Chapter Four: The Beginning

"One hour . . . ," commented Serea under her breath. "One hour . . . I have been on this heap of junk of a space station for one hour and I already know this was a bad idea."

Serea couldn't believe her pointed ears as she heard herself mutter such words. It had been nearly six months since she had spoken as such, not long before her Vulcan cleansing.

"Great, just great," muttered Serea as she swept her face into her hands and through her dark brown hair.

The station was in better shape than she had expected. The Jetallans had cleaned up most of the wreckage that had been caused when the Cardassians left their station after their defeat to the Federation in the Dominion War. Many of the shops on the Promenade deck were already set for trades with possible incoming vessels that would begin arriving for business. Starfleet was trying its best to help Jetal back on its feet and plenty of Federation vessels would be docking in the next thirty-six hours.

Serea had visited her quarters first to rid herself of all her bags and belongings before taking her own tour of the station. She was on her way to the Command Center where she would meet her new first officer. Serea believed that she would be able to work fairly well with Vedrann, or else, since they both would have to work together closely for however long she was assigned to DS13.

Upon entering from the lift, Serea found a disordered chaos of rummaging Starfleet officers and Jetallan crew members. The Command Center certainly had not been spared in the departure of the Cardassians. The Center was the worst off and barely half of the room had been refitted.

To her side, she noticed the plaque that Starfleet had dedicated to the station like they did for all Starfleet stations and starships. It read, "Stars hide your fires. Let what light not see my black and deep desires."

Serea sighed with a slight shake of her head, "Shakespeare..."

Sensing a nearby presence, Serea turned to find a young Jetallan man watching her from a few meters away.

"You must be our new commander from Starfleet," assumed the officer in his thick accent. "Vedrann Tennal, it is . . . nice to finally meet you, Commander."

Vedrann's calm demeanor stunned Serea for a moment and caught her off-guard from the situation at hand but she quickly nodded and acknowledged his outstretched, gloved hand.

"It is good to meet you, too, Vice Commander. Tennal," Serea commented with a respectful nod of her head.

"Call me Vedrann, please," smiled the Jetallan. "It makes me uncomfortable to be called by my other name."

"So noted," complied Serea and privately reminded herself to look up more information on Jetallan name customs.

A sudden, small explosion and crash of metal jostled the two from their conversation and their attention diverted to the other side of the room.

"I told you to use the transducer coil on that power conduit!" yelled a young, dark-haired Jetallan woman in a Starfleet engineering uniform. "Don't you humans and Starfleet-types ever listen?!" 

"Syrreiya . . .," hushed Vedrann from across the landing. "Be nice and patient."

"I have been trying to be but these letyra don't know a composure module from a space modulator!" exclaimed the young Jetallan woman with much emphasis on the native insult she used in her speech.

"No, come here," Vedrann said keeping a calm appearance. "I want you to meet our new commander."

Syrreiya climbed the nearby ladder and came face to face with Serea, her grey-purplish eyes flashing at the new commander.

"It is a pleasure," Syrreiya said with a slight head tilt and with very little truth in her voice at the welcoming. "Now, if you will excuse me, I have repairs to return to."

With a fast whip of her hair, Syrreiya was back on the bottom level crawling underneath a panel to fix the power conduit.

"I will have to apologize for her behavior," Vedrann said with some displeasure in his voice. "She is not very fond of Starfleet even though the Federation is giving us much needed help and aid."

"I understand, no apology is necessary," Serea said as she watched after the engineer and then thought to herself. This is going to be a long assignment. . .