Juliet sat across from Cardamon, her hands holding the PADD in which she was taking her notes.  She'd offered him a drink, and he'd tried at least ten of the options eagerly and found one that fit his palette.  A gin and tonic.  Woodward was amused, and as she explained the drink to him, his eyes grew wide, and he chuckled, the sound coming across more as a cough and wheeze than anything.  “It tastes just like our morning breakfast drink at home.”

She started with her first question, “We've done a little research on our end.  What we thought was originally a first-contact situation…is actually more like a second or third.  Our computer identified you as Voth.”

He nodded, “Yes, that is what I am.  Well…was.  I know about our the space-traveling Voth brethren and their…complicated history.  When I came to the outpost, I had some catching up to do.  My descendants left them a long time ago…settled on a planet near the Devore.  We were a warrior culture when we began to grow our culture and world.  We made advances our compatriots were slower to make. We sailed the stars, fought wars with those that opposed us…we were battle-tested because we wanted to be.”  He gestured to her, “But I chose differently.  I left them 75 years ago.  Found my way to the outpost.”

Woodward tapped in notes, “You expressed to Captain Harris your interest in joining the Federation and traveling to the Alpha Quadrant.  Why?”

He explained what he had shared with the captain.  “I do not feel like I belong here anymore, Lieutenant.”  He let out a labored sigh, “I have been thinking a lot about it since your captain came to my store.  I started to wonder what home meant to me.  It made me angry to think that I didn't have a place to call home.”

Juliet ventured, “The station is not your home?”

A grumble that sounded more like a growl escaped his lips, “That is what made me angry.  I thought of it as my home for so long…but I realized I had no friends here, no family…nobody that I had made connections with…or knew really at all.  You never realize how alone you can be until suddenly the sun shines into your little world after decades in the darkness.”

She looked at the Voth with new eyes.  There was an unusual depth to his words and the way he held himself.  He was old, this was true.  Yet there was an argument for softer hearts, even among the warriors.  What would have been if he turned his heart and soul over to the violence bathed in blood that marked his people?  Would he even have ended up at the outpost?  Or would they have eventually run into him out in the black, weapons hot and ready to fire?  “I believe you, Cardamon.  I'll file my report.  I hope you find what you're looking for - be it with us or wherever it leads you in the end.”

They exchanged bows and she left.  He took a deep breath and let it rattle around his chest before exhaling.  There was a part of him that wondered if this was the right thing to do.  Why leave a perfectly good job on a busy outpost in the Delta Quadrant?  His safety was mostly assured - no one dared spoil the peace that existed in and around it.  Perhaps that was the true struggle - that it was far too safe for him.  That he needed some adventure in his life…some excitement.  He sipped at the gin and tonic, a contented smile filling his face.  He may have just found a home.