Having awoken on the next day,  Sh’ill looked once more out at the stars, looking at one particularly small one: the star of his home system, Cait.

“Small, ain’t it. So far, yet so close.” Sh’ill thought, and walked to the replicator.

There, he  got himself some coffee, and sat down in one of the chairs of his temporary quarters, and looked upon them.

They weren’t much, certainly nothing fancy, but they were bigger than what he had on the Liris. Some chairs, a bed, a replicator slot, a plant in the corner and a small working area. Truly, not much, but it’s nice.

After quickly downing his coffee, he placed the empty cup on the table, and walked out of his quarters, hoping to have a look at how his ship was doing. He knew that there was a risk that he wouldn’t be allowed on his ship, but he would take that anyways.

He walked through the vast corridors of the station without seeing anyone, and into the turbolift, where he saw a familiar face.

The Bolian Ensign from before, Bok Xasin, was in the turbolift, making his way up the decks, supposedly to his next assignment. As he saw the Lieutenant Commander coming this way, the Ensign almost jumped in place, and immediately stood straight, right as Sh’ill entered into the turbolift, and entered the command for the Promenade.

Now in the turbolift, and making their way up to the Promenade, the Ensign slowly struck up conversation.

“How… are you liking your quarters, sir?” Xasin slowly started, and looked over at Sh’ill with a smile on his face.

“They’re alright.” Sh’ill quickly responded, clearly not enjoying Bok’s over-enthusiasm.

“Ah, that’s good, that’s good… What… uhm, are you planning to do today? As far as I’m aware, you’re here for a few days, sir.” The Bolian continued, but now with a little less enthusiasm, and in a more serious tone.

“I’m going to go see my ship, Ensign.” Sh’ill responded, now with a little bit of curiosity, since the Ensign had changed his tone, which had raised Sh’ill’s interest in the conversation just a slight bit.

“Ah, the.. USS Liris, if I’m not mistaken?” Bok quickly responded, clearly enjoying this conversation that he was having with someone who had two of those golden pips and one black pip.

“The same one, Ensign, the same one. Raven-class, she’s a good ship.” Sh’ill slowly turned to face the Ensign, and started to take more of an interest in what the Ensign was saying.“A bit over enthusiastic, this Ensign, “Sh’ill though to himself, ” but I get the feeling he’ll be a great officer one day.”“Yes, of course she is.” Bok quickly stated, right as the turbolift finally reached the Promenade, and Sh’ill stepped out.“Uh.. have a great day, Commander!” The Bolian quickly yelled out as the doors closed, and Sh’ill turned to look at the turbolift.

“Well, man has some manners, I can respect that.” Sh’ill thought to himself, and spun back around, his tail now calm, and he walked off, in the direction of the airlock.

Now at the airlock, Sh’ill walked to the LCARS console in the wall next to it, and entered the command to open up the airlock.“Access has been restricted due to dangerous materials present in the cargo bay,” the computer stated, “If you wish to enter, please call a security officer.”“Oh for fuck’s… I put them there, they aren’t dangerous!” Sh’ill thought to himself, and reluctantly tapped his combadge to call security, just so he could get into his ship.

“This is Lieutenant Commander Sh’ill to security. Come in.” Sh’ill quickly stated, and once more started talking in what would be considered a normal tone.

“This is Security,” came in the voice of Lieutenant Junior Grade Delvok, “how can I help you?”

Sh’ill immediately recognised the voice, but still continued in his “normal” tone. “I need someone down by the airlock, I want to get into my ship, see how she’s doing.” Sh’ill knew about the stupidity of his request, but he was still going to make it.

“There seems to be no one available at the moment, sir.” Sh’ill could hear the passive-aggressivness and discontent in Delvok’s voice, but the Caitian chose to ignore this.

“Understood. Sh’ill out.” Sh’ill closed the comms channel, and discontently, with his tail aggressively waving, walked away from the airlock.

Now on the Promenade, Sh’ill slowly walked through it, and looked at the various facilities of the Promenade. Shops, cafes, restaurants, this was a true orbital base, the gateway of the people of Aldebaron III to the galaxy.

Sh’ill noticed the sickbay, his home for a while, and looked at its doors for a while, and thought about how small his sickbay really was, but it was what was to be expected for a ship the size of the Liris.

After a while of looking at them, Sh’ill once more started to walk around the Promenade, and walked for hours, with nothing to do, immersed in his thoughts. 

Now in the evening, he heard a voice call out to him.“Ay, Commander! Commander!” Sh’ill looked up from the floor he had been staring at, and noticed the Lieutenant from yesterday, Erti Jatia, calling out to him from the second floor of some cafe.

Sh’ill looked up at her, and mildly smiled. ”Lieutenant, you could have just used the comms system, it’s perfectly good.” Sh’ill shouted back, and quickly used some stairs to get up to her level.

“True, I could have used it, but that’s not a lot of fun, now is it?” Jatia spoke to him with such lightness, such heart, that he was unable to resist sitting down at her table, where she had some Klingon coffee and some PADDs laid out.

“Yes, sometimes it isn’t.” Sh’ill responded, and locked his eyes with hers. “As I recall, Lieutenant, you bartend down at the bar, so what are you doing here?”

“Well, I do like to sometimes sit down with a coffee, and have a read. Bartending isn’t all I do in my spare time, you know.” Jatia laughed a bit, and looked at him. “So, what are you doing on the station?”

“Oh, uh… I’m here for some repairs and I’m waiting on my new crew.” Sh’ill stuttered a bit as he began speaking, which was very unlike him.

“Well, I was told a few days ago that I would be transferred, but they didn’t tell me exactly where I’d be going. Might even get onto your ship, big guy.” Jatia winked at him, and picked up one of the PADDs, and slowly took a sip of her coffee.

If Sh’ill didn’t have a very lush fur, Jatia could have seen him get flushed quite quickly as Jatia finished speaking about her transfer.“That’s… very nice, I hope you get a good posting, Lieutenant. I… uhh, I, however, have some matter to attend to.”Sh’ill quickly stood up after finishing, and quickly walked back down onto the Promenade, and into a turbolift.

Now back at his quarters, Sh’ill sat down in his bed, and started speaking to himself.“She’s nice, she’s nice… uhh..”Sh’ill laid down in his bed, and, while thinking about Jatia, slowly drifted off to sleep.