As Sh’ill left the Command Center and stepped into the turbolift, his mind was full of turbulence.

“Why.. would they not want the public to know? And more importantly, who is going to be on my crew?”

As he thought of this, he quickly said to the turbolift, “Promenade.”, and it took off. As the lift descended into the depths of the starbase, he continued to think about these issues troubling his mind, and finally reached the conclusion that the Captain probably knows what he is doing, and as such, these issues should be left to him.

As he stepped onto the Promenade, and into the mass of aliens, Sh’ill decided that it was time for him to make the best out of the downtime he had been given, and to go get a drink at the nearby bar. As he entered, he was swarmed by even more aliens, most of them drunk, high, losing games of poker, or any combination of these three.

He sat down by the bar, and was approached by the bartender.

“What’ll it be, big guy?” The bartender, a young Bajoran woman, waltzed up to Sh’ill casually, while wiping the countertop.

“Caitian ale, straight from the bottle. If possible, the Eastern Sea brand.” Sh’ill leaned a bit onto the counter as he placed his elbows on the countertop to make himself more comfortable.

“Got it, big guy. Eastern Sea ale, coming up.” The Bajoran girl moved quickly. She practically danced and tangoed her way to the shelves with the bottles on them, and in a very dramatic way, using nothing but the cocktail mixing spoon, cracked the ale bottle open, and placed it in front of Sh’ill with almost no sound.

“Very impressive, I have to say. I see why this place is so popular with civilians and Starfleet alike.” Sh’ill said as he put the bottle to his mouth, and took a swig, the green-ish liquid flowing in.

“Commander, that’s what you get in a place this big in orbit of a colony. Inescapeable.” She said as she moved to the next customer, and seemed to treat him with as much respect.

“Commander, I get that look that you have on me, you want to know why I’m so nice to everyone, when some of them could be crooks, thieves, and so on. My answer is that every customer gets the same service: you’re a good one and you don’t yell, you stay, you yell and you’re not good, I throw you out with the help of a phaser.” She replied while cleaning some glasses and placing them back under the counter, ready for the next drink.

“Good policy. I better not stay here after I’ve had a few of these.” Sh’ill said as he looked down into the bottle, and took another swig.“You an officer, or..?”

“Lieutenant Erti Jatia, Science Division. Work my shifts as normal, a Ferengi takes care of the bar then, and off duty into the night I tend the bar, and get paid a fair sum. Not that important of a scientist, but making people addicted to various liquids is science, is it not?” She said as she grabbed a tall glass, and filled it with ice, half not looking at it, instead staring into the ceiling and laughing a bit.

“Pleasure to meet you, Lieutenant. Lieutenant Commander Sh’ill over here. Technically medical division, but I command my ship and act as half a medical ship and half as a regular 86er.” Sh’ill smiled as he stared into the now half empty bottle, and then looked back up at the bartender.“Pleasure to know you, Lieutenant Erti Jatia.”

“The pleasure is mine. Now, will you have anything else, need info on the station, need to get illegal stuff, or…” Erti moved to the other end of the bar, and had to practically shout to get Sh’ill to hear her.

“Lieutenant… you should know that I could report you for that.” Sh’ill lowered his voice back to a near Caitian register.

“For what, I didn’t say anything!” Jatia smirked at him as she came back over, and took the now empty bottle of ale from his part of the countertop.

“Hmm. In that case, I’ll go see what this station has to offer. Good night, Lieutenant.” As he said this, he stood up from the barstool he had been sitting on, and made his way out of the bar, and out into the main part of the Promenade.

The Promenade was, to say the least, packed to full capacity. Sh’ill had to push whoever knows how many people just to get to the turbolift, and the lift wasn’t any better. The lift cabin was Starbase sized, wide, a lot of room for a lot of people. But in the evenings it would get quite packed, making breathing in it quite hard.

As Sh’ill got in, he quickly commanded the turbolift to head to deck 50.

Now at deck 50. Sh’ill got out of the less than comfortable lift, and walked through the corridors of the Starbase, on his way to his quarters.“I hope that they gave me something nice…” Sh’ill thought to himself. “And I hope it’s a nice bed…” Sh’ill walked, thinking to himself, with his head down, and while walking nearly hit his head on a wall.“I will have you removed from the station, know that… I should stop walking with my head down, now that I think about it. And I should get my head checked, because I am talking to a wall…” Sh’ill moved out of the way of the wall, and there they were, his quarters.

He headed inside, and almost immediately collapsed on the couch, exhausted from the long day.

Having awoken on the next day,  Sh’ill looked once more out at the stars, looking at one particularly small one: the star of his home system, Cait.

“Small, ain’t it. So far, yet so close.” Sh’ill thought, and walked to the replicator.

There, he  got himself some coffee, and sat down in one of the chairs of his temporary quarters, and looked upon them.

They weren’t much, certainly nothing fancy, but they were bigger than what he had on the Liris. Some chairs, a bed, a replicator slot, a plant in the corner and a small working area. Truly, not much, but it’s nice.

After quickly downing his coffee, he placed the empty cup on the table, and walked out of his quarters, hoping to have a look at how his ship was doing. He knew that there was a risk that he wouldn’t be allowed on his ship, but he would take that anyways.

He walked through the vast corridors of the station without seeing anyone, and into the turbolift, where he saw a familiar face.

The Bolian Ensign from before, Bok Xasin, was in the turbolift, making his way up the decks, supposedly to his next assignment. As he saw the Lieutenant Commander coming this way, the Ensign almost jumped in place, and immediately stood straight, right as Sh’ill entered into the turbolift, and entered the command for the Promenade.

Now in the turbolift, and making their way up to the Promenade, the Ensign slowly struck up conversation.

“How… are you liking your quarters, sir?” Xasin slowly started, and looked over at Sh’ill with a smile on his face.

“They’re alright.” Sh’ill quickly responded, clearly not enjoying Bok’s over-enthusiasm.

“Ah, that’s good, that’s good… What… uhm, are you planning to do today? As far as I’m aware, you’re here for a few days, sir.” The Bolian continued, but now with a little less enthusiasm, and in a more serious tone.

“I’m going to go see my ship, Ensign.” Sh’ill responded, now with a little bit of curiosity, since the Ensign had changed his tone, which had raised Sh’ill’s interest in the conversation just a slight bit.

“Ah, the.. USS Liris, if I’m not mistaken?” Bok quickly responded, clearly enjoying this conversation that he was having with someone who had two of those golden pips and one black pip.

“The same one, Ensign, the same one. Raven-class, she’s a good ship.” Sh’ill slowly turned to face the Ensign, and started to take more of an interest in what the Ensign was saying.“A bit over enthusiastic, this Ensign, “Sh’ill though to himself, ” but I get the feeling he’ll be a great officer one day.”“Yes, of course she is.” Bok quickly stated, right as the turbolift finally reached the Promenade, and Sh’ill stepped out.“Uh.. have a great day, Commander!” The Bolian quickly yelled out as the doors closed, and Sh’ill turned to look at the turbolift.

“Well, man has some manners, I can respect that.” Sh’ill thought to himself, and spun back around, his tail now calm, and he walked off, in the direction of the airlock.

Now at the airlock, Sh’ill walked to the LCARS console in the wall next to it, and entered the command to open up the airlock.“Access has been restricted due to dangerous materials present in the cargo bay,” the computer stated, “If you wish to enter, please call a security officer.”“Oh for fuck’s… I put them there, they aren’t dangerous!” Sh’ill thought to himself, and reluctantly tapped his combadge to call security, just so he could get into his ship.

“This is Lieutenant Commander Sh’ill to security. Come in.” Sh’ill quickly stated, and once more started talking in what would be considered a normal tone.

“This is Security,” came in the voice of Lieutenant Junior Grade Delvok, “how can I help you?”

Sh’ill immediately recognised the voice, but still continued in his “normal” tone. “I need someone down by the airlock, I want to get into my ship, see how she’s doing.” Sh’ill knew about the stupidity of his request, but he was still going to make it.

“There seems to be no one available at the moment, sir.” Sh’ill could hear the passive-aggressivness and discontent in Delvok’s voice, but the Caitian chose to ignore this.

“Understood. Sh’ill out.” Sh’ill closed the comms channel, and discontently, with his tail aggressively waving, walked away from the airlock.

Now on the Promenade, Sh’ill slowly walked through it, and looked at the various facilities of the Promenade. Shops, cafes, restaurants, this was a true orbital base, the gateway of the people of Aldebaron III to the galaxy.

Sh’ill noticed the sickbay, his home for a while, and looked at its doors for a while, and thought about how small his sickbay really was, but it was what was to be expected for a ship the size of the Liris.

After a while of looking at them, Sh’ill once more started to walk around the Promenade, and walked for hours, with nothing to do, immersed in his thoughts. 

Now in the evening, he heard a voice call out to him.“Ay, Commander! Commander!” Sh’ill looked up from the floor he had been staring at, and noticed the Lieutenant from yesterday, Erti Jatia, calling out to him from the second floor of some cafe.

Sh’ill looked up at her, and mildly smiled. ”Lieutenant, you could have just used the comms system, it’s perfectly good.” Sh’ill shouted back, and quickly used some stairs to get up to her level.

“True, I could have used it, but that’s not a lot of fun, now is it?” Jatia spoke to him with such lightness, such heart, that he was unable to resist sitting down at her table, where she had some Klingon coffee and some PADDs laid out.

“Yes, sometimes it isn’t.” Sh’ill responded, and locked his eyes with hers. “As I recall, Lieutenant, you bartend down at the bar, so what are you doing here?”

“Well, I do like to sometimes sit down with a coffee, and have a read. Bartending isn’t all I do in my spare time, you know.” Jatia laughed a bit, and looked at him. “So, what are you doing on the station?”

“Oh, uh… I’m here for some repairs and I’m waiting on my new crew.” Sh’ill stuttered a bit as he began speaking, which was very unlike him.

“Well, I was told a few days ago that I would be transferred, but they didn’t tell me exactly where I’d be going. Might even get onto your ship, big guy.” Jatia winked at him, and picked up one of the PADDs, and slowly took a sip of her coffee.

If Sh’ill didn’t have a very lush fur, Jatia could have seen him get flushed quite quickly as Jatia finished speaking about her transfer.“That’s… very nice, I hope you get a good posting, Lieutenant. I… uhh, I, however, have some matter to attend to.”Sh’ill quickly stood up after finishing, and quickly walked back down onto the Promenade, and into a turbolift.

Now back at his quarters, Sh’ill sat down in his bed, and started speaking to himself.“She’s nice, she’s nice… uhh..”Sh’ill laid down in his bed, and, while thinking about Jatia, slowly drifted off to sleep.

Having woken up on the last day of his time here, Sh’ill once more looked to the stars as he sat in bed, immobile, paralysed by the sudden beauty that had strucken him right as he woke up.

“I’m out here… on a piece of metal floating in nothing, and yet I’m alive.” Sh’ill thought, and slowly turned away, and got out of bed. This was his final day here, he’d get to meet his crew, he’d get to go aboard his ship finally, which by now had been rid of any Eka-Borg parts, at least Sh’ill hoped so.

And so Sh’ill quickly put on his uniform, packed up what little he had brought with him from the ship, and exited the quarters, while simultaneously logging that the quarters were now empty.

Sh’ill made his way through the station, onto the turbolift, which was, as always, full of people, to the promenade, right as he had done on the days prior. Now on the Promenade, he exited, together with about 10 people.

Here, on the Promenade, it seemed a busier day than usual, though Sh’ill noticed rather quickly that another Starfleet ship had docked, and many crew members were leaving to cafes, shops, etc. Sh’ill walked past many of them, and walked over to his ship’s airlock, Airlock 2, where significantly less people were, and Sh’ill didn’t feel like he was about  to be part of a stampede.

Sh’ill quickly input his access code to the ship, and entered into it, leaving the station behind for good.In the ship now, the Caitian took a bit of a breather, and leaned against the wall to take in his ship. The ship, even though cramped, now fully felt like home to him, now that he had had to leave it for a few days. After a few minutes of waiting, he entered into the turbolift, and shot up to the bridge.

Now on the bridge, he stepped out of the turbolift, and dropped his bag of clothes on the floor by the lift, and quickly sat down in his Captain’s chair. He was finally, truly, really back home, right where he belonged, on the bridge of the USS Liris.

“Right then, no point in wasting my time now that I’m back, I’ll call those crewmembers to the bridge.” With this, Sh’ill got up from the Captain’s chair, and walked over to the OPS console at the back of the bridge, with no chair by it. He pressed some subroutine activation commands into the LCARS console, and spoke up. “Computer, request station-wide channel access.”After a few seconds of waiting, the computer replied. “Access granted. Enter station-wide message into the OPS console for transmission.”Sh’ill didn’t hesitate, and quickly typed in: “New transfers to the USS Liris, please come to Airlock 2 on the Promenade, and come to the bridge of the ship.” He sent the message, and sat back down in his captain’s chair, waiting for the new transfers to enter.

After a few minutes, Sh’ill saw a notification that the airlock of the ship had been opened, and that 3 life signs had now boarded the ship, and were heading towards the turbolift. Sure enough, right after that, Sh’ill heard the slight woosh of the turbolift, and its doors opening to let the three onto the bridge.

Sh’ill turned to face them, and grabbed his PADD to see who the people were. But, as he looked up at all of them, he knew that the PADD was not necessary. There they all were, Lieutenant Erti Jatia, Lieuteant Junior Grade Delvok, and Ensign Bok Xasin, all lined up in front of the MSD. Sh’ill mildly smiled as he saw them all, and straightened his posture.“Welcome to the USS Liris. As you probably know, you have all been transferred here. Now, let’s see who you all shall be….” Sh’ill picked his PADD up, and looked down upon it.

Meanwhile, the transferees, all standing neatly in line, could almost hear each others thoughts, thought they didn’t know that all of them had met Sh’ill before.Jatia was fighting a hard battle to keep herself from blushing and laughing, and thought to herself. “Well, what are the odds that I’d end up on one ship with cat man? He is a bit cute… but he is my Captain now, I should respect him.”Meanwhile, the Bolian Ensign couldn’t seem to hold his excitement, and had a smile up to his ears. “Ooooh, this looks like a promising ship, I wonder what my quarters and assignment will be…”

Back to Sh’ill, at least for the moment. He read out from the PADD, and looked at each of his new crew members as they were called out.“Lieutenant Erti Jatia… XO and science officer. In my office after this.”“Next we have Lieutenant Junior Grade Delvok, Chief Security Officer. Go check our weapons after this, make sure they’re up to scratch.”“And finally.. Ensign Bok Xasin, Chief Engineer and when possible, Chief Helmsman. Go check on the warp core right after. Right, everyone got that?”Sh’ill looked over the three of them, and nodded after a few seconds.“Great. Now, in my office. The rest of you, you’ve got your jobs, now make sure not to disappoint me or the guy who made this list.”Sh’ill nodded at them all, and walked into the hallway at the back of the bridge, and into the briefing room.

Jatia watched the two junior officers leave, and she took a quick look around the bridge of the ship. True, it wasn’t big, but it was cosy and warm, just as the Captain liked it, and just as most people who had served on a Raven liked it. After a look around, she followed the Captain into the hallway, and into the briefing room, where Sh’ill was sitting with his feet on the desk, but he quickly put them down right as the Lieutenant entered.

“Now, Lieutenant… you’re my new XO, and also my Chief Science Officer. I had not… expected that your prediction for your transfer would be quite so accurate.” Sh’ill was trying his best to keep his composure right now, but he felt like he was about to both laugh, cry, and smash his table in anger.

“Captain,” Erti began, “I can tell very well that you like me, but I do think that you should wait at least until we are out of dock before you drop on one knee and offer your eternal love to me.” She mildly smiled, and turned in the chair in which she had sat down, half making fun of the cat man, and half serious.

“I, uhm.. look, I called you in here to discuss some other things, not the fact that I do like you. I called you here to talk about our crew, and the fact that our Chief Engineer is also our helmsman, the fact that I am not only the Captain, but also, as is stated in that manifest, the Chief Medical Officer, and Delvok is without a security team.””I was thinking about that, and wanted to hear your thoughts as the XO.” Sh’ill leaned back in his chair as he finished, and looked his XO in the eyes.

“As you say. As for the crew issue, Starfleet is already stretched thin, I don’t think that they’d be able to give us much even if we asked and told them we need more crew immediately. Besides, the ship is small, I don’t think that we’d be able to fit many more people in here.” Jatia smiled as she began, but switched to a poker face as she continued to speak.

“Good point, Lieutenant.” Sh’ill spoke up. “And I guess I have to agree. Now, in your capacity as the Chief Science Officer, you have access to all the labs on Deck 3, just make sure to not blow anything up. Okay?” Sh’ill roughly smiled, and slumped forward in his chair.

“I’ll try not to.” Jatia winked. “But my work doesn’t usually blow up, so I don’t think that’s a risk, big man.” Jatia teased, and slowly stood up.

“I’ll take your word on that, Lieutenant, make sure that I don’t have to tell Starfleet why half of my aft is missing. Now, if there’s nothing else, you’re dismissed, Lieutenant.” Sh’ill stood up, and looked Jatia up and down, measuring her up. “And make sure that the crew come in for their physicals, I can’t do shit with the records that those two have.”

Erti smiled, and turned to exit. “I’ll make sure to remind them, Commander.” With that, she opened the door, and left, leaving Sh’ill alone in his office.

While this conversation was going on, Delvok and Bok had descended one deck, and were doing their duty, checking up on the weapons and the warp core, respectively.

Bok was extremely excited, he was practically in heaven with his overflow of ecstasy. After all, an Ensign had just been made Chief Engineer of a starship. True, it’s a small ship, with a small core, but it was still his warp core, and he would do his best to take care of it.

Bok glided across the Engineering room, checking up on everything with extreme care, noting down everything that was even the tiniest bit off.

Meanwhile, Delvok was a little less enthusiastic about his work, but he was still taking care to do it well.“It is quite strange,” Delvok thought to himself, “that I, a Lieutenant Junior Grade, would be made Chief Security Officer of a starship, and it is even stranger that an Ensign would be made Chief Engineer. Of course, seeing as he is the Chief Engineer, I have no doubts about his competency to do his job excellently, but it is still strange.”Delvok was quietly working, going through the small weapons bay, making sure that every phaser, every torpedo, every phaser battery was where it was supposed to be, perfectly positioned.

After completing their work, the two junior officers walked to the turbolift, one of them much more carefully than the other.Right as Xasin was about to crash into Delvok, the Vulcan quickly stopped him, and made him settle down for a moment.“Ensign, are you subject to any disorders that makes you lose control of your body? Because it would seem to me that you are acting quite strangely.” Delvok slowly stated, and turned to face the Ensign as they both entered into the turbolift.

“No, no, Lieutenant, I am just… ecstatic about getting this position, about serving under our Captain. He seems like a good Captain, I told myself that: “You know, he’d make a good Captain!”, and right after that, wham! I’m serving under him. Isn’t that crazy?” Bok asked the Vulcan as they were making their way down the hall, and nearing their quarters.“Yes, it is most definitely… crazy, Ensign. I will now meditate. Goodbye.” With that, Delvok entered into his quarters, leaving the Ensign alone in the hallway. Now alone, the Ensign looked around, and decided to get to the bridge, and do his duty as the helmsman of the ship.

Sh’ill, while this was going on, had walked to the bridge, and was at present waiting for his helmsman to arrive so that they could get underway. Right as the Bolian walked in, Sh’ill turned in his chair to face him. Sh’ill wasn’t sitting up in the best way, holding his head up with his arm, which itself was being held in place by his knee.

“Ah, Ensign, now it’s time for you to show me how good of a helmsman you are. Please, take your station.” Sh’ill nodded towards the Ensign, and then towards the helm.

The Ensign now looked as if he had just opened a chest of gold, and it was enlighting his face. He quickly jogged across the small bridge, and carefully sat down at the helm, as if he was sitting down on a freshly made bed.

The Ensign then turned to Sh’ill, and asked. “Captain, where to?” With that, he smiled, and inadvertently made Sh’ill smile.

“Well, Ensign, as per our orders, to the Barzan wormhole. Disengage from the station.”The Ensign had already turned to the helm, and talked into a fresh comms channel. “Aldebaron III station OPS, request permission to disengage from station.”OPS was quick to respond. “Confirmed. Permission granted. Good luck, Liris.”

The Ensign very gracefully took the ship out of the station, and turned it to face the direction they would need to go.“Captain, permission to engage?”Sh’ill properly sat up, and placed his arms on the armrests, making himself look very nice. “Confirmed. Let’s get it on.”