Lieutenant Soren Liara stepped off the small gantry way of the transport shuttle she’d arranged passage aboard from her former home on Starbase 74, luggage mainly in hand or rather slung over one shoulder. Her small pack was stuffed with artifact replicas that she’d discovered during her last tour, things that had caught her fancy or were attached to fond memories shared with her former comrades. It was also, in some small way, a reflection of the lifestyle she’d lived growing up on Bajor just after the Dominion War had ended. While her family wasn’t in dire straits by any stretch of the imagination, they still held to their old habits that had wormed their way into her parents and grandparents lives during the Occupation. Excess had always been seen as something of a taboo among the older generations in her family, and though she knew now that such extreme beliefs didn’t apply, the habits from her youth had found their way into her heart anyway, leading the young scientist to carry only the things she simply couldn’t afford to lose.

Lt. Soren paused just a few steps away from the shuttle and took in the sight of the landing platform she’d been deposited onto. Though a part of her wanted to dismiss the sight as being ‘just another starbase docking area’, another part couldn’t help but marvel at the feat of engineering and the culmination of literal ages that had to come before the current one to allow for such a sight to even be possible. While it wasn’t nearly as awe inspiring to the woman as seeing the Celestial Temple had been for her as a little girl peering out of one of the windows scattered along the Promenade on Deep Space Nine, it was still something worth taking a moment to admire.

Liara sucked in a breath and huffed it out quickly, nodding to herself in silent acknowledgement that she’d spent the requisite span of time gawking and could now safely and confidently enter the station proper without looking too much like an awestruck cadet. She picked her way through the throng of people exiting various craft of variable sizes, finally finding herself at the causeway that housed rows upon rows of turbolift shafts, each of them able to carry a passenger anywhere on the massive station. And as luck would have it, there was also an office not far from it that contained what Lt. Soren could only assume to be some manner of logistics officers, who would likely be able to help her get settled in, or at the very least find her bearings. 

Entering the office with a look of curiosity mixed with confusion, Liara quickly found herself being approached by one of the many junior officers milling about the space.

“Can I help you, Lieutenant?” the man asked with a friendly smile.

“I would appreciate it, Ensign,” Liara said as she pulled the pack off her shoulder to fish around for a small PaDD she’d squirreled away, “I’m just arriving to assume a position in the science department and I was hoping you could help me get my bearings and perhaps even point me toward my quarters if that isn’t too much to ask for.”

“Not at all, ma’am,” the younger man remarked with a smile as he took the PaDD she offered him. He stepped behind a nearby console and compared what he was seeing on her documentation to the station’s records, nodding a few times to himself before returning to his original position, “I found everything you need and I’ve uploaded it onto your PaDD. If you like, I can give you a brief explanation.”

“Oh yes, please. I didn’t take anyone up on that offer when I transferred to Starbase 74 and I was lost for four whole hours,” Soren chuckled at the memory, “With a station this gargantuan, being lost for days doesn’t seem all that unrealistic.”

“I’ve never heard anyone get lost for days,” the man smiled wryly, “But this is a much larger station than most, so I can understand the concern. We’re currently in Section Lima-Violet… all of the major sections of the station are alphabetically coded followed by a different color by the way.”

“How interesting. I’ve never heard of such a naming convention before,” the Bajoran remarked with a smirk.

“This is my first assignment so I can’t say how common it might actually be,” the Ensign said with a shrug before continuing with his short presentation, “Your quarters are located in Section Kilo-Indigo, and more specifically on deck 464. The science module you’ve been assigned to is in Section Hotel-Turquoise, which covers decks 360 through 390. Unfortunately I couldn’t find an exact lab you’ve been attached to, so you’ll probably have to speak to your department head to get further information about the details of your tenure aboard with them.”

“And are the recreation facilities easy enough to find?” Soren inquired.

The man nodded, “They are. I’ve highlighted some of the more popular establishments in the packet I sent to your PaDD, so you can browse them at your leisure.”

“Perfect! Thank you so much for your help, Ensign. I really appreciate it,” Liara said with a genial smile before turning about and heading off toward the turbolift clusters. Once she’d boarded the carriage and instructed it as to the deck she needed to head toward, Liara began scanning through the information packet she’d been provided. The whir of the turbolift carriage passing swiftly through the station slowly faded into the background her her mind as Soren scrolled through the various guides that had been provided. Establishments of every form and variety were listed, from shopping to dinning to recreational facilities that didn’t rely on holographic equipment to operate. The amenities alone could keep a person completely occupied for an entire tour without having to revisit a single one if they so chose.

When the lift suddenly stopped and the door swished open, it took Liara a few seconds to realize it, so enthralled she was in reading what the station had to offer. Thankfully, no one was trying to board the lift at the moment, so she didn’t have to excuse or explain herself to anyone, which might have looked bad depending on who it actually was that might have caught her unawares. She thanked the Prophets silently as she stepped into the corridor that she hadn’t been guided to be a security officer with her focus so easily usurped by things she found fascinating, it would have caused her no end of personal and professional embarrassment. 

The walk along the cavernous corridors was a swift one, Liara found her quarters not even a minute’s walk away from where the turbolift had dropped her off. Even on Starbase 74, she’d had to walk a good two minutes from her quarters to the nearest lifts no matter which direction she chose to go from where she’d been living. She felt once again blessed as she stepped into her new abode, only to drop not just her jaw but her pack as well upon seeing the size of the room she’d been given. At first she thought she’d walked into the wrong space, moving outside to check the door’s information panel against the PaDD’s information. When the two values coincided identically, Soren had little choice but to return to the interior to continue to marvel at the volume of it.

Once fully inside, Liara bent down and scooped up her accidentally discarded bag, walking it over to the spacious table that sat near the exit to her quarter. Next to it sat an array of shelving units and a mirror just long enough for her to see the majority of her torso and head. That, at least, was a welcome change from her old quarters since she’d had to install one herself. While she wasn’t overly fussy about her appearance, she’d always made it a point to ensure that, among other things, her d’ja pagh didn’t look tangled or sloppy. As she looked at herself looking at herself in the mirror’s surface, smirking at herself as she mused silently about her situation. Even looking at the space being reflected in the surface of the mirror, she found it hard to believe the image it was showing her was real.

After struggling to accept reality for what it is for a few moments, Soren shrugged at herself and returned to her pack and pulled out the trinkets and artifacts that had been stuffed inside. Necklaces, bracelets, carvings, and rolls of parchment slowly appeared from the confines of her bag, finding a home on the shelves by her door. Several of the items needed stands that she hadn’t brought with her, but a quick jaunt over to her replicator and back remedied that situation. With little under half an hour of effort, the shelf contained all of her prized possessions, and had not a single scrap of real estate left for anything else. Liara stepped back and admired her handiwork before turning around and letting out a troubled sigh.

“I’m not sure what I’m meant to do with all this space…” Soren grumbled, fulling aware that it was a rather benign problem to have. She even went so far as the shake her head in exasperation at herself, muttering that she probably shouldn’t bemoan fortune where ever she might find it. It was at that moment she’d remembered she didn’t actually know where she was meant to report to for duty, and sent a request for a meeting with her department head to figure that part out. She was certain the person in charge of an entire station’s science efforts would be busy enough that she could stand to go explore a bit before the day was out without feeling too bad about it. With that thought flitting through her mind, Lt. Soren gave her quarters one finally look before stepping back outside to find a bit of adventure before the day came to a close.