They sat in the ready room on the couch, sipping at steaming cups of tea.

“You crossed a line, Okada,”  Jordan spoke gently to her friend and interim CO.  The Delta Quadrant had pushed and pulled on each member of the crew.  The senior staff had had an especially rough go of it.

“I know.”  Katsumi had felt the guilt roiling in her stomach.  She’d retired to the ready room in hope that it would settle the tumultuous feelings she had been wrestling with.  “I can’t take it back.”

Reid understood.  “I think if we ever wanted a challenge in our life, we could sign up for regular duty out here.”

Okada groaned, “I think this place would change us, Jord.  We’ve already crossed a few lines.  I wouldn’t want to be assigned out here long term.  I’d quit.”  She took a sip of her tea, and her eyes closed as the warmth spread.  “I’m ready to go home.  Be back in a place where I knew my enemy.  Where the rules mostly make sense.”  She turned to her friend, “If I had pulled that on someone back home…they’d have had me fired within the hour.  Here…it’s just the price of getting something done.”  She sheepishly admitted, “It did feel good to get his attention.”

A roll of the eyes from Jordan, “That’s the adrenaline talking…and the feeling of getting results.  There’s a reason pirates have the reputation they have, and there’s a reason we have the reputation we have – we each do things differently to get what we want.”  The doctor pushed herself back into the corner of the couch, “It is weird being in here without Ambrose.”

Katsumi did the same on her end, “It is a comfortable couch.”  She sipped at her tea, “I wonder if I get something like this in my quarters.”  

Reid made a point, “You are Chief Engineer.  Well within your purview.”  They talked well into the night.