrant.” Said Eli.

Ruby grinned and squinted at her. “You sure he got over that holodeck obsession of his?”

“Who cares. No one is going to separate us. We’re too valuable! Couple of ensigns who are willing to keep doing the back breaking boring work on a starship and two other ensigns who look to do big assignments that one day will get them a promotion to Junior Lieutenants! And then they’ll leave us and we will have to find new ensign friends.” Mizu pouted.

“Aawww. I promise we will stay in touch!” Said Eli.

K’Roll grumbled, “Just because I want a promotion, doesn’t mean I don’t want to spend time with you guys. I want a Career in Starfleet, not treat it like it’s just another job.”

Mizu laughed, “Awww, kitty cat loves us after all. Don’t worry about it, K’Roll. You do you, while me and Ruby will do whatever we want.”

Ruby’s padd pinged, notifying something new came up and he went to check. He then lit up, “Ohhhh yesss!! Mizu! The Chief of Security wants to do some simulated combat on the ship! Where a single deck is designated the hot zone, and two teams duke it out with phaser weapons at one one thousandth power.”

Mizu grabbed the padd. “Aawww yeaahhh!! It’ll sting a little but who cares!! The four of us will crush tbe opposition!”

“When is this supposed to be?” K’Roll asked.

Mizu skimmed over the details, “Couple of days. They want to use tomorrow to brief and prep.”

“Ooooooo, I’m so excited!! I don’t know if I will get to sleep now.” Said Eli.

“You and me both, sister. Boy. First some crazy stuff goes on in the galaxy, then we find some abandoned Tkon space station and then we had to go and repair some beacon. Now we get to have laser tag on an entire deck!! Best ship ever!!!!” Mizu flopped her back back onto her bunk, cheering.

Meanwhile, some distance away behind the Centaur was another vessel, one that could not be seen, or found by sensors. It was a restored Romulan Bird of Prey, upgraded with the latest technology in every aspect, cloaked and stalking its prey. On the bridge of the cloaked vessel one man stood before the view screen as he stared at the rear of the Centaur Class vessel. He stood there, arms folded across his chest, as he waited for the computers to get a complete and full detailed scan of the vessel, choosing the slowest option to avoid detection, low intensity scan that scans a small piece of the ship one bit at a time, in a sense scanning an entire warp nacelle would take several hours. It was the best method to not alert his prey, even with the best cloaking technology, he will not risk giving himself away. Besides, he has plenty of time, the ship won’t make it back to their allies for another week. So the man was patient, and he chose the best course of action to ensure his mission succeeds. While he waited, he thought back of what brought him to this moment.

“We want to hire you for a job, a very specific job, and we are willing to pay.”

Man shook his head, “I work for someone already. It wouldn’t be polite to take a job from the Tal’Shiar behind my employer’s back.”

Officer chuckled, “I figured you would say that. I am not going to pay in credits or latinum if that’s what you think. I would rather pay with information.”

Man shook his head again, “No amount of information you have that my employer won’t be able to get themself would make me take this job.”

The Officer smirked, “Oh really? What if it is about your parents, and the one who made it all happen…?”

Now he was intrigued. “What’s the job?”

“I need you to capture someone and bring them to these coordinates. That is all that I require and you will receive all the details you need to find the one responsible for your parents death.”

“Who is the target?”

Officer smiled. “Commander Vakai.”

The AI appeared beside the man. “When do you want to begin the attack, Ajis?”

Ajis continued to stare at the back of the Centaur. “As soon as we have all the data we need to ensure that this assault goes without a hitch.”

She smiled, “Two days then?”

Ajis nodded his head. “Indeed.”