Kellin was halfway through a sentence about shield modulation when his voice trailed off to nothing.  The content of his words had been statements of fact, yet the upward lilt to his inflection made it all sound like a rambling question.  The runabout’s conference compartment became quiet, except for the hiss of the life support systems.

The way Kellin’s gaze had locked onto the row of aft viewports, it looked like his mind had gone blank as soon as he saw the dense thicket outside.  As much as Kellin was tall for a Trill –his build thickset, if muscular– the rainforest beyond was made up of massive trees, those of ancient growth.  Compared to those wide tree trunks, Kellin’s form looked minuscule, little more than a cuddly marsupial in the woods.

The view through the windows was obscured momentarily.  It may have been heat haze from the tropical climate where the runabout Estéron was nestled or a visual distortion from the holographic shell that was camouflaging the Danube-class runabout.  Even when the shimmering passed, the clear view of the rainforest evoked unexpected dread in Ensign Addae Danbo.  

For many centuries before Addae had been born, nothing green had grown in Ffmanni city on Barzan II.  Tall grasses and flowering trees hadn’t factored into his youth.  Aging, industrial city complexes were what felt comforting to him; little wonder he had chosen to study engineering over and over again.  A planet growing wildly to its own design felt unsteady and unsafe.  Unfamiliar.

Addae made an effort to swallow that feeling down.  Forget it.  It wasn’t becoming of a Starfleet officer.

When Kellin finally looked at Addae again, he smiled.  The expression changed his entire face, even wrinkled slightly in the corners beside his blue-grey eyes.  That’s where Addae saw the only reflection of his homeworld.  Despite that genuine smile, there was something tired and vacant behind Kellin’s eyes.  A common expression in Ffmanni city.  The Changeling who had replaced Kellin, early in the year, had even managed to offer warmer smiles than the man standing before him.  For all Kellin’s affable small talk over lunch, the ache of something missing in him was plainly visible.

Hoping to join in on whatever pleasant thought had captured Kellin’s attention, Addae asked, “Would you rather be out there, commander?”

Kellin tightened his jaw and hooked a finger under the high collar of his own shirt.  He tugged at the collar, adjusting his uniform in an apparent search for comfort.

“Wouldn’t we all?” Kellin asked back.  Despite the hardness in his eyes, he sounded more like a defiant child sneaking out of school rather than Constellation’s executive officer.

Addae touched the small discs affixed to the corners of his mouth.  The breather devices provided Addae the Barzan gasses he required to survive in M-class environments like the runabout and the planet where they had landed.  Lowering his hands, Addae could feel the discs move as he offered Kellin a wicked smile.

“I have my breathers on,” Addae remarked.  Looking up at Kellin, Addae tilted his head playfully to ask, “Are you inviting me to jog in the woods with you?”

Kellin winced.

“According to Doctor Nelli’s scouting excursion,” Kellin ruefully said, “this planet’s sentient beings have never even seen mammalian bodies like ours.  They’re a species of mobile sentient plans, like Nelli.”

Reaching a tentative hand to the side of Addae’s face, Kellin tapped one of the breathers with a single index finger.

Kellin said, “They’ve never seen constructed technology.  Never even heard of warp drive.  One look at you could amount to a prime directive violation.”

“Come on,” Addae said, appealing to Kellin’s sense of adventure.  “I’m not suggesting we interfere with their natural evolution as a species, but I can’t imagine we came all the way to the Delta Quadrant to hide on a runabout and overeat Bajoran food.  Anything the size of a civilization would never notice if we took three minutes in the sun.  …They might notice five minutes, but certainly not four.”

Now, Kellin smirked.  Whatever had been hiding behind his eyes looked forgotten.

Kellin said, “I’ve never risked my career for a suntan before.”

Raising a hand to his brow, Addae offered Kellin a sloppy salute.

“I don’t think I can truly call myself a Starfleet officer until I’ve at least bent the prime directive once,” Addae said. “As a little treat.”

Nodding to a viewport, Kellin remarked, “Nelli suspects they’ve evolved in lockstep with their natural environment.  They’ve never needed to manipulate their environment for their betterment or comfort.  There’s no need for constraints like general orders out there.”

“No obligations,” Addae said.

“No bad dreams,” Kellin said.

“No uniforms,” Addae added.

“No Changelings,” Kellin said.  His time as a captive of the rogue Changelings was no secret.  Half the crew was rumbling about how they always suspected something had been off with the Changeling that had posed as Kellin for weeks.

“No Borg programming,” Addae said in turn.  It hadn’t been long since Lieutenant Pagaloa had removed the Borg DNA that Kellin’s Changeling imposter had managed to secretly implant in Addae, and other young officers, every time they used a transporter before Frontier Day.

Soberly, Kellin started to ask, “When I was missing, did you ever–“

A chirrup sounded out from a communications node in the overhead.  Over the comm system, the voice of Ensign Dolan said, “Commander, have I just triangulated the location of the Borg energy signature?“

Kellin blinked several times and then said, “Ensign, I’m confused.  Are you asking me or are you telling me?”

“Oh wait, what did I say?” Dolan replied.

Addae sighed.  “Okay, maybe there’s some Borg out there.  Just a little.”