—- Lieutenant Junior Grade William Hume’s Quarters —-

The door slid open to allow Lieutenant Yuhiro Kolem the enter. She adjusted the lights in a room that once upon a time she had spent many hours in with her then boyfriend. Now he was alone, and she was alone, which might make them the perfect couple if not for their history. She entered a bit further, and spotted William Hume laying on top of the sheets on his bed. He sat up, rolled his legs out of bed and using an old fashioned walker stood to greet his guest.

”Yuhiro,” he said, both surprised and seemingly happy. He had attempted to reconcile before the male members of the USS Seattle’s crew had been poisoned, and now it had been several days and she had remained out of arm’s reach. She had had duty, and not just her counselor duties, but new Second Officer ones, and he had been on bed rest.

”William I wanted to see you,” she said softly, she could feel his longing and his pain, and that was part of the reason she had found duty reasons to avoid this. There was no good time to tell your ex it was definitively over, and when your life was on an upward trajectory and his was on a downward one seemed like kicking him when he was down. Still there was no point in false hope. All she could do was be honest.

”All this near death stuff, the five officers we lost makes you think about life huh?” he said, and Kolem nodded though she feared they were approaching this from different places, and heading in different directions. He saw a near death experience as a reason for her to rethink breaking up with him, and she saw it as an affirmation point, a sign of sorts that her decision is a good one.

Taking his hand the guided him to a chair. Normally he would be sharing a room but as an Assistant Chief Security Officer he got his own. They sat facing each other In separate chairs and Kolem tried her best to explain.

”You hurt me, and you did so deliberately Will. You felt hurt that I didn’t accept for marriage proposal and you purposely set out to hurt me. Do you deny it?” she asked.

She could feel him try out the lie in his head, trying out denial and then decide to come clean. Hume was a fundamentally good person, he’d just done something she could not forgive. Not in sleeping with Lieutenant Maria Cortez, but in using her to hurt Kolem. He hadn’t succumb to a dumb moment of animal passion, but gone out to do something vindictive. She could forgive human weakness, but not human cruelty.

He sighed, “I just was so mad. I wasn’t thinking.”

She nodded, “I know, and I’m not mad. But your first thought was to make me pay, to hurt me. That might be a stupid immature thought, but the guy I want for the rest of my life would never hurt me on purpose, emotionally or physically. So as much as I care for you we’re going to stay broken up.”

Hume felt a pit in his stomach that opened up and widened. He nodded unhappily, not sure that even as charming as women usually found him, that he could argue out of this. Kolem was a woman who knew her own mind, and emotions. She would have thought this through and have been convinced of this course of action before his door even opened.

”I heard you’re the new 2XO,” Hume said, “Congratulations.”

Kolem smiled, “Well, not that it means much but thank you.“

—- Ready Room —-

The three members of the command staff, the Captain, First Officer, and Second Officer, were seated in Nathan Hawthorne’s Ready Room. It was still decorated as he had done, and either he’d resume command of the USS Seattle or this would be cleared out at Starbase 72. Yet they had to get to Federation space first, and that was not as easy as it seemed. Especially with their new orders from Starfleet.

“This is our latest orders from Starfleet,” Captain Adriana Cruz said holding up a PADD, she forwarded the communication to both Lieutenant Commander Tashai and Lieutenant Yuhiro Kolem so that they could review it at their own speed later.

”We’re to stop at this planet, no signs of intelligent life, and find out what happened to an all Betazoid survey team that Starfleet sent out a few weeks ago that has stopped checking in,” Cruz said reviewing the files that she had been sent, it had taken a bit to get them, as communication between the USS Seattle and Starfleet still was a several day process when the Seattle was this far out.

“All Betazed?” Kolem asked, she was half-Betazoid and to learn that her people had gone missing was worrying. The survey team should have had the right supplies.

”We’ll be there in just over two weeks,” Cruz said, moving on. She knew that Kolem felt inferior to full Betazoids, and she did not have time for her to get cold feet. “You both will lead the team down, find the survey team or what happened to them, and we’ll bring them home.”

It meant go home, unless their communication equipment had broken disaster had likely befallen the survey team and there was nobody left to collect. Betazoids were not as methodical or perfectionist as Vulcans but they were competent and like humans should have been able to setup and maintain the kind of strucure that could allow them to survive in whatever conditions they found. It was possible that a large predator or something had gotten them unaware and unprepared. 

“Now is there anything else we need to go over?” Cruz asked. 

The three women looked at each other. None of them had especially wanted the role that they were now in, but injuries had lead them to this place. Cruz had wanted to be a Captain, but had not wanted to become one because disaster had befallen Nathan Hawthorne. Kolem still felt that she was too green for the Second Officer slot, and Tashai had no interest in higher command and yet had been pressed into the job of the First Officer at least until they got home.

”Alright dismissed,” Cruz said standing.

—- Holodeck 1 —-

Captain Cruz emerged from the hot water of the natural spring and sat on a rock. She watched Lieutenant Jara swiming or trying to, and was amused by the amount of splashing the other woman was doing. Graceful on land did not seem to translate into the water. 

Jara saw the mirth on her Captain’s face and scowled, “We didn’t have swimming on Turkana IV.”

”You haven’t been on Turkana IV for decades,“ Cruz shot back. 

Jara dove beneath the water and with great difficulty swam beneath the surface before emerging in front of Cruz to kiss the woman. Cruz smiled as she leaned back, and Jara claimed from the spring onto the rocks. She lay beside Cruz.

”What kind of ship do you want, once Hawthorne’s back?” Jara asked, “Your second command.”

Cruz thought about it, “Those new Prometheus class ships are nice. Something with teeth, after handling those pirates I don’t like being out gunned. Maybe a Manticore or a Gagarin. How about you?”

Jara smiled, “I’m not the big nerd who memorized all the Star Fleet technical manuals. I’ll go where the cool people are.”

”Where Dorian goes you mean?” Cruz said.

”Dorian’s father saved my life, so yeah I follow her around. We’re basically sisters,” Jara said, a fact that was not in her file and she had not shared before. Cruz thought about that for a while, and nodded, Starfleet had wanted to send one of the women off the Seattle when they got to Starbase 72 but now Cruz wanted to keep them together.

”Want to be Chief of Security? Dorian is doing it while Th’kaotross is injured but he’s going to be out for a while. So how about it?” Cruz asked.

”Sure, what does it involve other than punching people?” Jara asked.

”That’s mostly it,” Cruz smiled, “That and firing the few remaining photon torpedoes we have.”

”Deal,” Jara said and then dove, or fell back into the water.