When Lieutenant Jason Devron beamed aboard the USS Jaxartes, his face still wasn’t completely back to normal, but at least the nose was fixed and the black eye almost unnoticeable.   Lieutenant Lyanna Stuart was there to greet him, looking much happier and healthier than the last time he’d seen her.  She saluted. “Welcome back captain; Doctor.” She acknowledged Andrianakis with a smile and a warm handshake. “And?”  Her attention was brought to the third person in the group.  A young man seated in a wheel chair that looked remarkably like her captain.

“This is my brother.” Jason informed her. “Paul.”  They had spent the morning wondering how to introduce him without creating more confusion than was already the case.

“Welcome aboard the USS Jaxartes, sir.” She shock the man’s had, before giving Jason a puzzled look which he chose to ignore.  When she stood up straight Lyanna called up the ships computer and passed over command of the ship, something she’d done with Ensign Harris only three days previous.  Once that was completed she turned to Albert Torf the engineer at the transporters controls.  “Have the captain and doctors belongings been transported to their quarters?” The Betazoid nodded an affirmative before locking down the controls.

“I’ve only heard bits of what happened down on Earth sir, sounds like you had your hands full.” The young Orion said softly

“I’ll fill you in on the parts that aren’t completely classified later number one.” Jason smiled, or at least made the attempt. His left cheek still felt tender.

“Shame you couldn’t have brought that shuttle back with you.” Lyanna mused. “We’ve still waiting for a replacement, and a stealth one would have come in rather handy.”

“I’m sure you’d have loved having that.” He paused a moment thoughtfully. “But then if it’s a stealth shuttle, how do you know it’s not on board already?”

She gave Jason a punch in the shoulder; then as he winced slightly, immediately regretted it her actions and apologised profusely.

“See this is the sort of thing I get every day.” Jason gave his brother a wink.

The Orion lieutenant was about to protest, before she realised it was just a trap.

**********

Aboard the USS Chapel the two brothers Charlie and Dinari Lyambo sat in the captain’s ready room.  The personal items had been removed, but there was still the odd touch here and there of the previous captain who like to many had been killed on ‘Frontier Day’.  They were both waiting for a live broadcast from Earth; their father Erastus had been found safe and well after an extensive hunt since he went missing around the time his office and a large part of the building he worked at was destroyed.  It was a big thing; his position at Gatehouse had given him a seat on the board at Bio-Link the USA’s largest pharmaceutical, when the later had taken over the former a few years back.  The fact that Erastus’s business partner was dead.  Having fallen or being pushed from the roof of the building before the explosion; had only fuelled the speculation that he was either dead himself or somehow involved.

Half the world was probably watching this moment with them; there where certainly a lot of reports and cameramen in evidence.  He’d been missing for nine days and hadn’t contacted any of his family in all that time.  So the two brothers were expecting an emotional reunion between their mother who was now standing at the edge of the screen in a dark green dress; and their father who was just arriving in a blacked out limo.  When Erastus stepped out of the car in his tailored black business suit after the chauffer had opened the door for him, he was all smiles waving at the camera whilst politely declining to answer any question regarding what had happened or where he’d been hiding.  He held out his hand to his wife probably expecting her to step forward and let her husband huge her.  To people that knew Anne Lyambo in her role as Chief Medical Advisor to the World Health Organisation the position she has held for just over four years; she was a tough no nonsense individual who knew how to get things done and wasn’t afraid to step on a few toes if someone stood in her way.  But when it came to her husband she became noticeably mild and timid almost subservient people might say.

So no one in a million years, least of all Erastus or any of their six children expected was the slap she gave her husband around the face.  It was a slap filled with venom and anger for all the years she and the family had bowed down to his every wish and demand. Anger to; that he had abandoned them and hid leaving the family to fend for itself without knowing if they might be in danger or even warming them first.  Days of worry and fear had given way to reflection and understanding.  This life was no longer something Anne Lyambo was willing to put up with.  She stormed off camera out of view leaving her husband a little confused and rather sore.  Her newly appointed solicitor sticking a copy of the divorce papers in his top pocket and wishing him a good day was for many, just icing on the cake.  The slap would probably be re-watched hundreds of times over the coming days, from various angels, in real time and slow motion.

The two brothers looked at each other in total disbelief for several seconds, before Dinari finally spoke. “You know how we were worrying about telling our father we’ve been talking?” Charlie just nodded in response. “I get the feeling he’s going to have a lot more important things on his plate.”

“I’m so glad we’re in orbit.” Charlie announced sitting back.  This time it was Dinari that just nodded.

**********

For Ensign Maasl C’Rren the young Caitian Science officer, having the room to himself; had proved an interesting experience.  One which he had enjoyed for the most part.  But having his bunkmate back was something he was happy with to.  The pair of them had joined the corvette on the same day, basically meeting for the first time as they boarded. Though from two totally different backgrounds, it was that nervous wait before officially becoming part of the crew, that had got them chatting.  They became friends rather quickly and had learned a lot about each other’s family and cultures since.

It was late and C’Rren lay on the bottom bunk.  The Cardassian, Tholakath; hadn’t long climbed into the top bunk and instructed the computer to switch the lights off; once he’d got himself comfortable.  “Maasl.” He half whispered a few minutes later.

“Mhm.” Came his bunkmates’ half-hearted sleepy response.

“There’s something warm and furry tickling the bottom of my feet.”

C’Rren had probably never moved so swiftly in his life; the moment he suddenly remembered his new Tribble companion that had both slipped his mind and by the sound of it; the cage it was supposedly sitting in.  Explaining this was going to be an interesting challenge.

**********

For some it’s hard to imagine how vast space really is.  Far from an empty blackness with a scattering of stars, it is wondrous and beautiful place: full of mysteries still waiting to be discovered.  It can also be a deadly place for the foolhardy and unwary.

For two young men it had been their dream to journey across the stars and explore the unknown, to ‘Boldly Go’ as people put it.  But they shared much more than a dream; they shared a name and a recently formed friendship that nothing could ever come between.

They sat in the shuttle bay on a pair of deckchairs the lieutenant had managed to get the ship to replicate.  It may have seemed a slight extravagance, but the material used would no doubt be turned into something else more useful to a Federation vessel.  Jason had opened the bay doors, so all that stood between them and the airless void was the force field, which for the most part remained invisible, only rippling with a faint blue glow as the computer recalibrated and check its power settings.

“Thank you for bringing me up here.”  The young man to Jason’s left, sighed.  “I’ve never been up in space before and a holo-sweet just isn’t the same.

“I wish I could bring you with me.” Jason bemoaned.

“Could the universe really handle two of us?” His brother laughed. “Just promise you’ll keep in touch.”

“Always, you can count on it.”

As the two of them laughed and chatted together; Doctor Andrianakis watched them discreetly through the small viewing port.  It was good to see the lieutenant smiling again; the look of anger and hatred mixed with the sense of loss on his face when she’d first rolled him off the unconscious body of Captain Fitzpatrick had really scared her, and she’d half wondered if the turmoil inside the young man’s mind had broken him that night.  There was still no clear reason as to why Rear-Admiral George Devron had been selected by the Borg as an important target.  Unless just having the knowledge about what had been created by the laboratories in the Gatehouse building meant he posed a possible threat to them and their Changeling allies.  Neither of the security officers who’d apparently been sent to Deneb by Fitzpatrick to track the Rear-Admiral down hadn’t been seen or heard from; their fate like a handful of other Starfleet personnel was still a mystery.

She knew Jason Devron was living a lie, it was meant to have protected him and allowed him to lead a normal life.  But the people he’d been hiding from had always know, Robert Fitzpatrick was part of the terrorist group Earth First, a key member of it that was a certainty.  But it hadn’t been just a simple terrorist group; Fitzpatrick had access to resources and equipment way above what any terrorist or captain in Starfleet intelligence should have been able to get their hands on.  No, there was someone much bigger behind all this, someone with a lot of power and influence, pulling strings and making things happen whilst remaining completely hidden.  Where either of those brothers safe, would someone seek out revenge for their roles in what had happened?

Captain Fitzpatrick was been kept under the tightest security imaginable, he’d refused to talk; but that still didn’t mean whoever his boss was wouldn’t try to have him permanently silenced.  Events may have come to an end; things where far from over.

Phoebe turned away from the window and walked along the corridor contemplating her own existence.  Daughter of a female human and a male ‘Q’ entity, her life linked to the Continuum.  All those dreams had been real, a product of her own mind seeking out the truth about who she was.  She knew she’d find her way back to that highway again, that the doctor was sure of, Phoebe hoped next time someone would be there to give her answers.