Me myself and an admiral…

Summary: it's all a bad dream, or is it?

"Waky waky!" The shout, with a rather cockney like English accent made me jump as if I was required to be awake for some reason or another, and yet I vaguely remembered going to bed about twenty minutes earlier.

"Oi!" the second shout was followed by a kick to my posterior. That, and the sensation that I was no longer snoring comfortably in my own warm bed was the thing that began my wake up process.

As if still in bed I rolled over onto my back, from where in my semi dazed state I gazed upon the face of my tormentor. And that, snapped me awake, fully, for the face of my tormentor was blue.

The face had steeled brown eyes and full head of white hair over which two antennae twitched.

"Oh no…." I groaned.

"Oh yes, it's us. Now get up!"

Inwardly I was rather reluctant to do so. Outwardly I jumped up.

"Cadets are faster then you." Takerra remarked rather evenly.

I thought of replying, but didn't as I looked around. We were in a rather standard transporter room aboard either a station (which I didn't believe at all) or a Federation starship, and if it really was a starship well….interesting times indeed.

A sound to my left broke my concentration "He's clean. Nothing the biofilters couldn't handle."

With some slight of the hand, Ozloe, who I recognized as the ships CMO closed her tricorder and left the room. She had seemed annoyed, as if there had been an interruption from her own work.

"Come on, we ll go to ships stores and get you a uniform, help you blend in for the time that you're here." We left the transporter room and headed across to another room.

In that room I had to step onto another platform that performed a scan. Moments later something that resembled a uniform along with matching boots appeared in alcove to my immediate front. Takerra didn't have to tell me twice what to do next.

Once I had finished dressing for the occasion, I cast a weary glance towards the collar of what was now for all practical purposes, my uniform. There were rank pips there.

"Senior staff knows all about you. To the rest of the crew you're just another commander on the admiral her staff."

I nodded my understanding. It felt like an interesting way to hide in plain sight.

Once I had finished dressing up, Takerra then gave me a once over. "Could be worse. Alright then, let's go. Time's a wasting, and Admiral Torvann really wants to talk to you."

We headed out into the corridor. There wasn't a single person to be seen.

"I take it its late on the ships time?"

"It is."Takerra answered. "It also gives us the space to get to the admiral's quarters without drawing to much attention to you."The way Takerra emphasized me told me a few things in a not so subtle way. I said nothing and walked on behind her as we headed straight for a turbolift.

We arrived at our destination not all that much later. My sense of time told me it had been about 20 seconds, but I disregarded the notion. My mind had been wandering about a number of other things and that included the fact that I was now somewhere in space aboard something which would be considered a figment of the imagination by quite a few people, to put it mildly.

We headed down another passage and soon halted in front of another door. Here, Takerra pushed a door chime and then walked on.

"Come in!" I thought I detected a slight edge to the voice, but I wasn't certain.

I had a look around the room as I walked in. Everything inside the quarters looked a little too opulent to me, but then I suppose 'rank hath its privileges.'

"You don't seem to overtly surprised or shock, mister." The voice came from a darkened corner of the large room. I could tell the owner had her feet up on the railing and had probably been busy gazing at the stars.

"Why should I be shocked?"

"People tend to be either awestruck or shocked when they first set foot aboard a starship. You're neither. Why?"

I started to smile. "You're just as much a figment of my imagination as I am of yours."

"Good answer."

Shortly there after came a rustling of fabric, followed by footsteps. Not much she stepped into the light. Her jacket was open, indicating to me that she had been relaxing inbetween her bouts with the ever present paperwork. On her collar, and shining brightly, was an encased series of 5 round pips, denoting her rank.

"Fleet Admiral…." I smiled as sincerely as I could. "It suits you."

A scowl now crossed the fleet admiral her features. "That commander uniform doesn't suit you. Think of that!"

This time I had no answer.

"Now that we have that out of our systems, why did you bring me here, admiral?"

She sighed and sagged visibly. "I have a problem."

I resisted the urge to burst out into full blown laughter. "what kind of problem would that be? You're Starfleet. Finding solutions to the impossible...it's what you do.."

Now it was the admirals turn to sigh. "I wont beat around bush about it, but there's something going on in our little pocket of the universe and it's not good." I saw her sigh again.

"Thing is, it seems as if someone is playing us."

I barely managed to suppress bursting out into raucous laughter."Go on."

"The first contact with the Kentari goes well, but all of a sudden the Tzenkethi are back in the picture, and they're on some sort of a genocidal hunt. It's a little too soon to my liking. We re working on rebuilding and then this happens."

"Life in the universe is strange." I answered, thinking out loud "You never know what's going to happen next, and maybe this is all a part of it."

The look I got in return told me that was not the answer she was hoping for.

"Alright, here's what I'm willing to do. Give me a few days to think some stuff through. And perhaps then I can give some pointers on what to do. Can you accept that?"

"I'm willing to wait."

"Nice! Now if you would be so kind so beam me back to my bed. I still have a long day ahead of me."

A nod and a tap of the combadge followed. Within seconds I was back in my bedroom and out of uniform. I crawled under the sheets and was asleep not five minutes later. And yes, I fell asleep wondering what I was going to say to the admiral, if and when I met her again...