CHAPTER 5

Tatie Williams was just settling down, after purchasing the clothes that Garak had fitted her for, and quite well, when she realized just how hungry she was. She went down to the Promenade to the Ferengi's bar, with the intent on trying some of the local Bajoran foods. She already had her food at a table and had a forkful of food to her lips when she heard the unfamiliar intercom chirp for Deep Space Nine.

"Kira to Commander Williams."

She muttered to herself, "At least on the Hornet, I could eat in peace..."

She then sighed and laid her fork back down as she tapped her commbadge with her other hand.

"Williams here," she said, "what can I do for you colonel?"

She had then picked up her cup to take a drink when Kira's voice came back.

"Commander, Captain Enor had called for you earlier. He asked me to relay that to you."

Her cup of tea came down from her lips so quickly that some splashed onto the table and onto the floor, missing her plate by sheer luck.

"What all did he say?" she asked joyfully.

"He just said he wanted to speak with you, and that the Hornet is en route to Trill for a terraforming mission," came Kira's reply.

"Wow!" she exclaimed. "I never thought he'd want to go there for a while. Can you get me a channel to the Hornet as soon as possible?"

"Whenever you are ready for it commander," Kira replied.

"In about ten minutes. I need to talk with Commander Worf and Odo real fast about new security protocols," she said, with a mouthful of food.

Somehow, the colonel understood why it was hard to hear correctly, since Tatie had not been able to get much to eat since she arrived a day ago. She had been busier than she ever knew with security reports and supervising security teams and giving enough advice to be an instructor at the Academy in regards to security procedures.

Tatie finished eating her lunch, then ran to her quarters and asked for the transmission to be sent to her there. When the transmission screen came up, it asked for the identity of who was sending the signal. She thought it was rather a bad habit idea, but it was worth it at times. She then finally got her transmission to send.

"USS Hornet. Commander Mathison here," came the reply.

Tatie looked at her shipmate, then spoke up. "Commander, is the captain available?" she asked politely.

Terry looked at her on the Hornet's main viewer. "Stand by, commander," he said as he tapped his commbadge. "Mathison to Captain Enor," he said.

"Enor here, go ahead commander."

"Captain, Commander Williams is on the comm for you, sir.," Terry explained.

"Very well. Route the signal through to my quarters, please. I'll take it down here," he said.

"Aye sir."

Mathison looked to the cadet at the tactical station, and nodded, and she realized what it meant, and rerouted the message.

Captain Enor went to get a cup of herbal tea, to relax himself, as he was looking out the window in his ready room, to space, as stars were streaking by. This was a rather comforting picture for him, since it's so peaceful, and his ship running smoothly. He turned when his monitor beeped, saying the communication from his fiancé was coming through. He quickly slipped into the chair behind his desk, and activated the monitor, and the image of her came on the screen.

"Hi," he said at first.

"Hi to you too," she said, quite happy, yet tired. "What's this I hear about you heading to Trill?" she asked.

"About nine hours after you left, I got a call from Trill, saying something about a severe problem with the symbiont breeding cycle. They had called Starfleet Command up, and asked for me to deal with it, but unfortunately, that's all I can tell you, and that it's a high priority mission," he explained.

"Why can't they send the Enterprise?" she asked, partly with concern.

"The Enterprise is still docked at Starbase 215, undergoing an extensive system repair and overhaul, not to mention, fixing problems with their new warp core," he continued, "Star said something about it in a message to me yesterday."

"And, I take it they wanted the only Trill captain in the fleet to come in and address this one?" she asked, with emphasis on 'only'.

"Who else would they call on for this? Besides, I knew sooner or later, something like this would happen. We've finished converting cargo bays one and two for liquid pools to be set up. That much should explain the mission," he commented, in a somewhat sympathetic tone.

"Okay.... Will you call me when you get back?" she asked, almost at a beg.

"I promise."

"I will hold you to that, and if you don't, I'll hang you up by those cute spots of yours," she replied, with a hint of sarcasm.

He just sighed and shook his head, with a small smile on his face. "I won't let you do that, and you know it."

She giggled from that. "Then make sure you call me as soon as you get back this way," she said through her giggles.

"Alright. I'll call you the instant I'm in visual hailing range," he promised.

"Okay. Love you," she said as she blew him a kiss.

"I love you to," he said as the transmission ended, due to going out of range.

"Bridge to Captain Enor," came the voice of Cadet Yates, in command of the ship..

"Go ahead," came his reply, reading on the progress of the cadets, as filed by Commander Mathison and Cadet Yates.

"We're approaching the Trill system, sir."

"Thank you. I'm on my way," he said as he got up and left the ready room and stepped onto the bridge.

Most of the cadets had retired to their quarters, and only Cadets Yates and Tzjan were still on the bridge, and the common bridge officers were manning their stations. The viewscreen shifted, showing the ship dropping out of warp and entering his home planetary system. Enor watched partly in satisfaction as he knew that their mission was going to be completed to the best of the ability of his crew.

"Bridge to engineering," Enor said, "begin a phase two survey of our destination."

"Aye sir," came the voice of Commander Mathews, from engineering. She turned to her engineering staff. "You heard the captain. Let's get those new sensors online."

The engineering crew quickly went to their workstations and started their sensor sweeps, beginning with the proposed target location for resettlement of the symbionts.

The Trill homeworld was covered with lovely purple oceans, that made several of the non-Trill crew members to think how that could possibly be, and those who call that planet 'home' sympathize. As the fine starship entered orbit and started sensor sweeps on both the Mak'ala caves, and the resettlement site, Chris decided it was time to go down to check on the tanks, then to beam down to Trill personally, to talk to the Guardians, as well as the Symbiosis Commission board regarding what was going to happen.