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Naomi was late waking due to her inability to get to sleep the previous night. Consequently she had to rush through her breakfast and was almost late for her first duty shift. Luckily she got to stellar cartography at the exact moment her shift was due to begin. She had intended to arrive slightly early to familiarize herself with the department and perhaps some of the personnel. Upon entering the department, she immediately went to the office of the department leader, a Vulcan male named Slor whom she had met the previous day. He was at his desk but looked up as she approached. When she reached the threshold of his office, she stood at attention and addressed him formally, "Ensign Wildman reporting for duty, sir."
"Ensign, please come in and take a seat. I would like to welcome you to our department. I expect nothing less than your best effort at all times. Your academy record indicates you should do well here. Today, you will be familiarizing yourself with the department, as well as the procedures, personnel, and hierarchy therein. We are currently working on a report for the Captain, she wants a detailed survey of the region we are currently mapping. This report should have a special emphasis on anomalies and other factors which will effect normal ship operations."
She spent the morning happily occupied with her job and learning about the workings of her new department. Now that she was occupied and concentrating on her job, she truly relaxed for the first time since arriving on the Lindbergh. This is what she was meant to do. She could perform her job with complete confidence. She was well trained and felt she was finally contributing to the ship, not just the ship's grapevine. It was a relief not to worry about her personal issues. Icheb was only a faint thought at the back of her mind.
When it was time for lunch, she was invited to join a group of her coworkers in the mess hall. They all ordered their meals, Naomi ordered the pleeka rind casserole for herself, and gathered around a table. The topic of discussion was the report with which they were all occupied, the atmosphere was friendly and Naomi felt quite comfortable with these people. This is more like what Naomi expected from her first posting. As she sat with her back to the door, she couldn't see who was coming and going. But when a sudden silence fell over the group, Naomi had an idea who had just entered the mess hall. Her suspicion was reinforced when her coworkers began looking from her to the replicators and back to her with what could only be described as anticipation. All doubt about the newcomer was erased when she saw Icheb and Doctor Franklin sit at a table across the room.
Slowly they resumed their discussion of their current project. Naomi was ambivalent about Icheb's apparent return to decorum. He was ignoring her, just as the First Officer should. But on the other hand, he was ignoring her. She really had to get a grip on herself. He was simply having lunch with a friend, just as she was having lunch with a group of coworkers. There was no legitimate reason for the First Officer to come over to their table and socialize.
Everyone finished their lunches and the group headed back to their department. The group of stellar cartographers spent the afternoon working on the report for the Captain. They were in a sector of the Alpha Quadrant which had not been mapped by Starfleet for several decades. Due to it's dearth of habitable planets and other stellar phenomenon, it hadn't been a priority. The Federation had been at peace for years with no major conflicts occupying their resources, and Starfleet's emphasis could be on discovery rather than defense.
After her duty shift was over, she returned to her quarters and Mary was there waiting for her. Naomi had told Mary last evening about her plans for dinner. She had asked Mary if she wanted to go with her to the mess hall and see if anyone really wanted to hear more about her family history. Naomi was sure nobody would really want to hear more, with the possible exception of the doctor. Mary had assured Naomi if there was another opportunity for the crew to observe Icheb and Naomi interacting, there was likely to be quite a crowd.
Mary and Naomi entered the Mess Hall and saw there were several people already waiting around a table with Doctor Franklin. Most of the people there had been present last evening, but a few hadn't and were unfamiliar to Naomi. They approached the table and Doctor Franklin informed Naomi, "Commander Icheb won't be joining us this evening, he said something about the duty roster being especially difficult this week." Icheb wasn't the only one from last night who wasn't there. The Captain was also conspicuously absent.
Although Naomi was relieved she wouldn't have to worry about any perceived improprieties between Icheb and herself this evening, it was obvious several of the people were disappointed. It seemed Mary was correct, some people just wanted to get a chance to see the First Officer and the new Ensign in action.
During the course of the evening, the Doctor pulled most of the information out of Naomi with well crafted questions. She told them all about the first letter she and her mother had received when the Doctor was sent back from his away mission to the Alpha Quadrant. How, when two way communications were established, she got to speak to her father for the first time. She told them of the joy of arriving home, and all the resulting celebrations. She also told how it was a somewhat difficult adjustment for the members of the Voyager family to get used to life after Voyager. While it was true most of them had family and loved ones with whom they had been reunited, the Voyager crew was a family as well. A family used to the constant togetherness which had helped them to persevere all those years in the Delta Quadrant. She had gained a father, but Voyager was the only home she had ever known. The crew scattered and went on to new adventures, but they never lost track of each other. Naomi still corresponded with Seven and the others, but she still missed them every single day. By including this aspect of the Voyager saga, she hoped to let her crew members know it was perfectly normal, the way she and Icheb interacted. They were part of the same family and always would be. But who was she really trying to convince, the others or herself? The answer was, of course, both.