“Please, Captain!” Ensign Elanna Henderson’s eyes quivered with longing, reflecting the streaking lights of warp speed outside the window and piercing the dimness of Katris’ quarters. The Raven Class Corvette was too small, too ad-hoc for a ready room. The Captain and Executive Officer were using Erigone‘s two ‘state rooms’, marked out not by any great or even any minimal grandeur, but only by virtue of having a single bed instead of bunks. Right now, her X.O. and friend Lieutenant T’Lera was sat on the bed, as there really was nowhere else to sit besides the chair placed behind the small desk. Katris stood from it and gently laid a hand on her Pilot’s shoulder.

“Your enthusiasm is welcome, Elanna,” Katris smiled. “But we can’t afford any… mistakes. You are aware the balance of O’Hare Station is delicate. The Erigone was selected for this for her Stealth, if we are discovered then Starfleet’s relationship with the operators will be affected and we won’t get this kind of information from them again. They can’t afford to lose their business and we can’t afford to let the Borg Shield Array slip from our sight. We have to appear to be anything other than Starfleet. bIyaj’a’?”

“Huh?” Elanna looked confused and a little mortified. The young Ensign was half Klingon as Katris was, but had been raised in the Federation. Katris had been brought up in the Empire. The difference was day and night.

“Convincing Klingons speak Klingon,” Katris continued. “There will be other opportunities, Elanna. I need your skill at the helm. This approach must be perfect. If we are detected it will put the mission in jeopardy. Request to join the away team denied.”

“But Captain, I know…” Elanna started, but she was cut off by T’Lera who had remained a largely silent observer until now.

“Ensign, your Captain has made her decision and informed you of it. There is no further discussion to be had.” Silence hung in the room following T’Lera’s matter-of-fact emotionless intonation. Elanna looked like a scolded puppy.

“Yes, Lieutenant. Sorry.”

“Do not be sorry, be prepared,” Katris told her with vigour. “I want you confident taking us into the system. Check the long-range scans as soon as they are available. Dismissed.”

Elanna nodded with resignation and made her exit, trying not to look too wounded. Katris retook her seat and rested her elbows on the desk burying her cheeks in her hands. She stared at the computer terminal. The readouts showed that tere was just over two hours until they arrived at O’Hare Station.

“I did not like having to do that,” she sighed. T’Lera stirred slightly, rustling the bed sheets under her seat.

“You and Henderson have a bond stronger than most,” she observed. “It is clear she looks up to you. It could become… a problem.”

“I doubt you will let it become a problem, my friend,” Katris replied, looking up from her rest. T’Lera closed her eyes briefly in a small nod of assent. But that wasn’t the all of it. Katris had been quite surprised how she and Elanna had formed a bond so quickly. She hadn’t even had the time to consider how it might be affected by the responsibility of command.

“Elanna is like a sister to me,” Katris explained, the thoughts only really registering as true as she was forced by circumstance to speak them. She watched the stars fly by through the small window as she spoke, her features painted with mottled darts of light. “Our shared experience of the Federation on one side and The Empire on the other… and I miss my sister.” Katris’ sister was older than she and of full Klingon blood from her father’s first marriage. “I want her journey through Starfleet to be free of the problems I had. She is talented, but she is… delicate, more sensitive, more Federation than I am. If she looks up to me I hope I can teach her the toughness she will require to command the respect of her peers.”

The two women let this thought hang in the air for a moment.

“Logic dictates your shared experience makes you her ideal mentor, despite some cultural differences,” T’Lera had to agree, standing and moving closer behind her C.O. Katris turned to catch her gaze.

“Kind words, I hope I will prove them right,” Katris smiled, but her face fell quickly as a look of surprise appeared on T’Lera’s.

“We have dropped out of warp,” the Vulcan observed with concern. Katris head spun quickly back towards the window.

“What?!”