"Quella!"
"What is it?"
"You weren't at the bar last night."
"Why would I be? So that I'd be on hand for you to brush me off again for that targ who goes by the name of Aimee Dupin?"
"I said I was sorry. I honestly don't know what that was about. You know I don't like Aimee, but suddenly it was as if she were the only woman in the universe."
"Yeah, I figured that out. I thought you actually wanted to be friends with me."
"I do, Quella."
"Really."
"Yes, really. Look, don't you think you're taking this a bit too personally?"
"You insulted me!"
"I told you, I didn't mean to. How can I make it up to you?"
"I don't know."
"Well, have a think about it and let me know, okay?" Beckett didn't get a reply as the lift doors closed between him and the half Q. He let out a long sigh. He'd managed to build up a reasonable friendship with Quella and got her integrated amongst some of the crew, but in that time he'd forgotten that Q had delicate egos. He waited patiently for the next turbolift to come along and stepped into it.
"Bridge." The incident with Dupin had been just over a week ago. It had been thoroughly bizarre in his mind. He had been compelled to be with Dupin for the rest of the evening in the holodeck for no apparent reason. He had awoken the next morning feeling as if he had had a rather bad dream. When he had arrived for duty, she had given him a weird smile that made him feel uneasy. After that, things seemed to have resumed normality between them. He assumed duty at the tactical station, noting that Dupin wasn't on the bridge. Hopefully she was working on something down in one of the labs. They had passed by an unusual nebula two days ago and stopped to conduct some scans and collect a sample of the gases. He looked at the information on his console. They would be entering back into space belonging to the League of Trinilon at some point later today. From what the captain had told him, he may well be busy in the coming weeks. As if he wasn't already. Well, you didn't become a Starfleet officer for relaxation purposes. He logged on for duty and began the routine checks. All systems normal. With the more mundane items out of the way, he settled on his seat and began dealing with some more detailed matters. When he worked on the finer details of tactical and security issues, Beckett tended to become absorbed in what he was doing. Therefore he jumped out of his skin when the red alert siren began blaring. He whipped around, wondering what crisis he was missing, only to find Commander D'Zira – and the rest of the bridge for that matter – staring at him.
"Lieutenant? I don't remember calling a red alert," D'Zira said.
"I didn't activate it either," Beckett answered. "I was working on some tactical data."
"Well, perhaps you could turn it off," D'Zira replied. Beckett nodded and pressed the command that would end the red alert. Nothing happened. He tried another command, with the same result. Meanwhile, the captain had come out of his ready room to see what the fuss was about.
"I think we have a system malfunction," D'Zira explained, seeing that Beckett was not having much luck trying to circumvent the problem.
"I see," Hurst looked irritated, though Beckett couldn't tell whether it was because of the noise or the fact that he had unnecessarily interrupted whatever he was working on in his office. Probably a bit of both, he decided.
"There were no indications of any problems," he offered.
"Clearly there's one now," Hurst replied.
"I'm getting reports of a sudden loss of gravity on Deck Six," Tay called over the blare of the siren. "I'm trying to rectify the problem."
"Evacuate the deck and run a maximum systems scan instead. I think we've got a wider problem developing," D'Zira said to him.
"Yes ma'am," Tay replied. He began the check. Thankfully, the red alert siren cut out at that moment.
"Thank you, Ewan," Hurst said.
"It wasn't me," Beckett replied. A second later, the siren started up again, this time sounding distorted. Hurst rolled his eyes upwards in despair and turned to his first officer, who was dealing with some more reports coming in from throughout the ship.
"There are malfunctions all over the place affecting all systems," she said. She shivered slightly. "Are you cold?"
"Now that you mention it…" Hurst replied. The temperature on the bridge was beginning to drop rapidly.
"I'm reading anomalies in the neural network of the ship's computer," Tay said, his breath visible in the cooling atmosphere.
"Are the environmental controls in the meeting room affected?" Hurst asked him.
"No… Well, not yet they're not," the young Bajoran replied.
"Then I suggest we all transfer there," Hurst said, rubbing his hands together to try and warm them up. The crew nodded, looking relieved at the suggestion, and headed towards the exits.
"Captain, may I suggest that I stay on the bridge? The low temperatures do not affect me," Orea said, rising from the helm.
"Yes, good thinking," Hurst replied. "But make sure that you have a means of escape should temperatures drop too low or the problems spread to life support."
"I'll open up one of the hatches," Orea said. Hurst nodded and proceeded to get into one of the lifts to follow everyone else to the meeting room.
And got the fright of his life as the turbolift plunged several decks before resuming a normal descent.
Recovering enough to find his voice, he ordered the computer to halt the turbolift, which it did obediently. After calming down, he asked the computer to take the lift back up to Deck Two. No movement. He asked again. Still no response. He tapped his combadge.
"Hurst to D'Zira."
"Yes, Captain?"
"I'm stuck in a lift somewhere in the ship. You carry on trying to get this matter resolved."
"Yes, Sir. I'll send someone to come and get you out as well," she replied, sounding as if her teeth were still chattering slightly.
"Thank you, Commander." Hurst leant against the wall of the lift. At least the red alert siren had stopped or was not sounding here. Wherever here was.
Meanwhile, Engineering was no better off than the bridge, except the temperature there was heading towards the other end of the scale. Lieutenant Truman almost tripped over a pile of jackets that had been deposited by the engineering staff and decided to add his own to the heap. He wiped some beads of sweat from his brow. Never mind the heat; it was the computer deciding to play random tracks of music from its vast library that annoyed him most. One moment it was some plucked instrument (which Ensign Sivok pointed out as being an ancient Vulcan lute composition by a composer called T'Kian, not that Truman particularly cared), the next a male voice singing in God-knows-what language. When a brass band blasted its way through the section, Truman nearly put a fist through his workstation. Nothing worked in disabling it. He knew from information piped through from elsewhere on the ship that Engineering was not the only department affected; however his was pretty vital to the running of things. Hence the need to try and stay as long as possible to deal with matters hands-on.
"I want everything possible diverted to try and protect the warp core," he said.
"I suggest powering it down," one of his underlings said.
"Try taking it to seventy percent and we'll see how it goes," Truman replied. "Yes, Quella?"
"I have a suggestion," she said, ignoring the lieutenant's impatient tone.
"I'm listening," Truman said, though he wasn't really interested. The former Q was always trying to butt in with 'suggestions'.
"Well, I think what you need to do…" she began, but then an alarm began blaring and Truman rushed off to deal with that. Quella scowled to herself. Well, fine. She was tired of him giving her the brush-off just because she wasn't in a Starfleet uniform. Perhaps it was time to take matters into her own hands.
Tay Barlis crawled along the Jefferies tube, tricorder in hand. Behind him followed Ewan Beckett. The two men had been assigned to look deeper into the problems Tay had detected with the computer. To do this, they needed to get to an area called the Core, but since all turbolifts were now down and it was too risky to try a site-to-site transport, they had to take the long way there. The comms system was also on the way out, so they were pretty much on their own.
"Picking up anything else?" Beckett asked.
"The problem is definitely with the neural network of the computer, but I can't tell what the specifics are yet," Tay replied.
"Well, we should reach a junction behind the next hatchway. Maybe we can tap into it there," Beckett said. They reached the hatch, only to find that it was jammed. Beckett tried inputting a few codes, but it made no difference, so Tay took out the manual door lever from its compartment. He was about to apply it to the hatch when it opened. Both he and Beckett let out a yelp of surprise. There, on the other side was Aimee Dupin.
"What happened to you?" Beckett asked, seeing that Dupin was soaking wet. The ensign scowled.
"It started raining in the hydroponics bay," she said.
"What were you doing in there?"
"I was in the labs when all these problems started. We couldn't get out of the main doors, so we used the tubes. The one we were in terminated in the central bay, where the controls were going haywire. They're going to be pissed once all this is sorted out," Dupin said. "The crops are going to be ruined."
"Where were you going?" Tay asked.
"To find you lot, actually," she replied. "The comms system was down, and I couldn't get an answer out of the computer, so I decided to head for the bridge."
"Ah, you don't want to go there at the moment," Beckett said. "Unless you're feeling homesick for those Canadian winters." Dupin gave him a dirty look.
"So where's the captain?" she asked.
"When we left the meeting room, he was stuck in a turbolift somewhere," Tay said.
"Oh," Dupin said. "What are you two doing?"
"We've traced the problem to something within the neural network. We were just on our way to the Core to try and diagnose things further," Beckett said. He and Tay squeezed past her onto the intersection platform.
"I see," Dupin said, watching them beginning to descend a ladder. Beckett popped his head up again.
"You can join us if you like," he said, though his tone suggested otherwise. "You might be able to give us a hand." Dupin weighed things up in her mind. Stick with two of her least favourite people…or wander around and have God knows what happen to her? And if the captain was stuck somewhere, she'd have to report to Commander D'Zira.
"Sure. Tell me what you've got so far," she said.
Back in Engineering, things were becoming unbearable. All but the most senior team had left the area.
"I don't believe it. The heat is causing the workstations to malfunction." Truman was beginning to despair.
"I think that we need to leave here and work from elsewhere, Sir," Ensign Sivok suggested. The Vulcan looked positively fresh as a daisy compared to most of his colleagues.
"I can't. I need to be here," Truman answered back. He took a breath, the air feeling thick from the heat. He couldn't leave… He had to look after things…
"Are you feeling alright, Lieutenant Truman?"
"Fine. I'm fine," Truman insisted. His vision was becoming blurry, but through the distortion, he saw some sort of energy field crackle into life around the warp core. He stirred out of his fatigue a little.
"What's that?" he asked. Sivok attempted to get an answer from a workstation.
"Someone outside the department has manipulated the insulating field around the warp core. I am not certain how. There is too much interference," he said. He looked at his senior officer. "I suggest that we should leave now that the objective has been completed."
"I…yeah…let me…" Truman mumbled, before he passed out.
Tay reconfigured his tricorder again.
"It's hard to see, but it looks as if there's an organic signature present."
"Are you sure that it's not a conflicting signal from the ship's organic parts?" Dupin asked. Tay gave her the tricorder.
"You'd know better, I suppose," he said, in deference. Dupin studied the readings for herself. Behind them, Beckett was trying to tap into a system that would allow them to make contact with their colleagues.
"Whatever this is, it's getting worse," he said.
"It can't be," Dupin said, more to herself than the others.
"What?" Tay asked.
"I need to get back to the labs," Dupin replied. She turned on her heel and began to make her way back to the ladder.
"Hey. Where'd you think you're going?" Beckett called after her.
"I told you. The labs."
"Why?"
"I think I know what's causing this," she said. She put a foot on the ladder.
"Care to enlighten us?" Beckett asked, following her.
"It's to do with the organic components in the nebula gases we collected a couple of days ago," she said. "Somehow they've got into the ship's systems and mutated. I'm going to find out how." She started up the ladder.
"Not by yourself you won't," Beckett replied, following her up.
"You and Barlis should continue to work on the comms system," Dupin said. They reached the top of the ladder and Beckett grabbed her arm.
"Who put you in charge?" he asked.
"And you are?" she responded. Beckett gave a snort of contempt.
"Oh, please. Don't make me pull rank and all that," he said.
"Isn't that more or less what you're doing now?" she replied.
"I'm being sensible," Beckett retorted. "The ship is getting too dangerous to just go and wander off by yourself."
"I can solve this," Dupin fired back.
"All by yourself, just like that?"
"I'm wasting time here," Dupin said. She tried to push past Beckett, but the security chief was having none of it.
"Look, you're not going to impress the captain or Commander D'Zira or whoever if you wind up dead."
"I didn't know you cared."
"I don't. I'd prefer not to have the extra paperwork at the moment, if it's all the same to you." They stood glaring at each other.
"Er…if you're done, we could do with getting to the computer core." They looked down to see Tay peering up at them. Beckett turned to Dupin.
"First we go to the Core. Then the labs. Together."
"Okay. We'll do it your way then," Dupin said, grudgingly. They opened up another hatch in the junction and went through into the Jefferies tube one by one. They didn't say much to each other until they approached the deck where the main computer core was situated.
"There's a loss of gravity on this deck," Tay said, reading the tricorder.
"Is life support okay?" Beckett asked.
"Temperature is a few degrees above normal, but apart from that, we should be all right," Tay replied. Beckett nodded, satisfied.
"I hope you both didn't fail your zero gravity classes," he said lightly to his two companions as he configured a force field to keep artificial gravity and zero gravity from making any further mischief once the doors were opened.
"I certainly didn't," Dupin replied as Beckett opened the hatchway. She waited for Beckett to tumble head first through the force field and followed him, Tay bringing up the rear. The three officers used the rungs of the ladder to pull themselves downwards to where they would exit the Jefferies tube system. Beckett opened the access point onto the corridor outside and the three of them floated to the ceiling.
"The Core is that way," Beckett said, pointing ahead of them.
"How far?" Dupin asked.
"Just around the corner," Beckett replied. He grasped hold of one of the little handles embedded in the ceiling of the corridor - for use in just such a scenario as this – and began pulling himself along.
"Much more fun getting around the ship like this isn't it?" he said over his shoulder to the two ensigns.
"Yeah, sure," Dupin replied.
A deck below them, Truman had come round, although he still felt ill from the effects of the heat. Someone had managed to get hold of some water, and he sipped it gratefully.
"No luck in contacting anyone?" he asked Sivok.
"No Sir. We have managed to get a crude tracker up and running though. We can find out where people are from their combadge signals, though there continues to be too much inference on the communications systems to make actual contact," the Vulcan replied.
"Where are the other senior officers?" Truman asked. Ensign Mucha tapped at a panel on the wall.
"Captain Hurst appears to be moving towards Deck Two. I would guess that his destination is the meeting room since that is where Commander D'Zira is. Lieutenant Commander Orea is on the bridge. Lieutenant Beckett is with Ensigns Tay and Dupin on… Deck Twelve, Sir," he answered.
"They must be trying to get to the computer core," Truman said. His brow furrowed slightly. "I thought Deck Twelve had lost gravity?"
"It has," Mucha replied.
"They're welcome to try some zero gravity acrobatics if they want," he said, and lowered his head. "I feel nauseous just thinking about it."
After some skilful twisting and turning, they finally entered the Core, feeling as if they had just run a marathon.
"I'm getting a better scan of these organic compounds now," Tay said. "They appear to be feeding off the ship's neural network."
"That explains why the problems appear to be random," Beckett said.
"Are they life forms?" Tay asked.
"Pass me the tricorder," Dupin said. Tay pushed the tricorder towards her. She caught it and then waved it around, mostly towards the central nucleus, and studied the readings.
"No, they're not what could be classified as life forms. More like pre-life forms," she said.
"So they have the potential to develop into life forms?" Tay asked.
"Given the right conditions, yes," Dupin replied.
"But there weren't any signs that they were pre-life forms when we collected the gases?"
"No. Something about the organic elements of the neural network has caused these alien compounds to accelerate in their development, but they seem to have stabilised for the moment," Dupin explained with all the patience of an exasperated mother.
"Right. So somehow we've got to purge them from the network," Beckett said.
"Without killing them," Tay said.
"Aimee just said that they weren't alive," Beckett said.
"But they have the potential to develop into a life form," Tay persisted. He looked at Dupin. "Isn't there a directive about that?"
"Obviously if they were actual life forms then we would be bound to try everything possible to remove them without harm," she replied after a pause. "I'm not so sure about pre-life forms, especially where the safety of the crew is concerned."
"But surely if we did something to help create these pre-life forms, then we have a responsibility for what happens to them?" Tay said.
"Well, what would you suggest?" Dupin asked, testily.
"I don't know – maybe take them back to the nebula where we found them?"
"Of course not. They'd never develop into anything frozen in space."
"What about finding an uninhabited planet?"
"And contaminate whatever ecosystem is already established?" Dupin retorted.
"Look, the priority is the ship," Beckett intervened. "If we can get rid of these things without destroying them then all well and good, but I'd rather we stopped their progress before they eat into the entire life support system."
"I need to get to the labs soon, before being in zero gravity affects us too much," Dupin said.
"I might be able to re-establish communications best by being in here," Tay said. Beckett nodded.
"I'll go with Aimee. You should try contacting Engineering first to see if Truman also has any ideas to fix the neural net. Then try and contact us."
"Okay," Tay said, and set about making his way over to a panel. Beckett and Dupin left him to it.
"I can't believe that you left him there alone," Dupin said, as they propelled themselves back along the corridor.
"He can handle it," Beckett replied. Dupin gave a short laugh that clearly indicated her disagreement with Beckett, but instead said,
"What if he gets into trouble? There's no gravity on this deck; it's not as if he can run if the life support fails."
"If everything is okay at the lab, then I'll come back to him and leave you in peace to save the universe," Beckett replied, scooting ahead to avoid the expression he knew would be on Dupin's face. He questioned again how the hell he had stomached an entire evening with her. He wished that he could forget it, but the instincts that served him as chief security officer kept the issue on the backburner. He knew though that she'd never admit to anything out of the ordinary, and since she hadn't brought the matter up, he was prepared to leave well alone – for the time being.
Tay looked around him, slightly apprehensive. He had never been by himself in the Core before. It was eerie being alone with what was essentially the brain of the ship. Thick bundles of organic matter combined with man-made materials to create the latest technology. But the Innovation-class ships were not sentient. The Core represented a very complex computer, but a very simple brain. The technology could be taken further though. With the main breakthroughs made by the Millennium Mission out of the way, many predicted that the Federation would turn its attention to the development of ships that were sentient to different degrees – something that had already got off the ground years earlier with ships built specifically for defence. The idea gave Tay the creeps. Where would something like that end? He thought about their current mission. If Genesis had full sentience, would she actually be willing to travel to Andromeda? What would have happened if she had decided that she'd rather go and explore the Whirlpool galaxy instead? Would Starfleet have to force her to do their will, which would surely violate some edict of the rights of non-biological life forms?
"Get this fixed before your lunch comes up," he said to himself. The disorientation of being in zero gravity combined with a humid atmosphere was beginning to get to him. He managed to get himself to the communications section, hooking his feet under a strut so that he'd stay put. He began to analyse the communications network, and noticed evidence of others trying to get around the problems. That was good; now he had to find a way of joining the dots. He rerouted, doubled back and bypassed functions as he feverishly worked on making a connection. After some false starts, he tentatively tapped at his combadge.
"Tay to Lieutenant Truman." He waited for a few seconds. He was about to write off another failure when an answer crackled back to him.
"Truman here. I take it that you've managed to restore communications, Barlis?"
"Just to you. I'm in the Core. I picked up on some tracking device coming from your deck. You're not in Engineering?"
"No. It's like a furnace in there. We had to leave."
"I could do with a hand here. Beckett's helping Aimee get to the laboratories."
"I'll send somebody up. I'll have to work from down here. I'm not in a condition to face zero gravity."
"That's fine. I'll explain what we've discovered so far."
It had taken some inventive jiggerypokery to get a more encompassing basic communications system established, but it was better than nothing. The crew were now able to discuss their options from their different places on the ship.
"We can't use an electrolyte surge. That would wreck the neural network completely," Truman said.
"What about creating something equivalent to a magnet, to draw these compounds away?" Tay suggested.
"You're serious about trying to save these things, aren't you?" Dupin said.
"They should be given a chance," Tay replied.
"We haven't got time to work on a solution that works both ways," Truman said.
"I'd have to agree on that from a tactical point of view," Beckett said. "Even though Lieutenant Commander Orea took the ship down to half impulse, we're not far off from re-entering space belonging to the League of Trinilon. We need to be up and running at maximum efficiency in case we bump into the Nephellan or similar."
"Tay, I understand what you're saying, but I must agree that our needs have to come first," Hurst said.
"Yes Captain," the young Bajoran acknowledged. If he hadn't been in zero gravity, he would have slumped in dejection.
"The best way to deal with this would be to treat the organic compounds as a virus," Dupin said.
"So we get rid of them with an anti-virus," Truman said. "Sounds possible."
"Have you created one yet, Aimee?" Hurst asked.
"I'm still working on it, Sir," Dupin replied.
"How many people have you got working with you?"
"There's just me," Dupin answered, after a pause.
"I'm assuming that there are some suitable people in your department still around to give you a hand," Hurst replied. In the lab, Dupin bit her lip slightly, glad that no one was on hand to see her flush at the captain's tone of voice.
"Yes Sir," she said.
"Also, work with Lieutenant Truman on how to put this anti-virus into the system."
"Yes Captain," Dupin replied, feeling some of the wind drop out of her sails. She did as she was told, however, not wishing to incur any actual wrath from Captain Hurst.
"Keep me informed, all of you," Hurst said, ending the meeting-of-sorts.
Just over two hours later, an anti-virus was ready to be released into the Core. Dupin had carefully taken the vial down to Deck Twelve herself. It was compensation for having to share the glory of creating the anti-virus with other members of the science department. She looked at Tay, who seemed despondent.
"There'll be plenty of actual life forms for you to save in the future," she said.
"Do you know where to release it?" Tay said, skipping over the issue.
"Primary synapse generator," Dupin replied. She proceeded to do a few graceful twists that propelled her to the said point.
"I'm about to release the anti-virus," she said into her communicator.
"Standing by," Truman replied. Dupin released the contents of the vial into the system. They waited with baited breath.
"The anti-virus is multiplying and beginning to spread along the network," Dupin said, configuring a tricorder. "It's breaking down the alien organic compounds."
"The Core has been cleared," Tay said, reading information off a panel.
"I can see the neural network clearing, but I think I'm going to have to configure and release the synaptic repair peptides manually," Truman told them.
"Okay. I'm ready with the main systems reset once the repairs have finished," Tay said.
"The anti-virus has purged the network of the organic compounds. I'm activating the repair peptides," Truman said. Tay and Dupin watched as the bundles of tissue making up the organic part of the Core glowed slightly as the peptides got to work repairing the damage caused by the alien compounds. After a few minutes, the glow died down and something beeped on the panel near Tay.
"Repairs are complete," he said. "I'm resetting the main system. There'll be a blackout on all primary functions except life support for around ten minutes."
"Acknowledged," Truman said. Tay entered the necessary commands and a fraction of a second later, the room was plunged into almost complete darkness along with the rest of the ship. After the longest ten minutes anyone on board had known, there came the sound of things powering up followed by the lights flickering back on to full intensity. Down a deck, Truman breathed a sigh of relief as he noted that temperatures in Engineering were beginning to come down to normal. At the other end of things on the bridge, Lieutenant Commander Orea watched as all the consoles sputtered back to life under the layer of frost that had enveloped them.
"Oh well," he said to himself as the temperature began to rise. "It was nice while it lasted."
Dupin stood in the ready room before Captain Hurst and Commander D'Zira giving her account of her part in the recent crisis, being careful to emphasise just how important she had been. She finished on her description of releasing the anti-virus and waited for a response.
"One thing that I'd be interested to hear, Ensign, is how these organic compounds managed to escape from the laboratories and into the neural network in the first place." Dupin sighed inwardly. She had hoped that D'Zira wouldn't have the first word. Trust the commander to nit-pick.
"We had to look at that whilst we were creating the anti-virus," she answered. "There was nothing wrong with the containers used to collect the samples of nebula gas. It seems that it was a simple case of contamination. But the labs and everyone working there have been through a decontamination process."
"I hope that you will investigate the matter further for inclusion in your report," D'Zira replied.
"Yes Ma'am," Dupin said, feeling sure that the commander was out to humiliate her in front of the captain.
"You played your part well in solving the problems, Aimee," Hurst said. "But I'd like you to talk to your staff and make sure that everyone is aware of the importance of procedures. I don't want a repeat of this incident."
"I will do, Captain." She felt a pang as for the second time that day she received a mild telling off from him.
"You may go," Hurst said. Dupin bobbed her head and left the room, fuming that everyone was apparently conspiring to make her look bad. After she had gone, the next people to make their appearance in front of Hurst and D'Zira were Lieutenant Truman and Quella, both keen to air their grievances.
"You can't just go around doing what suits you," Truman glared at the Q.
"Well maybe if you listened to me once in a while I wouldn't have to," Quella fired back.
"You messed around with the warp core!"
"It's intact and functioning perfectly, so what's your point?"
"Areas like that are not your prerogatives."
"Even as a human, I absorb information at a far greater rate than you do. Whilst you've been sending me to tighten screws and realign replicators I've been doing a great deal of reading. I could probably replace you as chief engineer," retorted Quella, insolently. Truman looked utterly indignant at her remarks and was about to reply when the captain intervened.
"I don't want to hear any more of this," Hurst said, tiring of the bickering. "Quella, I've told you before that you can't simply do as you please whilst living on this ship. On the other hand, Michael, perhaps it is time to give Quella a wider scope of tasks other than routine maintenance."
"But Sir…" Truman began to protest.
"A new junior officer assigned to your department would have moved on to other things by now," Hurst said, pointedly.
"I know Sir. I'll sort something out."
"And Quella?"
"Yes Captain?"
"If I hear of any more instances like today, I won't be so lenient next time."
"I understand, Captain." Quella looked the picture of innocence.
"Good. I hope that we can move on from this. Dismissed." Hurst watched as they left the room. He turned to his first officer.
"You're supposed to deal with that sort of thing before it gets to this stage," he said.
"Captain?"
"Problems between members of crew should be reconciled by you so that people don't end up having petty arguments in my ready room."
"If I may say so Sir, how can I deal with issues if they are not raised with me?" The voice at the back of Hurst's mind answered with a sarcastic You're a telepath, aren't you? However, his verbal answer was,
"They shouldn't have to be. You're the Executive Officer. In some ways, you should know the crew better than me."
"I will work on the matter, Captain."
"I know you will, Commander. So far you've not had to be told twice." Hurst sat back in his chair, and D'Zira knew that she was allowed to leave, which she did. Hurst turned to the computer on his desk, re-reading the information he already knew. They had once again ventured into the territory of the League of Trinilon, and would not pass out of it for several weeks. He hoped that the next member they encountered would be less hostile than the Nephellan.
With all systems returned to normal some hours later, the crew could relax. Or, at least try to. Orea and Beckett joined a very twitchy looking Truman.
"Feeling better, Mike?" Beckett asked. Truman's near-black eyes darted upwards.
"It's Michael," he replied, as his companions sat down at the table.
"Whatever," Beckett shrugged. "I heard that it was getting pretty warm in your department." Truman felt his stomach turn slightly at the recollection of the overwhelming heat and decided that he needed to take his mind off it.
"I'd have coped better without Quella sticking her nose in," he said.
"I'm sure that she was only trying to be helpful," replied Orea.
"Ha. Helpful," snorted Truman, disdainfully.
"She might be the only person on board who's older than Naron, but she's still just a kid," said Beckett.
"A spoiled brat of a kid," Truman replied. "If that's what a few centuries of omnipotence do to you, then I'll happily take my few decades of mortality." He took a sip of coffee and decided that a few hours immersed in some technical detail would be the best medication for his nerves, after his caffeine intake.
"You can always request for her to be moved," Orea reminded him. Truman shook his head.
"She'd see it as some sort of victory. I won't give her the satisfaction," he said.
"Quella's not like that," Beckett said.
"Let her work for you for a few weeks and see," Truman retorted. Beckett took a drink from his cup.
"I know her about as well as I can and better than you do. In all honesty, she just wants to feel appreciated."
"I run an engineering department, not a bloody feel-good retreat on Betazed," the chief engineer fired back. "I expect people to work hard as a matter of course."
"You forget though, Michael, that Quella isn't Starfleet," said Orea, gently.
"Don't I know it," Truman grumbled. The three of them sat in silence for a little while before Truman spoke again.
"Ever wonder about Commander Wheeler?" he asked.
"No," Orea said. Beckett shook his head.
"Seems like a lifetime ago," he said.
"I can't claim to be a friend of the captain's, but I have known him longer than anybody here, except for Wheeler," said Truman.
"Your point?" Beckett asked.
"I can't help thinking that things might be different if Wheeler were still around. It's a shame that we can't look into some parallel universe in order to see if that's the case."
"Why?" Beckett asked. Truman swirled the dregs of his coffee.
"Oh…just to compare notes, if you know what I mean," he said. Beckett took a swig from his own beverage.
"I do, but it's not very fair – we didn't really know Wheeler, for a start."
"But the Captain did," Truman pointed out.
"His personal stuff isn't anything to do with us," Beckett said.
"Well, it's hardly a bed of roses between him and D'Zira is it?" Truman pressed.
"So let them work it out," Beckett replied.
"I agree," Orea said, looking at Truman. "I think that it's wrong to speculate on such matters, Lieutenant."
"Fair enough," Truman said, knowing that he was outnumbered. He gulped down the rest of his coffee and got up to head for the relative sanctuary of Engineering. Beckett turned to Orea.
"He did have a point though."
"I'm not going to be drawn on it," Orea replied.
"Don't worry, I understand your position," Beckett said. "I'm not going to put you between a rock and a hard place."
"I'm glad to hear that," said Orea. Beckett smiled somewhat enigmatically and raised his cup to take another sip.