Sh’ill stepped into his quarters after the excursion on the station, and slowly sighed. It had been a long day for him: dealing with a superior officer, having to do a minor dress-down of one of his officers, then walking around with him for an hour.

He slowly sat back in his arm-chair, and ordered a synthehol from the replicator. Of course, he could have over-ridden several restrictions and gotten real alcohol, but Sh’ill was sure that Delvok would get very logically mad at him for that.

And so he picked up the synthehol glass up, and stood in the middle of his living room, while looking out into space. The stars flowed by like grains of sand in a river, and there Sh’ill was: alone in his quarters, a bit drunk and watching them flow by.

After emptying the glass in about 10 seconds, he placed it back into the replicator, and walked out into the corridor, in the direction of the mess hall, hoping to get some dinner.

Meanwhile on the bridge, an argument was brewing between Lieutenant Erti Jatia and Lieutenant Junior Grade Delvok.

“Ma’am, there is more to kal-toh than symmetry. And I assure you: it is more than Vulcan chess.” Delvok calmly stated, all while his eyebrow was reaching up to his hairline.

Jatia shot back. “No, the game is all about symmetry, you just have to find it, it’s that simple. I don’t understand what you are talking about.”

Delvok’s eyebrow had now reached his hairline. “Ma’am… I suggest that you educate yourself about the meaning of kal-toh before you attempt to argue with someone about it.”

Jatia defeatedly fell back in the Captain’s chair. “It’s… fecking impossible to argue with a Vulcan!”

At this point, Sh’ill had overheard their arguing from all the way down the corridor, and burst onto the bridge.“WHAT…. is all the yelling about?”

The Bajoran Lieutenant quickly stood up, and stood at attention.“Sorry, sir… we got into a small argument.”

Sh’ill squinted at them both, and leaned against the MSD.“Make sure that this doesn’t happen again, because I want to dine in peace. Now, Lieutenant,” Sh’ill stepped forward, and looked at the helm, “how much longer until Droth 2V5?”

Delvok quickly pulled up the charted course, and looked at the ETA. “Approximately 2 hours, sir. We should be there by 2245 hours.”

Sh’ill thought for a moment. “Put us into a geosynchronous orbit 3000 kilometres above the equator of the planet when we reach it. And if you start to hear any voices, immediately up the orbit to 10000 kilometres, and inform me. Perform a full scan of the planet once we get there, Got it?”

Delvok calmy looked at Sh’ill while he was explaining, and nodded at the end. “Yes, sir, understood.”

Sh’ill nodded back, and looked over the two of them. “Good. I’ll be in the mess hall if you need me.”With that, he walked backwards towards the door, and back out into the corridor of the ship, all while doing his best to keep a look on them all the way through.

Sh’ill slowly walked through the slim corridor, looking down at the ground as he walked.“Those two do not get along. That reminds me, I should make sure that their medical files are up to date.” Sh’ill thought to himself, all while slowly walking.

What he hadn’t noticed or heard while walking were the quickly approaching steps of Ensign Bok Xasin, who, by chance, was reading from a PADD while walking, and too hadn’t noticed the other approaching.

They bumped into each other, and the Ensign’s PADD fell on the ground, while Sh’ill’s perfectly set beard had been messed the hell up.“Ensign!” Sh’ill said in a half-voice. “Please, watch where you’re going. Are you alright?”

The Ensign scrambled to quickly pick his PADD up, and stand back up straight.“Y-yes, sir. I’m alright. I’m sorry, I hope that nothing was hurt.”

Sh’ill simply grinned, and looked him over, all while subtly combing his beard with his claws.“I’m alright, should live. Make sure to watch where you’re going.” With that, he nodded at the Ensign, and walked into the mess hall, hoping to god that he wouldn’t follow him.

Sh’ill looked over his shoulder as he walked up to the replicator, and quickly input the command for a whole, unsliced and cooked Caitian rabbit, together with a bottle of synthale and a large meat cleaver.

The requested half an isoton of food appeared in the replicator slot, along with a cleaver the size of a human forearm. Sh’ill quickly picked this all up, and walked over to the nearest table, where he put it all down, and sat down himself.

Sh’ill licked his lips as he looked at the beautifully glazed and still steaming rabbit. He picked up the cleaver, and chopped off one of its legs, and took a massive bite right out of it, right as Xasin walked in.

The Ensign was, quite predictably, disturbed at what he saw. A massive cat, sitting at a table, chopping off the legs of something pig-sized, and casually chowing down on them without any cutlery to be seen.

Sh’ill looked over at the Ensign, and downed the bite that he had in his mouth. “Can I help, Ensign?” Sh’ill raised his eyebrow a bit, and then looked at the cleaver that the Ensign had been looking at.“Look, I’ve ripped legs off before, it’s much easier with this. You want some?”

Bok couldn’t even speak for a few moments, and simply did a half-nod to indicate that yes, he did want some.

Sh’ill nodded back, and quickly spoke. “Grab a plate, and if you must, a fork.” He took another big chomp out of the rabbit leg, and dropped the femur down on the plate on which the rabbit had come. Sh’ill took the cleaver, and took off the other leg, and used it to shave some meat off the femur onto Xasin’s plate, who, by now, had sat down, and was awaiting his part.

As his tablemate chowed down on the second leg, Bok calmly took a few bites of the rabbit leg, and appeared to enjoy it quite a lot, as he quickly took another bite, and soon finished what had been given to him.

Sh’ill too had finished his leg, and had now stood up and was looking menacingly at the cooked animal which was before him. He took note of the empty plate of the Ensign, and nodded. He then extended his claws, and simply took off some other parts of the rabbit for himself, and some others for the Ensign, leaving only scraps and a few bones of the large animal.

They now both engaged in an unannounced race in who could finish his parts of the rabbit first, and they were pretty evenly matched: even though Sh’ill had more experience, Bok was really hungry and he loved the taste of it.

In the end, they both finished at about the same time, with no clear winner between them, only two men with full guts and a raised cholesterol level. Sh’ill took a swig of his synthehol, and grinned a bit at the taste, and slid it over the table to the Ensign.

Sh’ill laid back in his chair, and looked over at Bok. “You know… when you’re not jumping around, you’re actually tolerable. And you actually like the taste of that rabbit.”

Bok practicallly inhaled the contents of the bottle, and burped a bit after finishing.“That was a rabbit? I thought that it was 2 pigs served side by side.”

Sh’ill nodded, and slowly stood up with the two plates and cleaver in hand.“A rabbit, a Caitian rabbit. I’ve hunted a few of those back on Cait, clever little animals. Sharp teeth.”He placed the bones back in, and slowly started walking out of the mess hall.“Right, I want to be there when we enter orbit. Ensign, come with me.”

Bok nodded, and followed along with his Captain, and walked onto the bridge of the USS Liris.

Jatia spun around in the Captain’s chair, and stood up as she saw the Captain enter.

Sh’ill nodded at her, and sat down in his chair.“Lieutenant, did you change the seat settings? Let me just..” He moved his hand across the bottom of the chair, and found the lever to raise the chair a bit higher.“That’s better. Now, Ensign, take the Ops station, but be ready to head to engineering. Lieutenant, take the Science station and keep an eye on the MSD. Delvok, how long until the planet?”

Erti and Xasin took their stations, and signed onto their consoles.Delvok quickly responded, he had been keeping an eye on the ETA for a while now, anticipating the Captain’s question.“5 minutes, sir.”

Sh’ill leaned forward in his chair, and held up his head with his arm.“Go to yellow alert, and keep your hand over the charge weapons command. I want to make sure that we don’t get any surprises. Sensors, is there anything in the Droth system that would demand my attention?”

Jatia piped up, and read out her sensor logs.“5 planets, third one has the blood dilithium, one asteroid belt around the 5th planet, nothing special… nope, nothing.”

Sh’ill thought for a moment. “Hmm… perhaps there’s nothing, or maybe something’s hiding…”“Lieutenant, is there anything in there that could disturb sensor readings?”

Jatia scanned again, this time looking for any anomalies.“Yes… there are some asteroids in that belt that could disturb readings, but we won’t be approaching that planet.”

Right with that, the Liris dropped out of warp in the system, and started approaching the planet.Delvok quickly entered into a geosynchronous orbit around the equator, as per the Captain’s orders, and quickly scanned his mind for any voices.There was naught but the empty silence of a disciplined Vulcan mind, only mildly disturbed by the flow of information from his sensory organs. 

Sh’ill quickly looked over at Delvok, and quietly pulled out a tricorder to scan him.The scans didn’t pick up anything strange, only the usual.“Right, people. Phase one is complete: we are in orbit. Ensign, get down into the storage bays and prep winter clothes for three people. Sizes for me, the Lieutenant and yourself. Delvok’s staying here.”

Xasin quickly stood up from his console, forgetting to sign off it, which Jatia quickly spotted.“Yes, sir. Where should I put them?”

The Captain pondered for a moment, still as the statue of the thinker, and looked over at him.“Bring it to the transporter room, and wait for us there. You can get ready, I just have to give some final orders.”Xasin nodded, and stepped into the turbolift, descending deeper into ship.

Sh’ill stood up, and sprinted over to the helm.“Right, Lieutenant. Seeing as you are the only telepathically sensitive person on the ship and you’re going to be alone, if you start to hear voices or feel weird in an unusual way, ascend to a higher orbit, 10000 kilometres away from the planet, where it should be totally safe. Got that?”

Delvok nodded as Sh’ill finished.“Understood, sir. I assume that the unusual effects are caused by the strange form of dilithium, sir?”

Sh’ill stood up, and looked down upon the Lieutenant.“Yes, they are. Now, we are going to be beaming a sample aboard. While we’re gone, set up the a level 10 security field in sickbay, centered around the sickbay lab table. If all goes well, we should be able to get it aboard without any risk to you.”

Delvok was silent for a moment, pondering why his Captain had decided on such a course of action, but he did not voice his doubts about Sh’ill’s plans, he kept them to himself, and answered simply.“Yes, sir. Understood.”

Sh’ill sprinted to the back of the bridge, to where Jatia was standing, and spoke once more.“Good. Now, Lieutenant, let’s get to the transporter room. And Delvok… good luck.”

With that, Sh’ill and Erti rushed into the turbolift, and descended straight to the transporter room.

There, Ensign Xasin was already waiting, with his coldproof jacket and trousers already on.

Sh’ill quickly nodded to the cold suit with Jatia’s name on it, and quickly put on his own. It was hot inside, yes, but that was the point of the jacket and trousers: to keep you warm in the coldest of colds.

With that, Sh’ill nudged the two of them onto the transporter pad, and got on himself.“Computer, three to beam down to the coordinates input into the tranporter memory by Lieutenant Jatia.”

The computer thought for a moment, and responded.“Confirmed. Energizing.” The three of them disappeared into the blue-ish light swirls, and appeared down on the planet, where the cold was already seeping into their bones. In the distance: a mass of red dilithium.