During alpha shift three days later, Voyager had reached a friendly planet in a binary star system. Shore leave was being granted to much of the crew. Allucia got her requested leave before Tom, since he had just taken some with B'Elanna. The lieutenant for one, was very eager to get planet side, go somewhere deserted, and blast something.

While the siblings were pretty much inseparable during waking and off-duty hours, Apollo sensed that his sister was in a darker mood than she had been, but she was trying to put up a façade for her brother. Lusha could tell her brother wasn't exactly content with his situation currently either since Q had relieved him of his strongest abilities. Hoping to make her brother feel better, Allucia decided to teach her brother some of the... unorthodox martial arts techniques she had learned on Yamato. They beamed down to the planet into the middle of a desert. Allucia was wearing her black workout clothes and Ryoga's bandana.

Apollo looked at his sister. "You resemble a leopard version of the Karate Kid." Allucia threw her brother a baleful look and didn't respond. He raised an eyebrow. His sister certainly was testy and on edge today. He briefly wondered if he had anything to do with her mood, but didn't see any reason why he would. Then again, maybe it had to do with the bandana…and perhaps that was something he should not have teased her about. He chastised himself. If he hadn't been so focused on his own issues, he would have remembered that her moodiness had started a few days ago on the holodeck.

"Hope it ain't too hot for you," Allucia said. "But then again, this shouldn't be any worse than Vulcan."

"The temperature's fine," Apollo replied.

Allucia nodded. "Let's see... where to start... ah." She grinned; but after a moment she lost the smirk, closing her eyes. She took a deep breath, settling into a stance as her aura beginning to glow. As she said this, a small orb of energy appeared in her hands and quickly grew to the size of a softball. Cupped between her hands, she brought her arms to her side, then launched the ball at large sand dune looming about a kilometer away. "Shiiii…shiiii… hōkōdaaaan!" she called.

The dune exploded, sending sand flying everywhere. Allucia took a red bamboo umbrella, seemingly out of nowhere, and held it over her head as sand rained down everywhere. Once it stopped, she turned around. Apollo stood there, glaring, arms crossed, blinking, covered in sand. Suddenly he realized why Allucia had brought the umbrella. She couldn't help but laugh at him. His glare wasn't nearly so intimidating now that his eyes didn't glow. "Sorry 'bout that," she said. "Didn't cross my mind that you'd become a sandman."

"Uh huh," he said, brushing sand off his shoulders and shaking it out of his hair.

Allucia closed her umbrella and tossed it over her shoulder. Apollo was still in slight shock, so he didn't notice that it never hit the ground. "Anyway, that was called the Shishi hōkōdan, the literal translation would be 'roaring lion bullet,' or the easy name is 'Depression Blast.' Basically you lump all your misery together, and you form the ki ball, and chuck it somewhere."

"Ki ball," he said, clearly not understanding what she just said.

Allucia chuckled. "Oh yeah. Let's see... how do I explain it..."

"Is that anything like your chi, or life energy?"

Allucia's eyes lit up. "Yeah! That's the word I was looking for!" She held up her right hand, palm up. "It's hard to put into words... you focus your ki to a part of your body, most commonly the hands, and, well..." She searched for the next word, as a small blue-white ball began crackled into existence in her hand. "Well, separate it from your body. It can come from emotions, too. That's why I've been so antsy lately. Hadda get myself to a planet to blast something." Allucia looked at Apollo, imagining how all that must sound to him, and hoped he wouldn't drag her up to the Doc for psychological analysis.

Instead, he surprised her by raising his eyebrow and saying, "Fascinating. I think I understand what you mean. I assume it's my turn to try."

Allucia nodded. "I also know one more, not just the Shishi hōkōdan." She stepped back and took out her lead umbrella out of nowhere again.

Apollo meditated for a minute. Then he cupped his hands and aimed them toward what was left of the dune. "Shi... shi... hōkōdan!"

Nothing happened.

He took a deep breath and tried again. "Shi... shi... hōkōdaaan!" But the results were the same.

"Hmmmmm. I think I know what happened."

"Oh?" He crossed his arms and waited patiently for her to explain.

"You see; you have to be extremely depressed for it to work. Ryoga... the person who taught it me, was like that. What can I say, we had a lot in common." She sighed.

"Well, yeah. It fits that you would have to be depressed to use something like Depression Blast," he said matter-of-factly.

Allucia made a face. "What I'm saying is, that, well, you're not depressed enough, since you're better at dealing with your emotions than I am."

"In other words, this isn't exactly the best move to use for someone who's studied on Vulcan."

"Yeah. Wanna try the other one?"

He shrugged. "We have all day, and I have nothing to lose."

Allucia nodded. "This one is a basic blast, but very powerful." She turned to another dune. As before, she brought her hands to her but this time, a whine could be heard, first low in pitch, then becoming high pitched as the blue aura began to surround her. "KAA... MEE... HAA... MEE... HAAA!" she yelled, as a beam of bluish-white energy suddenly appeared between her hands and directly for the sand dune. As soon as she finished, she ran in front of Apollo, and willed her aura into existence, enveloping her and her brother. Apollo watched as the dune was vaporized; sand flew at them as if they were caught in a sand storm, but Allucia's aura kept them protected. After the sand lessened to a drizzle, Allucia's aura slowly faded. She looked at Apollo. "Whaddaya think?"

Apollo was staring at the spot where the dune had been. His eyes were wide and his jaw had dropped. He was completely speechless. "How in the heck did you get so powerful?"

Allucia looked at Apollo, shocked. "Powerful? I was the weakest of the group." She sighed and thought about it. "We were training for weeks—no, months. Well, you saw some of the memories, it was while we were at Yamato last year. Ryoga," Allucia said, her face becoming forlorn, "who I mentioned before, taught me all this." She sighed. "I'll never—anyway, that's is as powerful as I get." She paused, thinking.

"Ah, aha." Apollo absently agreed, having noticed her suddenly redirecting her thoughts. He looked around him. "It's been so long since I've had to depend on someone else for protection. It's a bit unsettling."

"Sorry to do that to you..." Allucia said absently, staring into the distance. She obviously wasn't thinking about Apollo, though.

He put a hand on his sister's shoulder. "You had nothing to do with it. Don't worry about it." He walked out to the spot where the dune once stood. The ground there had fused to glass. He slowly shook his head.

Meanwhile, Allucia turned to another dune, her back to Apollo. "Shi...shi... hōkōdan!" She launched another ball at a dune about three kilometers away, so that they wouldn't have a sand shower, then walked over to Apollo. "I'm getting hungry. What about you?"

Apollo laughed. "I would imagine. Using this power depletes you. Getting hungry is your body's natural way of saying you need to replenish it."

Allucia had to snicker at that. "And you were wondering why I eat so much."

He looked a little puzzled. "Do you always have to shout these..." he searched for the term, "activation words when you release your attack?"

She cocked her head. "Well, when you breathe out, you release energy. When you speak, that's releasing energy and air. That, and it helps me to concentrate. Maybe if I get good enough with them, I won't need to recite the phrases."

Apollo thought deeply. "Let me try something." He spotted yet another dune nearby. "Now, if I'm starting to understand this correctly, a person's chi blasts would reflect directly on how strong that person's chi is, right?"

Allucia nodded. "It also depends on their willpower and emotions, at least for me anyway. I'm not an expert, though I should be." She thought for a moment. "I shoulda dragged Tuvok down here too."

"Hmmm... Q can't affect either of those with me." He brought his hands up, though instead of shouting, his voice remained low, relying instead on his command tone. "Kamehame...haaaa!" A whine produced, grew to a high-pitched tone. A blue orb—the same hue as his eyes— appeared between his hands and shot toward the dune as a sustained beam, pulverizing it. He brushed his hand over his hair and smiled.

Allucia's face was scrunched up. "I can't believe you... that took me three weeks to learn!"

"My willpower has always been strong. And I can be very determined when it comes to learning something. It was the one thing my Vulcan instructors praised me on."

"Vulcan's don't praise. They're say they're satisfied."

He chuckled. "Trust me. They praised." His grin broadened. "It also helped that the comet I was trapped in gave me a high esper rating."

Allucia chuckled, and suddenly had a thought about her brother gaining telepathy from a comet made about as much sense as a wormhole endowing her with hers. But she kept this to herself. "Before you came here, all I could do was sense emotions from people and the occasional strong thought. Which kinda made trouble 'cause I knew if people were talking behind my back, or thinking." She snickered.

He nodded understanding. "I know what you mean. It took some doing for me to control myself, too. Part of the reason why I went to Vulcan in the first place."

Allucia nodded, then scratched the back of her neck. "Are you hungry yet?"

Apollo laughed. "All right, Squirt. I guess we can get something to eat now."

In response, instead of blowing a raspberry, she pulled down the lower eyelid of one eye and stuck out her tongue. Then she straightened. "Thank you." Allucia tapped her combadge. "Lieutenant Banks to Voyager. Two to beam up." She turned to Apollo as they began to dematerialize. "Where you wanna eat? Neelix is trying his fifth attempt at pizza." The last thing Allucia saw before they appeared on the ship was Apollo licking his lips. "So is that a yes?" Allucia asked, dragging Apollo from the room.

The pilot was glad to get away from where they had beamed down; it was bringing back too many unhappy memories. She stared at the 'pizza' before her, an entire pie in the shape of an ellipse. With green cheese. Bravely she took a slice and shoved half of it in her mouth. Within five minutes she had finished half the pie. Apollo just stared, wondered if she'd bite his fingers off if he reached for a slice. She gulped down half her replicated Dr. Pepper. "You can have some, if you like." She grinned. "I promise not to bite your fingers off."

His eyes narrowed. :No fair reading my mind, Squirt.:

:I wasn't reading it. Strong thought, along with a picture.: She added a mental chuckle. :Hey, this telepathy thing is pretty handy for talking with my mouth full, without talking with my mouth full!: Apollo rolled his eyes. Allucia covered her mouth with a hand and muffled a belch. "'Scuse me," she said, then she stood up. "You finish that; I'll be right back." She went over to the replicator, got another pitcher of soda, then went back over to Neelix, and grabbed a large helping of his version of garlic bread and ziti. She sat back down and resumed stuffing her face.

He nodded and took a slice, until something occurred to him. Apollo boggled at the sight of his petite sister gorging on the amount of food in front of her, and the amount of time she was gobbling it down in. "Where on Earth did you learn to eat like that?" he asked, eyes wide. "I think you're eating more than I did when I hit puberty..."

Allucia grinned. "Not Earth, Yamato. And it's Anything Goes Martial Arts Eating." she said cryptically.

"Anything what?"

Her grin widened. "Anything Goes... the school of martial arts where... well, anything goes. Applying martial arts to any activity in order to triumph over your opponent." She stopped momentarily to shovel some food in. "You try sitting between a panda and two male martial artists my age and eating a full meal. One learns quickly. 'Sides, if I keep throwing ki around like that, I gotta keep my strength up."

Panda...? "Ummmm... thanks, but I think I'll pass." Allucia merely giggled and continued her meal. Apollo meanwhile went back up to the food line and retrieved some food for himself.

The two ate in relative silence for a few minutes until a trickle of crewmembers entering the Mess Hall signified a shift change. A minute later, Tom approached them. "Mind if I join you?" he asked.

"By all means," Apollo supplied as he gestured to an empty seat, since Allucia's mouth was stuffed in a rather unladylike fashion. Allucia knew full well Tom was only standing on ceremony because Apollo was there, and she would have teased him for it otherwise. On that same token, she wasn't going to talk with her mouth full for the same reason. The siblings had taken a four-person table in order to have enough room for the food the youngest pilot seemed to be inhaling.

Tom took the empty seat next to Allucia and put his food tray down. "Thanks. B'Elanna is pulling a double in Engineering tonight."

Apollo nodded. "Certain diagnostics and maintenance can only be done when you're not traveling millions of miles per second." Tom chuckled and nodded back. "Do you remember how some years back, the Enterprise-D rescued Captain Montgomery Scott from a Dyson Sphere?"

"Yes, I do. He kind of disappeared after that, didn't he?"

"Indeed. He explored for a while, and he was on his way to Risa when he found a fight instead. I rescued him from some Jem'Hadar a few years ago. Now he's my chief engineer." The look of shock on Tom's face was worth it. Allucia giggled, as she already knew from their memory exchange a few weeks ago.

Allucia's combadge suddenly chirped. "Commander Tuvok to Lieutenant Banks."

Her eyes widened as she tapped her combadge as the two elder pilots smirked at her. "Banks here."

"Did you neglect to remember that you have a Suus Mahna class today?"

"Yes sir. On my way now, sir. Banks out." She stood up and downed what was left in her soda glass. She smiled at Apollo and Tom. "Well, at least I'm already warmed up and ready to go. See you guys later!" With that, she bounded out of the Mess Hall.

Tom shook his head and smiled as he watched her leave. "She probably wouldn't have forgotten if we weren't flip-flopping our shifts so much lately. And it's not like she doesn't practice when she doesn't have class."

"I noticed," Apollo replied, thinking of the battle simulation holo-program.

The ensign looked uncomfortable for a moment, then held his hand out to Apollo. "With the whirlwind of activity the ship has been the past few weeks, I haven't had a chance to formally introduce myself, Admiral. Ensign Thomas Eugene Paris."

Apollo shook the proffered hand. "Apollo Racer." The admiral could sense Tom was torn between wanting to be star struck and just wanting have a normal conversation. "At ease, Tom. I was hoping we'd have the chance to talk…so consider us both off-duty." Tom appeared to visibly relax. At that moment, a snippet of Apollo's dream several weeks ago clicked with a name in his head. "You wouldn't be Owen Paris' son, would you?"

Tom nodded. "Yes, that's my father." He turned thoughtful for a moment, and thought about the words his father and Kathryn had exchanged. "Up until a few weeks ago, though, I might have denied it." He thought briefly of the letters he'd written to his father while in the brig several months ago. "I suppose age has a way of putting things in perspective."

"I grew up in a military family, so I understand. Our father was a high ranking general in the United Earth Forces. Naturally, as the only son it was expected that I follow in his footsteps as he did with his father."

"And come hell or high water—you were supposed to follow his plan for you." Tom added.

"When you didn't, he attempted to make your professional life hell." Apollo finished. The two shared a smile over the moment. "Tom…I want to thank you for taking care of my sister. From what I've learned over the past few weeks, you've had her back whenever she's needed you—especially when she doesn't realize she needs someone. That can't have been easy."

"It's my pleasure, admiral." Apollo looked pointedly at him. "I'm sorry. Apollo." Tom grinned. "I can't get over the fact it took three years for the truth to come out. She mentioned she had a 'big brother' in passing and that he was a fighter pilot, just like your dad. I mean, granted, we tried to find records of her, but given the era you and her came from—plus being halfway across the galaxy—we weren't surprised when we couldn't find a trace of her identity, so it never occurred to us she wasn't entirely truthful about her name."

"Back in the 21st century, we believed she had run away from home. For a while, we just kept hoping she'd come home at some point, that she was just being a rebellious teenager. But when the months turned to years…" He couldn't finish, not wanting to vocalize or even finish the thought that was in his head. "It was…rather difficult to deal with."

He sighed, thinking about it. He hoped by sharing some of his past with Tom, that perhaps he could shed some light on what Allucia so stubbornly insisted on keeping to herself. "Well, she fibbed a little, but maybe because she was scared at the time. I was actually finishing out my freshman year at UEF's flight academy at the time she disappeared, but our father was a fighter pilot earlier in the century. My father didn't seem to react to her disappearance other than coming down on me harder than he already was…about everything. My grades, field performance, you know how that goes." Tom nodded. "More than once I wanted to go looking for her, thinking I could persuade her to go home. She'd listen to me before our parents any day. But our father blocked me at every attempt and going AWOL would just result in a court martial and discharge from service." Apollo steepled his hands, resting them under his chin. "So all I could do, really, is just focus more on studying and training to distract myself."

Tom had been quietly eating while Apollo talked. "Did she tell you about how when she first came to us, she thought she'd been kidnapped by your government? She even considered the possibility that your father was behind it."

Apollo shook his head and chuckled. "Yes, she did. It's amazing how well I can picture that," he replied, since he was privy to that particular memory. He sighed. "What I'm a bit more lacking in though, are details about Yamato. She told me everything about what happened with the Klaamox—" Apollo watched a pained expression cross Tom's face for a moment. "—yes, everything. And every time I've tried pry anything out of her, she either clams up or gets in a very foul mood." He locked gazes with Tom. "Forgive me if I seem a little…inquisitive. She didn't used to be so guarded. We were only born two years apart, but now I'm old enough to be her grandfather thrice over. But I feel the responsibility to be that protective older brother I was when we were younger. She seemed pretty well-balanced until the teenage years hit and our parents divorced."

Tom nodded. "I understand where you're coming from. Even respect you for it, because I think you may be the only other person on this ship that realizes that when it comes to seeking any sort of help, she has to be convinced in such a way so she thinks it's her idea. Lush seems to easily get overwhelmed when dealing with strong emotions. When she tries, she begins to get lost in them and has a hard time breaking herself out of them. This comes off as immature to those who don't know her well, but I think it's because she's still trying to learn to deal with the intensity of them." Finishing his meal, Tom wiped his face with a napkin before dropping it on his plate. Apollo nodded, gesturing for Tom to go on.

"Our stint with the Klaamox lasted about four months. Somewhere very close to the end of it she suffered a depressed skull fracture at their hands." He sighed as Apollo winced. "If Voyager hadn't gotten to us when they did…I can't lie. It was bad. Her intracranial pressure was near to the tipping point; the swelling was so severe." The pilot sighed deeply. "Except I think it…I don't know. At first, she thought she was only locked up for about two weeks, and what she remembers of that is pretty traumatizing. But…" Tom trailed off, trying to organize his thoughts.

Apollo noted how Tom had paled a bit. "But…?"

Tom looked Apollo directly in the eye. "She was in that dungeon about two months. Sometimes I think that skull fracture was the best thing to happen to her, because it wiped nearly all of her memory of it. A little over a year later, we put in at Yamato. Lush may have had everyone else fooled, but I knew she was still struggling with what happened to her. Her conscious memory seems to be a little Swiss-cheese about it but you wouldn't know it by her nightmares."

"That bad?"

"For the first few months, yes. Eventually, I managed to nag her into letting the Doc dose her with some sleep medication because her fatigue was beginning to interfere with her duties. It's not like she was falling asleep at her post, but she was making minor miscalculations in course plots that were totally out of character for her."

Apollo cocked his head to the side. "She doesn't use the ship's computer to do the calculations?"

"No. She can do them in her head. Lush doesn't know how she does it, either. But she can do it faster than it would take for her to input the same information into the navigational computer to perform the calculations. When she tried to explain it, she said she could 'see' what the numbers needed to be just by looking at the vectors readouts. The EMH put a name to it…what was it..." Tom waggled an index finger, as if it would help him remember. "Ah!" he said, snapping his fingers. "Spatial Sequence Synesthesia." Apollo nodded, impressed, and decided he'd research the phenomenon later. Tom continued. "Anyway, she'd go weeks without having a serious nightmare, then she'd have three bad nights in a row. It was impossible to predict. But believe it or not, when we were berthed at Yamato, the only time she spent in Sickbay was when she acquired her curse and visiting Harry."

"Would Harry's stay there have anything to do with Lusha 'nearly knocking his block off'?"

"Yeah." Tom snickered. "Harry got it in his head a year ago to pursue her. I warned him. Repeatedly, I warned him. I mean, yeah, Voyager's a small ship, but not everyone is going to have luck pairing off. I like to think I know the two of them pretty well, and I was trying to protect the both of them from each other. Lush was too polite to tell him to buzz off so she tried to give him one day that turned into three. It was like watching a train wreck."

Apollo chuckled. "I wish I could help explain that, but she had just started to notice boys when our parents split."

"Well, somewhere around there was when she met Ryoga."

"Ryoga…is that the young man with the bandana?"

"Yes. As far as I can remember, they kept accidentally running into each other. Now, Ryoga had one thing in common with Harry—terrible luck with girls. I'm not sure how Ryoga got through to her or who started chasing who. But once Lush gave him the light of day though, they were inseparable. I don't have all the details of course." Tom leaned back in his seat, thinking hard. "She'd check in with me every few days. She was beaming whenever I saw her."

"Sounds like Ryoga was a good influence on her." Apollo commented.

"For sure. The nearest I can figure is that he helped quiet her demons for a time."

"Maybe by accepting her as she was, and not expecting her to be something she's not. Or maybe he taught her how battle some of those demons."

"That makes sense. She always feels like she's such a burden on everyone else, so if she can't figure it out herself, her perspective is that no one else can help her either."

The two fell into silence for a moment. Then Apollo spoke. "I can see why she would have trouble coping, losing him. I hope she can move beyond it."

"Time will tell, I guess." Tom replied. "The only other person close to her age on the ship is Icheb. He's only been here a few months, but I can't see anything happening with them. She's still mourning Ryoga."

Apollo slowly nodded. "I really appreciate you taking the time to help me reacquaint myself with Lusha. She's still a few shades of the spastic teenager I remember but she's still grown tremendously. I think you had a bit to do with that."

Tom blushed. "Thanks. I'm not going to claim I knew what I was doing, though." Both men chuckled at that. "I guess I saw a lot of the angsty teenager I used to be in her, and gave her the support I could have used back then."

A combadge chirped. "Janeway to Admiral Racer."

Apollo raised an eyebrow and tapped his combadge. "Racer here. What can I do for you, Captain?"

"If you have a few minutes, I'd like to take advantage of having a flag officer aboard to deal with some bureaucratic nonsense, if you're willing to indulge." Apollo could almost see the impish smile on Kathryn's face as she relayed her request.

"Put that way, Captain, how can I refuse?"

"I appreciate it, Admiral. I'll be in my Ready Room. Janeway out."

Apollo stood up. "Thanks for the chat, Tom." He reached out to shake hands with the ensign again, and was on his way.


A few minutes later, an admiral and a captain were seated in the Ready Room. Kathryn handed Apollo a cup of coffee. "So let me get straight to the point, Admiral," she began, her bluntness causing Apollo to raise an eyebrow. "It seems you might be stuck for a while."

Apollo exhaled slowly. "It seems so…" he replied, wondering where she was going with this.

"You're welcome to command one of the bridge shifts."

"Oh, I couldn't possibly—"

Kathryn held her hand up. "Admiral, don't think I haven't noticed you prowling the corridors of my ship at all hours."

Apollo smirked. "I have been a little restless, haven't I." Kathryn could only return the smirk as she took a sip of her coffee. "I appreciate the offer. Would gamma shift be okay?" Then he thought about that for a moment. "Let me rephrase that. If I took gamma shift, would you be okay with parting with your flight controller for alpha shift?"

"Is that a personal request, sir?"

"Not as much as you might think. I'm just trying to think a step ahead. What would you do if you were Lusha, and found I was going to command a bridge shift?"

"I'd probably be begging me to switch shifts." Kathryn chuckled. "Okay, I'll rearrange the duty roster for you and her to start gamma shift tomorrow night." She handed him a PADD. "So, since I haven't been able to run officer promotions through Command and have been relying on that field promotion loophole, would you mind approving them?" Even though her tone of voice seemed to imply an order, her smile told him she already knew that he wasn't going to give her any issues.

"Thank you, Captain. And yes, I think I can handle a little paperwork." His hand blurred over the PADD for about ten seconds, and then he was handing it back to her. She blinked at him. "I caught up on Voyager's logs during the first two weeks I was here. Every promotion is well-deserved." The two fell into silence for a moment. "So…if you don't mind me asking, Captain Janeway, how are you doing?"

"Please, call me Kate, I'm done bugging you about Starfleet business. Can we just be two people? Captains can only socialize so much with their crew."

"Only if you call me Apollo, Kate." They chuckled. "And speak for yourself. I happen to be married to the captain of my ship."

Kathryn took a sip of coffee. "Not an option for me. But to answer your question…as well as I can, I suppose. Sometimes I feel I'm more than a captain, and that I might be getting a little too used to being independent out here. Then other days, it sure would be handy to have other Starfleet vessels around." She sighed. "Those days are the ones where I get bored and wish something interesting would happen, only to curse myself as soon as I have to call Red Alert."

"Comes with the territory, I suppose. The Dominion War took a heavy toll on the Federation, so I don't think you would have seen less Red Alerts if you were back home. We're just starting to rebuild. Hopefully, Starfleet will be able to get back to exploring."

Kathryn smiled wryly. "I'm sure our logs will keep the eggheads back home busy for years."

"Of this, I have no doubt. I'm pretty sure some of my crew would faint at the sight of your Astrometrics lab."

"Isn't it beautiful? Harry and Seven worked together on that. First time we used it, we managed to adjust our route home to reduce the trip by five years."

Apollo was surprised. "Do you think they'd part with the plans for it?"

"Even if they did, you may have to find some replacement parts. Seven adapted some Borg sensors for ours."

The admiral nodded slowly, unsure what to think of Kathryn pretty much admitting to violating procedures by implementing non-standard, non-Starfleet approved modifications. Just as quickly he realized that without Starfleet, Janeway was acting in the best interests of her crew, not of Starfleet.

She must have caught the look on his face. "Don't worry, Apollo," she added, "I'm pretty sure the Borg aren't going to take over the ship. Seven came aboard about a year before your sister. She's proved herself since then, just as Allucia has. I've lost count of the times we've crossed paths with the Borg. We're not even quite out of their space yet, though Kes pushed us more than halfway through it." A proud grin crossed her face. "How do you think your sister's already a junior grade lieutenant already?"

Apollo had to beam at that, given all the reading he'd done since coming aboard. "Yes, I've read as much. I have to ask though…isn't dealing with Borg skirmishes easier than dealing with Lusha sometimes?"

Kathryn laughed, and refilled Apollo's coffee, which by this time he had emptied. "Let me tell you some stories…" The two officers settled in to compare stories.