Season 1 - Episode 4: Time and Again
March 2371 (14 days in the Delta Quadrant)

Ensign Joseph Bell glanced out the mess hall window during his patrol, watching the stars rapidly pass by, their movements instilling a sense of ease within him. It wasn't that he was particularly stressed out or easily entertained, he just really liked watching those dots of light slide past. Knowing they were moving was more than enough cause to raise his spirits, at least for a few minutes.

Knowing that this ship was inching closer and closer to the alpha quadrant, one light-year at a time, helped offset the inevitable crushing reality that home was still seventy years away. Humans hadn't had to face such long travel times since the early days of the First Contact era, when colonization ships would carry thousands of people in stasis out to new worlds to be settled.

Only in their case the journey was measured in six years and few time lost. That was less than a single decade gone in moments to the passengers, versus Voyager's seven which they had to be up for every single day of. It was enough to make anyone depressed.

Ensigns David Felix and Emanual Jackson stepped up next to Bell by the window, their reflections a sharp contrast in backgrounds. Bell was white and skinny, and not yet out of his teens. Normally he would still be at Starfleet Academy, but when your home was a planet the Federation left behind, and it was the Maquis that's protecting your family, what 'should be' is less important with what 'is'. He'd been willing to stay in school but the Maquis cared more about what he could bring to the fight than about how many years of education he carried under his belt later on, so Joseph had left his previous life behind.

Felix was actually from Earth originally, a place called Virginia, but more than being from the Federation homeworld, the tall blonde caught a lot of grief from some of the Maquis by being a damn Romulan fan-boy. He did great work, but he tended to idolize those aliens, even to the point of making occasional disparaging remarks about Vulcans in general and Lt. Tuvok in particular. Despite that, he worked hard to get ahead and Bell felt the man was funny in a dry humor sort of way. Turned out he was right about Tuvok too, though Joseph was pretty sure Felix hadn't actually known that Vulcan was a Federation spy, or he would've said something.

Jackson on the other hand was short, Hispanic, and older then Felix and Bell combined. The man had an interesting outlook on life that Bell could understand, but not agree with. Jackson had apparently worked hard at the Academy, served on several starships, earned his rank as Ensign, and then effectively stopped. He didn't refuse to work, he just did the bare minimum that was expected. Not enough to get reprimanded, but not enough to get commended either.

Jackson, having reached what he believed to be a sweet spot in Starfleet's hierarchy, decided he wanted to be an Ensign for the rest of his career. Bell had talked to him about it, while they were both manning the security ship, and Jackson had explained that Ensigns didn't have to make life-and-death decisions, they didn't get sent on dangerous away missions (that was for crewman and superior officers), they just had to follow orders to the best of their ability. He was happy where he was and wasn't going to do anything to upset that.

At least until he had ended up on this ship.

Now a Maquis Virginian Romulan-wannabe and a man whose greatest goal in life was to be an eternal Ensign were assigned to Security on a Federation ship on the opposite side of the galaxy from either of their homes. To Bell, it sounded like the start of a particularly bad bar joke.

Maybe what really bothered him was how everyone seems so happy to get along, even these two. It just didn't make any sense to him how a Starfleet crew and a Maquis crew would willingly work together. They were enemies, but they sure weren't acting like it. Based on the things he'd seen these last few years running weapons and people around the Cardassian demilitarized zone they should've been at each other's throats. He'd expected there to be grand deck-wide riots among the various crews, dividing lines drawn, fights breaking out every few hours, open hostilities, nasty looks, something!

Instead most people just put the past behind them and moved on with no hard feelings. Everyone was pretending that just a month ago they hadn't all been enemies. That the Federation didn't see the Maquis as lesser for not going along with what a bunch of bureaucrats halfway across the sector, far away from the consequences of their decisions, commanded from on high. Seska had told him that things would be quiet for a while, as the reality of them being all alone against the Delta Quadrant sank in and people did anything to survive, but, eventually, those old divisions would reappear.

The Feds wouldn't be able to help themselves, and once they got comfortable, realized they weren't going to die tomorrow, they'd start looking down on the Maquis again. Old grudges would gradually resurface as things on the ship got worse, and before long Maquis and Starfleet would be murdering each other off as both sides fought for control of the ship. Except Starfleet did everything from space, while the Maquis were used to ship-board, close quarters combat.

It was inevitable. Privately, Bell even agreed with her. The shock would wear off, but things would still be okay, at first. So long as the food was plentiful, showers were hot, and holodecks worked, everything would work well enough. But once things begin to break down, replacement parts became harder to come by, and resources got scarce, the Feds would start to turn on them. When it came what was right, like holding their territory against the Cardassians, and what was easy, like retreating like cowards, the Federation chose what helped them and damn the little guy. They were already on replicator rations, but that wasn't so bad. When it started coming down to who got to eat, not who had to try Neelix's cooking, then the fake 'we're all together' front would vanish, just like Starfleet had from his home.

"You okay?" Felix commented, raising an eyebrow as he glanced at the Bell through his reflection.

Bell shrugged a little, still watching as the stars past them by. "I'm fine. Just taking it all in."

His fellow Maquis grinned at him, prodding Bell with a, "Sure about that? There looked to be a lot going on upstairs."

Glancing at the two of them for a moment, Bell ground his teeth and said, "Okay, I'm curious about something. How are you both so okay with all this 'squad' stuff Shepard's having us do?"

Jackson glanced up from the odd fruit he'd been eating, grabbed from the kitchens, and looked over at the Joseph. "Don't like how Shepard divied up all the Maquis onto different teams?" the smaller man asked. There was something in his tone, but Bell couldn't tell if it was derision or just poorly faked interest. Bell assumed it was the second, for the sake of the patrol. "Missing your compadres?" the shorter man added.

Joseph couldn't help the pained grimace that rose from that observation. The Fed had a point, but so did he. "Maybe a little. You gotta admit that we all got along easier when we were all on a single team, instead of divided between three." The fact that he had to deal with Feds was a large part of that.

Raising an eyebrow at the teen, Jackson asked, deadpan, "Are you saying you don't get along with me? I'm hurt. Truly hurt."

With Felix snickering on the other side of them, Jackson went on to explain, shaking his head slowly, "Come on, amigo. Splitting everyone up just makes sense." Bell stared at him, because no it didn't, and Jackson sighed. "Lieutenant Wood's one of you, so putting her in charge of a bunch of Starfleet officers will help her to adopt Starfleet methods, while having so many former-Maquis on the other squads will make them to mix the different methodologies around. Make them calm down a bit. Get the LT to back off a little too."

With a firm nod, Felix added his two credits, "And it likely won't be forever. Shepard doesn't seem like the type of commander to set something like that and leave it be. More likely we will all be trading squads around every so often to get everyone on the same level. It would help us all work together most efficiently, no matter the circumstances we find ourselves in."

Trust Felix to think about combat 'efficiency', Bell thought. At least that hadn't changed. "I just don't trust him," he muttered, shrugging before he turned away from the window and began to move towards the door on the far end of the room. "Come on, our shift is nearly over and we still have Deck Three to patrol."

Having a squad patrol the ship as part of a three-man team, instead of Starfleet's required two-man pairs had been another new change the Commander had implemented. At least Bell could grudgingly agree that it was a good idea since all too often those two people would have to split up at the first sign of a problem and become easy targets for borders. He should know, he'd been one of those borders, though only once. Another of Shepard's new rules was, no matter what, no one went anywhere alone on patrol. Didn't matter if you were on a planet or on the ship, Security worked as a team, and needed to stay as a team. Despite himself, Bell had to agree that was a good idea. Downright Maquis, even.

If nothing else, though. having two other people to talk to instead of just one made the time go by much faster.

Case in point, they were nearly at the end of their shift, and Bell could swear they had only just begun it an hour ago. Jackson had been around some actions with the Romulans, and had been telling stories, and sometimes getting into arguments, with Felix. Bell added his two credits in whenever they couldn't agree, or got stalled for a topic.

Calling for a turbolift, Bell and the other two Security Officers waited for a moment and glanced down the hallway. There were only one or two people coming or going at any given time it seemed, but it was what they expected during the night shift.

"So what have you two been doing to pass the time?" Felix asked as the lift door opened and the three men stepped inside. "For recreation."

"Deck Three." Jackson called out, the door slid closed and the turbolift hummed as it started to move down a level. "Not too much. I've been watching the 2368 QuantumRun. The fencing tournament was pretty impressive, although I think someone must have bribed a few committee officials in the hoverball exposition. There were a lot of fouls not called. Pendajos."

"QuantumRun?" Bell asked, surprised by the revelation. He hadn't taken the sleepy older man as a sports fan. "Isn't that over fifty different sports and, like, six hundred events? It'll take you forever to watch all of it." The doors chose that moment to slide open, letting the three of them walk out and let an Ensign in the red division colors of command staff take their place.

Jackson just shrugged as the doors shut with a hiss behind him. "Not forever. Six hundred events, average each one at, say, two hours apiece, and you basically end up with seventy-two thousand hours of coverage. Should work my way through all of that in three years or so. 'Sides, there are some events I just can't sit and watch."

Felix scoffed, "If I had to bet, the volleyball matches won't be one of those you choose to skip."

At Jackson's shrug of indifference, the other two just started chuckling. A moment later the shorter man joined them, nodding ruefully in admission of a point scored.

"What about you, Bell?" Jackson asked, once the three had their laughter under control again. "Anything interesting in your off hours?"

Shaking his head, the younger man answered offhandedly, "Not really. Just working on a backlog of books. I find reading relaxing. What about you Felix?"

"The usual things I suppose," the other Maquis hesitantly replied. "Keep up with my exercises. A few of us gather and talk about the things we got up to in the Maquis. Trading stories. Most of them we've already heard before, but it is just nice to hang out. You'd know if you joined us."

"I'd rather not." Bell answered, his eyes moving across the various doors to officers' quarters as they meandered around the deck. "You know I don't care about that kind of thing. It's just. . . boring. Besides, I don't care if you once saw a nebula that looked like a Denebian Slime Devil. You either pulled your weight, or you didn't. That's all that matters to me."

Felix snorted, "Spoil sport. What's the point of being a warrior if you can't take pride in your victories?"

Jackson looked over at Felix and asked, "I don't think I've ever asked. What did you do on the Val Jean?"

The Virginian's face firmed up in a frown as he spoke, "Not much, sadly. I was mostly on board for muscle, which we rarely needed. That's why I think I ended up in Security. Had only been on that ship for a week before we ended up in the badlands. Before that I jumped around, but originally I was a hydrological engineer on Marva IV. Thick clouds on that world, but not much water unless you replicated it or pulled it from the atmosphere. Nasty creatures though. I once took on a hexapod with claws as big as my arm with nothing but a knife and a smile." The man grinned, though his victorious smirk faded. "That was where a lot of the people from Salva II ended up after the Cardassians kicked them off their planet. The ones that survived. Moisture farming didn't seem so important after that, so I went and did my part to help out."

"Why'd you leave?" Bell asked, eyes forward even as his ears listened in carefully. "I remember you being in a hell of a hurry to leave when we picked you up on our supply run."

Felix smiled sadly, "You know the old story. Boy meets girl, on a break between ship duties, then another girl, without telling his first girl. There may have been a third. Needless to say, none of them really looked kindly on me after that. Of course, I didn't know how unkindly they had become until someone started shooting at me. Wonder if it was Valerie's family, or Linda's. Telna's family still liked me, even if she didn't, so not them at least. Luckily, Val Jean was getting ready to leave at the time. Thought I would just help around the ship a few weeks until we got to the next colony and I went my own way."

"Which is why we didn't usually pick up strays on runs. You guys always come with baggage." Bell commented, turning his head to smirk at the older man. "Speaking of strays, what's had Neelix worked up all afternoon? Last I heard, he'd basically locked himself in his old ship and didn't come back out until late in the evening."

Jackson grinned widely, if sleepily, as he replied, "Get this nino. During the morning briefing Shepard dropped the bomb on everyone that Voyager might not be alone out here. Neelix spent the day working through that mess of cables that he calls a computer for any records that might help prove it one way or another. Turns out, he did have a brief look at the Equinox from a distance before it went to warp."

Felix stared back at him in disbelief, "He didn't try to make contact with them?"

"You've met Neelix, right? Remember how shifty that cabrón was those first few days on board, and how when we found him scalvaging he almost shot us to keep us away?" Jackson slowly shook his head at the memory, and pressed on, "Like it woulda done anything other than piss off the la jefa. No, at the time he was more worried about staying out of the way of someone whose ship was a hell of a lot bigger than his."

"They get a heading at least?" Bell asked, genuinely curious.

Jackson shook his head in negative, adding, "Nah, they were only on his sensors for a few moments. They hightailed it out of there in a hurry. Neelix got just enough information to show that we're not on anything like a similar course. Command staff's throwin' around a theory that they were more heavily damaged than we were, so took off towards a nebula where they could hide out and make repairs in relative safety. By now, there is no telling where that ship went."

"At least we know we have an ally out here. Somewhere" Bell offered, trying to look on the bright side as the three of them finished their circuit of the deck and were winding their way back to the turbolift once more. As they made their way down to Deck Four and back towards the Security offices, Joseph asked, "How do you know all this?"

Jacksons grin was back, this time so wide it seemed like his face might fall off, said, "I'm so glad you asked! I've been hanging out with Ensign Jenkins."

"Wait," Felix snapped back into the conversation, "that gorgeous nightshift helmsman?" At the man's confirmation nod, the Virginian let out a groan of exasperation. "Damn it. I was planning on asking her to the holodeck."

The other two gave their compatriot a good-natured chuckle, turning the corner of the hallway as they approached the main office. When they entered, they found Lt. Andrews waiting for them by the office door, padd in hand, and the three men straightened up.

"There you are," the Lieutenant began without preamble when they approached. "New orders. Your team is pulling a double shift tonight. But to make up for it you get the rest of tomorrow off."

Jackson hung back as Bell and Felix took a step forward, coming to attention in front of their superior officer. Bell was the first to say, "When was this decision made, Sir? We are supposed to be coming off shift a few minutes from now."

Andrews scowled at the pair. "Typical Maquis, huh? Not willing to put in the extra work you are assigned? Figures."

Clenching his jaw to keep from saying something he'd likely regret, Bell took a breath and pushed ahead. These Feds were all about protocol, they could choke on it. Jackson was okay, but it made sense the higher you went, the worse Federation got. Suddenly Jackson's Ensign end-goal made more sense. "No, Sir. Not at all. Just wondering when this decision was made and why our XO isn't the one passing along the message, Sir."

"Your superior officer is. I'm the one telling you." Andrews stated matter-of-factly.

Felix, sighing dejectedly, asked, "Sir, who else knows about this? Has the rest of Gamma been informed or just us?"

Bell furrowed his brow in thought. Separating the entirety of ship's Security crew into three 'squads' had been another thing Shepard had done to promote cooperation. He said that, to help 'foster cooperation', it would make sense to divide up the newcomers so that the Lt. Andrews had two Maquis on his Alpha Squad, one a Lt. Junior Grade and another an Ensign. Lt. Wood was the only Maquis on Beta Squad. Meanwhile Lt. Dalal had one Lt. Junior Grade and three Ensign Maquis in her Gamma group. That meant that while Andrews was superior to them in rank he wasn't the superior officer of anyone in Gamma group, anymore than Tom Paris was.

Before he could think more on this, the door to the Security Chief's office slid open and a very angry looking Lt. Dalal stepped out. She didn't even break stride as she moved past the three, eyes locking onto her coworker only causing her stormy look to reach Monsoon levels of intensity.

"Andrews," their XO stated, voice calm in contrast to her expression, "I would like to talk to you in the office for a few minutes."

The bigger man ground his jaw and narrowed his eyes at both her and the three men, but just gave a nod and marched into the room without saying another word. Before she turned to follow him, Dalal turned to Bell, Felix and Jackson to say in a much less turbulent tone of voice, "You three are finished for the day. Enjoy your night, and if this happens again in the future remember to do what you did today and check in with me."

With a brief nod towards them, Lt. Dalal followed after the man and shut the door behind her, leaving the two men stunned by what just happened.

After a few good moments to reflect, Bell hesitatingly asked, "Anyone know what that was about?"

Jackson chuckled, drawing the other two men's attention towards him, and the miniature padd he was slipping back into his pocket. "What happened, is Andrew is going to get his ass chewed out. Again. Fuckin' puta."

At the blank look of his companions, Jackson laughed a little harder and explained, "Andrew's squad was supposed to be on the next shift. He hates third shift, and tried to get us to do it for him. Lazy bastard."

"You know," he added, a second later, seemingly to himself, "I don't get him. Man spent all that time and energy getting to where he is, to have all that responsibility, and then wastes it by playing silly games he ain't gonna win."

Felix nodded along, adding, "The Lieutenant looked like she was going to tear him apart."

Bell decided he wasn't going to bother pointing out how, if this happened regularly, Dalal wasn't going to change anything, and instead shook his head and prepared to say good night. "Anyway, we're off duty," he sighed. "I'm going to head back to my quarters and get back to my books."

Felix looked over at him and asked, "You sure? I know a few of us are going to go play some hoverball on the holodeck."

Shrugging, Bell only replied, "I'm sure. There's a book I just started, and I really want to finish it."

"You have plenty of time to read a book," Jackson offered. "It's like my shows, it isn't going anywhere, and you're not gonna get anymore any time soon."

"I know," Joseph replied, "but I don't want to wait. I'm just going to get some grub and head to my room. Hopefully before my bunkmate gets third shift. She snores."

It only took two minutes for Bell to offer his farewells, and arrive in his quarters a few decks down. Moments later he was be changed into his night clothes, under the covers, and reading about brave adventurers fighting off evil invaders on a padd before he fell asleep.

===/\===

Bell awoke with a start when the ship suddenly shook, rolling him out of his bunk and onto the floor. They had a belt to stop that, but no one ever bothered to use it. "What the hell?" was all he managed to get out of his mouth in response to the rude awakening before his comm badge chirped and he heard Shepard's tenor voice ring out from his desk, "Security Team, go on standby," before going silent once more.

The man scowled at the badge, but did as instructed by quickly throwing on his uniform. If it wasn't an emergency, he'd go back and take a shower, but borders didn't care how much you smelled. It was the work of only a minute to get into uniform and check the time, revealing it was still early morning, but Bell had still managed to get a full night's sleep.

Finally, strapping his phaser to his waist and making one last inspection in the mirror, Bell rushed out of his quarters and made a beeline to the turbolift. There were two others with him, both Feds that were part of the science division, but heading down the hall at what seemed like a leisurely pace. Apparently only the Security teams needed to be getting anywhere in a hurry.

After letting the two scientists off at their stop there was nothing slowing Bell down from reaching the Security offices.

As he double-timed it into the main assembly room, Bell noticed that he wasn't the first to arrive, but he was in one of the better states. Most of the people who had already arrived looked like they needed at least six cups of coffee before they would be able to function, likely the people from nightshift who were just getting ready to sleep before the alert rang out. Bell could barely fight the urge to laugh at a half-awake Lt. Andrews sitting at the front of the room, having claimed one of the desks in the back corner and with his head propped up by his arm, trying his best to not nod off back to sleep.

For the next twenty minutes that was the state of things. More people showed up, mostly trickling in at a walk since a Standby order was just to be ready to do something as soon as possible. There wasn't anything that said they couldn't just wait in their rooms until given new orders, but it was obvious that most people felt they would be better off gathering here instead.

"It wake you up as well?" Felix's familiar voice rang out as the man waved to Bell from his seat in the top, back row on the other side of the room from Andrews.

"Nah," Joseph drawled out as he walked over, taking a seat next to him, "I was already on the floor. Doing pushups as part of my warrior's wakeup, you know how it is."

A snerk of laughter was his reply. "Yeah, Sure, me too. Took me a few minutes to wake up fully, the game went a bit long. Thank goodness it wasn't a red alert. I'd be at my station in boxers."

"Yeah, no one wants to see that," Bell agreed, chuckling.

As the two men talked, Lieutenants Dalal and Wood entered the room and moved towards the front. There was a whispered conversation between them, and Bell watched as Andrews rolled his eyes, stood up, and joined them as the conversation in the room became more animated.

He was tempted to head down there and ask the Lieutenant what he needed to do, just like on a Maquis ship, but knew it wouldn't be seen in such a good light among all the Starfleet in the room. They were just supposed to wait like good little soldiers until orders came down from on high.

Commander Shepard took that moment to walk through the door, and Bell forgot all thoughts of getting involved. The look on the Commander's face spoke volumes, and he didn't want to be anywhere near the receiving end of that wrath. Not when Shepard was such a tall bastard built who looked like he could break most of the people in the room in half with a glare. Hell, even Felix was wary of the guy, and Bell had seen that guy take out a Klingon. It was a drunk Klingon, but that just made it more impressive.

Bell had only spoken to the man a few times so far, and the commander always came across as, for lack of a better term, cold. Oh, Shepard was always polite, he listened to what Bell had said about splitting up the crew and actually seemed to accept constructive criticism from his subordinates, unlike Andrews, but Bell always had the feeling that the man would take you apart in an instant if he needed to. As soon as you approached him, the man's eyes ran across your features in a way that made you feel like he was trying to figure out all your secrets and that it was only a matter of time before he found them. Like he could know anything he wanted about you, it was just not worth the effort to find out.

It was a feeling he didn't get with other Starfleet personnel. The only time he had felt something similar was among a few of the older, scarred Maquis, and a couple of Bajorians he had met who lived through the occupation.

There was even a rumor working its way around the ship that the man was part of some black ops Federation spy organization like the Romulan Tal Shiar that Bell had gotten Felix to talk about. There was another that said he was a Starfleet experiment to recreate the old Augments from Earth's past, like Khan but with kill codes in his head if he went rogue. A third said he was actually a time traveler, who'd Janeway picked up on the Collector's station before she blew it up. Whatever the truth was, Bell was going to stay exactly where he was seated along the back wall and be happy about it.

Shepard didn't waste any time as he moved to the main screen and pressed a few buttons, bringing up a view of what looked like a dead, grey planet. As he did, he spoke loudly, "I'm glad to see everyone got up and dressed. Alpha Squad, sorry about the lack of sleep, but you should be able to go back to bed soon. If we need you, I want you rested and ready to go because then everything will have gone wrong."

"What happened an hour ago," he continued speaking, as if he hadn't just suggested that whatever this was could be bad it might require the entire Security detail, "was that Voyager was hit by the leading edge of a shockwave. It caused a minor hull breach, but that was contained and has already been patched."

"The source of the wave was this planet," he declared, pointing at the screen. "It is covered in differentially charged polaric ions, which suggests one hell of a massive detonation. Thus, the Captain adjusted our course to investigate. All life on the planet had been destroyed. Everything down there is dead, even the bacteria."

He pointed at a crater on the screen. It was impossible to tell how big it was from here, but it visible from upper orbit which suggested a seriously sinister scenario. "From what we could tell up in orbit, there was a civilization down there. There are artificial waterways and a global aqueduct system that must have been impressive a few days ago. Now, everything is seared to cinders."

"Our illustrious Captain, Head of operations Tuvok, Chief Engineer Torres and our Primary Pilot, Lieutenant Junior Grade Paris, against my recommendations, all went down together to investigate." Shepard looked like was glaring at the screen, almost like he was challenging it somehow. "They reported what appeared to be the aftereffects runaway polaric ion explosion. It looked like polaric energy was piped into every business, park, and home on this planet. Was, until a few hours ago."

A general wave of disbelief swept the room, though only half the people seemed to understand what that meant, and Bell wasn't one of them. "That can't be possible," someone spoke above the general murmur of discontent. "That would mean every street, every power outlet on the planet, was a potential bomb waiting to go off. Um, Sir."

Shepard nodded along, showing his agreement with that assessment. "I don't think they got that memo Ensign. Unfortunately, it's too late to tell them that now." He waited a moment, and the anger on his face seemed to ebb, though only for a moment.

"Sadly," he began again, face set in cold fury, "such a massive detonation had other side effects. It shattered subspace on the surface. Lieutenant Junior Grade Paris is reported as having experienced something like a vision while he was on the surface, claiming to have seen the same place they were standing on experiencing a bright sunny day with men and women going about their business. Instead of leaving immediately, the crew, including the Captain, decided to investigate. Janeway apparently discovered the subspace fractures as floating across the planet like icebergs, and finally ordered everyone back to the ship."

Everyone seemed to be holding their breath, waiting to hear the inevitable bad news. Shepard didn't disappoint them. "Janeway and Paris are missing. They disappeared into thin air, possibly through one of those subspace fractures. An engineering team is being assembled to figure out how to pull the two out of wherever they are. In the meantime, Security is going to be on heightened status on the ship while one squad heads down with them for their safety."

Shepard glanced around the room, like he was evaluating everyone, and all Bell could think was, 'Please let me stay on the ship. Please.'

After a moment to look around, the Commander growled out in annoyance, "Alpha squad, you are going to catch a bunk. You all look ready to fall over. Tomorrow we are going to step up the exercise program, for everyone."

More genially he went on, "Beta, you are staying on the ship on ready status."

Getting a nod from Wood, Bell cursed under his breath as Shepard offered his judgement. "Gamma, prep for an away mission and meet in the shuttle bay in fifteen minutes. As there are subspace fractures, I think we can all see why using transporters to move us through subspace is a bad thing, so we're talking the long way down. Dismissed."

"Well, shit." Felix quietly enunciated next to him, voicing Bell's thoughts exactly.