"Are you nervous?" Tauhira asked, leaning against the plain plastic wall outside Sickbay.
Linnes laughed from across the hall. "What, me? You know me, Tau. Never." She grinned. "She's been space-worthy for nearly a month, you know that."
"But they're testing your work."
"Yes, I know. And it's perfect. So I'm not worried."
The doctor rolled her eyes. "I see. Well, aren't we the humblest girl in creation."
"You know perfectly well Captain Reed worked on her too, Tau. And I doubt you're questioning her work."
"Oh, I don't know. Being around you might well inspire me." She walked in front of the Sickbay door, and it opened automatically with only the slightest clicking sound. "Did you design this place, too?"
Linnes, although she looked as though she dearly wished she could claim credit, shook her head. "Naw. That was Katzenburg. She's been trying to make it perfect 'cause I said I'd hack the mainframe and demote her if she didn't."
"Lin-nes!"
"All right, not really. But I would've if I'd needed to, you know that."
"Hmph." Tauhira went over to the wall that she knew held the medical equipment and said, "Tricorder." There was a buzzing sound and one materialized against the wall. She pulled it off and scanned Linnes. "Get yourself onto one of those beds, missy. We're doing your routine examination before two hundred other people show up and expect me to do theirs."
Being an uncharacteristically good sport, Linnes obeyed, sitting down on the nearest bed. "I think I'll have a word with Katzenburg 'bout these beds," she said. "They're hard as rock."
"Shut up and sit still," Tauhira said, but she smiled at Linnes when she said it, so it was okay. "This'll only take a minute."
"You having dinner with the captain tonight?"
"Yes, and you're not invited. Just me and Blake and the captain of the Klingon ship when it arrives."
"Is the captain going to be here soon?"
"Eventually," Tauhira said. "Why's there so much caffeine in your blood?"
"How do you think I stayed awake long enough to finish remodeling this ship?"
"Ah. I suppose that explains it. Well, you're good to go, Ensign. Give my regards to Katzenburg. She seems to have done a good job."
"I'll have to reroute that demotion, then," Linnes said.
Tauhira rolled her eyes. "Scat." When her friend was gone, she thought about the new ship, and the captain, and what she was going to wear to dinner. She fingered the blue cotton hijab she was wearing. "The green suit," she said aloud to the empty Sickbay. "Definitely."