Lucas groaned in frustration as he sat on the Bridge again. It was fairly empty now, save for a skeleton crew. Most people were off eating dinner. "Ahhh…you stupid machine! Why can't you just do what I want you to do?"

"What do you want it to do?" came a voice from behind him. It sounded almost like Ellie, so he turned around, expecting to see her, but saw Katya instead.

"Oh. It's you."

"Don't get excited," she said, walking up and sitting near him. "What's the problem?"

"It's having a problem communicating the WHSKR data back to Miguel's station and…wait, why am I talking to you? I don't want to talk to you," he replied, going back to his work.

Katya sighed. "Have you tried running a…"

"Whatever it is I'm sure I've done it."

"But…"

"I don't need your help. This is my job."

Katya frowned and stood up. Looking at the terminal for a moment, she typed in a series of codes. 10 seconds later, the lost WHSKR data was scrolling across the screen, downloading into the memory of Miguel's station for later review. Lucas just gaped at her. She gave him a sad smile before turning and walking away.

When she reached her room, she found that all of her things had been transferred here. She moved some things onto the floor so she could sit on the bed. Leaning back against the wall, she took a deep breath, feeling like she wanted to cry. She hadn't done anything to him and he already hated her. She had been hoping it would be different here, but apparently she'd been wrong. She'd had to deal with this type of prejudice for so long, she should be used to it, but in this place, a new place where she didn't really know anyone, it wasn't so easy to ignore.

Before she could stop them, the tears did come. She didn't know why his dislike hurt her so much, but it did. She pulled her knees up to her chest and tried to be calm. She had to let out anger, frustration or sadness. If she didn't, there could be consequences, like things breaking.

She could turn off everything when she wanted to, and she most often did. Sometimes she just forgot, or things came to her unexpectedly. That was what had happened with Lucas this morning. She'd turned it off, but the touch of his hand had caused her to get something from him. He wasn't well, something was wrong, something had happened to him before she'd gotten here. The image of him writhing on the floor in agony had been distinct. She'd asked him if he was okay before she'd thought about it. She wiped her face with her sleeve and looked around the room, her new home, indefinitely.

She leaned her head back again and closed her eyes, not wanting to think of him anymore. As it often did in these moments, a picture came to her mind. A lavish ballroom, people dancing, all of them richly dressed and dripping with jewels of all sorts. Candles, firelight, bouncing off the gold colored walls. This was a refuge for her; she liked to come here when she was upset. She wasn't sure where it had come from but she'd seen it for as long as she could remember and she could call it up at will.

A knock interrupted her and she opened her eyes. Sliding off of the bed, she wiped her face again and opened the door to find Lucas standing there. She couldn't hide her shock at seeing him.

"Hi. Can I, um…can I come in?"

"Sure," she replied, stepping back and then closing the door behind him after he entered. The image of his pain flashed through her mind again, but this time she suppressed it.

He looked at her curiously. "Were you crying?"

"Huh? What? Oh, no…"

He didn't believe her for a second but let it go. "I wanted to say that I'm sorry for being a jerk. Thank you for helping me with the computer problem."

"Apology accepted and you're welcome."

"How did you know what to do?"

"Something sort of similar happened on the computer system at the parapsychology lab one of the few times I had to go somewhere to assist as part of my course work. I just remembered what they'd done to fix it."

He nodded. "I just don't trust people like you."

"Why not?"

"Because, you can see into people's heads, read their thoughts and put anything you want in there."

She frowned. "And you think that everyone who is like me would do that?"

"Why wouldn't you, if you could?"

"Maybe because it's just wrong? I would never do that to anyone; never put anything in their heads, unless it was a joke and it was someone I knew."

"But you can read thoughts too."

"I can, yes, if I choose to. But unless there is a need to do it, I don't."

"Then what about this morning?"

"This morning? I don't know what happened there. I was blocking it out, but when I touched your hand it was just there. I didn't go looking for it."

Lucas was quiet for a moment. "What is that like?"

"What is what like?"

"Seeing things."

"Oh, it's strange. I've lived with it my whole life and I'm still not really used to it."

"The Captain said abilities. As in plural. What else can you do?"

"I'm what they call psychometric, which means I can get information about someone by handling an object that they've touched. I also have mediumistic tendencies, and I can see events and memories, if I focus on someone, through their eyes."

"Wow, that's intense. You can just touch anything?"

"Yeah, as long as that person touched it with their skin."

"And mediumistic tendencies?"

She nodded. "I can see and speak to spirits, ghosts, or whatever you want to call them."

Ellie flashed through Lucas' mind. He wondered if she'd seen it, but she didn't say anything or even indicate that she'd noticed.

"So you don't mess with people on purpose?"

"No. Lucas, if I promise you that I won't ever purposely do anything like read your mind, can we try to be friends?"

Lucas pondered this for a moment, and then nodded. "Okay."

She smiled at him. "Good. Would you like to sit down? You still look tired, and that has nothing to do with reading your mind."

He smirked and sat down in the desk chair. "So, Katya…"

"Kat," she said.

"Kat…what do you know about world events?"

Lucas rolled around in his bunk. His headache had returned, though not as severe as before, and though he was sleeping, he wasn't sleeping well. He'd had these headaches every night for the last two weeks. He had also been having long and very interesting conversations with Kat over the past two weeks. They had a lot more in common than he'd originally thought, and she was knowledgeable in a lot of different areas, including computers and A.I. He'd felt even worse for the way he'd originally treated her. She hadn't deserved it and he was glad he'd apologized. As his fitful sleep continued, he wondered why he felt so unwell.

Seaman Matthews paced the hall, his guard duty having just started. It was usually a quiet duty because nothing much ever happened. He whistled softly and looked around, then turned and headed down the hallway.

Suddenly, he felt something wrap around his neck and his eyes widened in shock. He grabbed at his neck and felt a piece of cloth there just as it was pulled tighter. Just before the point of passing out, it was let go and he crashed to the floor. Rolling onto his back, he looked up to see what was going on. Before he could call out for help, a fist crashed into his face and everything went black.