Prologue
Capt. Myst
Cmdr. Ivanof
Lt. Daem
Lt. O'Roarke
Lt.J.G. Travin
Lt.J.G. McInnis


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Capt. Myst

{Utopia Planitia Ship Yards, 2376}

It had only been a few days, but in that short amount of time everything had changed. Less than a week ago the U.S.S. Griffin had arrived right on schedule at the ship yards. Within hours she was in dry dock. Now she was almost completely empty...

Priscilla walked a darkened corridor alone. In the still silence she could actually hear her boots strike the carpeted deck. There was no longer the usual low hum of the engines present to cover her light steps. There was no longer the usual hustle and bustle of on duty crew and civilians alike. Everyone was gone. Everything had been shut down. The ship was no longer surviving under her own power, she was completely being supported by the station she was now hard wired to for her overhaul.

The Griffin felt different to Priscilla, almost eerie. She had never been the only one on board. If she had have had the full telepathic abilities of her Betazoid heritage, or even active empathic abilities, she might have felt the emptiness on a whole other level, and been very uneasy about it. Instead she was uncomfortable in that way social butterflies get when they know there is no one within any reasonable distance. It was her own fault though. She had asked for this time. Soon the refit team would be coming on board. Before they began the estimated year long process that would transform the U.S.S. Griffin from the ship she had simply served on into her ship, she wanted to say good-bye on her own terms.

It probably sounded strange. After all, she had been promoted to the rank of Captain and given the Griffin as her first command, pending it's completed overhaul. But there were too many changes for Priscilla to be able to think of the transition as anything less than a completely new life. She had served as the Griffin's First Officer for six years. During that time she had come to know more than every detail of the ship, she had come to know the community that had existed on it. Every officer, every family, she had met and greeted everyone who had lived on it at least once. She had been at every performance given on the ship, even in a few herself. She had seen every presentation. She had attended every marriage, every graduation, greeted every birth, and congratulated every promotion in the last six years. She had watched not just the children grow up, but whole families grow and change. She was even there to offer condolences, or a sympathetic ear, or a shoulder when bad news struck, every time.

Now everything was going to be different. Captain Robert Christopher had decided to let his retirement coincide with the Griffin's long overdue refit. A refit which would come close to gutting the ship and rebuilding it with all the latest upgrades and technology. With the estimated length of time the Griffin was to be out of service, all the officers took reassignments to other ships or went ahead with new career or family plans. And since no one would be able to live on the ship, it seemed all the civilians followed suit. The command structure would be different, the ship itself would be different, and all the people would be different. Everything of the last six years of Priscilla's life was changing and leaving. She would miss her friends the most.

As she passed the classrooms, Priscilla realized she would miss the children most.

As she passed the ten forward lounge, Priscilla realized she would miss the crew the most.

As she stepped onto the ladder from deck 2 to deck 1 (the turbolifts were offline), Priscilla realized she would miss everyone pretty equally. They had been part of her career and life for six wonderful years, and she was finding it hard to let go. But she would let go. She was disciplined enough to know just how to do so, when she wanted to be ready to let go. That's what this tour had been for, to allow her time alone with her thoughts and feelings so she could work through them and give all a proper farewell before letting go. And now that she was standing on the bridge, her long walk down memory lane was at an end. She took a final moment to sit in the chair at her former station. The next time she was on this bridge, she would be sitting a few feet to her immediate left.

She could handle that.

Priscilla smiled before slowly rising to her feet. She reached up and tapped her communicator. Her voice shattered the moment.

"Griffin to Ship Yard Transporter Room," she said.

"Transporter Room here," a voice replied.

"One to beam over," Priscilla requested. She suddenly didn't feel up to the manuel journey.

"Just a minute," the voice said.

"Acknowledged."

Her poor aching feet! Priscilla's journey had been a very long one. She had been so lost in thought and emotion she hadn't noticed how much of a toll she was taking on her body. She needed to sleep she decided.

(So much for beginning to try and fill staff positions today,) she thought to herself. (Ah well, what's one day? I have an entire year to fill the crew roster,) she reasoned.

Her musings were interrupted by a faint humming sound and a familiar tingle. A moment later the white shimmering of the transporter faded, leaving the Griffin to rest for once in solitude.

**********************************************************

{Two days later}

Priscilla walked around the side of the desk in her temporary quarters in Utopia Planitia. She blew across the top of the mug of steaming green tea. (Still too hot to drink,) she thought. She could have ordered the replicator to make the tea cooler, but she enjoyed cupping the mug and letting it warm her hands for a few minutes before she drank it. She just seemed to wake up better with a mug of piping hot green tea.

Priscilla carefully set down her mug as she eased into her seat. She looked at the console before her and sighed. As soon as she tapped it on an indicator flashed letting her know she had a message waiting. She immediately called it up, expecting it to be from her sister, hoping it was from her husband. It was from neither. She quickly read through the short message. By the end she was smiling. The message was from eight year old Eliza Hantwean on behalf of her family, requesting their former quarters be reserved for the family's return to the Griffin.

She had almost no time to enjoy the moment, knowing that one of her families would be staying on with her, when another message arrived. This one was from Lt. Jaquelle Daem, one of the Griffin's former officers. She opened it and found a request and application for the position of ship's Counselor. Priscilla quickly scanned the Lt.'s service record. She knew Lt. Daem was a good officer with some medical experience, she recalled seeing Lt. Daem in Sickbay every time there was an emergency. But she wasn't in the medical field, so Priscilla was a bit surprised to discover the Lt. had medical training in psychology as well. Her application was impressive, having been trained and having previous experience as a counselor, along with command training and experience as an officer. The added bonus that Lt. Daem was from the Griffin's last crew sealed it. Priscilla approved the request. With that act, she also had her first filled position.

Priscilla leaned back in her chair. Not everyone was leaving! While she was looking forward to her first command, and working with and getting to know an entire new crew, she felt a lot better now knowing there would be some familiar faces. She reached for her mug and took a slow sip. The tea was just the right temperature. It was going to be a good day...

Then the screen flashed once again, announcing another message. This one was from Starfleet Command. Priscilla sat up and opened the message. It was another short, to the point one. Once the ship was finished, the Griffin was to be assigned to the Special Operations Division of the Independence Fleet. Priscilla had heard of that division, it was formed of those ships that were called upon when special military operations needed to be undertaken. Priscilla was honored by the assignment, but she immediately realized the repercussions of it. She set her mug down and leaned forward. She suddenly had a lot more work to do. The re-design of the Griffin would have to be re-designed yet again to accommodate the special equipment she would now be getting. And with children and families on the ship, Priscilla began to worry if they would be safe enough, since the ship could routinely find itself in battle without a moment's notice. She would want to change some plans to make better accommodations for their safety. All this meant setting up meetings with the design team, and doing so fast, as the refit crew was already on the Griffin starting their work.


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Cmdr. Ivanof

The doors swished open into a black room on board the USS Griffin. Yuri had a box in his hands and had been sure he had left the lights on, as he had been moving his belongings in all afternoon. The star field out the window was partially obscured by an arm of the Utopia Planetia Ship yard’s construction scaffold. He could see well enough to get the box onto the desk, then he heard the voices raise in a loud “Surprise!” as the lights came up. Startled, and nearly dropping the box, he turned in shock as he saw the grins on about a dozen faces of the refit team he had been working with over the last 3 months. Behind them in the 'living room' of his quarters he saw a large "Good Luck!" banner.

"You didn’t think you were gonna get out of here without saying goodbye to all of us kids did you?" It was Lt. Michelson. Yuri admitted that he liked the man, but this was a little ridiculous. He was a private person and he was not the man to carouse with the junior officers. But he knew he was caught. They had orchestrated their plan very well, and he was caught.

"Lieutenant did you set this party up?" Ivanof said gruffly.

The cheers died down and most of the smiles went away. Lt. Michelson was one of those who stopped smiling.

'Y-yes sir. We wanted to give you the proper send off, considering this is our last day on board and the regular crew comes on tomorrow. We thought you would like it, sir." Yuri inwardly smiled, knowing he had gotten his younger officer off balance. He figured the rest of his cohorts, who were either shifting from foot to foot or looking towards the door considering escape, were thinking they would be crawling through conduits for the rest of their careers. He decided to let them off the hook and rewarded them with a smile.

"I Do. Thank you Lieutenant," Ivanof said. This caused a collective sigh of relief, which rustled hairlines and calmed nerves. "Thank you all. I have been proud to work next to each of you, and I can see that Starfleet’s ships are well cared for."

"Hear-hear," said a deep baritone from behind Yuri. He turned to see the face of station Captain Chavez.

"Captain Chavez. Thank you for coming to this little ‘get together’ for Commander Ivanof," said Lt. Michelson.

"I wouldn’t have missed it. Commander, are you sure you won’t stay on Utopia in an official capacity. I think I’ll lose a lot of the discipline you’ve reinforced in these officers," Chavez said taking a drink handed to him by Michelson.

"Captain, the only discipline I’ve reinforced was there already. Instilled by a fair and wise Captain, sir," Ivanof responded raising his glass to Chavez.

"Hear-hear!" repeated the crew, who raised their glasses to both Ivanof and Chavez.

Conversation continued for another hour and then people began to depart Ivanof's quarters. Commander Ivanoff was relieved. He enjoyed his privacy, and he still had to go home once more to say goodbye to his parents. He took one stroll back across the gangway gantry to the main part of the station. Then a planetary transport to his parents section of the Planetia station. Then a 5 minute walk and he was home. He pressed the door chime and waited.

A few moments later the door slid open and the smiling face of his mother greeted him.

"Hello Yuri. Come in. "

Yuri entered his parent's quarters and surveyed the room. Smells of his favorite food, beef Stroganoff, came from the kitchen. Yuri's parents had asked for years to have a kitchen module added to their quarters. Yuri's mother Elena has a definitive passion for cooking. Starfleet decided if it was to keep it's two best computer specialists happy they should comply and eventually a kitchen was added.

"Dinner should be ready in a few minutes."

"Thanks mom. Where's Dad?" Yuri asked.

"Where else? The study. He's going over schematics for the new J-series Isolinear/Gelpack Transfer system. We're trying to incorporate a 'Best of Both Worlds' system for translating Gelpack Technology into Isolinear. I think this system should do it." Elena said stirring the Stroganoff sauce.

"When do you expect to start testing?" Yuri asked.

"Probably a few months from now. This should allow us to replace an Isolinear core with a Gelpack one without having to replace every access terminal on the ship. Computing speeds should be comparable to a full gel system if not as fast."

"Starfleet will be glad to hear that." Yuri said.

A moment of silence passed between mother and son. She stirred the beef and broth a bit more before announcing dinner was ready. Yuri ladled out noodles onto plates and passed them to Elena. She then added a portion of the stroganoff sauce. They entered the dining room as Yuri's father Gabriel entered from the study.

"Yuri! I wasn't sure you'd have time for another visit before the Griffin left." Gabriel said smiling.

"I wasn't going to miss my last home cooked meal. How goes the work?" Yuri asked.

"Slowly I'm afraid. These schematics for the J-series have some serious issues. Those rachet headed fools in Starfleet Engineering have no idea of the difficulty in transferring Isolinear to Gelpack. They basically took every concept your mother and I ever created and threw them out the window without realizing that those concepts made it very easy to make a Gelpack core compatible with an Isolinear terminal. So now Starfleet command comes back to the people who had already fixed the problem. Your mother and I! I'm sure we'll figure out a way to make the J-series work before Starfleet initiates a fleet wide overhaul and log jamming every spacedock and maintenance facility from here to the delta quadrant. Those fools don't understand the concept of modularization. Instead of a year to strip then reintegrate an Isolinear system with a Gel system, they could take one month to pull one core and implant the new one."

"So," Yuri interrupted his father's rant. "Business as usual."

"Yes, Yes. Enough shop talk. How are the final refit diagnostics going?" Gabriel asked.

"Final diagnostics were run yesterday and work crews submitted final reports this morning. I was greeted this evening by a surprise going away party from Captain Chavez and some others. Captain Myst is due to come on board sometime tomorrow." Yuri said.

"So are you staying here tonight or are you going to try to settle in on board." Elena asked.

"I'll be staying on board tonight and then supervising the crews re-embarkation. I expect Captain Myst will be one of the first ones on board."

"Well my Son. To your new posting," Yuri's father said, raising a glass. "May it bring you where you wish."

"Thanks Dad." Yuri replied.

The meal concluded quietly and soon Yuri was back on board the Griffin. He decided he would take a look around his new and fully completed home.

His first stop was in Main Engineering. As the ship was in spacedock, the warp core was dark and silent. The few systems that were operational were powered by Utopia's umbilacles. He stopped at the main engineering station and showed the all green of the ship board diagnostics.

From there he traveled to the Main Bridge. The viewscreen was on and showed Mars behind the construction gantries which hugged the ship. Conn showed Griffin was at station keeping and that all personell had left the ship, save himself. He sat at conn for sveral minutes and oriented himself with with the flight controls. Griffin had the same controls as every other ship, but yuri had to know the ships he was stationed on. He had taken a flight shift on every starship he had been stationed. Yuri Loved Flying. He reminded himself that it was unorthadox for a first officer to take helm control, but he decided it was a "Commanders Perogative". He stayed a few minutes more then traveled to the computer core.

As the doors slid open and Yuri was bathed in the blue glow of the gelpack chambers. Ten large chambers filled the computing fluid stood in a tight cluster. All across them were various flits of light as station terminals accessed Griffin's databanks and continued to monitor. He saw his parents in every glimmer and ripple in the gelatin. He stood a few moments more then returned to his quarters.

"Computer. Are you fully active?" he asked into the air.

"Affirmative." replied the computer in it's standardized female voice.

"Good. Begin new directory for Commander Yuri Ivanof, First officer. New File. First Officers Log."

"File type?" asked the computer.

"Journal. Begin First entry. Stardate 950188.3. I am the first occupant on the Starship Griffin after her refit. I am looking foreward to this new assignment. I look foreward to meeting Captain Myst in the morning. I look foreward to seeing if I'm ready for this position. I look foreward to proving myself and helping make this ship a distinguished member of Starfleet. The crew begins to come on board at oh-seven hundred tomorrow morning. I will be here to greet them. End entry."


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Lt. Daem

She bolted out of bed, "lights" she called out forcefully. The lights immediately came on full. Her gaze was intense, but more importantly her senses were on full awareness. It was her quarters aboard the Griffin. She could sense no other presence in the room yet could feel the emotions of hundreds of others aboard. She slowly raised the barriers in her mind to block them out. Being half Betazoid she almost never let those barriers down. Yet right now, in this place so familiar, she sensed something beyond her Betazoid abilities.

Jaquelle quickly put on her uniform, arranged her hair so as not to look as disheveled as she felt. She left her quarters not quite sure where she was going. As she made herself to the turbo lift, there were very few people in the corridors of this Galaxy Class star ship. Understandable, since it was the night shift.

As the turbo lift doors closed:

"Bridge" she said. Then just as quickly:

"No, belay that."

There was really nothing she could report to anyone, it was just her internal sense that things were not right. It was as if she was inappropriately in this space. Yet this was the ship she had opted to be assigned to as a Lieutenant, jg.

"Sick Bay" she ordered. That was where she needed to be, she thought.

As Jaquelle walked into sick bay the nurse on duty looked casually up from her console.

"Well, good evening Dr. Daem, what brings you here at this time?"

That's what they called her whenever she went into sick bay, "Dr. Daem." Indeed she was a medical doctor trained at Starfleet Medical, but she was also trained at Starfleet Academy. After her interning in psychiatry and some counseling work on a space station, she longed for a space assignment, but there were no positions open for a ship's counselor. So she took this assignment as a junior command officer for the experience.

The choice had been a good one, not only for her, but the ship. Along with her normal duties, whenever there was a mass medical emergency the chief medical officer would call on her for help. Jaquelle was always glad to oblige and had developed a rather warm relationship with the medical staff.

"I couldn't sleep and had some research I wanted to follow up on. I'll use station three and keep out of the way." Jaquelle responded.

"Oh, well use whatever station you like, it's awful quiet here tonight. If you need any help, I can always use an interesting distraction," came the answer.

Jaquelle smoothly made here way to station three, the most secluded station. She checked the working status of the ship, all was fine. She checked to see if there were any strange anomalies encountered in the last few hours...nothing. But she still could not shake the odd feeling.

Then she noticed a name she did not recognize had logged in the bridge reports of the last few hours. Although it was a large ship, she really did believe that she knew all the bridge command personnel. And they hadn't taken on any new people in the last few months because they were on their way to Mars to the Utopia Planitia Fleet yards in orbit to have the entire ship refitted. That was going to take months so what use would it be to bring on new people now? Without thinking she attempt to access the personnel files to find out who this person was. Of course the computer stopped her.

"Access code" came the cool electronic voice of the computer.

Without thinking or hesitation Jaquelle provided the code. Instantly before her came all the personnel files. It was a surprise to her. She should not have been able to do that. Medical files maybe. And where did that code come from? How did she know what to put in?

She stared at the screen for a long minute. Now she was sure that she was not in her proper environment.

"Well, in for a penny in for a pound," she thought. She opened the bridge crew file. The first entry startled her, Captain Myst. She was not captain on the Griffin. She was the first officer. Jaquelle opened her own file and focused on the assignment: Ship's Counselor. This entry was unsettling. Jaquelle had always been cautious about that. This ship had a counselor and it was not her. Unlike sick bay, where she was welcome, she had never been called on to help, even in a consultant capacity, by the ship's counselor. She constantly made sure that she did nothing to even appear to impinge on the area of the ship's counselor.

"Okay, a pound is enough," she thought. She quickly closed the files.

Jaquelle left sickbay unsure of what to do next. Should she wake the captain in the middle of the night? Was this a danger to the ship or just her? Was it a danger at all?

Making her way back to her cabin she remembered an important fact. The Captain of this ship was one quarter Betazoid. While she did not have the empathic powers that Jaquelle had, in times of eminent danger, she too would at least have some sense of a problem. Had the ship been in danger, presumably she too would have at least been startled from her sleep.

Jaquelle had made very sure that she never attempted to access Commander Myst's telepathic ability, and despite how important it seemed, she was not going to start now. Instead when she got to her cabin:

"Computer, where is Commander Myst?"

"Captain Myst is in her quarters" the computer responded.

"Good," thought Jaquelle, "if she had sensed a problem she would have been on the bridge by now."

But that did not solve Jaquelle's problem.

Jaquelle searched her mind for the next few hours. There was no answer to her problem. All she kept coming back to was her Father. He was her confidant. He always seemed to know what she was thinking and how to help. Of course he was full Betazoid.

Jaquelle stopped and realized that this was really in her Mother's area. She was El- Aurian and had this uncanny ability when it came to temporal issues. But Mother was not frequently at home. She studied other civilizations, often without them knowing. And because she had lived so long she had become a valued historian to many of the civilizations she had spied upon. She was constantly in demand, even when Jaquelle was a small child. Jaquelle knew she was not at home in her space continuum, but may be here.

"Computer, open a channel to my home." The computer established a link, but there was no answer. Jaquelle sent a message to her mother to respond to her immediately on receiving the message. Emergency seemed like such an insufficient phrase, but she knew it would get the job done.

Jaquelle broke the link and started to pace. But within minutes her solitude was broken.

"Counselor Jaquelle, you have an emergency communication coming in on a secured channel," came the voice from the bridge.

"Please route it to my personal console." She wasn't as surprise by being called "Counselor Jaquelle" as she might have been. That is what they called her during her counseling days on the space station.

Jaquelle was relieved to see her mother appear. But there was no relief on her mother's face. Jaquelle quickly tried to relieve her mother's concern.

"First of all, I am fine Mother..." she started to say, but her mother interrupted.

"No, you are not. You are not where you belong."

Jaquelle was partially relieved but a bit astonished that her mother already sensed the problem. Jaquelle went on to discuss all she had experienced.

"Well," her mother said, "there is only one thing to do. You must go back to the area of space where you were the moment before you awoke in the wrong place."

"Of course I've thought about that over and over again" she sighed. "But I've studied all the sensors from that space and there is nothing there."

"You obviously have to go there and hope that your senses are different from the ship's computer, I suspect they are," insisted her mother.

"Even if you are right, how do I get there. I can't just have the captain turn the ship around, or steal a shuttle craft," Jaquelle lamented.

"No but you can talk to your captain about a shuttle craft. She is part Betazoid and will sense your dire dilemma if you use your abilities. Clearly if going back doesn't work, the ship is only on it's way to Mars and you can catch up," her mother suggested.

Jaquelle spent the rest of the night thinking about her mother's advise. She could find no other options. The next day, the talk with the captain was surprisingly easy.

*****************************************************

Jaquelle approached the coordinates. Still the shuttle sensors showed nothing. She sensed nothing, nothing but herself. Herself. She sensed herself but not in the shuttle. She used her abilities and followed the direction they took her.

*****************************************************

Jaquelle awoke to the light of the sun coming up over Betazed. She had programmed the computer in her cabin to awaken her the way she had always awakened while growing up. She also made sure she had leisure time before her bridge shift. She checked her messages and was mildly surprised to find one from her mother. It was a simple request for her to respond. So she did.

"Mother," Jaquelle said, "I'm surprised." Her mother looked more serious than usual.

"How are you, dear?" answered Jaquelle's mother.

"I'm fine," she said cautiously. "Obviously there is something I am missing."

"Jaquelle, look into yourself," was all she said.

Jaquelle concentrated for minutes. Her mother waited patiently. After all, what she does best is listen.

"I'm going to be counselor of this ship. I've experienced it somehow. But how did you know?" Jaquelle asked her mother.

"My dear, someday you will understand," was all she said.


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Lt. O'Roarke

{USS Sandihote}

Marina grabbed her duffel bag and one of her plants up off the floor and glanced around at the quarters she had called home for the last 3 years. She would miss them. She looked at the chair where she had sat down and cried every time she lost a patient. She looked at the couch, where she had curled up with so many books. There were bare places on the walls were her pictures and posters had once hung. Only one was left, the one He had given her. That she would leave. He was the reason she was leaving. She pushed the thoughts and memories from her mind. They were still too painful and she was still too angry. She was taking accumulated vacation time until she could be reassigned. She was going back to her Real home. She turned and walked out of the room without looking back.


{Mariposian Colony}

Marina walked through the same hallways she had before, almost 10 years to the day from the first time she had. Back then she had been a skinny little kid who didn't know anything, who didn't even know how to properly spell her name or what the stars were really made of. She looked around at her surroundings. When she and her parents had first come here the walls had been a cold, surgical, impersonal white. Now they were covered in pictures and colorful weavings and historic documents. It was a startling change and a visable symbol of the new life the Bringloidi colonist had infused into the Marsiponian clones. She walked out of another door and towards a house off with a cluster of other houses in the distance.

She walked up to the back yard, and saw an older man standing over a pig stall. He turned, saw her, and walked towards her. "Marina," he said, taking the hat off his head and holding in his hands. "I dinna know you were coming. Sure am glad to see you though," her third father, Jeorge, said. When they had first moved to this colony and her mother had taken her two other husbands, Marina had found it odd to deal with, but now she actually liked her odd family. She and Jeorge walked into the house and were bombarded by the rest of the family. Her mother was standing with her 14 year old brother, Jason, at the stove, teaching him to cook. It was her mother's philosophy that on a world were women could have 3 husbands why shouldn't a boy know how to cook? As soon as her mother, siblings, and fathers saw her they started hugging her and talking all at once. "Marina, girl," her biological father, Heath, said, "What are you doing here?"

"I have come for a little visit," she said.


{11 months later}

Marina shouldered her bag and hugged everyone goodbye. Last week she had recieved her new assignment to the USS Griffin, under Captain Priscilla Myst. After a few more tearful moments she got on the transporter pad and was beamed up to her transport. She would travel for three days to her New home. While she would miss her family, at that moment she missed space and work more. She had volunterred at the local clinic, but she missed full time work. A new life and a new job awaited her. The PADD in her hand beeped, and when she looked down at the sender name and saw it was from Him, she realized it was another letter that would be left un opened. Even on the way to a New life, the past wouldn't leave her alone. She sighed, and leaned against the wall. Things would move on, they had to.


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Lt.J.G. Travin

{Utopia Planitia Bar, 2376}

Rinali gave the crowded bar a quick once over as she stepped through the doorway. The bar was crowded with patrons of all species but there didn't seem to be any other Betazoids at the moment. Rinali gave a satisfied nod and strode to a table in the corner. She placed an order with the bartender and settled quietly into the secluded seat.

Rinali was tired. She had been tired for the past three days, but there wasn't much she could do about it. A transfer to a new ship was serious business and Rinali took it as such. Her journey to Utopia Planitia and her subsequent stay there had consisted mainly of study. There were schematics to look over, tactics to study, histories to read. Any time left over was devoted to training; she couldn't slack off on that just because she wasn't settled at the moment. And of course, she had to learn where everything was on Utopia Planitia, which seemed to be a huge maze of corridors, all of which looked pretty much the same.

A young Ferengi pushed his way through the considerable crowd and handed Rinali her drink. Rinali thanked him and leaned forward to take a sip. Her waiter did not move. Rinali leaned back once more and gave her server what she figured was a more-than-fair tip. The Ferengi's eyes glistened and he headed happily back to the bar, leaving Rinali in peace once more.

Rinali chuckled. Despite their strange obsessions with financial gain, she enjoyed the company of Ferengis. But much as she hated to admit it, she knew that it was probably due to her inability to read them. The question of using her abilities was already decided for her, leaving her pretty much at ease.

Rinali shook her head and took another sip of her drink. Trosk wouldn't want to hear her thinking like that. She had tried throughout her training to steer focus away from her telepathic abilities. But Trosk had been adamant on that point.

"You have a natural advantage," he had told her. "And you should use it. Is it unfair for a larger warrior to combat a smaller one? A great warrior will rise to the challenge, whatever advantages his foe may posses."

The memories combined with the strength of the drink were helping Rinali to relax. She missed Trosk, as she had since the day she had left. But thinking about the old taskmaster was oddly comforting. She knew she had trained with one of the best. Whatever challenges she faced aboard the Griffin, she had that behind her. No matter if the whole crew was Betazoids. She was ready.


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Lt.J.G. McInnis

The pages passed by one after another as Scott continued to pour over the schematics of the USS Griffin. The air in his room on Utopia Planitia was brisk and it circulated with a slight breeze, a reminder of home, and the winds of Scotland. As the soft whine of bagpipes passes through the room, Scott took a break from his late evening of studying to have a relaxing moment of peace.

As he walked quietly over to the replicater, his thoughts lingered on the past few weeks. His transfer from the USS Michigan was an abrupt one. He had heard of the opening on the Griffin from Harry Monroe, one of the other engineers on the Michigan, during a discussion about the warp core. After a few retorts and a vain attempt by Scott to not be social with Mr. Monroe, he had convinced Scott that even though he was a decent amount younger than his Uncle was before he became a Chief Engineer, he was right for the job. It was a newly refitted ship, a new crew, and a chance for Scott to get into the drivers seat of engineering. One would almost think that Mr. Monroe wanted him to go.

His only major concern had been what reaction he would get from the rest of the crew. He had never endeared himself to anyone. In fact many considered him too quiet or too addicted to the job. Many people only knew him or even dared call him by his last name. He left the ship with no fan fare, no send off by any crew in fact, save but the official letter from the Captain and his second, thanking him for his professionalism, and his exemplary work on the Michigan, as well as safe journeys.

He knew that Captain Servern would send a missive to Captain Myst, detailing not only his exemplary time on the Michigan, but also his lack of social activity and his need to get 110% involved in anything he did. He hadn’t read anything about the new crew, nor the captain in particular, nor would he, other than the other engineers' credentials and technical history. His concern was simply making sure the ship ran at maximum, if not above maximum efficiency, though any obstacle that lay before them. If it was a part of the ship or was powered by the warp core, he would know it like the back of his hand. If it had a social life or a desire to relate to him, he would, as usual, fall short.

Scott carried the glass of milk back to the chair and the waiting data pad. He had been assigned as part of the refit team, and had signed up to voluntarily join in on additional shifts as well as the final inspection team. This ship would run like the winds of Scotland, fast, sleek and free. It would run as well as anyone, with the first or last name of Scott, could make it...


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