“Zamora? How did you get down here so quickly?”

Anand stopped staring quizzically at Zamora’s back long enough to nod at the cluster of engineers he’d just finished thanking one by one, preceded by a speech about how their tenacity and quick thinking had probably saved the lives of everyone on board. They smiled or saluted, or murmured ‘thank yous’ as they dispersed, and Anand made the short journey across Main Engineering to where Zamora was hunched over a console.

As he approached, she glanced over her shoulder at him and shrugged.

“The speed of light is pretty darn fast,” she said.

Anand slowed his gait as if weighed down by puzzlement at her statement, but before he could ask what she’d meant, the main entrance swished open and Szarka came barrelling in.

With Zamora just behind her.

“Hey Cap! I’ve got that report about Gomthree’s response to Linguacode before versus after Ixabi made contact–”

Anand looked back and forth between the two Zamoras once. Twice. There was no acknowledgement from Szarka.

Finally, the two Zamoras gave curt nods to each other, and realization struck.

He turned towards the Szarka and her closest Zamora. “You didn’t…” he said, with the intonation of someone who already knew the answer to the unspoken question.

“I did… do this report I just mentioned,” said Szarka hesitantly. Then she looked away towards the ceiling as she spoke as if distracted by a particularly fascinating bulkhead. “I did also help Zamora reprogram the ship’s native Long-Term Engineering Hologram. Extensively.”

Zamora walked up to Holo-Zamora with the air of a proud mother, and the two bumped their fists together. “Taught her everything I know. With Szarka’s help.”

Anand waved a hand helplessly in Zamora’s direction for a moment before he found his words.

“Is that even legal?”

“Weren’t you in JAG?” asked Szarka.

“As I said, I was in forensics.”

“Well.” Szarka shrugged. “It’s not technically il-legal.”Anand continued gesturing wildly at the Zamoras. “I didn’t see anything in my briefing materials about this! Did your previous captain know about this?”

Szarka pursed her lips and seemed to be genuinely pondering the question. “I’m about 99% sure that she knew, but I think she ignored it because she didn’t want to deal with the reports. Captain Banoub got really good at pretending not to notice that there was more than one Zamora on the ship.”

Finally, Anand stopped gesturing and crossed his arms. “Well, I think you should write the report.”

“Sure!” she said.

“And forward it to Bohkat.”

Szarka’s face fell, but she quickly pretended to be intensely engrossed in her PADD as she muttered to herself. “Well Bohkat likes Zamora, I’m sure he’d be delighted to have two of them.”

“And,” said Anand, as he turned towards Holo-Zamora. He reached out to shake her hand, realized he wasn’t quite close enough, and inched forward just enough to take hold of it.

“Your tenacity and quick thinking during battle was remarkable,” he said, with hardly a breath between words, “And you saved many lives today. I’ll be noting it in your… file?”

Anand dropped her hand, and after a brief nod to the three of them, he made a beeline for the door, not fully hearing or processing what Szarka was shouting after him. “You do realize that you’re still–”

Despite receiving the initial injury reports, Anand wasn’t completely sure what he’d find when he entered sickbay.

The only crewmember he saw when he walked through the doors was Dr. Dvinak casually reading at her station.

“It is reassuringly quiet in here,” he said by way of greeting.

Dvinak glanced up from her reading only briefly to offer him a smile. “We were lucky. There were only minor injuries throughout the engagement with the Jem’Hadar. And we work fast.”

He heard soft footsteps from around the corner, and Dr. Ang stepped out of his office.

“Ah, Dr. Ang!” he said, with barely concealed excitement. “Just came to check on things, but as it’s so quiet in here I’d like to take the opportunity to ask a more personal question.”

Ang lifted his eyebrows in curiosity.

“Would you be interested in practicing guitar with me on the holodeck sometime?”

Ang’s eyebrows managed to shoot up even further. “You play guitar too?”

“Ah, no. Drums, actually,” said Anand. “I was a tassa cutter when I was in school.”

He scratched his chin and looked away slightly, still afraid that Ang would shoot down his idea.

“I only recently started practicing with a full kit. I’m not a great player by any means–”

“That’s great, neither am I!” said Ang. “Just let me know when you’re free and we’ll work something out!”

“Oh, fun! Can I watch?”

“Lieutenant Ixabi!” exclaimed Anand, taking a step back in surprise as she emerged from Dr. Ang’s office.

“Don’t worry, I’m just kidding,” she said with laughter in her voice. “I know that would probably make you anxious. We have enough anxiety on this ship as it is.”

Ixabi pointed to herself and Anand chuckled lightly, unsure of how to respond to the self-deprecation. She saved him the trouble by continuing.

“Which is why I’m starting therapy!” she said with jazz hands.

Anand haltingly imitated the motion and offered a weak, “Congratulations?”

“Thank you!” Ixabi said earnestly. “Dr. Ang was just outlining a plan for a combination of talk therapy and telepathic exercises. It sounds really clever!”

Ang shook his head at the compliment.

“I just nicked it from a Betazoid psychiatric publication. I’m still subscribed to a lot of those,” he said with a wistful sigh. “Psychiatry’s a bit like the mafia, I guess. Once you join up, you can never really leave.”

“Huh. Well.” Anand turned his full attention to Ixabi. “I am genuinely relieved to find you in such good spirits. I was especially worried about you and Qsshrr during this encounter.”“Thank you, captain,” Ixabi said with a soft smile. “I appreciate that. But I’m glad I did it.”

Anand returned her smile for a brief moment before pivoting back to business. “Speaking of Qsshrr, I ought to go talk to her next. I’ll see you both later.”

He marched out of Sickbay, and as he was leaving, he again heard faint words that grew fainter as he walked away. “Does he know he still has–?”

An unexpected sense of calm washed over Anand as he stepped onto the bridge. A sound like whale song was playing over comms, and soon he recognized it as one of the sounds he heard while aboard (inside?) Gomthree.

The center chair was empty, and Bohkat was instead hovering over Qsshrr’s science station, listening to her soft words as she used several cilia to manipulate a holographic representation of the creature.

“That sound is Gomthree, isn’t it?” he asked as he approached.

“Yessir,” said Qsshrr. “Gomthree allowed us to transport over some small recording devices. I believe the sound is a form of self-soothing during its state of rest and regeneration. Hortas create similar vibrations when they’re wounded to aid in healing!”

As Anand watched Qsshrr, he realized that she was in constant motion. She was rotating slightly, back and forth like a metronome, and every pebble on her back seemed to be popping in succession by the barest millimeter. It made her almost appear to be glittering.

He’d never seen an excited Horta before.

“Lieutenant Ixabi and I will certainly have a thorough report ready by the time we get to Starbase Bravo.”

“Wonderful,” said Anand. He wondered whether she could tell that he was smiling when he said it. “I look forward to reading it as well.

As he turned towards his ready room, Bohkat stood up and approached him. “Captain, if I may.”

Anand nodded and gestured for him to follow.

They both ducked into the small room and as Anand settled into the seat behind his desk he noticed that Bohkat had a PADD in his hands that he was scrutinizing intently.

Then he glanced up at Anand quite suddenly and said, “I don’t think we won your three-legged race.”

Anand furrowed his brow a moment, then recalled their first day on the ship. “Well, we completed our mission with no grievous injuries to personnel, no severe damage to the ship, and with a new friend in tow. Literally. That seems like a win to me.”

Bohkat took a deep breath. “The mission was a success due to the experience and tenacity of this ship’s crew. We were uncoordinated.”

“We were somewhat coordinated,” Anand said without much conviction.

“We need to be more than somewhat coordinated,” said Bohkat. He glanced down at his PADD again, apparently watching a video. “Perhaps this three-legged race would be a good form of training.”

Anand felt his eyebrows shoot up. “You mean as in an actual physical race?”

Bohkat nodded curtly.

“Here’s an alternate proposal,” said Anand, leaning forward at his desk and gazing up at the unseated Bohkat. “We could sit down and have an actual conversation. Get to know each other.”

Bohkat grunted. “You mean more ‘vocational speed dating’?”

Anand shrugged hesitantly. “Something more in-depth. This would be more like a vocational regular date.”

He sat back and furrowed his brow, perplexed by his own increasingly strained metaphor.

Bohkat also looked dubious and again focused his attention on what Anand could only assume was a video montage of three-legged races.

“Perhaps we could simply wait and reflect further in a week’s time,” Bohkat said finally.

“Or in two weeks!” Anand agreed enthusiastically. “It’ll take some time to get to Starbase Bravo, and then back to the Babylon’s interrupted survey. Things should be nice and quiet for a while. No rush.”

“Yes, agreed.”

They both looked around the small office for a moment as the awkwardness continued to seep in until Bohkat broke the silence.

“I’ll have updated personnel reports ready for you by end-of-shift tomorrow.”

“Very good. Thank you,” said Anand, and Bohkat swiftly took his leave.

Anand sighed and leaned back in his chair, picking up a random PADD with disinterest before dropping it back to the table.

Finally, he activated the comms display on his desk.

“Computer, send a call to Captain Sanjana Anand on her personal channel.”

“Connecting…”

A moment later, his sister’s face graced his ready room. She was still in uniform but appeared to be in her own quarters.

“Hello Captain Didi,” he said with a broad grin.

Sanjana put her hands to her chest and beamed back at him. “Captain Little Ray of Sunshine, my dear! I’m so glad you called!”

Her smile faltered, though, and was replaced with a look of mild confusion.

“Sanjiv… why are you wearing sunglasses?”