[Captain’s Ready Room] 

Captain Nathanial Hawthorne felt better after a shower and change into a uniform. He figured that he would likely feel even better after a cup of coffee and so was hand grinding some beans in his fussy method that was a lot more involved than simply demanding one via the replicator which was instant. Lieutenants Debub and Young sat in his guest chairs watching him, not saying anything about the involved coffee preparation. It was not as if haste was going to save them at this point anyway.

”So we assume the conference room returned because Commander Cruz and I finished the simulation,” Hawthorne said.

”That’s our assumption sir,” Washburn Debub said.

The Captain nodded, putting the now ground beans into a paper filter. He then looked at the kettle, checking to see if the water was boiling at the right temperature, and then pouring it over the beans in a swirling pattern. Making the coffee the old fashioned way was his only real vice, the only thing that he did to deviate from the norm, his only vice really, at least when the ship was not in spaceport. That meant that the rest might return when it was done the simulations that they were partaking in, though he had not idea what that meant for the lounge of the gym.

”The Casanova reports one of their two Holodecks has returned, the same situation,” Debub said.

There was no way to communicate with the lost crew members, so they was no way to hurry the process. Currently the working theory was that the aliens on the planet below had wanted to see some examples of humans (and other races) at play. For now they were operating under the assumption that none of this was malicious, as the away team from the Casanova tried to reason with them. Waiting on another ship’s team seemed annoying but he could hardly send Cruz and a handful of officers down there to break into the negotiations and take them over.

”Good work while we were gone,” Hawthorne said, “dismissed. Let me know if anything changes.”

He wanted a good old fashioned Romulan Bird of Prey as an enemy, or maybe a rogue Klingon ship. This kind of trickster gods act was too cerebral and uncontrollable for him. He was a bread and butter kind of guy, he liked everything but his coffee preparation simple.

The two stood nodded and left the Ready Room and Commander Cruz, now in her uniform and not a red dress entered nodding at the two lieutenants as she passed.

“I hate not being able to do anything,” Cruz said, she’d come up through Starfleet as a Strategic Operations Officer and doing something was her trademark. Hawthorne had spent the last few years as the Captain of a medical ship where mostly he just moved the ship into place and let the doctors handle the rest.

”You’ll get used to it. The higher up you get the less you actually do,” Hawthorne said, “you could be signing the paper work.”

”This isn’t the time for our personal life,” she snapped at him, though she knew he was right. It was one thing when they thought they were keeping it under wraps but now a good chunk of the remaining senior staff has seen them kissing and by the end of the shift it would be all over the ship. As much as they had seemingly moved beyond gossip, they had definitely not moved beyond gossip.

”You don’t have anything else actionable to do,” Hawthorne said, stirring his coffee that he had now poured from the Chemex into a cup.

”I could very slowly make coffee,” Cruz said back still annoyed that he was right.

”You should, it’s delightful,” he said.

She crossed her arms defensively, as if he was going to attack her though she knew he wasn’t. Still the risk to her career by being associated with his, and tying herself to him in anyway was not a risk she was eager to take. The examples of successful couples as Captains and First Officer were dwarfed by the people for whom it did not work out and those that did tended to have already been married or coupled long before.

Walking to his deck she picked up a PADD, skimmed through the text then signed it with a theatrical flourish.

”There, that’s retroactive, I could still dump you tomorrow,” she said.

”Fair,” he sipped the coffee, “Want come coffee?”

”I have access to replicators again,” she said.

”It’s too bad we didn’t get to try any coffee in the simulation. I wonder if it would be different than our replicators since it wasn’t running on our technology,” he said.

Commander Cruz shook her head, “Are you trying to drive me crazy sir.”

”Yes Commander I am,” he said grinning as he sipped his coffee.

[Nine Forward Lounge]

Lieutenant Young ushered everyone out of the lounge as his team entered. The gym had also returned, a sign that perhaps this was nearing its end. He doubted his engineering team would uncover anything of note, but it was best to grab some readings anyway. He had spent the past couple of hours in the now returned conference room doing the same, and now only the two Holodecks remained missing. So far all crew had been returned unhurt, though the people in the gym had to live through a realistic recreation of a Tellarite sporting tournament that had been on the screens at the time of the room vanishing. 

Lieutenant Yuhiro Kolem was there in case her empathetic abilities could detect something that the sensor readings that the engineering team was collecting could not. Not that she wa sof much help, but then again she seemed to already know that she wouldn’t be.

”So how is it going?” Kolem asked him casually, perhaps trying to glean some information out of him that would help her in her role as Chief Counselor and perhaps just being friendly.

”Things keep vanishing, and a whole bunch of the crew is still missing,” he said. He knew that this was not what she meant, and that Lieutenant Junior Grade Hume was among those missing, so he should go easy on her. 

“Other than that obviously,” Kolem said back, “We made a big transition in ships, even if this is a smaller crew. There’s obviously some differences.”

Young shrugged, “It’s in good shape, not a lot of maintenance thus far despite the class’ reputation. Smaller crew is good.”

Kolem seemed to know that something else was up, but decided not to press, instead she nodded and gave Young a pat on the shoulder and then took a seat in one of the booths. A few minutes later Lieutenant Commander Tashai came by and did inventory on the physical equipment to see that it had all returned (or been returned) from where ever the heck it had been 

After completing the operations checklist she took a seat with Kolem and they talked, and even laughed as Young was scanning. When his team had verified that this was indeed their lounge and returned properly he had the report taken on PADD to the bridge for confirmation. 

He walked over to Kolem and slid into the lounge booth next to her. Tashai was sliding out the other side and waved a hell/good-bye at him as she left. Taking a seat he apologized, “I’m sorry, for being short earlier. This has just been a frustrating experience.”

”You’re one of the best balanced people aboard, I’m not worried about you breaking under the pressure and I understand it getting to you a bit,” Kolem said, ”I’m just being friendly.”

”I know. T’Rala made me her project, and that went badly,” he said.

”Ah, how did it go badly,” Kolem asked.

”I kissed her,” Young said.

”Ah, wait that’s not bad is it? She’s a bit older but you’re both single,“ Kolem said.

Shrugging Young was not sure, “I don’t know. I get engines, I don’t get people so well sometimes. Especially not T’Rala.”

”She is, complex,“ Kolem admitted, “but she is someone who had to get used to fighting for what she wanted, because of who she is. So there’s not a lot of artifice there even if she’s a Romulan.”

Young realized that he had not thought of it that way. Her being a Romulan made her less trustworthy in his eyes not more. And yet what Kolem was saying seemed true, she’d have had to be very clear about what she wanted to do in life and would have had to tight for most of it. That would have lead he to be far more outgoing and clear in her needs and wants than perhaps he found comfortable.

“Thanks,” he said, “I hadn’t thought of it that way.”

Kolem nodded, “We’ll I can’t tell you must more, but it’s good to think about where someone is coming from. I’m not perfect at it myself, but I find it helps.“

”Maybe it does,” Young said, as he rose, his team already filtering out of the lounge and returnging to duty. They’d keep it closed for a few days, to ensure it did not vanish again,, but it seemed normal enough upon inspection. 

Now just for two more holodecks.