Having woken up on the last day of his time here, Sh’ill once more looked to the stars as he sat in bed, immobile, paralysed by the sudden beauty that had strucken him right as he woke up.

“I’m out here… on a piece of metal floating in nothing, and yet I’m alive.” Sh’ill thought, and slowly turned away, and got out of bed. This was his final day here, he’d get to meet his crew, he’d get to go aboard his ship finally, which by now had been rid of any Eka-Borg parts, at least Sh’ill hoped so.

And so Sh’ill quickly put on his uniform, packed up what little he had brought with him from the ship, and exited the quarters, while simultaneously logging that the quarters were now empty.

Sh’ill made his way through the station, onto the turbolift, which was, as always, full of people, to the promenade, right as he had done on the days prior. Now on the Promenade, he exited, together with about 10 people.

Here, on the Promenade, it seemed a busier day than usual, though Sh’ill noticed rather quickly that another Starfleet ship had docked, and many crew members were leaving to cafes, shops, etc. Sh’ill walked past many of them, and walked over to his ship’s airlock, Airlock 2, where significantly less people were, and Sh’ill didn’t feel like he was about  to be part of a stampede.

Sh’ill quickly input his access code to the ship, and entered into it, leaving the station behind for good.In the ship now, the Caitian took a bit of a breather, and leaned against the wall to take in his ship. The ship, even though cramped, now fully felt like home to him, now that he had had to leave it for a few days. After a few minutes of waiting, he entered into the turbolift, and shot up to the bridge.

Now on the bridge, he stepped out of the turbolift, and dropped his bag of clothes on the floor by the lift, and quickly sat down in his Captain’s chair. He was finally, truly, really back home, right where he belonged, on the bridge of the USS Liris.

“Right then, no point in wasting my time now that I’m back, I’ll call those crewmembers to the bridge.” With this, Sh’ill got up from the Captain’s chair, and walked over to the OPS console at the back of the bridge, with no chair by it. He pressed some subroutine activation commands into the LCARS console, and spoke up. “Computer, request station-wide channel access.”After a few seconds of waiting, the computer replied. “Access granted. Enter station-wide message into the OPS console for transmission.”Sh’ill didn’t hesitate, and quickly typed in: “New transfers to the USS Liris, please come to Airlock 2 on the Promenade, and come to the bridge of the ship.” He sent the message, and sat back down in his captain’s chair, waiting for the new transfers to enter.

After a few minutes, Sh’ill saw a notification that the airlock of the ship had been opened, and that 3 life signs had now boarded the ship, and were heading towards the turbolift. Sure enough, right after that, Sh’ill heard the slight woosh of the turbolift, and its doors opening to let the three onto the bridge.

Sh’ill turned to face them, and grabbed his PADD to see who the people were. But, as he looked up at all of them, he knew that the PADD was not necessary. There they all were, Lieutenant Erti Jatia, Lieuteant Junior Grade Delvok, and Ensign Bok Xasin, all lined up in front of the MSD. Sh’ill mildly smiled as he saw them all, and straightened his posture.“Welcome to the USS Liris. As you probably know, you have all been transferred here. Now, let’s see who you all shall be….” Sh’ill picked his PADD up, and looked down upon it.

Meanwhile, the transferees, all standing neatly in line, could almost hear each others thoughts, thought they didn’t know that all of them had met Sh’ill before.Jatia was fighting a hard battle to keep herself from blushing and laughing, and thought to herself. “Well, what are the odds that I’d end up on one ship with cat man? He is a bit cute… but he is my Captain now, I should respect him.”Meanwhile, the Bolian Ensign couldn’t seem to hold his excitement, and had a smile up to his ears. “Ooooh, this looks like a promising ship, I wonder what my quarters and assignment will be…”

Back to Sh’ill, at least for the moment. He read out from the PADD, and looked at each of his new crew members as they were called out.“Lieutenant Erti Jatia… XO and science officer. In my office after this.”“Next we have Lieutenant Junior Grade Delvok, Chief Security Officer. Go check our weapons after this, make sure they’re up to scratch.”“And finally.. Ensign Bok Xasin, Chief Engineer and when possible, Chief Helmsman. Go check on the warp core right after. Right, everyone got that?”Sh’ill looked over the three of them, and nodded after a few seconds.“Great. Now, in my office. The rest of you, you’ve got your jobs, now make sure not to disappoint me or the guy who made this list.”Sh’ill nodded at them all, and walked into the hallway at the back of the bridge, and into the briefing room.

Jatia watched the two junior officers leave, and she took a quick look around the bridge of the ship. True, it wasn’t big, but it was cosy and warm, just as the Captain liked it, and just as most people who had served on a Raven liked it. After a look around, she followed the Captain into the hallway, and into the briefing room, where Sh’ill was sitting with his feet on the desk, but he quickly put them down right as the Lieutenant entered.

“Now, Lieutenant… you’re my new XO, and also my Chief Science Officer. I had not… expected that your prediction for your transfer would be quite so accurate.” Sh’ill was trying his best to keep his composure right now, but he felt like he was about to both laugh, cry, and smash his table in anger.

“Captain,” Erti began, “I can tell very well that you like me, but I do think that you should wait at least until we are out of dock before you drop on one knee and offer your eternal love to me.” She mildly smiled, and turned in the chair in which she had sat down, half making fun of the cat man, and half serious.

“I, uhm.. look, I called you in here to discuss some other things, not the fact that I do like you. I called you here to talk about our crew, and the fact that our Chief Engineer is also our helmsman, the fact that I am not only the Captain, but also, as is stated in that manifest, the Chief Medical Officer, and Delvok is without a security team.””I was thinking about that, and wanted to hear your thoughts as the XO.” Sh’ill leaned back in his chair as he finished, and looked his XO in the eyes.

“As you say. As for the crew issue, Starfleet is already stretched thin, I don’t think that they’d be able to give us much even if we asked and told them we need more crew immediately. Besides, the ship is small, I don’t think that we’d be able to fit many more people in here.” Jatia smiled as she began, but switched to a poker face as she continued to speak.

“Good point, Lieutenant.” Sh’ill spoke up. “And I guess I have to agree. Now, in your capacity as the Chief Science Officer, you have access to all the labs on Deck 3, just make sure to not blow anything up. Okay?” Sh’ill roughly smiled, and slumped forward in his chair.

“I’ll try not to.” Jatia winked. “But my work doesn’t usually blow up, so I don’t think that’s a risk, big man.” Jatia teased, and slowly stood up.

“I’ll take your word on that, Lieutenant, make sure that I don’t have to tell Starfleet why half of my aft is missing. Now, if there’s nothing else, you’re dismissed, Lieutenant.” Sh’ill stood up, and looked Jatia up and down, measuring her up. “And make sure that the crew come in for their physicals, I can’t do shit with the records that those two have.”

Erti smiled, and turned to exit. “I’ll make sure to remind them, Commander.” With that, she opened the door, and left, leaving Sh’ill alone in his office.

While this conversation was going on, Delvok and Bok had descended one deck, and were doing their duty, checking up on the weapons and the warp core, respectively.

Bok was extremely excited, he was practically in heaven with his overflow of ecstasy. After all, an Ensign had just been made Chief Engineer of a starship. True, it’s a small ship, with a small core, but it was still his warp core, and he would do his best to take care of it.

Bok glided across the Engineering room, checking up on everything with extreme care, noting down everything that was even the tiniest bit off.

Meanwhile, Delvok was a little less enthusiastic about his work, but he was still taking care to do it well.“It is quite strange,” Delvok thought to himself, “that I, a Lieutenant Junior Grade, would be made Chief Security Officer of a starship, and it is even stranger that an Ensign would be made Chief Engineer. Of course, seeing as he is the Chief Engineer, I have no doubts about his competency to do his job excellently, but it is still strange.”Delvok was quietly working, going through the small weapons bay, making sure that every phaser, every torpedo, every phaser battery was where it was supposed to be, perfectly positioned.

After completing their work, the two junior officers walked to the turbolift, one of them much more carefully than the other.Right as Xasin was about to crash into Delvok, the Vulcan quickly stopped him, and made him settle down for a moment.“Ensign, are you subject to any disorders that makes you lose control of your body? Because it would seem to me that you are acting quite strangely.” Delvok slowly stated, and turned to face the Ensign as they both entered into the turbolift.

“No, no, Lieutenant, I am just… ecstatic about getting this position, about serving under our Captain. He seems like a good Captain, I told myself that: “You know, he’d make a good Captain!”, and right after that, wham! I’m serving under him. Isn’t that crazy?” Bok asked the Vulcan as they were making their way down the hall, and nearing their quarters.“Yes, it is most definitely… crazy, Ensign. I will now meditate. Goodbye.” With that, Delvok entered into his quarters, leaving the Ensign alone in the hallway. Now alone, the Ensign looked around, and decided to get to the bridge, and do his duty as the helmsman of the ship.

Sh’ill, while this was going on, had walked to the bridge, and was at present waiting for his helmsman to arrive so that they could get underway. Right as the Bolian walked in, Sh’ill turned in his chair to face him. Sh’ill wasn’t sitting up in the best way, holding his head up with his arm, which itself was being held in place by his knee.

“Ah, Ensign, now it’s time for you to show me how good of a helmsman you are. Please, take your station.” Sh’ill nodded towards the Ensign, and then towards the helm.

The Ensign now looked as if he had just opened a chest of gold, and it was enlighting his face. He quickly jogged across the small bridge, and carefully sat down at the helm, as if he was sitting down on a freshly made bed.

The Ensign then turned to Sh’ill, and asked. “Captain, where to?” With that, he smiled, and inadvertently made Sh’ill smile.

“Well, Ensign, as per our orders, to the Barzan wormhole. Disengage from the station.”The Ensign had already turned to the helm, and talked into a fresh comms channel. “Aldebaron III station OPS, request permission to disengage from station.”OPS was quick to respond. “Confirmed. Permission granted. Good luck, Liris.”

The Ensign very gracefully took the ship out of the station, and turned it to face the direction they would need to go.“Captain, permission to engage?”Sh’ill properly sat up, and placed his arms on the armrests, making himself look very nice. “Confirmed. Let’s get it on.”