—- Nine Forward, USS Seattle —-

Lieutenant Akane Sone had done her work for the day. After over a week of traveling too fast to actually map out any planets the USS Seattle had stationed itself in orbit around a new world, a world where they were now taking some much needed shore leave. She was not sure if she was going to participate or not, while shore leave sounded fun there was something almost comforting about the essentially inaudible hum of the ship. Any ship really. The Seattle was top of the line, and new, so it barely made any sounds, but it was comforting regardless. Weeks of running from the Borg has only clarified to Sone, that she did not like being off a ship if she could help it. Without the interference from a planetary environment, you could see the stars better.

Sone spotted Commander Adriana Cruz nursing a drink and talking with Doctor Va’Tok. The Commander waved her over, and Va’Tok nodded in the way that Vulcans did when they were neither glad nor mad to see you, a way of letting you know they acknowledged your existence. 

Sitting down with the two senior officer Sone nodded, “Ma’am, doctor.”

”Akane Sone, right? You almost became Chief Science Officer,” Cruz said, and smiled. 

Now that the Captain and the team that had gone to the moon had returned it seemed that the Commander was more willing to see the lighter side of the dangerous mission that they had gone on. For a time the crew, including Sone, had thought them dead and the return of the Captain and those that had gone with him in the shuttle the Sound Garden had been a relief. 

”Are you two on a date?” Sone asked, “I’m sorry to interrupt.”

Va’Tok shook his head, “I am asexual, I do not ‘date’.”

“I did not know that, but yes, this is not a date. We’re friends,” Cruz said.

”We know each other,” Va’Tok said as if clarifying.

“The Doctor is my friend, whether he admits it or not,” Cruz said.

Va’Tok made a small noise but did not protest further.

Lieutenant Akane Sone had not spoken with the Commander before but she liked her. It was nice, serving under a woman, though the science department was heavily female aboard the USS Seattle. Still it was nice, as she liked having the sometimes more aggressive instincts of a male Commanding Officer balanced out by a more… empathetic female perspective.

Sone groaned and fiddled with her trousers, “Sorry these legs are uncomfortable.”

”What do you mean?” Cruz asked.

Va’Tok who knew said nothing.

”My legs are robotic, artificial. I lost my biological ones while at the Academy,” Sone said.

”It is a rare procedure, but Lieutenant Sone qualified for it. Though I am not a mechanic, and wonder what we will do if we do not return to Federation space and the legs need servicing,” Doctor Va’Tok said.

Cruz looked interested, “Robotic legs, I’ve heard of such things but they’re rare.”

”I don’t mention them, much, people kind of find them Borg like,” Sone said.

The Commander nodded, “I do not think that will be a problem on this ship, but aside from Doctor Va’Tok here and perhaps the Captain I do not see who needs to know.”

“Speaking of Borg even Vulcans need to sleep,” Va’Tok stood and nodded at the two women, “I will likely encounter you tomorrow.”

Cruz watched him go, “You holding up okay after the Borg chase, and then the radiation field.”

”I’m fine. It was… hard…. I learned to love being on a starship, it’s like my home more than any place else and for once it didn’t feel safe,” Sone said.

Cruz nodded, “It was hard, on all of us. Waiting for the Captain, and thinking we’d lost him, well I was not sure if I could continue. I mean I had to, that was the thing with rank. But I’d lost everything, if I lost him.”

”Oh, are you and the Captain… you know,” Sone asked.

Cruz nodded, “Dating, yeah. He went for me, to protect me. It was dumb and frustrating and so overbearing but kind of… I don’t know.”

”Sweet?” Sone asked.

Cruz nodded, “You’re speciality is stellar cartography right? Should get a good bit of mapping done on the way back to Federation space.”

Sone recognized that the Commander was trying to change the subject. She did not know the younger officer that well, and had already been far more earnest than Sone was used to senior officers being. The fact that they were on a small ship helped. More over the time with the Borg had created a bonding between everyone, and as they had sat with no power to their warp engines and computer unable to tell where the Borg were, they had learned not only fear but to trust one and other. Still a new subject seemed to be in order, as the Commander was done speaking on the subject of her relationship with the Captain.

”I am, yeah,” Lieutenant Sone confirmed.

”Exciting time for you, out in the middle of unexplored space,” Cruz said.

Sone nodded, they had truly gone where no human, or half human and Trill, had gone before. They were well beyong the borders of the Federation and finding new worlds and new civilization.

”Well if we go back slower,” the Lieutenant confirmed, “so I can actually map things. I was just able to roughly sketch out what we were passing on our way out here, but not chart anything.”

”Well we had other things to take care of, like not being assimilated,“ the Commander said, ”We’ll make sure to give you time. We can’t run at top speed back, we almost had the proverbial wheels come off.”

Tashai the El-Aurian Chief Operations Officer entered and after getting a drink at the bar joined the two she seemed to Sone more relaxed than when they were being pursued by the Borg. While the Federation had managed to keep from being assimilated and defeated by the Borg it was not the same for the El-Aurian’s who had been assimilated with the few remaining members scattered across the galaxy.

”Captian’s back. Everyone is done acting drunk from radiation,” Lieutenant Commander Tashai said, “It’s a good day for a drink.”

Cruz nodded, “We have shore leave for a few days. Then we’ll be making our way home, but we’ll try to take it easy. We can’t push our engines like we did getting here.”

”New things, I can’t wait to see them,” Tashai said. She had been aboard the USS Anaheim with the Captain and the majority of the crew. Save for a larger science department, and a much smaller medical department, much of the crew had transferred over To the USS Seattle along with the Captain. In a way that made Commander Cruz the new kid on the block, as a recent transfer.

There was definitely more to do for a Stellar Cartographer on the USS Seattle.

Lieutenant Akane Sone stretched and then adjusted her uniform, “I’d better go take my legs off. See you both later.”

Rising she left the lounge, and headed to her quarters. She remembered when the hallways were dark, illuminated only by a flashlight that she had to carry and emergency lighting. The threat of the Borg showing up had been real, and she had felt it viscerally. Yet this was still her favourite place, the inside of a starship. This one was hers, at least temporarily, and she did not like being afraid while in it. 

Yet everything had been fine in the end. They had survived to see another day. And the safety she felt on the ship, the comfort, was restored though tarnished a little.