—- USS Seattle, Security Department —-

Entering the ship with her duffle bag of personal belongings the young Bajoran woman headed towards Security where she had been assigned. Much of the crew of the ship had been given leave and rooms on Starbase 415 for the duration of their stay but engineering crews were still working and both Operations and Security teams seemed to be wandering the halls. Lieutenant Sesi Oari entered the Security Office and looked around surprised to see not a gold uniform but a blue one, that that of a blonde woman reading a PADD. She studied the woman for a while and if not for the security related displays she might have assumed that she had wandered into a science lab.

Finally she cleared her throat to catch the Lieutenant Commander’s attention. The blonde woman turned and smiled, “Oh hello. They’re all just in the holodeck for some training.”

Clicking off the screen to her PADD the woman extended her hand, “I’m Lieutenant Commander Gabriella Miller, the Chief Science Officer. I was just ready a study on plant usage in pre-industrial Vulcan and Romulan societies. I’m with Lieutenant Jara, the Chief Security Officer.”

Oari was not able to parse what ‘with’ meant at this point, but heard a sound down the hall and several security officers entered mostly out of uniform or wearing some kind of body armour, and all covered in sweat. A slender brunette woman came up to the Chief Science Officer and kissed her.

”You kill all the fake Cardassians?” asked Miller, trying to indicate the new officer with her eyes.

”No we got killed,” the woman said pulling off chest armour to reveal a tank top stained in sweat. 

Again Oari cleared her throat to draw attention to herself.

”Yes?” the woman who must be Lieutenant Jara said.

”I’m Lieutenant Sesi Oari I’ve been transferred to the USS Seattle,” Oari said fishing a PADD with her orders out of her duffle bag and handing that over to the Security Chief.

Jara looked at the orders and nodded, “I’m Lieutenant Jara, this is my Assistant Chief Security Officer Lieutenant Junior Grade Hume, and Lieutenant Junior Grade Rosa Flores. I’m done for the day other than a hot bath so Hume will show you around and then you can enjoy Starbase 415. I’ll run you through everything tomorrow.”

The man named Hume, a handsome blonde human nodded, “I’ll show you around. It’s a small ship, so it won’t take long and we’ll get you sorted away. Come on, bring your bag.“

The tour was rather brief, the ship was small compared with Deep Space Nine where she had grown up the daughter of Bajoran security officers, and even smaller than her last posting aboard the USS Victory. The ship’s layout was roughly like an Intrepid-class but smaller and so she had a pretty good idea of where everything was. Then they got to her quarters which were small and compact but she supposed on a Rhode Island-class everyone’s were.

”So here you are,” Hume said gesturing to the room.

”Here I am,” Oari said.

”Lieutenant Junior Grade Rosa and I were going out on Starbase 415 in about and hour, would you like to join us?” Hume asked.

”Sure that sounds great,” Oari said.

Hume smiled and nodded, “Okay we’ll meet at the gangplank to the station in an hour.”

—- Paris, Earth —-

The skyline was unfamiliar. It felt off seeing something like the Eiffel Tour which was an iconic landmark for humans, right in front of you rising above the city. Adriana Cruz wrapped the robe around her and studied it, wondering not for the first time what she was doing. Ever since she’d been assigned to her first post she’d never missed Earth. In a way she had been running away from it, and had taken to artificial gravity, and recycled air, and most importantly the freedom of space travel like a fish to water. Now she was back on Earth to do a few personal things and dating a man who’d never even been beyond the moon.

Was this a date? 

It had certainly ended like a successful one.

”Here’s a coffee,” Ernesto said coming out onto the balcony and handing Captain Cruz a cup. 

“Ernesto, last night we, umm I,” Cruz began feeling tongue tied.

”Last night we had fun, that’s all that matters. Did you have fun?” he asked.

”I did, that’s the problem I’m not staying,” Cruz said.

Ernesto nodded, “You have things here too. Aside from me you could help run your family’s winery and you saw how those children looked up to you. You could be doing stuff in the community, to help them using the resources of your new family.”

There was some truth to that, though she had a feeling that her half-brother would find her joining the family business more frustrating than he knew. She’d never taken business courses and knew nothing of wine except how to drink it and would likely have to work hardest at finding a roll with the company she could be successful in. As for the students she had spoken to in Seattle and Mexico City, well it was true that she could do something to help them but part of their interest towards her was that she was a starship captain, not that she ran a division of a winery.

Ernesto was older, like Captain Hawthorne her last Captain before she took over for him on the USS Seattle he was what you might call a bit grizzled. Unlike Hawthorne it was not life, or duty, or disappointment that had beaten him down, you got the sense that he’d always gotten everything that he wanted, it was just experience. 

Cruz sipped her French coffee, “My friend is half-Betazoid and a counselor. She calls me a serial monogamist. In the past year I’ve had two serious relationships. She’d think I was crazy if I threw my career away for you.”

”You’d marry me, be my wife,” Ernesto said.

”You need a house manager not a wife, I’m not taking the demotion,” Cruz said.

Ernesto smiled, “We could do this, have fun, enjoy ourselves, experience pleasure. All the time. You said yourself your job was now more border enforcement than exploring, stay with me and explore the Earth. See everything young Miss Cruz did not back when she was a child.”

Cruz shook her head, “As surprising as the proposal is, I’m not ready to settle down. I don’t think I’m made to be an Admiral but I have a few more years of discovering the undiscovered country left in me. Maybe then I’ll be ready to see Berlin, or whatever we’ve decided is worth seeing here on Earth.”