The passenger ship dropped out of warp as it reached the edge of the Nereus system and began its approach toward the third planet. It was immediately spotted by Starbase 415 when the relay satellite picked up the passenger ship’s transponder and transmitted it to the station, so Operations were aware of the approaching ship and relayed the information to Docking Operations so as to reserve a docking port for it.

On board the ship, in the passenger compartment were several officers and enlisted personnel that were obviously heading toward their new home. There were quite a lot of new faces, but there were also some familiar ones as well.

“So you used to serve on board the Aquarius?” Asked Theo Lane.

Utsall smiled. “A beautiful ship, she is. I was only there for a short time. But when I was there, my superior was quite a warrior. The last mission that I remember serving with him was on a planet where their equipment was sabotaged. The equipment was supposed to keep the area from having earthquakes since the area the city was in was plagued with them. Without the stabilizers, the city succumbed to earthquakes and buildings collapsed.”

Mazak hissed, “Sabateours. Disgraceful.”

Utsall growled, “They were, indeed. But Lieutenant Zane Bates and I were able to track them down and arrest them.”

“Where were you since then?” Elidia asked.

Utsall grunted, “Penal colony. Watching over those who’ve been court-martialed and imprisoned for their crimes.” She paused for a moment before she lifted her head as curiosity got the best of her. “What happened to all of you? Weren’t you all serving on board the Sovereign?”

Mizu slowly pushed herself out of her seat and then leaned her back against the side of Ruby’s while she looked directly at Utsall. “You really want to know what happened?”

Utsall nodded her head. “Of course! Every warrior has a tale!”

Mizu smirked and scoffed. “Yeah. Okay. Let’s start with the fact that we were hunted by a pack of Hirogen ships. Think it was like what, four?”

“Nah, eight,” said Ruby.

“Six,” K’Roll corrected. “Was six Hirogen vessels.”

Mizu shrugged a shoulder. “Whatever. Point is, we managed to shake most of them off and what does the Captain do to get rid of the rest? Flies us right in between the two binary stars, one of them being a neutron star feeding off of its companion.”

Ruby shook his head with a chuckle. They managed to coax one of the junior officers that were on the bridge at the time to spill the whole thing.

Mizu continued, “Then while we’re traveling at low warp, we get stopped by a Devore cruiser. You know their whole story, searching ships for telepaths, impounding them if they have any on board. All that nonsense. Well, our Captain decided to send off all the telepathic crew, just because he didn’t want to contend with any bull from the Devore, or whatever else was going on.”

“But that didn’t stop them,” Ruby interrupted.

Mizu slapped his shoulder with a smirk then resumed. “He’s right, it didn’t. They beamed on board because the Sovereign was in no condition to contend with that cruiser and you know what they did? They accused me, me, of being a telepath. But what they didn’t know was that, the second officer, Lieutenant Commander Ward I think it was, convinced me, Ruby, and K’Roll to jump into action when the signal came. Well, when our Captian gave the signal, we jumped on them turds and grabbed their weapons. Some crew was confused but others followed our leads and managed to wrangle the Devore’s weapons out of their hands. We took back the ship with hardly any trouble. Think the Bridge and Engineering were the first to be secured, right?”

K’Roll nodded his head. “They were.”

Mizu smiled, “Anyways. Captain must have said something because the Devore just took off and we went right back on course to our destination.”

Utsall smiled, “Sounds glorious! You all deserve a song!” She roared with laughter.

Ruby sighed, “You’d think so.”

Utsall’s smile faded. “What exactly could have happened to damper your spirits?”

Mizu patted Ruby’s arm to gesture for him to scoot over to the empty seat next to him so she could sit down in his seat and keep eye contact with Utsall. “From the same little birdie, we got the info from about the Hirogen, and Devore told us that somehow these…Orions…found a way to beam our Captain off the bridge. Apparently, after the Sovereign’s refit, some of the new systems conflicted and when the shield frequencies were rotated and rebalanced to strengthen a weakened side, it caused a bit of a gap in the shield bubble. A gap that somehow these Orions were able to find real quick and snatch our Captain.”

“P’tahk!” Utsall proclaimed. “Is he dead?”

Mizu shrugged her shoulders. “I have no idea.” She looked at Lane.

Lane blinked when he realized that everyone was now looking at him. “Oh. Right. I’m not allowed to discuss anything about a patient.”

“Come on Theo,” said Ruby. “We’re not asking for a lot, just want to know if the man is alive.”

Lane nodded his head, to which he understood the request. “He is alive, just…he will be spending some time in physical therapy. That’s all I’m willing to say.”

Mizu clapped her hands together. “So, the Sovereign returned to drydock at…wherever she is now…and is likely undergoing some maintenance and fixing what shouldn’t have happened.”

“I also heard that they were adding another upgrade to the Sovereign, something about doing the same to the rest of the fleet,” said Ruby with a shrug of his shoulders.

Utsall nodded her head. “Well, I am glad to have met you, all of you. I think our time on this station will be less boring than my time on the penal colony.”

Lane chuckled then a thought crossed his mind. “Wait, we know who signed our transfer orders. Do you know who signed yours?”

Utsall grunted. “Commander Lexie Ward.”

Mizu frowned. “Strange. She knows us, all of us, but how does she know you?”

Utsall grunted again, “Don’t know. I don’t know anything about her. Never seen her.”

“Perhaps someone who you know, recommended you to the Commander,” K’Roll suggested.

Utsall nodded her head slowly. “Perhaps.”

Mizu sighed heavily as the conversation came to an end only to spot something from the view port on Utsall’s side. “Wait a minute,” Mizu tried to lean in for a closer look and pointed. “Is that a Klingon K’t’inga class battlecruiser?”

Utsall looked and smiled. “Good eyes! Except it looks to be owned by a civilian freight. It has cargo containers attached to both port and starboard sides of the neck. I doubt its even combat worthy anymore.”

Mizu shrugged her shoulders. “Regardless, if that’s here, then that means there’s a Klingon restaurant!”

Utsall’s eyes began to gleam when the realization hit her. “I knew I’d like you!”

A few moments had passed, the passenger ship had docked with the station and the passengers were filing out, all carrying their belongings, which pertained to either being briefcases full of PADDs up to duffel bags from those who were in Starfleet, Officers or enlisted.

The first thing that the seven Ensigns went to, disregarding that they were told to drop their bags off at their quarters, which they have likely bunked together again, they headed straight for the Galleria. They trekked about halfway through the Galleria until they finally found the restaurant they were looking for. They quickly approached it and set their bags down by some tables, as one by one, headed directly to the counter.

“Plate of gagh, please!” said Lane.

Mizu and Utsall gave him a look before they looked at each other with a smirk on their faces. Mizu slammed her fist down on the counter. “I need gagh for me and my fellow warriors, now!”

The Klingon chef grunted and with his bare hand, he grabbed about two handfuls of gagh for each plate, setting them down one by one on the counter for Mizu and her friends. While her friends started to grab their plates, Mizu and Utsall looked at each other again with a different look before they returned their gaze to the chef.

“You call this gagh?!” Utsall shouted and shoved the plate away from her, which slid right off the counter with much speed and force that the plate clattered onto the floor as the barely alive worms went everywhere. She then slammed her fist on the counter. “That will never satisfy my appetite, I want fresh gagh, now!”

The chef growled at them for a moment before he began to chuckle with delight. He grabbed the pot half full of the barely alive gagh and tossed it behind him. They all listened to it as it clattered loudly onto the floor, as he grunted at the rest of Mizu’s friends to return their plates, which he grabbed and tossed behind him. “I appreciate a female who knows what she wants.”

Utsall grabbed him by the collar and yanked him down as she snarled. “You better not be making a pass at me, because I already have someone else in mind and it is certainly not you. Now get me and my friend’s food! I will not ask again.” She pulled out her D’k tahg from the rear waistband of her pants that was also concealed under her shirt and shoved the tip of the blade into the counter.

The chef recognized the house crest on her d’k tahg and quickly left after she had released his collar. Soon he returned with a pot full of very lively gagh and filled all their plates full of it.

Before Utsall took her plate, she grabbed her d’k tahg and sheathed it back in place, and tucked her shirt and uniform jacket over it, concealed once more. Then she took her plate and stared down at the chef before she went to the table her friends sat at and sat down to join them.

As they ate their food, Lane had a bit of a disgusted look on his face but he still made an attempt at least, Mizu stared at Utsall and the question burned enough that she needed to ask. “That d’k tahg.”

Utsall looked back at her, only to chew and swallow her food before she answered. At least she remembered her manners. “I do not wish to speak about it.”

“I understand but I thought Starfleet prohibits Klingons who serve in Starfleet from carrying those around,” Mizu pushed.

Utsall nodded her head. “They do. Which is why I conceal it.”

“Well, it sure got his attention,” said Mizu.

“As I said, I do not wish to speak about it,” Utsall pushed back.

Mizu raised her hands in an apologetic and defeat manner, which also indicated that she will drop the subject.

“So. Anyone knows who our new commanding officer is?” Ruby asked.

Mazak grunted as he stuffed claws full of gagh into his mouth, one by one. Someone was very ill-mannered and hungry.

“Take that as a no,” said Ruby with a chuckle, which turned into a laugh when he saw Lane’s face as Lane watched Mazak eat in shock and disgust.

K’Roll sighed. “Do any of you ever read your assignment reports?”

Mizu shrugged. “I only read the fine print. Reassigned to this place!” She said before shoving some worms into her mouth.

“I’m the same way honestly,” said Ruby.

K’Roll shook his head. “Our commanding officer is Captain Gerald Hunt. As part of the security division, I did some digging. He is a pretty well-seasoned captain. He has been in command of the starship Kyushu for about five or six years until now.”

Lane pushed his plate away, which Mazak took, and began scarfing down the worms. Lane had to look away or he’d never be able to get a word out. “What would a starship captain be doing commanding a station?”

Mizu shrugged her shoulders. “Maybe he had a change of heart.”

“Or maybe he just follows wherever Starfleet wants him,” said Ruby.

Mizu shook her head. “I don’t know about that. Starfleet needs starship captains. You know what they taught us in history lessons. Battle of Sol, the Borg Cube I mean, and then the Dominion War, the Prodigy virus, the Mars attack.” Mizu explained. “I can go on but the point is, why would they assign him here?”

“Maybe he knows his way around a diplomat table?” K’Roll asked. “We are in a system real close to the territory of the Talarian Republic.”

Mazak stopped stuffing his maw to add, “There’s also the Tholian Assembly several light years from us.” He returned to finish his and Lane’s plate by grabbing them one by one and licking them clean.

“Never knew you liked gagh, Mazak,” said Ruby.

Mazak set the plate down and picked at his teeth. “I didn’t know either. Stuff is amazing.” Mazak looked at Utsall. “I must have more of this.”

Utsall shook her head with a smile, “We really should report in. But next time, friend. Promise.”

Everyone finished their plates before they grabbed their bags and headed for the nearest turbolift. “So, I wonder when we will ever see a Tholian,” Mizu asked out loud.

“Probably never,” said Ruby. “They’re extremely isolationist. Hostile if you set a single toe in their space.”

“But there have been Tholian Ambassadors in Federation space before,” said Elidia, as they all stepped into the large turbolift.

“That is true, and with this station so close to the Tholian border, perhaps they’ll come here for negotiations. Whatever they negotiate about, that is,” said Mizu. “I mean, why go to Earth or Deep Space 9? So far away, and so crowded with traffic. Being extremely isolationist that they are, you’d think that this station be the perfect hub for them.”

Ruby shrugged his shoulders. “I seriously doubt we will ever see one but I suppose the odds are greater now that this station is here.”

“And we’re the lucky ensigns assigned to it!” Said Elidia, while some groaned about that. “What?”

“You don’t get it, do you?” Mizu asked her but continued before Elidia could answer. “We’re going to be stuck with even worse tedious tasks than we ever had been on the Sovereign.”

Elidia rolled her eyes. “Oh come on! It will be fun if you make it fun! Or it’ll be boring and dull if you make it so.”

“Did she seriously just rhyme at us?” Lane asked as the turbolift stopped at their destination.

“Welp! Time to go!” Ruby said as he hurried out of the lift, everyone else doing pretty much the same.

“Oh come on!” Elidia said as she hurried after Mizu and Utsall. “I’m not wrong, you know!”

“We shall see, Elidia. Right now, I just want to see who I’m bunked with,” said Mizu as all three of them stopped at the door to their quarters. “Oh. Well, that answered that. Oh, I hope it is just a three-bunk room.”

“Don’t see why not. The station isn’t that small,” said Elidia.

Utsall entered her code and the door opened for them to reveal just that, three bunks. “Guess that answers that question.”