“What, may I ask,” Yuulik demanded, “is that noise you’re making?”

Before she even posed the question, Yuulik had tilted her head in Kellin’s direction.  The Arcadian’s bulbous eyes looked alit with electricity, a reflection of the warp-distorted stars through the forward viewport.  She was seated in the co-pilot’s chair beside him; there was hardly even a metre of space between them.  

“My… breathing?” Kellin supposed aloud.  There was a hitch of hesitancy between the words.

“No, it’s not that,” Yuulik said with plain dissatisfaction in her delivery.  “It’s like I can hear you thinking.  Your sub-processors are grinding and groaning in there.”

Yuulik tapped the side of Kellin’s head with two fingers, right on the trail of Trill spots down his hairline.  He kept his hands on the runabout’s flight controls.  After taking a breath, Kellin met her eyes, his eyebrows rising up his forehead as he spoke.

“I may not have passed biology the first time, but–” he started to say.

Yuulik breathed out a “tt” between her teeth and then she said, “I don’t need you to fly me to Arriana Prime.  I’m probably a better pilot than you are.”

“Fair.  I won’t deny that,” Kellin said and he shrugged at her in an expression of acceptance.  “You’re a level four pilot.  You’re a better pilot than me and you’re probably a better engineer too.  I couldn’t spend another day repairing Constellation with the way–“

Kellin cleared his throat.  He admitted, “I wanted to get away.  Look, you’re doing me a favour.  I’ll owe you, Sootrah.”

Snorting derisively, Yuulik posed, “Whatever will I do with an errant security boy on Arriana Prime?  Professor Yunusa invited me as an independent archaeologist to keep an artefact safe while his crew undertakes a humanitarian mission.”

“So… you’re going to bodyguard a clay pot?” Kellin teasingly said.  “And you can’t imagine how a security officer could help you with that?  C’mon.  Be real.  You wanted to get away too.”

“From what?” Yuulik suspiciously asked.

“You know what–” Kellin started to say, and he was cut off when the doors at the aft of the cockpit slid open.

Her body jolting in her seat, Yuulik cried out a ragged scream at an ear-assaulting pitch.  She swivelled her chair in search of the source of the noise.  A pink-scaled Saurian ensign was standing in the open hatchway.  Yuulik raised her palms towards the Saurian defensively and she screamed again even more loudly.  In palpable terror, Yuulik threw herself across Kellin, positioning him as a broad shield between herself and the Saurian.

“Yuulik, what’s wrong?” Kellin begged of her.

“What’s wrong?” she echoed Kellin sarcastically.  Waving a hand in the Saurian’s direction, Yuulik asked, “How did she get here??  We’re in space!  At warp!”

Kellin was quick to answer, “I invited her!”

While she found her footing on shaky legs, Yuulik’s shoulder jabbed into Kellin’s chest.  She pushed off of him to get to her feet.  Kellin spun his chair to keep an eye on Yuulik.

“Yeah, well,” Yuulik accused, “the last time you invited me on a runabout, you tried to kill me.”

Kellin looked away.  His throat tight, he replied, “That wasn’t me,” referring to the Changeling who had posed as him for weeks aboard Constellation.

“Uh, Commander Yuulik?” the Saurian spoke up in a tone that showed difference.  “My apologies, ma’am.  I thought I introduced myself to you in the sleeping cabin?  Before we left Avalon Fleet Yards?”

Yuulik winced at the Saurian and then she raised her chin.  The appraising gaze much resembled the one she had used many a time to decipher if artifacts were treasures or trash.

“I thought you were unpacking my luggage before we left,” Yuulik said flatly.  “Did you not unpack for me??”

After clearing his throat, Kellin adopted his formal timbre to say, “Lieutenant Commander Yuulik, please allow me to introduce you to Ensign Lyra Parze, the newest science officer assigned to Constellation.  Lieutenant Pagaloa assessed Parze’s engineering skills to be… lacking, but she graduated from Starfleet Academy as a member of Cadet Squadron Bravo.  Her specialty is psychology research.  I thought we could use this field trip to teach her what it’s like to be a generalist science officer aboard an explorer.”

Pivoting, Kellin then said to Parze, “This is my best friend, Chief Science Officer Yuulik.”

Yuulik scoffed.  “I thought Taes was your best friend.”

Snickering softly, Kellin admitted, “Taes is also my best friend.”

“Well, this feels like a trap,” Yuulik insisted.  “Your best friend is trapping me.  You’re all setting me up to do– to say–“

Breathing in through her nose, Yuulik pursed her lips rather than finish that sentence.  She cut a glance at Kellin and then she narrowed her eyes on Parze once again.

Yuulik asked, “Ensign, given your age, I assume you were assimilated by the Borg’s Jupiter-signal on Frontier Day?”

Nodding stiffly, Parze said, “Aye, ma’am.  I was.”

Bluntly, Yuulik asked, “Did you kill anyone as a drone?”

Parze crossed her arms over her chest.  “Preliminary reports from Avalon Security tell me I did not kill anyone.  Successfully.”

“Hmm,” Yuulik intoned before she sat back in her chair and turned her back on Parze.

Then Yuulik said, “Maybe there is something we can teach you on this field trip.”