The morning sun was sending weak shafts of light through the clouds and mist that swirled over San Francisco bay. It was late summer, but the breeze felt as cool as it would in early spring anywhere else on the northern continent. Tasha adjusted the strap of her hard-sided duffel bag and looked down at the palm PADD in her hand, then back up at the beautiful landscape. The verdant expanse of the Starfleet Academy grounds was crisscrossed with dusty yellow paths and generously dotted with perfectly manicured topiaries and flowerbeds. It was still a long walk to the freshman dorm, but she didn't mind it at all – the hike was giving her that much more time to absorb the reality of her dream-come-true. Tasha inhaled a deep lungful of salty bay air. She was sure that her chest was going to burst from pride and excitement.

About another kilometer on the map, thought Tasha. She continued walking past cadets clad identical to her – black uniform belted at the waist with a broad red band across shoulders and upper chest. The ones whose collars were bare of bars wore expressions much like her own: at once nervous, excited, overwhelmed, and delighted.

Another fifteen minutes of walking, with a brief detour to explore a wooden footbridge over a pond filled with floating lilies and flashing bodies of swimming carp, and Tasha found herself in the wide foyer of the freshman dorm. She joined the line of slim young cadets that jostled their bags and eyed each other nervously. Tasha recognized no one – there were no familiar faces from the prep school, nor was there anyone from her summer assignment on Mars. Tasha stood a head taller than most of the girls in line, and there were few boys who were taller than she; her vantage point allowed her to flit her eyes from face to face without craning her neck or standing on the balls of her feet, as some of the other fidgety cadets were doing. They all looked as scrubbed and shiny as new boots. Her eyes met the glance of a tall, brown-eyed boy, who sized her up with a smile and a classic eyebrows-raised-twice gesture. Tasha looked away, smiling despite her embarrassment, and puffed out a little audible breath – there were some cute guys here. It would be the first time that she would live in a coed environment among civilized humans, and she wondered how on earth she was going to handle it.

Tasha's turn at the reception table finally came. The gray-haired Resident Director stood behind the center of a semi-circular podium height desk, and was flanked by five harried student Resident Assistants, who popped up and down between boxes on the floor and piles on the table like a neighborhood of prairie dogs.

"Last name?" the RD asked, looking up at the blue-eyed blond with a smile.

"Yar." Tasha let her bag dangle from her fingers.

"Got it," piped up one of the prairie dog RAs, tossing a PADD and a communicator onto the table. Another RA flopped a shrink-wrapped bundle of clothes beside them, while a third slapped a small, hinged box on top.

"Your PADD is pre-loaded with syllabi and reading materials for your classes, as well as your schedule of required events. Touch your communicator to activate the dermal sensor, and wear it at all times." The RD looked into Tasha's eyes and spoke warmly to her, as if it were the first, not the fiftieth, time that she was saying the words that morning. "You have been assigned to room 14-C." The RD handed over a small key fob. "There's a layout of the dorm on your PADD if you get lost, and you may activate voice prompts if you need help with directions."

Tasha reverently picked up the little box from atop the heap of clothes and cradled it in her hand, her mouth slightly agape.

"It's traditional to wait until Convocation to apply your first-year bar, cadet. Think you can stand the suspense 'till then?" The RD teased her.

"Yes, sir," replied Tasha. She curled her fingers around the box and looked around. "Is that all?"

"That's all, Mr. Yar. Head on up to your room."

Tasha slung her bag over her shoulder, pressed her communicator to her chest, and gathered her new things in her arms. She walked, careful not to drop the box clutched tightly in her hand, to the elevator doors where several similarly encumbered students waited for the cars to arrive.

Tasha found her room with ease – the building was a simple rectangular layout, with suites of rooms on the outside perimeter and large shared spaces in the center of each floor. Tasha reached 14-C, and adjusted her bundle to free her left hand. She was about to apply the key fob to the lock when a faint sound stopped her – someone was already inside. Tasha knocked on the door. It opened to reveal an olive-skinned girl who came up to Tasha's chin. She had almond-shaped brown eyes, black lashes as thick as a doll's, and lustrous black hair that fell below her shoulders. Tasha had never seen such a beautiful face.

"I think we're roommates. May I come in?" Tasha tried without success to free her right hand, fumbling to extend her arm in greeting.

"Of course! Maybe we're suitemates. There're four beds in here." The cadet opened the door all the way and stood aside to let Tasha pass. The blond gave the room a quick once over, then dropped her things on the bed against the interior wall, closest to the door. Tasha stuck out her hand.

"Natasha Yar."

"Tillotama Sajnani. Call me Saj."

"Good to meet you." They shook hands, both with firm, emphatic grips.

"I'm from the subcontinent. Where are you from?" asked Saj.

Oh, boy. Is that really how people lead off everywhere? Tasha asked herself. Aloud, she stammered, "I'm from…ah…well…from…"

"You do remember, right? We haven't even been here a whole day." Saj's eyes looked even more beautiful when they were twinkling with humor.

"I'm from a little colony you've probably never heard of," Tasha wound up lamely.

Saj shrugged. Tasha tried to recover. "Have you been here long?"

"Since 0700 on the dot, when registration first opened," replied Saj. "My folks are very big on promptness. Never mind that they woke me up at 5 in the morning to get me here." She shook her head. "The Academy has nothing on discipline compared to those two. I think it's gonna be a vacation in comparison."

Tasha nodded uncertainly. Complaining about parents – another minefield.

"Do you think you'll have to cut your hair? It's so long and pretty," remarked Tasha.

"No, I can wear it up – I already asked. My family would kill me if I cut it short."

Tasha had recently buzzed hers to almost nothing but a fringe around the top and front of her head, and she self-consciously rubbed the fuzz on the back of her scalp. "That's good."

"Do you want to check out the rest of this room? There's not much of it, but there is more to see." Saj motioned towards the interior of the suite with her chin.

"Sure." They walked over the linoleum floor through an arch to the adjoining spaces. The living area was furnished by two armchairs and two loveseats, a low table, and a replicator on the inside wall. A door connected to the bathroom, and then a second door to another two-person bedroom, with a door that led to the hallway.

"We share with 14-D," noted Saj.

"It's pretty luxurious."

"Are you being sarcastic?" Saj raised incredulous eyes to Tasha's face.

Tasha shrugged. Yes? No? What was the right thing to say?

The outer door of 14-D opened, and the two cadets were joined by a third, who unceremoniously dropped her bags and bundles on the floor and walked over to meet them.

"Hi, I'm Patricia Flores." She extended a hand to her suitemates in turn, who introduced themselves as well. "What's shaking?" Flores was stocky without being overweight, with an almost perfectly round face, a brown blunt-cut bob, and more freckles on her cheeks and hands than Tasha had ever seen in one place. "Am I the last one here?"

"No, there should be one more," Saj replied.

"Jeez, you're pretty. I won't have any trouble getting dates if I hang around with you. I'd take your sloppy seconds any day." Flores strode through the room, exploring what little there was to see of the standard issue desks and beds.

"You're from North America, right?" asked Saj.

"Yup. Mid-Atlantic region. How'd you know?"

"Lucky guess."

"So, have you cadets picked out majors yet?" Flores asked.

"Pre-med. And my parents picked it out for me; I had no choice in the matter," replied Saj.

"Weapons and Tactical," answered Tasha.

Flores whistled. "You break 'em, she fixes 'em?"

"I guess so."

"Well, you must be a lady with a past." Tasha grimaced at her suitemate's assertion. "There's a saying at the Academy," Flores continued. "Some cadets join up to be engineers, so they can fly big ships. Scientists join Starfleet so they have half a chance at getting laid. Some want to be doctors so they can help people," her fingers formed imaginary quotes in the air, "and some cadets major in command ops so they can boss people around. But cadets who sign up for security," Flores stalked up to Tasha, "want REVENGE!" She slapped her on the back with a laugh.

Saj sucked her teeth. "Where did you hear all that?"

"From my brother – class of '54."

"Well, he must be an engineer."

"Right, again. Hey, you're smart!"

"That's why I want to be a doctor. Never mind that other crap. And your brother is deluding himself if he thinks engineers aren't scientists, with an equal unlikelihood of getting laid."

"So, where are you going to sleep?" asked Tasha. She didn't trust herself to comment on anything she'd heard so far.

"I'll take the window bed. I wonder when the last roommate will get here?"

"Can't be too much longer. Let's see what's in your pack of clothes," suggested Saj. "Maybe they forgot your underwear."

She got a chuckle from Flores and a smile from Yar.


Tasha sat on her bed, examining the schedule as it scrolled by on the screen of the PADD. She was happy with her classes – heavy emphasis on kinesthetic training, plus core classes in creative writing, physics, and ships' operations. She was more curious to see what her counseling schedule would look like. At the boarding school, she'd had therapy every day and group therapy twice a week. At the prep school, her daily sessions with the counselor were sometimes cancelled because of class excursions and standard exams, but they were always on the books. Her summer assignment hadn't allowed for much more than an ad hoc schedule, and that had been tough for her to take. It was only six weeks, but she'd felt like someone taken her life preserver away, and she'd been moments from drowning. What would it be like now?

She finally found it: Thursday, 1300 hours. Counselor Lver. She touched the name to reach the bio: Female. Betazoid. Great. Nothing but the best for Starfleet. But Tasha knew it was inevitable that she would encounter a telepathic psychologist – it was only a matter of time. She ran her finger down the week's schedule to make sure. That was it – once a week. She had graduated to normal-people sessions. Tasha felt like patting herself on the back.

A muffled click came from the hall door of the other bedroom, and Tasha stood up and walked through the living area and into the bathroom to see the final member of their suite – a slight, tall girl with short braids all over her head held back with a black headband. She was visibly upset. Tasha stood awkwardly on the threshold of the bathroom door and watched Saj rush forward.

"Hey, are you all right?" Long black hair hid her face from Tasha's view, but she could hear the compassion in Saj's voice.

A wordless nod. "My parents just left. I wanted to go with them. I don't know if I can do this…" the newcomer burst into tears.

The three girls immediately surrounded her, murmuring words of consolation and encouragement.

"It's normal to be homesick. You're going to be all right." Flores put a hand on the girl's narrow, shaking shoulder. "I'm Tricia. What's your name?"

"Ishanti Maynor. I'm sixteen. I've never been away from home before." Her answers were punctuated by gulps and sobs.

"Well, buck up, camper! You're about to start the adventure of your life," exclaimed Flores.

This produced a fresh storm of weeping. Flores looked at the other two cadets. "What'd I say?"

Saj rolled her eyes and put her arms around Maynor's trembling body. She leaned in close to her ear, and started consoling her in a low voice, stroking her back with one hand. Whatever she was saying was evidently working, as the tears began to slow and the sobbing gave way to shuddering breaths. At a significant look from Saj, Flores and Yar backed out of the room.

They sat down on the loveseats in the living room. "That's gotta be tough, man – leaving your folks for the first time at that tender young age. My heart goes out to her." Flores shook her head, her brown hair brushing her round, freckled cheeks.

The corners of Tasha's mouth turned down. She found herself completely at a loss for words.