Ensign Acheson gripped her PADD tight to conceal the shaking in her hands as she stepped through the door to Lab B-22. She quickly scanned the room, took a deep breath, and approached the only man with single stripes. "Excuse me, are you Lieutenant Yamane?" Acheson smiled slightly, doing her best to come across as confident.

"That would be me. You're our new xenoanthropologist, I presume?"

"Yes sir. Ensign Karen Acheson. Prewarp xenoanthropology specialist. My orders were to report to you at 0800 today."

"Excellent. I'll show you to your station. I'm technically your direct superior, but I'm a xenobiologist, not an anthropologist, so you're mostly on your own." Yamane took off down the hallway, and Acheson struggled to keep up. Even though Yamane was a head shorter than her, he walked with the air of a man on a mission. "I gave Richards, the old anthropologist, a pretty free reign when it came to sorting and prioritizing his research. As long you can get your reports done in time to brief the landing party, you can spend all day playing Angry Aurelians for all I care. And… here we are. This is your station. You share the room mostly geologists, except for Torfys and Reddi, they're paleontologists. The specimen cabinets are over there for samples brought up by landing parties, but computer stores all the scanned data from the transporters as well, so you may prefer to just work off of the digital copies. Any questions?"

Acheson looked around, slightly overwhelmed by the sudden influx of information. "I think I've got it. When's my next report?"

Yamane pulled up his PADD. "The bridge hasn't requested anything yet, but it never hurts to be prepared. Next week a science team will be sent to Ouvartu, so be ready in case they have anything to beam up to you. For now, I'd stick to sorting through Richards' stuff and familiarizing yourself with the equipment, if I were you."

"Thank you, sir. I'll start by taking a look at Richards' files."

"Alright, Acheson. I'll see you around. If you have any questions, just shoot me an email."

Once Yamane left, Acheson sat down at her new desk, cracked her knuckles, and logged into the computer.

Later that night, Acheson flung herself face-first onto her bunk and groaned.

"What's up, K?" M'Rai leapt down from the top bunk, landing softly on her feet. "I take it your first day didn't go so well?"

"No, it was fine, just long. This guy I'm replacing, Richards, was a complete moron." Acheson rolled over to make room for M'Rai to sit next to her. "His files are an organized mess. I spent all day sorting through them, but I doubt I even got through 10% of it."

M'Rai wrapped her tail loosely around her folded legs. "That can't be the only thing that happened. How are your coworkers? Have you made any friends yet?"

"Not yet. It's only my first day; I barely had time to talk to anybody. Besides, I'm surrounded by geologists. Not the most interesting people in the world."

"Really? I would've thought that being surrounded by geologists would totally rock. Get it?" M'Rai nudged Acheson's shoulder playfully.

"Oh my god. I hate you."

"Hey, watch it! From the sound of it, I'm your only friend on this ship!" M'Rai ruffled her fur in mock offense. "Now come on, nerd. Let's go get some dinner."

The next two weeks slid by and at a crawl as Acheson struggled with reorganizing the anthropological library. As the days passed, Acheson grew to rely on her Caitian roommate to cheer her up each night, sometimes with stories about her more exciting assignments as a security officer, sometimes just by sitting close by as they worked on separate things, the room silent except for M'Rai's gentle purring.

After half a month on board the Enterprise, Acheson finally found herself preparing for her first report in front of a landing party- and not just any landing party, this diplomatic mission required the presence of both the Captain and First Officer. Acheson mumbled her report under her breath in front of the mirror as she pulled her frizzy red hair back into a bun. "Oh god. I was up all night working on this report and now I look like a raccoon."

M'Rai furrowed her eyebrows. "What's a rac- oh, never mind. You'll be fine, K. I read over your report last night, and it looked great. The command team don't care what you look like as long as your intell is good."

Acheson sighed. "It's not that I care if I'm pretty or not; I just want to seem professional! I worked so hard to get on this ship; I don't want to screw this up!"

M'Rai laughed, before putting a hand on Acheson's shoulders. "You. Will. Be. Fine. Kirk and Spock expect the best, but they're not cruel! They're not going to fire you for stuttering or having your shoes untied."

"You're right. Thanks, M'Rai." Acheson glanced at the clock. "Shit! I gotta go."

"Good luck!" M'Rai called out as Acheson sprinted out the door.

Acheson made it into the Captain's ready-room just under the wire as the briefing began. She let out a sigh of relief when Lieutenant Uhura began her report first, giving Acheson time to catch her breath.

When it was Acheson's turn to stand up, her palms began to sweat as she looked around the room. When she met the Captain's eyes, he gave her a small smile, and Acheson forced herself to begin. "Hello everybody. I'm Acheson, from xenoanthropology. Judging by the samples of tech the first landing party sent up, it's clear that this society is post-warp, but only barely. Since their spacedocks are built so close to the planet, we can conclude that they have yet to develop transporter technology…"

When the briefing was over, Acheson made for the door but was stopped in the hallway by Commander Spock. Oh crap, Acheson began to panic, he's chief science officer. My boss' boss' boss is standing in front of me looking all Vulcan and he's gunna tell me I did something wrong and this is it, I'm about to die, right here and now, and-

"Ensign Acheson?" Spock interrupted her thoughts.

"Yes sir?" Acheson swallowed, trying to look calmer than she was.

"I wanted to congratulate you on an excellent first report. If you continue with this quality of work, you can expect to be promoted in a year, possibly sooner."

Acheson couldn't help but smile. "Thank you, Commander! I'll keep doing my best."

As Spock walked away, Acheson practically skipped down the hall. I killed it in there, she thought, I can't wait to tell M'Rai!

"Guess who got her first planetside assignment!" Acheson grinned as she entered the female quarters.

"Who, that Andorian punk from communications?" M'Rai leaned over the edge of her bunk to look down on Acheson, tail twitching playfully.

"No, silly, I did! The planet is pre-warp, and they wanted an anthropologist on-site. Apparently Spock recommended me specifically!"

"What?! That's awesome! If it's pre-warp, they'll want a couple security officers in the away team; I'll try to get on the roster so we can go together!"

"That'd be great! We're so busy lately I feel like I never see you anymore."

"I'll see what I can do. Still, congrats on being picked. They must really like you!"

The day of the away mission, Acheson met M'Rai outside the transporter room. "You ready for this?"

"Oh yeah," M'Rai said as she strapped her Caitian knives to her hip. "We're beaming to a site away from the natives, so I'm more of a precaution than anything. That means I get to hang out and enjoy the view and the fresh air while you science-types do all the real work!"

"Yeah, and Sulu's leading the team, and I've heard he's really chill. Apparently he does fencing, like who even does that!"

"Oh man, really! Maybe I can get him to teach me; I don't know any human combat styles and I'm curious to learn."

"Well, if you're not doing anything planet-side, maybe you can ask him. Now come on, we have a job to do."

"Alright, crew," Sulu began, "this should be simple enough, just get in, get samples, get out. As you are all aware by now, the natives are pre-warp, so we're beaming down without phasers. I doubt we'll come in contact with any, but it doesn't hurt to be vigilant. Everybody ready?" The group took to the transporter pads, and Sulu gave the technician a brief nod. Soon, Acheson's world was enveloped in white, then in bright blues and purples as the planet formed around her.

They had beamed directly into a lush forest, a short walk from the temple Acheson had been assigned to investigate. Scans indicated that the temple was supposedly built out of the remains of a ship that had crashed years ago, and Acheson's job was to analyze just how badly the prime directive had been broken and if intervention was necessary.

The trek to the temple proceeded at a relatively slow pace, with the other scientists stopping constantly to gather samples and take scans. Acheson didn't mind having to wait on them; she was content to admire the brightly colored flora and the feeling of real dirt under her boots.

When they finally reached the temple, Acheson was the first to enter. "The structure of this ship looks pre-federation Vulcan, but no Vulcan ships were in this part of space at that time…" She ran a gloved hand over the wall, hoping to find writing under the lair of dust."

"Romulan, then?" Sulu guessed, "If they really are just a subspecies of Vulcans, maybe this ship was from the initial split."

"That would make sense." Acheson focused her attention to the sections of the temple that weren't original to the ship, built by the natives years ago. That's funny, she thought to herself, the way they've arranged these holes in the wall, it's almost like a mausoleum. "Wait. According to the scans, this temple is only unique in the fact that it was built around a ship, right?"

Sulu didn't get it. "Yeah, that's why we're here."

"But if the other temples are still in use, that means this religion is still popular among the natives. Why would this temple be abandoned?"

"What are you trying to say, Acheson?"

"I'm saying what if it was abandoned for a reason?" The team jumped in shock at the sound of a door closing behind them. "I don't think we should be he-"

Acheson was interrupted by the twang of an arrow rushing past her ear. She only caught a glimpse of the natives with bows drawn before Sulu was shouting "Run!" And M'Rai was pushing her forwards.

"There's another exit this way!" Acheson shouted, leading the group down a hallway to the left.

"This is Lieutenant Sulu, requesting immediate beam up!" Sulu slammed his communicator shut. "The signal is strong, they must've heard that."

As Acheson looked back over her shoulder, she noticed immediately that there were only 4 people behind her, not the previous six. "M'Rai!" She shouted, grinding to a stop. "We have to go back for her!"

Sulu grabbed her arm and pulled her along. "We don't have time! I'm not risking the rest of our safety when she's probably already dead!"

Acheson tried to wrench free of his grip, but froze when she felt the tingle of the transporter starting around her. When they reappeared on the Enterprise, Sulu released her immediately and Acheson stumbled forward off the platform, panting hard. "M'Rai!" She called out again, this time directing her anger at the transporter technician. "Can't you get a signal on her? She could still be alive, if you beam her up now we could get her to the medbay and-"

"I only picked up 5 non-native lifesigns. I'm sorry."

"I-" Acheson opened her mouth but lost her train of thought immediately. M'Rai was dead. M'Rai was dead and she was never going to purr again, never going to give Acheson that toothy grin of call her "K," never going to learn to fence, never even going to get a proper funeral because there's no way in hell they'd ever get her body back now, never going to-

"Karen," Sulu put a hand on Acheson's shoulder, shocking her back to reality. Acheson stood up fully and straightened her shirt; she had a job to do, she could deal with her feelings later.

"I'm okay. That temple was some sort of sacred burying ground, maybe for the people who died in the initial crash, I don't know. They wouldn't even let their own people near it, so of course they reacted violently to us. I should've seen that immediately just from the scans."

"Acheson, this wasn't your fault-"

"I'm the anthropologist. Understanding civilizations is my entire job, and I failed."

"No, you didn't. You're the only one who knew the layout of that temple; you led us to the exit. Without your expertise we couldn't have escaped."

Acheson could hear what Sulu was saying, but it didn't land. All she could think about was M'Rai, and how she'd screwed up so unbelievably badly.

The next day, Acheson found herself sharing a turbolift with Spock on the way to the labs. "Ensign Acheson," Spock raised an eyebrow as he stepped onto the lift. "I didn't expect to see you in the labs today."

"I've got dozens of samples to analyze from yesterday, and I need to write my report for Starfleet Command on that utter failure of a mission."

Spock inhaled, looking uncomfortable with the emotional nature of the conversation. "I understand that you and ensign M'Rai were quite close. If you want to take the rest of the week off, I can talk to Yamane."

Acheson shook her head, "I have work to do, and I don't want to get behind."

"Even if there are no other anthropologists on this ship, a historian or paleontologist could cover for you for a few days. I briefly studied xenoanthropology myself, I could do it if no-one else is willing."

Acheson was taken aback by his offer. "Really sir, I'm fine. Work helps me keep my mind off of things; I don't think I could stand to be idle right now. But thank you for the offer."

As the lift came to a stop and they began to go separate ways, Spock turned to Acheson. He hesitated slightly before saying, "If you need anything, you know how to contact me."

As Spock walked away, Acheson puzzled over what had just happened. Maybe even with M'Rai gone, she still had friends on the Enterprise. Maybe she even had a family.