Cadet T’Ven walked into the female berthing that she shared with the other cadets aboard the USS Pulsar, the space softly humming with energy even though the duty day had ended a good while ago. Cadet Jaya Rixx was primarily responsible for the still heightened sense of energy, her lithe form bounding from bunk to bunk as she made small talk with the other girls in the bay. When she caught sight of the Vulcan, Jaya hurried over like a duckling that had just spotted their mother.

“Is everyone alright?” Rixx asked in a soft tone.

“They are,” T’Ven nodded curtly and continued toward her bunk. Jaya followed closely behind her, flopping down on one of the empty beds slightly forward of T’Ven’s. The ensuing staring contest between Jaya and T’Ven’s back slowly began to wear the Vulcan girl’s nerves rather thin as she struggled to get herself ready to sleep.

“Did you need something else?” T’Ven finally asked, turning to face the Trill.

“Just waiting to hear the rest,” Rixx said with a smile, as if her previous fascination with the Vulcan’s back had disappeared from her memory completely.

“The rest of what?” T’Ven asked, her voice just a half octave lower than normal.

Jaya rested her head in her hands as she kicked her feet absentmindedly on the bed she was perched on, “About how everything is with your family. We’re all worried about you, you know.”

“I’m not,” Cadet Sella Zh’Ranni grumbled from her own bunk.

“Like I said,” Rixx said with a broad grin, “We’re all worried about you and we want to make sure everything is okay. You are our friend, after all.”

“Friends…” T’Ven repeated the word with just enough distance that it felt like disdain, “To satisfy your curiosity, Miss Rixx… My family is uninjured and the task of repairing what was damaged has been completed to a satisfactory degree.”

“Oh good,” Jaya said, rolling onto her back, “I was hoping everyone was alright. So I guess that’s why you’re already back, then. Milani was saying you might be down there a few more days for, you know, family time.”

“I was recalled to the ship by the Command Hologram. With our departure set for tomorrow morning, I had no further time to invest in familial concerns,” T’Ven said flatly.

“Yeah… that makes sense I guess…” Rixx said before sitting bolt upright and turning to the Vulcan, “Did you say we’re leaving tomorrow? When did this happen?! I didn’t hear anything out it. Did anyone else hear about this?”

An almost bored ‘nope’ came from Sella’s bunk, while the other girls in the room just shook their heads at the question. Jaya frowned at the responses and looked back toward T’Ven with a more serious look, “Did you hear where we’re going?”

“Only that we are to depart. I was not given a more expansive briefing on the subject,” the Vulcan remarked as she folded the uniform she had taken off to place it neatly back in her locker.

“Aren’t you a department head, though? Shouldn’t you at least get told something?” Rixx pushed.

“I am merely acting in such a capacity, Miss Rixx, and only because our ship does not have a science-oriented hologram to fill in that function. It would be illogical to assume that a temporary appointment carries the same level of disclosure as a permanent one,” T’Ven said as she closed her locker and walked over to her own bunk.

“Guess we’ll just have to see where we’re going tomorrow…” Jaya said with a disappointed tone.

The following morning brought with it a rush of energy. Thanks to Cadet Rixx, the entire cadet crew now knew that they were leaving the Vulcan system. But because of how little she had to offer in the way of details, they were all still in the dark about where they were going and why. It instilled in all of them, save perhaps Cadet T’Ven, a sense of nervous anticipation as they each reported to their stations throughout the small ship.

Cadets Rixx, Zh’Ranni, and T’Ven reported to the bridge to find their Captain, Ensign Corwin Adler, already sitting in the center chair, with the Emergency Command Hologram taking up the station just a bit forward and to the right of the Ensign’s chair. The three cadets moved quickly to their respective stations and began checking their stations to ensure that they were ready for what was no doubt to come.

“Cadet Rixx,” Adler said, his voice a bit firmer than it had been in recent days, “Set a course for Starbase 11.”

“Starbase 11,” Jaya parroted the destination’s name, “Aye sir.” She pulled up the navigational charts on her console, running a search for the station the Ensign had called out. It took a few beats longer than it might have for a more experienced helmsman to do it, but she managed it well enough for her first time hunting a place that wasn’t within their immediate sensor range.

“Course plotted and laid in, Captain,” she announced.

“Engage at standard cruising speed for Federation space,” Corwin ordered.

Jaya set their speed parameters and activated the warp engines, catapulting the ship forward at superluminal speeds. Once the ship was traveling at the proper velocity for routine flights through Federation space, Rixx turned in her seat to look toward her Captain.

“Sir,” she asked, obviously curious, “What exactly is our mission, if I may ask?”

“Currently, we are reporting to the starbase that will serve as our home port, Cadet,” the ECH remarked in place of the Ensign.

“Oh,” Jaya said with a mixture of understanding and confusion, “So we… don’t have a mission?”

The hologram let out a tired sigh, “Getting to our destination is part of our mission, Cadet. Simply because there isn’t some grand objective to accomplish once we get there, it doesn’t negate the importance of the act itself. I can assure you, from personal experience, that even the most mundane task can develop into something unexpected and grand.”

“Huh…” the Trill muttered, “I never thought of it like that. Neat.” Having understood something seemingly profound, the cadet swiveled back to face toward the front of the bridge. T’Ven raised a quizzical eyebrow at her behavior, while Sella just shook her head as if she had long given up on trying to figure the Trill out. For his part, Ensign Adler just shrugged and leaned back in his chair to review the reports that had come in from the Engineering hologram the previous night.