Trekking through the Stars

by omaster43

The galaxy is a big space filled with heroes, but those heroes need to start somewhere, and that place is the bottom. Have fun with Nathaniel and the crew of the Cerritos fumbling their way to victory... or an early grave, whatever comes first. I just wanted to do this because I like Lower Decks, fun show with fun characters that don't take things too seriously, even if they should

1. Chapter 1

Trekking through the Stars

Ch. 1

-/-

D'vana Tendi aka Mistress of the winter constellations POV

"Um... ensign's log?" I called out to my PADD, thinking about my first Log, on my way to my first ship.

"Don't forget your name," A human next to me corrected. He was tall, about 6 feet, tan, with a yellow uniform with an ensign pip, and sunglasses blocking his eyes. "Ships only have one captain, so it's okay for them to start with captain, but we're kinda a dime a dozen."

"Oh, sorry just a bit nervous. My first time working on a ship," I explained.

He shrugged, "It's all good, normal to feel a bit antsy. Nathaniel Witt, friends call me Nate." he offered his hand.

I quickly shook it, "Tendi! Uh, D'Vana Tendi! Ensign, Medical!"

He smirked, "Ensign, Security. Looks like you are ready to get to work."

"ABSOLUTELY!" I jumped at the chance, "I'm ready to prove myself!"

He laughed, "You remind me of some of my family. Ready to kick butt and take names, and that one time we took butt and kick names," he muttered.

"Is this your first Ship too?"

He shrugged, "Kinda, I was born on the USS Magellan, but jumped from planet to planet and ship to ship visiting family."

"Oh~, isn't the Magellan a galaxy-class," I asked. Galaxy-class ships were huge with over a thousand people.

"Depending on who you ask, some call it a Constellation-class."

"Still, to be born on a spaceship, what was it like?"

"Hmm, a bit cramped, but fun. You learn quickly that you can't run away from your problems, you got to face them, and sometimes," he flexed, showing off his muscles, "You're going to have to punch someone."

I gasped under my breath, "You fought your fellow crewmates?"

He gave a laugh that felt like it was going to shatter the shuttle to pieces, "I fought my family~! Tendi, you going to learn this soon, every ship is like a family, they are going to be your best friends and most annoying rivals, but you'll love them, even when you want to launch them out of an airlock. When the day comes you want to punch someone's lights out, come to me first, I'll set up the ring, and make bets," he teased.

I gasped loudly this time, "I would never!"

"Is that a bet?" he smirked.

I narrowed my eyes at him, "Bet what? Starfleet doesn't use money."

His smirk grew larger, "Money~, who needs it? I'm talking about favors~, maybe you want someone to help cover your shift or with mundane tasks, trust me, half our job is going to be moving things from one side of the ship to the other. That goes double for the Cerritos, Cali-class ships don't have a lot of cadets we could just pawn off some of our duties to."

"I would never pawn off any of my duties," I huffed.

"Wait until you have to do Holodeck waste removal," he groaned. "You will be cashing in every favor you have."

"Did you do that in the Magellan?"

He shivered, "It was the worst."

"Is there a time limit? On our bet I mean."

"A week? No... 3 days~." he held up his fingers.

"Aren't you a little too confident? I'll have you know that everyone likes me," I smirked.

"Is that right~? All right D'Vana, you win, I owe you three favors, you name them, I win, I get to know why the Mistress of the Winter Constellations is working for Starfleet."

Every hair on my body stood at complete attention, as my eyes widened, every little detail on his face became crystal clear.

"How?" I whimpered.

"Relax~. One of my cousins has a poster of you over her bed, she thinks you're the coolest battle-" I covered his mouth before he said anything the others in the shuttle might hear.

"SHUSH!"

"You're being louder than I am," he muttered.

"I SAID SHUSH!" everyone was now looking at us. "Haha, just, uh, talking with my buddy, this guy," I laughed. They gave me queer looks before returning to their PADDS or talking with one another. "Please don't tell anyone," I begged.

I couldn't tell but I was certain he rolled his eyes, "D'Vana relax~, Starfleet probably knows who you are and doesn't care, they're probably happy someone like you has joined in the first place. Trust me, Starfleet had way more dangerous people join."

"I just... I don't want people to know."

He shrugged, "Alright, I won't tell anyone, but it's only a matter of time before everyone knows. I give it... 6 weeks, tops~."

I just groaned into my hands, I just started my new career and someone knows about my past already~. The shuttle jerked, nearly tossing me to the floor but Nate caught me.

"And we're here, ready for our new adventure?" he helped me to my feet, a big genuine smile on his face. The shuttle opened to the Cerritos's dock. It was beautiful, just like the training simulations. "Come on," he led me to the dock Lieutenant. "Nathaniel Witt," Nate introduced himself, passing his PADD to the Lieutenant.

The Lieutenant paused and looked up at Nate, "Well, would you look at that, we have a bit of Witt~. Didn't think one of you would ever grace a Cali-class ship."

"There's a bit of Witt in every ship~," Nate joked.

"Mmm, yellow line, deck 4." he passed him back his PADD. "Next."

I extended my hand for a shake. "Ensign D'Vana Tendi, reporting for duty. Transferring from outpost 79-"

"Deck 4. yellow line, elevator, all the way down," he drawled.

"Thank you so much! And can I just say that I'm really honored to be-"

"Keep it moving, lower deck," he muttered, not even looking at my outstretched hand.

"YO!" Nate waved at me. I sighed; I was kinda hoping we wouldn't be together for long, I felt like I was going to say something that was going to out me as a former assassin. "Wanna do the honors," he gestured to the elevator.

Well, he's not all bad, "Computer, Deck four." The doors closed and launched us down. It didn't take us long to follow the line to a repair bay.

"Hot, hot, hot!" we heard someone scream, quickly walking into the repair bay we found two ensigns working on a food replicator. There was a pale human man with purple hair being pelted by yellow fruit, and a dark skin human woman, with her sleeves rolled up, relaxing while reading her PADD, both wearing a red Command uniform.

"Everything okay in here?" Nate asked, getting a banana to the face, "Sweet fruit! That's a spicy banana," he rubbed his face. "Let me guess, food in the food replicator," he teased. "Nate Witt."

"Ensign Tendi," I introduced myself, "I'm looking for Ensign Boimler."

"And I'm looking for... Beckett Mariner," Nate added, looking at his PADD.

"Right here big boy!" the female ensign waved at us. "So, you're one of the infamous Witts," she smirked.

"And you're Beckett Mariner," he then slapped her across the face, much to everyone's shock.

"WHAT THE FUCK!?" Mariner hissed.

"That was for sleeping with my cousin in Deep Space 9, and not calling."

Mariner glared at him, before sighing, "Okay, I may have deserved that." he slapped her again, "FUCK! You don't hold back!"

"That was for my cousin in the Atlantis."

"Damn it, I need to call people back." Nate slapped her again. "Son of a bitch!"

"The Quinto," he answered.

"Did you sleep with every Witt in Starfleet?" Boimler hissed.

"No!" Nate slapped her again, "YOU WANNA DIE ASSHOLE!?"

"Scottsdale." was all Nate said.

Mariner took a deep breath. "So, how about a tour?" she smiled. Leading us into the ship. "How anal are you with contraband?"

Nate shrugged, "lived in enough ships to know that everyone has some, even the captains."

"Alright! Let's get this show on the road!" she led us through the ship.

Boimler started showing us every room we passed by, everything was so amazing and clean, I didn't want to say anything but most Orion ships I've been on tended to have some level of grime.

It turned out most of the ship was ops.

"Oh, hey, that's Rutherford." Mariner pointed to another ensign working by a service tunnel. "RUTHERFORD~!" Mariner cheered. He turned to wave but started talking gibberish as sparks came out of his head. "Yo, yo, yo, slow down. Is your thingy acting up?"

"Rutherford's an engineer, oh, and, as of a couple weeks ago, Cybernetically enhanced," Boimler explained, gesturing to his headpiece.

"Ooh, I've never met a recent cyborg." That's so cool! There have been a few pirates in the family with robotic eyes and limbs but they're usually pulled off ships until they're ready to go back out on the field, many never return.

"Hey, nice to meet you. Welcome to the crew!" Rutherford greeted with a smile. Everyone here is so kind, most of the people I used to know either kissed my feet or tried using me, I like it here.

"You ready for your date with ensign Barnes tonight~," Mariner teased, nudging him in the ribs.

"Sure am!" he smirked.

"Ahhh~," Mariner moan, "That's a fine lady~. Ya nervous?"

Rutherford sighed, "Trying to be," he pointed to his cybernetic headpiece, "But this thing keeps tamping it down~," he huffed.

"Mmm, looks Vulcan," Nate muttered, checking Rutherford with his hand scanner. "mmm, hold still," he started pressing buttons on Rutherford's oculus. "Oh yeah, Vulcan alright, doesn't mesh best with the human brain computer. My cousin Lora got one after a nasty fight with a Gorn, you should look into getting a human implant."

"But this one works so well for engineering!" Rutherford whine.

"That's what Lora said, if you want to keep it, just know that you're going to have to mess with the controls, otherwise some things are going to be repressed."

Rutherford gave a jerk as his oculus rebooted, "WHOA! I'm back, AND SUPER NERVOUS!" he gasped, "Thanks!"

"No prob, but I'm serious about that emotional repression, Lora's libido was capped to Vulcan standards, which was zero, and when she got it fixed a year later, I ended up with 3 nieces within 3 years. Get it checked," he warned. "Poor Vic, he was in the sickbay for half his tour having to get his broken pelvis repaired."

Oh my~.

"Don't worry, I will, now if you guys will excuse me, I need to panic about what to wear." he nodded, before immediately panicking. "I only have one outfit! What if she doesn't like it!?" he shook Nate back and forward.

Nate slapped him. I was beginning to think that was his go-to move. "Get a hold of yourself man! Look at you! Handsome with a dash of mystery and interest!" he shook him back, "You can do this! There's a lovely... woman?" he looked over at Mariner who nodded, "Woman, that wants your time!" he cupped Rutherford's cheeks. "You can do this."

Rutherford calmed down, "I can?"

"Yes, now go! Sweep her off her feet!" Nate ordered, pointing down the hall.

"I CAN!" Rutherford roared and ran down the hall.

We watched him go.

"What was that?" Boimler asked.

Nate shrugged, "Security is more than just punching bad guys, it's also punching negative emotions, like doubt and fear. Now about those bunks?"

Huh, Starfleet is so different, usually, we're just told to suck it up.

"Right this way," Boimler led us into a hallway meant for beta shift. "This is our sleeping quarters, it's a hallway but as we rank up, we'll get our own quarters."

"Better than the ones on a Klingon fighter, they just use hammocks," Nate huffed, hopping into his cubby hole, "Oh yeah, this is good."

You've been in a Klingon ship?" I asked.

He nodded, "I served with my cousin H'yokast on a K't'inga-class ship for a month," he patted his bicep, "Where do you think I got these?"

"Your cousin is a Klingon?" I asked.

He blinked at me in confusion, before realization hit him, "You don't know!" he smirked.

"Of course I know," I scoffed, I hated not knowing things, or not being a part of things. "I just wanted to make sure that, uh... the rumors were true," I lied.

He still had that smirk that made me want to nerve-pinch him.

"I thought everyone knew," Mariner muttered, "But I can understand why some people can't believe it, I still don't believe it sometimes," she rubbed her face, "Mostly."

Boimler nodded, "The Witt Clan is famous or infamous, depending on who you ask."

"Story time!" Nate cheered jumping out of his bunk, "It all started, about 120 years ago, in a little-known starship known as the Enterprise," he whispered like we were telling stories over a campfire. Boimler gave a tiny squeak of excitement. "My great-great-great... great? Granddad was working under the famous James T. Kirk, and just like us, he was just an ensign."

"Whoa~," I whispered. Even the Orions knew about Kirk.

"One of the first missions Captain Kirk ever took was investigating an old distress signal from the SS Valiant."

"And his friend Gary Mitchell was struck with crazy space energy and gained god-like power!" Mariner interrupted.

"Correct!" Nate smirked at Mariner, "And I'm sure you know that someone with that kind of power tends to go a little crazy, and by little, I mean a lot. Running around causing havoc on the Enterprise trying to escape, my grand Gramps was one of the few who tried to stop him, getting a nasty blow of cosmic power for his trouble. Of course, Kirk put Mitchell down with a big ass rock."

"The only way to put down crazy godlike people," Mariner added.

"My Grandpop got cleared with nothing more than just a minor concussion for his trouble."

"But it had to be more." otherwise you wouldn't be saying this story.

He tapped his nose at me, "Pops got a bit of cosmic energy, but no one knew what that stuff really was, Mitchell got crazy telekinesis, but Pops got nothing, no flying, or phasing, not even a big head, by all rights, he was normal." he smirked, "Until my auntie was born, a half Vulcan, half human hybrid. No machine needed~."

My eyes began to widen. "How."

Nate smirked. "All that cosmic power went into his second brain." he bounced his eyebrows. "And let me tell you something Tendi, Humans are nothing if not constantly horny."

"Por farr year-round, BABY~!" Mariner cheered.

"By the time my auntie V'luse was born grandpops was a captain, and let's say he learned more than just fighting from Captain Kirk," he teased. "He called it 'intimate diplomacy'." he passed me his PADD, with the picture of an exhausted smirking human male, that looked remarkably like Nate, with 12 women of different races holding babies, from Vulcan to Orion, there was even a Klingon.

"Wow~."

"I know right!" Mariner laughed, "That man had one speed, warp!"

"Admiral Roger Witt is actually one of the reasons we were able to find some level of peace with the Klingon empire," Boimler added. "War chief Agrino, his daughter, took over a good deal of ships through combat and forced the Klingons to peace talks."

"Whoa~," I muttered looking through the pictures. Admiral Witt got more white hairs and wrinkles as the children got older, I quickly learned something, "There's only one male."

"Yep~," Nate smirked. "We have no idea why, we just chalked it up to cosmic energy."

"I know why," Mariner teased, "Because ladies rule and the universe knows it!" she fist pumped.

"So far there have only been 5 men born in our family," Nate gestured to himself, "Number 5 right here."

I kept flipping through the gallery of family pictures, as more and more children appeared, 12 became 24, which became 48, 96, over a hundred, it just kept doubling, different races joining, while some individuals disappeared only to reappear again. I also noticed something else as baby Nate appeared in his mother's arms.

"Uhm, Is Admiral Witt still alive?" I pointed to the elderly man in the picture surrounded by his family.

Nate nodded. "Yep~, again, cosmic energy, it's common for people to live up to a hundred and 50 nowadays but Grandpop is kinda a legend at this point. He's been through it all, from the Klingon Cold War to the Dominion War."

"He was on Deep Space 9 when shit hit the fan," Mariner nodded, "I've never seen someone that old jump around like that, he also had some seriously mean old man strength, I saw him punch out a Jem'Hadar in a single blow, just dropped that scaly bastard. It was awesome. I'm surprised someone like you even joined a Cali-class ship like the Cerritos, I thought you would join a bigger ship like the Enterprise or the Titan."

"NO WAY!" Nate made an X with his hands. "The Cerritos is my ship," he huffed, sticking out his chest in pride. "My family take pride in being assigned to their own ship, it shows that we are responsible, it's kinda like a rite of passage. Besides, my auntie Sazia is stationed on the Titan, and the way she puts it, it's 'all action, all the time' and for some reason, jazz." he shook his head. "No thank you~. The Cerritos is perfect."

"Said no one ever~," Mariner huffed.

"Wrong! Says me, right now! Our adventure starts today! Now if you would excuse me, I have to get to Security and meet Lieutenant Shaxs." he skipped down the hall.

Mmm, maybe I should skip, it looks fun.

-/-

Nathaniel 'Nate' Witt POV

The Cerritos was a beautiful ship, sure it didn't have all the bells and whistles of a galaxy-class like the Enterprise or Challenger, but it made up with efficiency. California class ships were made up of mostly adults, with a small number of Cadets for training, they were all about delivering goods and second contact, we might not go into unknown space but we did keep the Federation from falling into itself.

It didn't take me long to find the large Bajoran male in a battle leotard, overlooking the gym, making sure no one was overworking themself.

"Lieutenant Shaxs?" I saluted.

"Mmm?" He turned to me, his proud battle scar that dragged down his right eye was the first thing I noticed, along with his Bajoran earring showing his faith.

"Ensign Witt, sir, ready for my first day!"

"So, you're the Witt that's joining my Bear Pack?" he patted me on the shoulder, nearly tossing me to the floor. I doubt he meant it as some kind of macho thing, he was just that massive.

"With any luck sir!"

"I like the enthusiasm son!" he led me to an open ring, "Let's test that fire. Computer, initiate Combat Simulation: Smorgasborg."

Suddenly the ring was filled with Borg drones. My training quickly kicked in, my mother's voice ringing through my ear.

"A lone Borg is deadly, but they have their weaknesses, their implants make them strong but slow. Aim for joints and never stand still!"

I dipped forward, covering my fist and elbows in as much cosmic power my body could control, and elbowed the closest one in the neck, getting a nasty snap as it dropped.

My Grand Gramps may not have crazy superpowers like Mitchell but our family did, it varies from person to person but we all have access to Cosmic Power. Personally, I'm not the strongest in my family, but my control was always top-notch, were some of my cousins had cannons I had a scalable, both dangerous, but in different circumstances.

I quickly ducked, dodged, dipped, dived, and dodged my way through the drones and attacked the one furthest away and escaped their enclosure.

"Borg have a hive mind, kill one and the others learn, stay limber, and change your attacks! And if you can, get a weapon!"

I grabbed one of the Drone's rifle arms and with a twist of my whole body, I snapped it clean off. One thing about Bio-weapons is that they work through Nerve stimulation and have replaceable power packs. I grabbed a handful of wires and squeezed, getting it to pop off 3 shots before the drones gained a shield.

"A lone Drone is manageable, but a group is beyond deadly, not because you can't break them, but because they learn. You might start strong, but they will match and then overwhelm you."

I had three left but they were different, unlike before, they weren't marching up to die, they widened their stance and got ready for a fight.

"At that point, you have one smart option."

I turned tail and ran out of the ring. The simulation came to an end as I escaped.

"That was close," I wiped the sweat from my brow.

"You ran," Shaxs huffed. "Good," he nodded. "I can't tell you how many people think they can just keep fighting, thinking they can outlast the Borg, that's futile." he joked. "You've impressed me today ensign." he patted me on the back, "Come baby bear, I'll introduce you to the rest of the pack."

The Security team had about 50 people, which was normal for a Cali-class ship, with just over 280 crewmembers.

Our job was pretty straightforward for the most part, keep the crew and the ship alive, in that order, a ship can be rebuilt, but people can't. Most of our regular duties such as keeping the ship in order were shifted to the less intensive chores since we might be needed to drop what we were doing and rush into battle.

Of course, one of the coolest things we got to do during second contact was go planet side first, secure the landing zone, and talk with the native inhabitants, this time it was the Galardonians. They were rather new to the galactic stage, their first contact was about a year ago, they had a trade-based system that was slowly being renewed with the introduction of replicators, I give them a decade before they go full Federation.

It didn't take long for Commander Ransom to arrive and begin proper second contact, in the meantime I was ordered to help with passing out farming equipment around the area using the Argo land rover, while the science team got to work building a communication tower. It wasn't glamorous and no one was going to give me a medal, but the look on the farmers' faces when they got new tools made it worth it, I even helped them milk their spider-cows, something I was going to log for sure, it even had a strangely sweet taste. I was going to add it to the ship's replicators.

I was heading back to the outpost to get more equipment for some of the farms farther around the area before the screams of a little girl caught my attention. I jerked hard on the wheel and headed straight to the noise only to find a naked Boimler being chewed on by a spider-cow, with a half-naked Beckett watching, and a Galardonian farmer giving her spider milk.

"Someone wants to explain?" I asked, walking up to her.

"Nate!" Beckett waved at me, "What are you doing here?"

"Me? I was ordered to deliver equipment to the farms around the landing area," I turned to the Galardonian male next to her, "Excuse me are you the Rasnkons?" I asked.

He nodded, "Oh yes, Reto Rasnkon, at your service."

"That's great, I was going to head to your farm next but I see my team got to you first, also the Fenatos up the road told me that their Slemo," I gestured to the spider-cow, "Was ready to nest."

"Oh, that's great!" Reto clapped.

I removed my jacket and passed it to Mariner, "Hold this will ya?" I grabbed one of my water containers from the Argo and drenched my hand, catching the spider-cows attention. It spit out Boimler and latched onto my arm, drinking the water. I slowly kept adding water until she got full and released me. "Aw, you're just a big strong girl ain't cha~." I patted her on the head, getting a low purr. "Sorry if we spooked ya." she gave me a nuzzle before walking away with her owner.

"Wow, you have a knack with animals huh?" Beckett asked, passing me back my jacket.

"Not really, some of the farmers around the area taught me a thing or two about calming them down, they would rather suckle out of a tit than a person, but you guys probably spooked her. It helped that she was tuckered out with Boimler." I helped Boimler off the ground, "How are you doing bud?"

"My bones~," he whimpered.

I gave him a quick scan, "you're good, she just tenderized you a bit."

"See, you're fine~," Beckett shrugged nonchalantly. I gave her a disappointed look. "What? He's alive."

I rolled my eyes, "here," I gave him my jacket, "I'm a bit bigger than you so it should cover everything."

"Thank you" he sniffed, wrapping it around his waist.

"Alright, Becky, you got clothes?" I asked.

"Eww, don't call me that," she huffed, picking up her slightly damaged clothes.

"Oh, you don't like being called Becky, Becky?" I asked. "I'm so sorry Becky; I'll try and not to call you Becky from now on Becky."

"Stop it!"

"Stop what Becky?"

"I'm going to give you such a wallop," she threatened.

I saw Boimler gain a tiny smirk.

"Alright, alright, enough fun, let's get you guys back to base. I'm beginning to think you aren't supposed to be out here," I huffed.

"We brought an Argo," Boimler spoke up.

"That's fine," I shrugged, "I'll just program it to follow behind us. So, what were you guys even doing out here? Shouldn't you be helping with the communication tower?" we got on my Argo, connecting to the next closest car, finding two, and had them follow us.

"We, uh, ya know, wanted to help," Becky muttered.

"You could have helped with the Communication tower. We only brought so much equipment and needed a heavy-duty replicator brought in to pat out the rest," I pointed out.

Boimler glared at Becky.

"Replicator?" Becky squeaked.

"Yeah, when the Quinto made contact last year some ensign pointed out that most of the equipment the farmers had wasn't up to snuff, so I requested one from Billups at base. He said that they would bring one down when the communication tower was built."

"Replicator!?" Boimler yelled at an embarrassed Becky.

"How was I supposed to know!?"

"Right~," I had no idea why they were yelling, "Listen, I get it, trapped in a small ship, no privacy, wanted to go somewhere nice and quiet to release some stress-"

"WHAT!?" Becky screamed. "WITH BOIMLER!?"

"I can do better," Boimler countered.

"Fuck you!"

"ALRIGHT~," I cut off their argument, "If you're not here to have sex or properly deliver equipment, why are you idiots out here?"

"I was delivering equipment!" Becky huffed.

"Without talking with anyone," Boimler countered. "You just stole an Argo and took off!"

"You did the same thing!" Becky hissed, pointing to the two cars behind us. "Did you tell anyone you were following me?" Boimler muttered something under his breath. "What was that!?"

"The captain asked me to keep an eye on you," he sighed.

"For the love of... seriously!" she shook her head and leaned on her chair. "We have been serving with each other for a year and I still don't get why you worship those guys."

"They're heroes!"

"They only care about glory! To be written down in the history books, some stupid paragraph about how great they were!" I slammed on the brakes, nearly launching them out of the car. "Hey man, what the hell!?" Becky hissed.

I turned to see her, all of her, really see Beckett Mariner for who she was and the badass loner she pretended to be. "82."

"What?"

"82, the number of my family that dies in the dominion war." I started the car. "It wasn't fair, captains made poor choices, some Admiral thousands of lightyears away pressed a button and they were sent to die. My grandpops had to pick up his phaser after 60 years of retirement, my mother has nightmares, and my father died." all we heard was the wind passing by. "I understand the feeling of rebelling against command, to tell them that their assholes and to choke on mayonnaise, that they are idiots who couldn't find their own ass with both hands and a map. But I cannot hold a grudge, because they were right-"

"BUT-"

"THE DOMINION DIDN'T WANT PEACE!" I hissed, a bit of my power leaking out. "They wanted power. Starfleet isn't an army by any stretch of the imagination, we're explorers, dreamers, and most importantly, protectors. When The Dominion threatened us, we were always going to fight back, and everyone knew we didn't have a chance in hell, the Dominion had over 30,000 ships to our 5,000, but we'd be damned if some bully was going to walk all over us, people died," I nodded. "But they knew what they were getting into, the same way we know what we are getting into, we don't do this for medals Becky, we do this because we want to help." I stopped the car in front of Base Camp. "Come on, we all need to cool off." we walked over to the designated teleport Diamond. "Billups, three to beam."

Billups gave us a look, seeing three ensigns in random states of dress, quirked an eyebrow, and shrugged. "We need more stuff anyway, the comms aren't up yet, so tell them to send some engineers, for some reason no one is coming back down. Three to beam."

I gave him a two-fingered salute, my matter beam onto the ship, and into a shit show, as what looked like angry rage-filled zombies were trying to break into the teleporter room. Most of the deck crew was holding them off with Rutherford and some other ensigns taking potshots at anything trying to get passed Shaxs's makeshift barrier.

I gave Boimler my phaser and joined Shaxs holding back the flood of madness.

"Sitrep!?" I asked.

"Rage virus, stun only!" Shaxs ordered.

"Cure!?"

"Working on it!" he hissed.

"GOT IT!" Doctor T'Ana, a female Caitian cat woman, called out, a glob of spider-cow spit in her hand. "We need to get this man to Sick Bay NOW!" she pointed to Boimler.

"Give me an opening!" I blitzed Boimler and threw him over my shoulder.

"Baby Bear?" Shaxs asked.

"I got him!"

The Lieutenant nodded, not needing to hold back he pushed with his whole strength, shoving any infected across the hall and pinning them against the wall. Captain Freeman and Rutherford were first through the door giving me covering fire as Dr. T'Ana and I followed close behind. Shaxs, Beckett, and the rest of the uninfected crew members covering my six.

It was a straight shot to the sick bay, just half a dozen crazed crewmembers in the way, of course, you don't become a captain because the pips look fashionable. Captain Freeman and Lieutenant Shaxs were a force of nature, removing any threat that got in our way. Occasionally a phaser beam would come from my shoulder as Boimler gave me cover.

The Sickbay door opened just in time to show a worried Tendi covered in black goo.

"Inside!" she yelled waving us through and closing the door behind us.

I gently put Boimler down and took back my phaser, "Rutherford! DOOR! Mariner! Cover!" I grabbed the nearest table and slammed it against the door. Making a makeshift barrier, as I kept dumping more things by the door.

"LOCKED!" Rutherford gave a thumbs up.

"TENDI!" I pointed to the startled Orion, "Check us for wounds!"

"Uh, right!" she started scanning us.

"Boimler!"

"Yeah!?"

"Nice shooting."

He let out a breath and shrugged. "Thanks?"

I kept my phaser locked on the door as the senior staff talked. It didn't take long for the Doctor to create a cure; sweet Q am I happy to live in the 24th century.

I'm also happy not to be Ransom, eating someone, even if it was just a bit, was going to be traumatizing.

I let out a long breath and flopped against my makeshift barrier, Rutherford and Boimler parking their rumps next to me, Tendi and Becky next to them.

"So Tendi~, how was your first day?" I asked.

"It was AWESOME! I GOT TO HOLD A STILL BEATING HEART!" she cheered.

I nodded and turned to Rutherford, "So... how was your date~," I teased.

"OH! It was great, the rage virus added a bit of spice but that's just a part of being in Starfleet," Rutherford laughed.

"That's my man," I cheered.

"Think you'll see her again?" Mariner smirked.

"Oh, uh, nah probably not," Rutherford shrugged.

"Oh no! Why?" Tendi gasped. "You survived a life-threatening situation together! Don't you share a bond?"

"Oh, yeah for sure!" he nodded, "But she had zero interest in figuring out why a red alert overrode Maintenance Hatch 70's access protocols. It's, like, can you even imagine!?"

"By Q~," Boimler hissed.

"IT DID!?" Tendi gasped.

"Yes. I mean, who has time for romance when there's a level two diagnostic just waiting there to be run!?" he shivered at the thought.

"Mmm-huh~!" Tendi snapped her fingers, "You don't have to tell me twice."

"I'm so sorry Rutherford, you'll find that girl one day," I patted him on the shoulder, "and if not, you can craft a ship that meets your code."

"That's the dream~," he sighed.

I leaned over to Boimler, "Is the headpiece messing with him?"

"Nah, he's always been like this."

I laughed, "You got to respect a man with standards."

-/-

Beckett Mariner Freeman POV

Things got back to normal pretty quick. And it was time for a drink in the best room in the Cerritos.

"Give me something strong!" I cheered at the bartender, "I'm about to be court-martialed."

"Chech'tluth, for the lady~," Nate turned around with a smoky drink in hand.

"Nate? You're a bartender now? It's a step up," I teased, taking a sip of the misty drink. By the evil spirits, this shit was strong!

"Thanks, worked as the bartender in my time on the Klingon ship," he explained, cleaning a glass cup, "Subbing in for Honus, he had to hit the little boy's room. What's this about a Court-martialing?"

"You heard Boimler, the captain was just waiting for me to mess up, and I did, it's over."

He smirked, "So quick to doubt your friends?"

I shrugged, "Boimler's too much of a kiss ass not to tattle~."

"Is that right Boimler?" Nate asked the man taking a seat next to me.

"Were it so easy~," he teased, "Long Island." Nate nodded and started working on his drink.

"So," I huffed, "here to say goodbye."

He took a deep breath, "Me and you have different outlooks on Starfleet. I... I can't imagine what the dominion war was like, my family was all on earth making raisins, not wine, raisins." he sighed. "I have no idea what you are going through, but just because I wasn't there doesn't mean I'm not here now."

I quirked an eyebrow at him. "Meaning?"

"I didn't tell the captain, about... ya know," he shrugged.

"Holy shit. Brad Boimler! You sneak!" I brought him into a side hug, "That's what I'm talking about!"

"Long Island," Nate placed the drink on the counter, a smirk crossing his face.

"I had you pegged all wrong! I thought you were, like, a boring worker drone. And you are, but inside that drone is an ambitious little weasel, and inside that weasel, might be a tiny little human being," I teased.

"That's, uh, sort of unfair-"

"This is a moment, man, ooh, this is a mood." I gave him a shake.

"Oof, get ready Brad, you're in for it now~," Nate laughed.

"Just you wait Brad, I'm going to get that flat rump in a Captain's chair-"

"You don't have to," Brad whimpered.

"-Surprise, bitch, it's done!" I cheered.

"It's called consent," Nate laughed.

"Please help me," Brad whined.

"She's your mentor?" Tendi asked as she and Rutherford walked over.

"YES!" I cheered.

"NO!"

"LOWER DECKS! LOWER DECKS! LOWER DECKS!" I chanted. "You're gonna be my Cha'DIch from now on, Baby!"

"That's a great honor," Nate nodded.

"NATE, WE NEED ALCOHOL!" He placed a keg of beer on the table. "LET'S DRINK!"

-/-

Everything hurt.

Maybe drinking to the point of blacking out was a mistake. I gave a look around finding myself in my bunk. "What happened?" I groaned.

"Ya got drunk~," Nate answered, passing me a mug.

"Coffee?"

"Raktajino," he corrected, "Thought you might need a bit more of a kick, Ms. Drinking Queen of the Cerritos," he teased.

"Q~," I groaned, taking a sip. "I thought we were drinking Sythehol."

"You were, but then you hacked the replicator, impressive by the way, and started getting everyone drunk."

"GOOD MORNING!" Tendi cheered, nearly shattering my mind.

"Everyone but Tendi, she has a crazy alcohol tolerance," Nate shrugged. "It's not even an Orion thing, it's all her."

"Tendi~," I whined, "I love you but please~, no noise."

she gasped and got right up to my bunk, "Are you hungover?" she gasped again, "I can cure you!" someone please shoot me! I felt a small stab to my neck. "Yowch!" then everything hit me at once, my headache was gone and my tummy wasn't ready to upchuck everything in my stomach. "Are you a higher being~," I sighed in bliss.

"No, Orion," she answered, blinking at me with her big eyes.

"Deadly right?" Nate teased, gesturing to Tendi, "I made it my goal not to look directly at them."

"Can't argue there," I sighed. "Thank you Tendi."

"No problem, but you might want to get to the bathroom, this stuff tends to flush everything out of your system," she warned.

And then it hit me. "Woah!" I jumped out of bed and rushed down the hall, running right into my mom, the illustrious Captain Carol Freeman. "Excuse me!" I tried dodging around her but she got in my way.

"Mariner, I need a word."

"Bathroom!" I danced. "Please, I'm sorry for whatever I did!"

"This is serious."

"This is too!"

"Nathaniel Witt, what do you make of him?"

"Nate? I don't know, he's okay, I guess, whatever, please move!" I was beginning to leak.

"Does he like it here?"

"Captain Freeman I am about to piss all over the floor!"

She rolled her eyes, "Fine, but I-" I stop listening and ran into the bathroom.

After what felt like an hour, I finally escaped the bathroom, man, Tendi wasn't kidding, I think I lost two pounds of water weight. Mom was long gone by the time I got out; I made it back to my bunk finding Nate hiding something in his cubby.

"Gasp! Nate Witt, hiding contraband~?" I teased, looking over his shoulder to see what he was hiding.

"I don't think jerky is contraband," He answered, moving to the side, allowing me to see a stash of food and drinking water.

"What are you doing?"

"Emergency food, I've been putting it around the ship in case we have another red alert and things start locking down," he answered. "The last thing we want is to survive a dangerous encounter, only to starve to death."

"That's a bit paranoid."

"Is it though? Come on, let's face it, Voyager was lost in the delta quadrant for five years, are you really going to tell me we might not suddenly appear somewhere across the galaxy, or a universe where everything tastes like feet?" he scoffed at the idea.

I looked at him for a long second, "You're going to need more."

He rolled his eyes and popped open my bed, showing me my own food supply. "Do I look like an idiot?"

"You want me to answer that?"

"...no."

"Sunglasses indoors? Kinda dorky, you're trying too hard."

He sighed, "Being part of the Witt clan comes with ass kissers and enemies. One of the easiest ways to find out who we are is our eyes. You should know that more than most." he removed his glasses, showing off his emerald eyes, silver dancing around his pupil's iris giving out a soft glow. "When people find out who we are they tend to get antsy."

"That would explain the captain this morning."

He sighed, "I was hoping she wouldn't care that I was here."

"She just wanted to know if you were settling in okay. Think she's trying to kiss your ass."

"For her sake, I hope not."

I quirked an eyebrow. "Why?"

"My family doesn't like ass kissers; Roger Witt didn't become an admiral because people were easy on him."

"I thought he became an Admiral because he slept with half the known galaxy," I teased.

Nate laughed so hard I thought the ship was going to break apart, he had a smile that threatened to reach his ears. "What part of that wasn't hard work~?"

"Ooh!" I laughed at the euphemism. "If you wanted to keep it a secret, why did you tell Tendi?"

He shrugged, "She's a friend, and more importantly, why hide it? A simple galactic net search would tell her about my family, my cousins aren't shy about posting everything about us. Why not hear it from the horse's mouth, that way if she has any questions, she can just come ask me."

"Really, just dish out your family secrets?" I smirked.

"I mean if you want my famous BBQ sauce recipe you will have to take it from my cold dead hands, but other than that there isn't much of a difference from my family to any other. Embarrassing family photo albums that will never see the light of day, that one time my cousin Solat shot lasers from her eyes, that time we became pirates to steel an ancient Klingon super weapon, completely normal," he smiled.

"One of those wasn't normal," I deadpanned.

"Yeah, those albums are right in the mantle place where everyone can see," he sighed.

"Yep, that was the one I was talking about," I drawled.

"Are you telling me you and your mom don't get into crazy- gak!" I cut him off by shoving my hand into his mouth.

"Eww!" I pulled them out.

"You better have washed those hands," he coughed.

"Sorry, I was trying to cover your mouth! How did you figure it out!" I hissed.

He gave me a confused look, "What the hell are you talking about? You guys look exactly the same."

"DON'T YOU EVER SAY THAT AGAIN! I am a free-spirited maverick, she's a rule-following mook!"

"With crazy good aim."

"I guess," I tsked.

"And quick to make a plan."

"Maybe."

"And inspires loyalty. Ya know, a lot like you~." he drawled.

"How dare you?" I'm going to punch him, right in his dumb chiseled jaw.

"Face it, Becky, you are a natural-born leader."

I gasped, "Take that back right now!"

"No~," he huffed. "You're willing to put yourself on the line for others, and not scared of punishment, that some Kirk-level captaining."

"Shut your mouth."

"What are you going to do about it? Ya punk." he took a deep breath, "BECKETT MARINER IS GOING TO BE A FUTURE ADMIRAL!" he yelled, running down the hall.

"I'LL KILL YOU!" I ran after him.

-/-

D'Vana Tendi POV

"Okay, so you want to shave my head, why?" Nate asked, sitting in a barber's chair in the holodeck.

"In case I need to drill into your head and pull out a mind-controlling parasite!" I cheered.

"Mmm, and it had to be me because?"

"Boimler would cry, Mariner would kick, and I might press a button on Rutherford's head," I explained.

"Of course, of course, how can I be so silly?"

"Now hold still, or I might chop off an ear~," I teased.

"That's not funny," he deadpanned.

"I'll start with a quick cut to the left side of your head the size of a Latinum bar." I slowly started cutting only for him to jerk hard and jump out of the chair. "HEY! I told you not to move."

He smirked. "That's not how it works, if I'm mind controlled, I'll be trying to escape, as a medic you're going to have to hold me down. Computer, Sick Bay simulation: brain parasite." the old-timey barbershop changed to the Sick Bay, everything was mess, with my fellow medics unmoving on the ground.

"This is the mighty Starfleet!?" Nate gave an evil laugh, "What a joke. This body has served me well, his brains are extra juicy!"

"YOU LEAVE MY FRIEND'S BRAIN ALONE!" I yelled back.

"NO! In fact, I'm going to change all his memories of you so it looked like you've always had a thick handlebar mustache!"

"You monster! RAAR!" I unleashed a flying kick, but Nate easily caught my foot and tossed me to the side.

"Pathetic! I expected more of the mighty Commander Tendi!" he laughed.

"Commander?" I looked at one of the mirrors in the room finding two more pips on my uniform. "Awww, you made me a commander~?"

Nate shrugged, "I mean, if you're going to give me brain surgery, I at least want a commander doing the job. NOW COME AND DIE!"

"NEVER!" I roared attacking him. Nate was a lot more flexible than I gave him credit for, bending in and around my blows. "Hold still!"

"Make me!" he jumped out of my reach. "I'm going to make him think the color green is 'just an okay' color!"

"How dare you, Green is life!" I jumped into his guard and unleashed a combo into his chest aiming for his liver.

"Raar!" he groaned, "Not bad, but tell me, Commander, how much damage are you going to cause your friend, mmm?"

I froze. "You bastard!"

"That's right! D'Vana~," he dragged out my name, "I might be your enemy, but this is your friend's body, how far are you willing to go to save him!? Will you do more damage than heal?" I just hissed. "Unfortunately for you, I don't care!" he rushed me, forcing me to dodge, but Nate didn't stop, just rammed into the wall, he turned to me, with a bloody mouth and missing tooth, his glowing green eyes in full display as his glasses fell to the floor, "One body is as good as any other."

"PAUSE!" everything froze, "Aren't you taking this too far?"

Nate shook his head, "Nope. This is a real possibility, you can't just back down because things look scary, I know you want to rank up, and I've seen your drive, you can easily become a commander, and this is the kind of stuff you're going to run into. Not two days ago we fought a hoard of rage zombies, are you going to sit in the Sick Bay and hope someone else does the heavy lifting?"

"No, but-"

"No buts! I am your friend, and I am in grave danger," he gestured to the room, "everyone here, and in the ship, is in grave danger. If you want to shave my head and save everyone, you got to put your foot down. Unpause!" he rushed me, hands out to grab me.

I let my years of training as an assassin come to the forefront, dipping into his guard and unleashing a mean right hook into his jaw followed by a jab to his liver. He gave another groan and backed away but I didn't let him run this time, staying in his guard and I wrapped myself around his waist, made my way up his body, and putting him in a sleeper hold, he struggled but that jab to his liver was coming back to bite him.

He gave one last growl and dropped to his knees. I grabbed my clippers and shaved the side of his head and gave him a tap to the shaved area, a holographic worm popped out, which I stomped to death.

"RAAAR!" I gave a victory cry.

"Tendi~," Nate gasped, acting feeble, "my hero."

"Nate! Don't worry, I've cured you," I gently held his head.

"I knew you would," he smirked, "You're my commander, there's nothing you can't do." the simulation ended. "You got me good, huh?" he smirked touching his shaved head.

"To save my friend? Any day," I smirked.

The holodeck door opened revealing Shaxs and Dr. T'Ana. We looked at each other for a moment, before Shaxs nodded.

"Medics, am I right?" he laughed. Dr. T'Ana elbowed him.

I looked down, finding myself straddling Nate.

"I mean, if anyone is going to take me down, I'm happy it's Tendi, she'll be gentle. Mariner would just beat me to death," he laughed.

I quickly jumped off of him, "I was just practicing to remove an evil brain parasite!" My cheeks were on fire.

Dr. T'Ana looked around the fake Sick Bay, the bodies on the floor, and a bloody Nate on the ground, before nodding, "Not bad, some damage can't be avoided, but you kept it tight."

"Thank you, doctor." I bowed. Ahh! Dr. T'Ana thinks I did a good job!

"Alright! Now go get this idiot's tooth back in his mouth!" she ordered, pointing to the door.

"Yes ma'am!" I grabbed Nate by the leg and dragged him out.

"Holy macaroni!" Nate gasped, "How strong are you!?"

"Ah, to be young and dumb~." Shaxs gave a sigh as the holodeck closed.

"I can walk you know~," Nick teased.

-/-

"How's the tooth?" I asked.

"Polished," he gave me a toothy smirk, his missing tooth back in place, "Have I ever told you how happy I am living in the 24th century? A quick visit to the sick bay and they just popped it back in and healed it right up. You should have done it, I'm sure Nurse Westlake wouldn't have minded, good learning chance, never know when you might need to fix a tooth. Plain pasta boiled in a pinch of salt." he asked the lunchroom replicator, getting a plate of pasta, "Secret Witt pasta sauce number 5." and getting a bowl of red sauce. "Thank you~." he took his plate to our regular table.

"Pork ribs, slathered in secret Witt BBQ Sauce number 21," Nothing happened, "Friend Tendi," I whispered the last part, getting a stack of ribs dripping with sauce. Mother Goddess I was addicted to this stuff. I quickly ran over to Nate, who was slowly adding his family's secret tomato sauce, and started eating.

"Hey~," Mariner and Boimler came over with their lunch, "Didn't know Tendi was part badger," she teased, she reached for a rib but I slapped her hand away, "Hachi machi!" she pulled her hand back.

"Get your own ribs," I hissed.

"I can't," she muttered, glaring at a smirking Nate, "Some asshole made my passcode something stupid."

"What's wrong with 'Captain Becky is number one'?" Nate asked.

"I will bury your body in space," she hissed.

"There's no dirt in space," he teased.

"I'll find dirt, cover you in it, and launch you out the airlock!" she huffed, sitting down and eating her tacos.

"I suppose a future Admiral like you could get away with it," he smirked. Mariner gave another hiss. "Where's Rutherford? He's usually here for lunch."

"EPS conduits," Boimler muttered, working on his PADD.

"Conduits? There are hundreds of those things! Has he eaten lunch?" We shrugged, "Ugh," he shoved a forkful of pasta in his mouth and swallowed, "That'sa gooda sauce~." he laughed before running over to the replicator, getting a box of food, and running off into the ship.

"Hey Nate are you going to eat this?" Mariner whispered, reaching out for Nick's left-over food and started eating. "Damn it, what is this sauce!?"

"Guarded secret," Boimler muttered, not looking up from his PADD. "Roger Witt enjoyed cooking, taught his kids, and they added to the recipes. Hacked into Starfleet's replicator data years ago, and added their sauces, no one knows how, but they still have a back door," he answered trying to shove food into his mouth without looking away from his PADD and doing a poor job of it.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Learning Klingon," he muttered.

"Why?"

"General K'orin, next week. 'ub, 'ub, 'uuuuub" he grunted. "Yeah," he finally put food in his mouth.

"I'm back!" Nate called out, "he was in Jefferies tubes by the sick bay, that man loves this ship, if the ship gains independence he might marry her. Is that my pasta?" Mariner looked up at him for a second before shoving more food into her mouth. "HEY!"

"Mine!"

"Ah, ensign Witt," The captain came over, gave Mariner a quick look, "Secret sauce?" Mariner grunted like a gremlin and kept eating.

"Afternoon Captain," Nate stood up straight. "What can I help you with?"

"I was just wondering how you were getting used to the Cerritos."

"It's great!" Nate smiled ear to ear. "I love the ship, Cali-class tend to have more freedom than most other larger ships. People think galaxy-class like the Enterprise are the best but they have so many rules that any little thing that doesn't go right tends to throw them into a panic."

"Is that why you chose the Cerritos?"

That caught my attention, I didn't know Nate got to choose.

"Wait, you chose the Cerritos?" Mariner asked.

Nate gave a proud nod, "Yep, my mother also recommended it."

"Diana recommended it?" The captain asked.

Nate nodded, "She said you were one of the best Captains this side of the galaxy, constantly breaking regulations and angering the higher-ups."

"WHAT!?" Mariner coughed on her pasta.

Captain Freeman let out a sigh, "I was younger then."

"She told me you and she broke over a hundred regulations during the Dominion War to save captives behind enemy lines after stealing a Klingon bird-of-prey with cloaking tech."

"WHO ARE YOU!?" Mariner yelled.

"Stow it, Mariner. And that was a lifetime ago, we did what we had to do. We were almost court-martialed but Admiral Witt came to our defense, if forced him out of retirement."

"I don't think he minded that much, not after the Dominion killed Grandma Lisoh. He was itching for a fight."

The captain's shoulders slumped a little, like a weight was finally dropped, "That... thank you. Anyway, I wanted to talk to you about helping with a new ensign coming aboard in a week. I know you just got here but I think you might be the best person to help her."

"You... want me to mentor someone?"

The captain nodded. "In a way. she has... extenuating circumstances."

Nate blinked for a second, before something snapped into place, "Oh! OOH! Yes, of course, I would love to help."

"Great, thank you, sorry to bother you during your lunch," she turned to walk away only to freeze, "one more thing-"

"The captain-only catalog has been open to you," he confirmed. She gave a nod and sped walked out of the room.

"The captain was a rebel!?" Mariner gasped, still eating his lunch.

Nate rolled his eyes at her, "I'm going to eat your lunch," he huffed. "And yes, most of the stuff she did was off the record, real section 31 stuff, she and my mother have nearly been court-martialed over a dozen times, if you ask anyone in the hire ups, they would deny it. Technically they were on shore leave and weren't ordered to do anything."

"whoa~," Boimler muttered, "The captain's so cool."

"She's... okay~," Mariner muttered.

"Looks like you're not the only mentor in the group," I pointed out.

"She's not my mentor," Boimler huffed.

"It's a tough job, think you can handle it?" Mariner teased.

"Not my mentor."

Nate shrugged, "I'll come to you for advice when I get lost."

"Come on guys!" Boimler whined.

-/-

Ensign Olly, granddaughter of Zeus, POV

Okay, okay, okay, new ship, new Olly, I can do this. I felt static dance up my fingers. Come on~. The shuttle doors opened to my new ship, The Cerritos, my last chance.

I walked over to the Dock Lieutenant and handed him my PADD. I didn't say anything, I knew this song and dance long enough.

"Deck four, all the way down, follow the yellow line," he drawled, passing me back the PADD.

I gave a nod and walked toward the lift, only to pause, I could still feel the static dancing on my skin, what if I got stuck in the elevator? Maybe the stairs or the Jefferies tubes? I checked my PADD for the time. I was already running late, due to my first shuttle shorting out. I took a deep breath and entered the lift.

"Computer, Deck four," I ordered, the doors sealing and dropping to the correct level, as I exhaled. I walked up to the nearest wall screen, "Computer, please locate..." I looked at my PADD. "Ensign Witt."

"Ensign Witt is located in deck four, repair bay 5." It showed me a location not too far from here.

"...Nuqneh!" someone screamed from the room. I peeked around the door to find four ensigns talking to each other.

"More from the lungs, you're projecting your voice, NUQNEH!" the other male growled like a Klingon, "It shows that you are important and this person is wasting your time."

"Nuqneh!"

"Deeper. You sound like a child trying to be a warrior."

"Nuqneh!"

"Deeper. Are you trying to court the man or show Starfleet pride?"

"Probably both," the human female in the group teased.

"Shush! You can do it Brad!" the Orion cheered.

"Nuqneh!" Brad roared.

"You're getting there, just don't close your eyes, it gives them an opening and you got to be ready to dodge if K'orin tries to headbutt you."

"he'll do that!?" Brad squeaked.

"Maybe, Becky should go with you just in case," the taller male offered.

"Keep you out of trouble... or maybe put you into trouble," Becky shrugged, "whatever comes first."

"Come on, I can handle it."

"You said the same thing about your training with anbo-jyutsu," the man huffed.

"Mariner was way too rough!" Brad hissed, pointing at a smirking Becky.

"Learn to dodge son!" Mariner laughed.

"Um, excuse me?" I called out walking into the room.

"Oh, Hello!" the Orion waved at me with a friendly smile.

"Hello, I'm Ensign Olly here to meet Ensign Witt?"

"Right here," the large male waved, "Nathaniel Witt but friends just call me Nate. I'll be your mentor for your time here on the Cerritos. This is Beckett Mariner, our resident maverick with a heart of gold."

"Yo~."

"Brad Boimler, rules lawyer and the one who keeps us out of trouble."

"Pleasure to meet you."

"And this is D'Vana Tendi, Medic in training, don't look her in the eyes, they're big and adorable making it impossible to say no to her."

Tendi elbowed him, "That's not true," she got right up to me with her big green eyes, "I'm Tendi, I'm also new here, let's be best friends!" she vigorously shook my hand.

"Oh, um, okay." wow, you really can't say no to her.

"I was going to introduce-"

"Finished!" a sweaty human man with an Oculus implant popped out of a Jefferies tube, covered in oil and slight burns.

"Good timing," Nate laughed. "This is Samanthan Rutherford, probably the second-best engineer on the ship, right behind Billups, from what I understand you're also an engineer so I'm sure you'll get along just fine."

"It's a pleasure to meet you all, I hope we get along," I bowed.

"Great!" Nate clapped, "Let's get you a tour and we'll make a proper schedule. Brad, don't die,"

"Hey!"

"Becky, keep him from dying."

"Will do~," she smirked, sitting back on her chair and kicking up her feet.

"Sam, take a break and eat lunch."

"But work!?"

"Tendi, use those weapons of mass adorableness and get that idiot to eat lunch."

"Aye-Aye!" Tendi saluted.

"Come on," he gestured to me, "Will hit this deck first and get some lunch before I show you the other decks."

"Okay," I nodded. He led me back out into the ship.

The Cerritos was the smallest ship I've been on, but it did come with advantages, like the fact that there weren't any children, most ships tended to have whole families but everyone here were mostly adults, so I didn't have to worry about hurting a kid.

I got a bunk right under Nate, it used to belong to someone named Fletcher but they recently transferred. It had an amazing view of the back of the Ship. I also met Delta Shift... I hated them, gods they were so cocky, I wanted to zap them into next week.

"So, how's your first day going?" Tendi asked as we sat down for lunch.

"Chew your food, Rutherford," Nate ordered the cyborg, who was inhaling his lunch.

"Can't! I have a busy day! Wish me luck!" he finished stuffing his face and ran out of the room.

"Is it always this busy?" I asked.

"Smaller ship, smaller crew, same workload," Nate answered. "Tendi, we're heading to the Sick Bay next, ya wanna show us around?"

"CAN I!? LET'S GO!" she jumped to her feet.

Nate grabbed her by the back of her shirt and placed her back on her chair. "Lunch time."

"Oh right." she quickly started stuffing her face. "Hurry up!"

"Don't," Nate warned, "You'll choke."

After lunch, we headed to the Sick Bay where Tendi showed off every inch of the room with enough medical knowledge that I couldn't understand a quarter of the words she was saying. I also got a checkup from Dr. T'Ana, giving me the all-clear to work.

"Sam?" Nate called out to Rutherford who walked into the room wearing a medical uniform. "What are you wearing?"

"Oh, hey Nate, just uh, thinking of a career change."

Nate gave him a long look. "You looked her right in the eyes, didn't you?"

"...Yeah," he sighed.

"Well, have fun. Tendi, stop being evil-"

"I'm not evil!"

"And I'll see you for the Trinoli Pulsar later," he waved goodbye.

"SEE YOU LATER! YOU TOO OLLY!" she waved goodbye with great enthusiasm.

"Like I said, don't look her right in the eye, you don't have the willpower," he warned. "Come on, I'll show you the gym." he led me to a holodeck with a plaque with the word GYM on it. "we'll be using this place to train your powers."

I froze, a bolt of lightning sparking from my chest as my heart plummeted.

"What?" I whispered.

He quirked an eyebrow at me, "This is where we'll train your powers, don't worry," He flexed, a rainbow haze appeared over his body, "I might not be the most powerful in my family but I've learned to control what I do have. I'll be teaching you to harness and use your powers," he smirked.

"You... you have abilities," I whispered.

"I'm no Olympian but I have a bit of juice." I flinched at the 'o' word. "You okay?"

"I... I'm okay, just..." I rubbed my shoulder, not meeting his eyes.

"...You wanted to be normal~?" I snapped my eyes at him. He gave a soft nod. "I wanted the same thing when I was young," he removed his glasses, his glowing eyes meeting mine. "It wasn't until I was older that I realized that my difference made me who I am."

"At least you can hide yours," I muttered without thinking. "I mean-"

Snap

He snapped his glasses like a twig and tossed away the pieces with a smile, "Who needs them? But just so you know, you're no longer that special~."

"I... I can live with that." I felt my eyes water, "you didn't have to do that."

"I don't need them anymore, I hid my eyes because I didn't want to be treated special, now I have a dorky apprentice to do that for me," He teased.

"I'm not dorky," I huffed.

He laughed, "Of course you're not~."

"I'M NOT!" a spark of lightning shot out of my chest and hit him on the shoulder. "Oh my GODS! I'm-"

Nate laughed even harder, "WHAT... WAS... THAT!?" he gasped pointing at the squishy lightning bolt I made.

"STOP LAUGHING!"

"I CAN'T! THAT WAS THE MOST ADORABLE THING I HAVE EVER SEEN! AND I'VE SEEN TENDI YAWN LIKE A PUPPY!"

"I'll kick your ass!" I tried kicking him, but he just... danced out of the way. "Hold still!"

"Oh, oh! You got a bit of fire in ya~," he teased, using his strength to jump nearly 9 feet away. "Let's see what you got ensign~, Show me that Starfleet muscle!"

I took a deep breath feeling the hum of the ship, the electricity dancing in her veins, and I funneled it into my hands, launching a bolt at Nate who easily dodged.

"We are going to have to work on that speed. It's not just about shock; you need the awe!" I launched a faster bolt, but he didn't even dodge this time, it just bounced off his chest, "now you have the speed, but you don't have the power! Again!"

And it just kept going on like this, bolt after bolt, every time he would point out a flaw.

"RAAR!" this time I didn't stop funneling energy or shooting energy, I just acted like a conductor. He didn't dodge just stuck out his rainbow hand and caught my bolt, it felt like I was having a tug of war with a bull.

"YOU HAVE THE POWER, YOU HAVE THE SPEED, BUT YOU LACK THE CONTROL!" he yanked and dropped me to the floor. I was way too tired to try again.

"Stick a fork in me~," I whined. "I'm done."

I heard clapping, whistling, and laughing, at first, I thought it was Nate but looking up I found dozens of crewmembers cheering our fight.

"THAT WAS AWESOME!" Tendi cheered.

"You acted like a conductor! That was amazing!" Rutherford clapped.

"Not bad Ensign~," Lieutenant Shaxs smirked, "If you ever want to be part of the bear pack, security will always be open to you."

"Back off Shaxs, she's mine," Lieutenant Commander Billups elbowed the larger Bajoran male.

"Looks like we gained a bit of a crowd," Nate teased, offering me a hand off the ground. Most of his right sleeve was completely burned off but his skin looked fine, a faint rainbow glow covered his body. "I don't have a lot of juice, but I know how to use it," he answered my unasked question. "Don't worry, the Cerritos will get you up to snuff~." he helped me to my feet before we were swarmed by the crew, getting pats on the back and well wishes. "Come on, let's hit the showers, and get to the rest of the tour."

I gave a long groan and flopped on his shoulder, "I'm so tired~." he just laughed like the dirtbag he was.

The rest of the tour felt like I was walking around with sandbags tied to every limb, but the Warp core made it all worth it. It was a bit strange that we kept running into Rutherford with different uniforms but Nate told me that he got himself into that mess and he could get himself out.

Everything after that was kind of a blur, I remember eating at some point, and Boimler and Mariner returning from their away mission, but I was out of it the second my head touched my pillow.

-/-

It's been about a week and I've finally got used to Nate's training schedule.

Breakfast

Morning training

After morning training snack

Weight training

After weight training snack

Daily chores

Lunch

Working with Billups in engineering

Afternoon power training

Dinner

Free time

It was insane. 5 days a week, no slacking. I've never worked so hard in my life, but I couldn't argue with the results, since I've been here, I haven't had a single flare-up, in fact, I was able to power up a couple of systems on purpose, it was awesome!

"20... 21... 22...23...24... 25... rest."

I exhaled, slowly lowering the barbell onto its hooks.

"How much was that?"

"90 pounds."

"I did that yesterday," I huffed.

"It's not about the weight, we're building endurance not muscles, if you want to start building muscle, we can do that after we finish endurance training, I'm sure Shaxs has a few pointers."

"I don't want to get that big~," I muttered.

"Then Ransom probably has better tips, he's more into vanity muscles."

"Is that bad?" I asked.

"Bad?"

"Wanting vanity muscles?"

"Of course not! If anything, it would only help you in the long run. Powers like ours are more than just physical, they are mental, if you don't feel comfortable in your own body, your powers will feel the same."

"Is that why I'm not sparking anymore?"

He shook his head, "Nah, I mean it probably helps, but the main reason is that you've been actively using your powers to the point where you drop, you're building a sturdy foundation, you're building control." he smirked, before tossing me some jerky. "Come on, we still have duties and we can't do them smelling like yesterday's socks."

We made it back to our hall finding the rest of the gang on break.

"Boimler, ya okay, looking extra antsy," Nate teased, grabbing his uniform.

"Who me? No, I'm good, might need more fiber in my diet," he muttered not looking anyone in the eye.

"If you say-," A beeping caught our attention.

"Effective immediately, the Lower Deck Scheduling deceit will no longer be tolerated?" Rutherford read out loud. "What scheduling deceit!?"

"Hold on, let me see," Mariner muttered looking at her PADD. "All assignments must be completed and logged in exactly the time mandated by command?" she hissed

"Are we being timed?" Tendi whimpered. Monsters, who in their right mind would make a poor innocent woman like Tendi worry!?

"More importantly, what time are they using? Galaxy-class ships are different than Cali-class ships, I don't think they have a proper timescale," Nate asked.

"Failure to meet quotas will not be tolerated." I felt a stone drop in my stomach. "Not good, not good," I muttered. "I still don't have full control yet!"

"I-I thought buffer time was tradition. That no one cared if we took a bit of time to take a break?" Tendi muttered.

"They shouldn't," Nate muttered, "No one is perfect, we need that buffer time to make corrections."

"Somebody ratted," Mariner hissed, "I bet it was Delta shift."

"NYAA~," Tendi hissed, "Delta shift is the worst. They think they're so much better than us, because they are so much better than us." even her insults were compliments.

"Guys!" Boimler spoke up, "It doesn't matter who ratted. We don't need buffer time, We're Starfleet damn it, we're the best of the best and we can still get everything done early."

"Yeah," Rutherford cheered. "Boimler's right, we don't need buffer time, we got this."

"Yeah, no, yeah, you're probably right," Mariner joined. "Who needs an extra Margarita a day anyway?"

"Guys," Nate cut in, "Listen, I know we're in a moment of comradery and emotions are high, but I need my sleep, this isn't a joke, okay? I have been told I get weird when I'm sleep-deprived. Maybe we should say something."

"Bah!" Mariner scoffed, "Don't worry, we'll be fine."

-/-

Beckett Mariner POV

Okay, I may have been a bit too optimistic. It's only been a week, and things have gone down the drain fast. At first, things were fine, day one went smooth, but the next day things got shorter, by the third day we were running down halls and making mistakes, and the times kept getting shorter.

And then it happened, we found Nate sleepwalking, completely nude, just walking down the halls hanging brain, pressing buttons, and fixing things, he was on some kind of autopilot. We were able to wake him up but he put the nearest person into a sleeper hold, and let me tell you something, a 6-foot 190-pound beefy man holding you to sleep makes you rethink a lot of things.

We tied him up the following night but he escaped, we found him in the Jefferies tubes fixing some coupling, still nude. We told my mom, but she only cared about his effectiveness, and I hate to say it, but even asleep he knew what he was doing.

It's been a week, and now I was late on an away mission with Ransom.

"EXCUSE ME!" I jumped over Tendi, who was picking things up after crashing into Rutherford, everything was a mess, people weren't even working anymore, just shoving things into other things and running to their next job. It was madness!

Reaching the cargo bay I found the team already loading things into the shuttle, with Ransom doing jack shit.

"...Horned gorillas, Sentient tar, Spores that make you hook up with your best friend's sister. All disasters I've personally experienced on missions that should have been a walk in the park." I slid up behind him and started helping with some of the cases. "Mariner, you're late."

Deny, deny, deny.

"Uh, no, I've been here the whole time, you know, loading stuff, hearing about you blaming spores for sleeping with your best friend's sister."

"It was spores, and get it together. The captain has us on a strict timetable."

"Maybe you wanna help? Instead of talking about your failed relationships?" I drawled.

"I am helping, it's called commanding, ya know, because I'm a commander. You're lucky your phaser accuracy is so high, or I'd never let you beam off this ship."

"We wouldn't even be going on a mission if the admiral hadn't downgraded the captain to delivering gifts," I scoffed. "Come on, let's bail."

"No, and roll down those sleeves," he huffed. "This isn't a barn."

It didn't take long for us to take off flying over a planet, Ransom was talking about some crystal or whatever, but something else gained my immediate attention.

"Yo Ransom!"

"What?"

"Is Nate supposed to be here?" I pointed to the sleeping naked guy sitting across from me.

Ransom looked back at us, "Uh... yeah?"

"Really, we need a sleeping naked demi-god?" I scoffed.

"Just put some pants on him and leave him in the shuttle, we don't have time to go back."

"Just beam him back."

"It's fine!" he scoffed, "he just needs pants."

"You just don't want to look bad," I hissed.

"He just needs pants!"

We landed without much fanfare; second contact is never as fun as the first. The planet was kinda cool though, with massive crystals everywhere coming right out of the ground with alien writing.

I was finally able to put a grumpy Nate into some pants with a little help from the rest of the crew, just in time to see Ransom fuck up the mission and get Vendome stabbed by a spear of all things.

"Q damn it," I hissed, jumping into action and knocking four out in a single pinwheel kick, man, these guys were lightweights. But the roaring of a horn summoned more of them.

"There's too many of them! Fall back!" Ransom ordered, grabbing Vendome and the rest of the team and jumping behind cover.

"OH, GOD, I'M GOING TO DIE!" Vendome cried.

"We live in a spaceship-" Every hair on my body jumped to attention, like static was running up my skin.

Everything stopped, no more spears flew overhead.

I slowly peeked over cover, spotting Nate standing just outside the shuttle, his broad naked back, filled with corded muscle, tight, and ready to finish what they started. I couldn't see his face but by the fear in the Gelrakians' faces. Anger was too small of an emotion.

"So... I was taking a Nap... and now I'm shirtless on an alien planet, with people throwing spears of all things at me," his voice was deeper than normal. He slowly raised his right hand, covered in rainbow energy. "FALL."

And then I fell, like I was a puppet and my strings were cut. An entire week of nonstop work finally hit me and I blacked out.

I gasped awake and quickly checked my surroundings, finding my communication badge missing. "And~, I'm in a jail cell," I groaned. Not too far away was Ransom but the rest of the team was missing, Nate was also gone. What the hell happened? I slowly got up, "Damn it~." everything was sore, I needed a cup of coffee. It was still light out so we couldn't have been out that long. "Ransom," I walked over to him, "Ransom!" I tapped him in the leg.

"UH!? What? Mariner?" it took him a second to remember everything. "Son of a bitch," he groaned, "Where are we?" he got to his feet.

"No idea, but it's a safe bet we're still on Gelrak." I kicked a crystal on the floor.

"The team?"

"No clue."

"Witt?"

"Gone, I told you we should have beamed him back! Q knows where he is!"

"Relax, I'm sure-"

"Ah~, I see you are awake~." we turned to find a tiny Gelrakian being carried by two other Gelrakians, with a massive Gelrakian standing behind him.

"Oh great, who's this guy?" I muttered.

"I am Gerba, leader of my people, and you are a liar, bringing a wooden sex toy of our greatest enemies-"

"Ransom, what the fuck?"

"Shush, Lord Gerba you must understand that this was just an accident, we didn't mean-"

"SILENCE!" the little man hissed, "You will be held responsible for the lies of the Federation. Your trial will be by combat!"

"Alright!" I cheered, "Now we're talking, and by talking, of course, I mean fighting! So, what's up? How are we doing this? One on one?"

He gave a low laugh.

"Oh, I don't like that," Ransom muttered. "That's a confident evil chuckle."

"You must fight our greatest champion."

"I'm guessing it's that guy," I pointed to the massive Gelrakian standing at an easy 9 feet with nothing but muscle. I fought bigger.

Gerba gave another chuckle, "You'll see. And just so you don't get any ideas," he gestured to the left where the ground team was tied to a rock with a large crystal hanging overhead. "When you're ready to die, just step through that door." he gestured to the door in the cell, before walking away.

"Can we both go!?" I asked.

"No skin off my bones!" he laughed, turning the corner.

"... well let's go~." I started walking towards the door.

"Hold on!" Ransom pulled me by the back of my shirt. "Are you deaf or something, that guy was way too confident?"

"Confident or not, we can't do anything from in here, and the longer we wait the less energy we have. worse, Nate is still missing! What if he walked out into the desert!? We can't hope things get better because they're not, you saw how fucked up everyone was on the Cerritos, we have to get ourselves out of here."

"We do this as a team," he hissed. "Whatever is behind that door, they are confident that it can take us both on."

Damn it, he was right. "Fine, just don't get us killed."

"Follow my lead, you know double-fist combat?"

I scoffed, "Who doesn't."

We walked through the door finding an average stadium with hundreds of Gelrakians, silently cheering, in fact, they were just waving their hands.

"What are they doing?" I muttered.

"Starfleet..." we turned to Gerba standing on a stage, he was saying something but I couldn't hear him.

"What!?" I yelled.

"You will..." he started whispering.

"I CAN'T HEAR YOU!"

"Mariner..." Ransom hissed.

"What?"

He pointed to the lone figure standing in the middle of the stadium.

Nate, completely nude.

Please don't be a weird sex thing, please don't be a weird sex thing. And then Gerba slammed a gong, sending vibrations through the stadium and nearly blowing out my eardrums.

"Ah... Shit." why couldn't it be a weird sex thing!?

Nate gave an annoyed hiss, shaking his head like a wild animal, "I'm trying ... TO SLEEP!" he unleashed a powerful telekinetic blast, nearly knocking me off my feet.

"What the hell, Nate has never been this strong before," I hissed. It was like he was getting stronger the more sleep-deprived he was.

"What's wrong with you people!?" I yelled at Gerba. "What kind of fight is this! He isn't one of your people, this shouldn't count!"

Gerba lifted a piece of paper, "I legally adopted him by Gelrakian rights. Go on son! Give them what for!" he cheered.

"Okay, how do we defeat a demi-god throwing a tantrum?" Ransom hissed.

"Do you have a big ass rock?" I asked. We were hit with another telekinetic push.

"Take this seriously!"

"I am! Last time this happened Kirk had to squish them with a big ass rock!" I yelled. "NATE! NATE! STOP RIGHT NOW MISTER!" I slowly pushed my way to him.

He narrowed his eyes at me, "Becky?"

"That's right buddy it's me, you need to calm down!"

"I don't wanna!" he sent another blast at me that threatened to launch me into next week, but Ransom was there to pull me out of the way.

"ENSIGN WITT! YOU WILL STOP THIS VERY SECOND! I AM YOUR SUPERIOR OFFICER AND YOU WILL LISTEN TO ME!" Ransom ordered. And as if a switch was flipped, everything stopped.

"...You..." Nate hissed.

"Oh shit," I whispered.

"You... took my sleep." the floor started vibrating. Nate then exploded into light, "MY SLEEP!" and then the whole stadium tore itself out of the ground, dropping everyone to the floor.

"HOLY CRAP!" I screamed.

"ENSIGN!" Ransom screamed.

"It's not working you idiot!"

Ransom slowly got to his feet, "I'M GOING TO CALL YOUR MOTHER!" and again everything froze... about a hundred feet in the air.

Nate narrowed his eyes at him, "You don't know my mommy." he began glowing again, calling Ransom's bluff.

"BUT I DO!" I cut in.

"Becky?"

"THAT'S RIGHT, MY... M-Captain," I corrected myself, "knows your mother! She'll call her and you'll be in big trouble!"

"I don't want to be in trouble," Nate whined.

"Then you put us down right now mister," I ordered.

Nate barely half awake, gave a huff and stomped his feet, causing everything to fall, going down was scarier than going up, it was just free fall before Nate caught us 10 feet from the ground and gently put us in the ground.

"I'm not in trouble?" Nate asked.

"No, now go to bed." almost like a machine, he just shut off, flopping to the floor, snoring like he didn't nearly go all supervillain. "That was close. Good call with the mom thing, how did you know that was going to work?"

"I didn't, but no kid wants to be in trouble with their mother, demi-god or not," He laughed.

"We won," I flipped off Gerba, but by the way he was holding on to the ground for dear life I don't think he cared. "We should get out of here." I walked over to Nate and placed him on my back. "Oof, big boy."

"Pretty lady strong." He snuggled into my neck, before nibbling. "Salty," he whined, before nibbling again. "Salty," he whined again. And he just kept doing that over and over, but I'll take this over crazy building destroying Nate any time.

-/-

It took a hot second but we were able to get back to the Cerritos, I don't know what happened while we were gone but someone finally talked some sense into my mother, buffer time was back and no one looked ready to slit any more throats. Life was good... mostly.

There was only one small problem.

"Anything?" I asked Tendi.

"No, not yet, I think he may have pulled something, I don't think his body could handle how much energy he used," Tendi shook her head. "A little to the left sweety~."

"Mmm," a sleeping Nate muttered, massaging Tendi's shoulders.

Nate has been in a coma since we got back 2 days ago... kinda. He still slept walked... and... slept worked... and... slept ate? It was weird, yesterday I saw him in the cafeteria getting food right out of people's plates, no one minded, but it did throw some of us for a loop, we also found out that as long as he was wearing pajamas, he would take off his clothes.

We were in charge of making sure he didn't shoot himself out of an airlock, and it was Tendi's turn. Was it wrong for us to use a sleeping man to do our chores and give massages? Yes. But did we care? No. If he doesn't have something to do, he tends to wander, so we have him do mundane things within eyesight.

We were in one of the repair bays goofing off, uh, I mean, working hard. Rutherford and Olly were tinkering with the old Shuttle that was placed here over a year ago, they asked us to fix it but they got new ones so they kinda just left it there. At this point, it was just a passion project we used as an excuse to say we were working. Boimler had bridge duty, so he was having the time of his life.

So, when he came sprinting into the room it caught our attention. "Look presentable!" he panic screamed, fixing his hair with one hand and fanning air into his armpits with the other.

"Wha?" I asked.

"Ah~, I see the Witt family charm is going strong," an elderly man chuckled, walking into the room with Mom at his side.

"Admiral Witt, as you can see, Nate is fine," Mom nervously smiled.

Oh damn! We quickly jumped to attention.

He chuckled, and waved away any formality, "Relax, I was once an ensign too, I can guarantee you there's no work going on in here. I should know, I think I was working on the same shuttle when I was younger," he laughed. "Word of advice, you don't have to make it warp-ready but make sure it can go into space. It will save your rump later. So, how's my boy?" he asked.

"Uh, OH, Nate, he's okay, just, uh... asleep," Tendi answered. Nate still working her shoulders.

"Mmm," The Admiral hummed. "Too much juice, too fast, aye? My little baby V'luse was the same, never get in the way of a Vulcan and their chocolate, they'll send you into deep space~," he sighed. "He'll be fine. Just give him a few days, but I should warn you not to do what you did before Captain, you were lucky he was on a planet."

"Of course, sir, The Boimler Effect is going strong," Ma gave a nervous chuckle.

"Ah, we're calling it the Boimler effect this century? We used to call it the Kirk Walk," he laughed. "Every time that man when anywhere he would always get there late, one shenanigan after another, we would set our meeting time 3 hours early so he would show up on time."

"I didn't know that," Boimler gasped.

The old man laughed, "That's because no one took us seriously, would you believe me if I told you that Kirk couldn't walk in a straight line without getting kidnapped by an evil organization or evil clone or a cavewoman that wanted him as her cave husband? Trust me kid, anything you've read about our adventures were just the things people might believe, the truth was way crazier. How long have you been in Starfleet son?"

"Uh, almost 2 years, sir," Boimler answered.

The old man nodded, "Then get ready my boy, your 5 years are about to start. I hope you enjoyed the free ride."

"5 years, sir?"

"The next 5 years of your life are going to be nothing but action-packed death ride after death ride. Trust me, being in a Cali-class ship isn't going to save you, isn't that right young lady~," he smirked at me. "I remember you, you're that little punk that told me to hit a retirement home back in Deep Space 9," he laughed. I'm happy he was having a good time because the look my mom was giving me should come with a death beam.

"You're like a thousand years old!" in for a coin in for a bar.

"Mariner!" Mom hissed, but the Admiral only laughed harder, I see where Nate got his laugh.

"I like ya kid, you remind me of Kirk," he smirked. "I can't wait to read about your adventure, they'll blow mine out of the water. You're not looking for a husband by any chance, will you?" he pointed at Nate, "He's a bit green around the gills but I'm sure he'll rise to your expectations~."

"I'm good~."

"What about you, young lady," he asked Tendi.

"Oh, uh, me?" Tendi blushed, "I mean, he's nice, but we just met, and I'm an Orion."

"So? My Shaylove was an Orion and we were married for 90 years. She did turn my other ladies against me though," he gave a long sigh, "I love that woman~. What about you?" he asked Olly. "he's young, dumb, and easily malleable!"

"Admiral, can you please stop trying to marry off your grandchildren," Ma huffed.

"Well, you didn't want to marry my Diana," he huffed back.

"I'm still happily married!"

"And? Alonzo has the backbone of a chocolate eclair, I'm sure a little pressure from you and Diana will have him on his knees," he laughed. "Diana would sooner die than admit it, but she has been lonely since David died."

Ma gave a long sigh, "You haven't changed admiral."

"It kept me alive this long, I must be doing something right," he laughed. "Just wait, the second you get that first grandbaby, you'll be looking for a match." I coughed on my tongue. "What about you boys? Looking for that lady in your life? I got a few hundred granddaughters single and ready to mingle." he asked the boys in the group.

"Thank you, sir, but my love is the Cerritos," Rutherford answered.

"And I'm already in a relationship," Brad countered. Oh yeah, the infamous Barb. I still think she's a hologram.

"ugh~," the admiral groaned, "I am losing my touch, it was way easier back in the day, nowadays everyone's in a relationship."

"I'm sure, they can get a date without your help, Roger," Ma sighed.

"A grandpa worries. Nate has only dated 1 woman in the last 7 years, and she left to focus on her career. He was heartbroken. I worry he's going full monk," he sighed. "You can't live without love, Carol."

"He's young Roger."

"I had 2 kids at his age."

"That's because you were a horny old man," I muttered.

"Mariner!"

"No, she's right. Beautiful alien women everywhere, and I was exotic at the time. Nowadays humans are everywhere," he shrugged. "Anyways, I'll tell Diana that Nate's fine, just let him rest, he'll be a little out of wack with his control for a while but he'll be okay." he gave Tendi a PADD, "Here's a bunch of baby pictures you can use to keep him from going all, supervillain. Now Carol, show me around, I wanna complain to Command about upgrading the Cali-class, did you know I was one of the people who suggested the ships? Bloody Command tried cutting corners on my babies..." he kept complaining as Ma led him away.

"Wow~," Boimler gasped.

"When did he get here?" I asked.

"He warped in out of nowhere, just said he wanted to see his grandson."

"Maybe he read Nate's medical report," Tendi answered. "We have to submit a report for every injury that comes into the Sick Bay."

"He probably has an alert that tells him one of his family has been injured, it wouldn't be too hard to make," Rutherford added.

"And you remember what Nate said about the Dominion war. It's not too surprising to want his family safe." Boimler muttered.

"So... who wants to see a bunch of adorable baby pictures?" Tendi asked.

"I thought you would never ask," Olly snickered.

He was adorable.

-/-

Nate woke up 2 days later, sore as all hell, he didn't remember anything after like 3 days into the whole 'buffer time incident', dude was just running on autopilot the whole time. And like Admiral Witt said, whatever control Nate had was shot to hell, he's been training with Olly like crazy to get some level of control back.

For the rest of us, it was duty as normal, and by that, I mean it's been boring as high noon. I couldn't even hold back my yawn.

"Trouble sleeping, Ensign?" My mom hissed.

Oh right, I'm in the middle of a Bridge meeting about the old ship we found. Why doesn't she say we're going to tug it to a Starbase? Is that really so hard?

"Nah, I slept great, maybe too good, honestly," I teased. Nothing like messing with a meeting~.

"Just pass out the PADDS," she glared.

Mom's captain friend started talking, and I really tried paying attention, but Q was he boring~, his very voice was trying to smother me to sleep.

I gave another yawn, interrupting them. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, it was just so much information." it really wasn't, I read the report. Weird goo makes weird environment for long-dead aliens, don't let it touch you, and don't break the ship. Meeting over. "I don't know how you guys aren't yawning?"

"Your crew doesn't appear to appreciate the gravity of our undertaking, captain," the Tellarite huffed.

"I assure you, captain, my people are the best in the fleet. They're proficient, alert, and-" I cut her off with another loud yawn. "Mariner!"

"I'm... trying to... hold it... in!" I yawned loudly.

Yeah... I'm about to get a talking too.

Good, I've been working on my sarcastic Vulcan salute.

-/-

D'Vana Tendi POV

I raced around the bunks to find my friends getting ready for our shifts.

"YOU GUYS!" I came to a stop. "I'm about to go watch an ascension," I cheered.

"NO!" Nate jumped to his feet. "Absolutely not, no ma'am you are not. Mariner, rope!"

"I don't have any rope," she muttered.

"Really?" Nate asked, "Of all our friends I thought you would have rope, weird. Boimler, rope!"

"Sorry, no rope."

"What!? What's going on with us, no rope? What next, no knuckle dusters?" he groaned.

"We don't have those either," Rutherford pointed out.

"Why are we so out of sync lately, come on you guys, we have to work together here," Nate huffed. "We should do some team-building exercises or something. Olly?"

"I used my rope for yesterday's obstacle course," she answered, "Haven't gotten it replaced."

"Where's your rope?" Mariner huffed.

"I gave it to Tendi to hold down Steven this morning, he needed a... physical," he muttered. That was putting it mildly.

"Nate, why can't I see an ascension?" I asked.

"Tendi, you adorable free spirit, an ascension isn't pretty, it's not magical," he just shook his head, "It is... being more."

I quirked an eyebrow "More? More what?"

"More everything, more than our tender flesh can handle. No ascension for you." he took off his jacket and quickly tied me up.

"HEY!?"

"I'll take that!" he took my PADD, "I'll do your duties for the day," he also took Olly's PADD, "I'm also doing yours, keep an eye on her, I don't trust her to not trick one of these mooks to set her free," he pointed to the other three.

"Hey! Boimler's a mook! I'm a sexy rebel," Mariner huffed.

"Keep a close eye on them," he huffed and walked away.

"NATE! COME BACK HERE RIGHT NOW!" I yelled.

"You'll thank me for this later!" he yelled back disappearing around the bend.

"Can someone please untie me!"

"I don't know Tendi, Nate looked like he knew what he was talking about," Rutherford scratched the back of his neck.

"at least look me in the eyes as you betray me," I hissed.

"Absolutely not, I learned my lesson," He huffed and walked away.

"I WON'T FORGET THIS!" I yelled.

"Yeah, but you're too nice to hold a grudge!" he yelled back.

"Damn it, he's right."

"Ugh~," Mariner groaned at her PADD before looking over at me, "I'll set you free if you take my duties for the day. No questions asked."

"What are the duties?"

"That's a question," she huffed. Boimler took her PADD. "HEY!?"

"Turbolift lubing, Holodeck waste removal, and scraping carbon of the carbon filter!? This is some Klingon prison stuff," Boimler muttered.

"Come on man! I'm trying to make a deal here," Mariner hissed. "What do you say Tendi?"

"...Boimler, what you got?" I asked.

"Sorry, but I got the good stuff today, Bridge meeting room clean up," he smirked. Walking away with Mariner.

"Ah man, how come he got the good stuff," I whined. "Olly~, my best friend, you're my number one, my cha'DIch. Will you really do this to me?"

"Not looking!" she looked up to the ceiling. I gave a hiss of pain, getting her to look at me. "What's wrong?"

"Nate made the knots too tight, it's hurting my wrists," I lied... like a liar.

She moved to help but paused, "If it hurt why didn't you say anything before?"

"Because... of the betrayal, it hurt more than the knots, but the betrayal is over but the knots are still there."

She narrowed her eyes at me, "That... makes sense. No funny business."

"You can trust me, I'm your best friend," I nodded.

She reached out to loosen the jacket, but what she didn't know, was that I already escaped, I just needed her to... GET CLOSE! I jumped into action, using the same jacket that tied me up to return the favor.

"OH NO! BETRAYAL!?" Olly screamed as I got the drop on her. "Why are you so good at knot tying!"

"Don't ask questions you don't want answers to!" I ran. "I love you! I'll untie you when the ascension is over!"

"I'LL FIND YOU! TENDI!" she yelled as I ran.

Oof, that brought back some memories.

It didn't take me long to reach Lieutenant O'Connor's room. Good thing I didn't tell anyone who was ascending. I quietly snuck my way into the room with half a dozen other people sitting in a circle, O'Connor was sitting on a little platform, giving a low hum. There was some kind of colorful sand drawing on the ground. I carefully made my way over to a big enough spot for me to sit.

Nate was being silly, what was wrong with seeing an ascension? It was kinda boring, to be honest. I gave the room a look around, If O'Connor ascends will this room be open to anyone? By the all mother, is that a Tzutchian gong!?

"Excuse me~," I whispered, gently crossing the room and heading to the spiritual artifact on a desk. Whoa~, it was so cool, I wonder what it sounds like. I'll ring it a few times after the ascension, align my chakras, or whatever it's supposed to do.

"I think he's ascending," an excited whisper caught my attention.

I WAS MISSING IT!?

"REALLY!?" I may have been too close to the Gong, cuz as I turned, I bumped it a little causing it to fly from the little mantle O'Connor had it in, and right into his sand drawing. "OH NO!" I tried grabbing it but tripped over an officer and landed in the drawing myself, destroying it completely.

"My Sand Mandala!" O'Connor panicked.

"Oh no~," I whimpered. "I CAN FIX IT!" I started shoving the sand into a small pile.

"It took me two years to make it! It was a physical representation of my inner calm!" he yelled... calmly.

"Oh, uh, one second! Keep ascending!" I ran to the replicator on the wall. "Computer, colorful warm sand!"

But before I got to do anything, the door slid open revealing an annoyed Olly.

"YOU!" she hissed. Small sparks of lightning danced around her wreath.

"Olly~, my best-oof!" she tackled me.

"You're coming with me!" she started dragging me out of the room.

"NO WAIT OLLY! I CAN FIX IT! I CAN FIX IT!" the last thing I saw was an annoyed O'Connor as the door closed. "Ah man~."

-/-

Olly POV

I made sure the new knot I tied around my and Tendi's waist wasn't going anywhere.

"Olly this isn't necessary~," the Orion whined.

"Oh yeah, like I'm going to listen to the space ninja~," I rolled my eyes.

"Olly~," she flopped onto my shoulder. I just picked her up, Nate's weight training really came in handy. "I messed up~."

"It's fine," I huffed. "I mess up all the time, shoot, Mariner constantly keeps causing problems. It's normal."

"But he was going to ascend~," she huffed into my neck, giving me a little tickle.

"Tendi, if a floor drawing stopped him from becoming some higher being, maybe he just wasn't going to ascend. I mean seriously, a single mistake and he blows it way out of proportion, dude was full of it."

She gasped, "Maybe it wasn't the Mandala! Maybe he needs something else! Thanks Olly!" she jumped off my chest and ran down the hall.

"WHAT THE HELL!?" I tried chasing after her but my waist was pulled back, turning I found myself tied to a post.

"SORRY! I'll make it to you later!" she turned the corner.

"D'VANA TENDI!" I roared at her retreating back.

I tried undoing the tie but Tandi was way too good at her knots, I mean, these are some nice knots and unlike Nate's jacket I couldn't just melt through it with lightning. I reached into my pocket and pulled out my Swiss army knife, Nate is a paranoid slave driver, but damn if he isn't right sometimes.

I quickly looked for the knife key. "Gods why did they make so many keys, who's ever going to use the bottle opener!?" I finally got the knife and cut myself free. "TENDI!" I roared running after her.

I found her being yelled at by a pissed-off O'Connor slamming some kind of toy against the wall.

"HEY!" I yelled at him. "BACK OFF MAN!"

"Olly~," Tendi tried holding me back.

"Hasn't she done enough?" he hissed.

"FUCK YOU MAN! Your drawing gets smudged over an accident and you lose your shit!? She's trying to apologize and you yell at her, how about you go jump up your own ass and ascend that way, ASSHOLE!" I yelled in his face.

"OLLY!" Tendi finally pushed me away, "Sorry about her, she's usually very nice! We'll try again later! Sorry again!" we finally turned the corner.

"Fucking asshole," I hissed.

"Are you okay?" she cupped my cheeks making sure I was okay.

I tsked, "I'm fine. O'Connor was just being an ass. I don't know why you're trying to help him."

"I did kinda mess up his Ascension," Tendi muttered.

"Who cares!? You're probably doing him a favor, the way Nate described it, it sounded terrible, like you're exploding," I huffed.

"I'm sure Nate was exaggerating a little, how about we go get lunch. All this helping is making me hungry."

"Okay, Nate gave me his Family Catalog~," I teased, flashing her my PADD.

"No way! Why?"

"To bribe you, I guess he knew you were going to escape? How would he even know that?" I muttered.

Tendi had a guilty look on her face, "HAHA, you know Nate~, paranoid."

"...Yeah, that makes sense," I hummed.

"Good, Let's go get some meat quesadillas, with that spicy guac Nate hogs to himself!" she pushed me toward the cafeteria.

I felt my tummy grumbling, "I did miss my after-breakfast snack."

Most of the Cafeteria was empty, and there was some kind of stage being dismantled, probably some kind of Talent show, I swear this place always has something going on.

"Hup, hup, hup, hup!" we watched Nate putting away a bunch of chairs, before spotting us. "Ladies! Good to see you followed my advice and didn't go to the ascension."

"Is it really advice when you tie someone up," Tendi huffed.

"...Yes," Nick nodded. "But as an apology, I'll give you full access to the Witt Family-Only Catalog for the rest of the year."

"Whoa, really!?"

"Yep, I know you didn't get to see that ascension, but trust me, it's not pretty," he sighed, "enjoy your lunch, I have some work to do." he ran off.

"Make sure you eat!" I called out, he gave me a thumbs up.

"You didn't tell him about my escape," Tendi whispered.

I shrugged. "He didn't tell you to not escape, just not to watch the Ascension, and you didn't."

She rested her head on my shoulder, "Thank you... do you think ascending made a noise?"

"Oh yeah, like whoosh~."

"I thought it would have been more like a, Whammm~," she hummed.

"What about, ZAAAAAAK~."

"OH, maybe, NAAAAM~."

I laughed, "That's a good ascension noise."

"Right!?" she laughed with me. "Ahhh~, that would have been funny," she sighed leaning against me.

"... you still want to apologize?" I asked.

"...Yeah, I don't like it when people hate me, it makes my tummy hurt," she whined.

"How about, we just apologize and leave. We don't stay, we don't let him talk, we just leave, if he wants to be butt hurt, let him," I offered.

"You'd do that?"

I huffed, "I probably won't mean it but I know you will, and that's enough for me."

"...Thank you."

"Good, now let's eat."

"SPICY GUAC!" she cheered, plunging her food into the dip.

Lunch was great, if a little heavy, but I didn't have to work today so I didn't care. O'Connor was working the Warp core after lunch, so we waddled our round bellies down there. We found the asshole working on one of the screens.

"O'Connor?" Tendi called out. He turned with a sigh. "Listen, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to mess with your ascension, I didn't want to mess with your inner peace, and I hope you're able to ascend later."

"Yeah sorry," I huffed, Tendi elbowed me. "You still yelled at my friend, sorry is all you're getting." we started walking out of the Core, only for that 'Starfleet luck' we all have to hit us like a space train and a flood of water started pouring into the room, with the red alert coming in a second later. "WHAT THE HELL!?"

Ransom came over the comms, "Cerritos crew, there has been a malfunction with the derelict ship-" The comms went dead.

"WE'RE LEAVING!" I ordered, grabbing Tendi and marching against the water toward the exit.

"Look out!" Tendi pointed to the massive growing coral, "Curse you beautiful coral!"

"Jefferies tubes!" I ordered, "Second floor, GO, GO, GO!"

"I can't believe this is happening~," O'Connor whined.

"Quit bitching!" I roared. By the time we got to the ladder, the water was at my neck. The Ship gave a hard jerk dislodging some kind of glowing rock from the ceiling, I felt the spark before it exploded overhead turning most of the second floor to pieces.

"Fuck," I hissed.

"I could have been one with the universe right now. This is your fault," he yelled at us.

"F-"

"FUCK YOU!" Tendi roared, catching both of us off guard. "I don't give a damn about your 'ascension'! I... I just wanted friends," she whispered.

"Tendi~?" I placed my hand on her shoulder.

"It kills me when someone doesn't like me!" she yelled at a confused O'Connor. "I can't sleep. It's all I think about. It feels like ants in my brain!"

I felt another spark coming from our feet.

"...Yeah, I get that," O'Connor sighed.

"Oh please, you haven't-"

I cut Tendi off and yanked her and O'Connor off to the side as another pink explosion rocked the core, the water dragging us around the room.

"FUCK!" I coughed as we broke the water line. The water was rising faster than before, the coral must have blocked any bottom exits, great.

"Well," O'Connor coughed, "Since we're gonna die here, I'll just tell you. I was never going to ascend! I was faking!"

"Called it!" I coughed, helping them onto the coral platform, the second floor was covered in Coral, we weren't getting out that way.

"What!? Why?" Tendi asked.

"It's hard to stand out in Starfleet," O'Connor sighed. "This gave me an edge. It was my thing! I was the Ascension guy, but then, I was going for so long not ascending that I got worried that people would catch on, which is why I used you as cover. I'm a jerk, I'm sorry."

"we're both jerks, we wanted to be liked, and lied about it," Tendi gasped. "That makes us friends!" she cheered, "I'm going to die with my friends!"

"Now's not the time to sound so happy!" I hissed. The water was already at my knees. "Keep going up!" I ordered, climbing the coral.

"Where are we going!?" Tendi asked climbing with me.

"Not in the water!" I yelled back, "The air is being displaced, there has to be a way out of here."

"THERE!" Tendi pointed to a crack in the ceiling leading deeper into the ship.

"The hole is too small!" O'Connor countered.

"We don't need the hole, just the crack!" she followed the crack into the water. Taking a deep breath, she jumped into the makeshift lake with perfect form.

"Whoa," I muttered. Where did she learn to do that?

There was another pink explosion breaking the coral we were on, dumping us into the drink as a powerful current sucked us down and out into some of the hallways outside the warp room, which was blessedly dry.

"Fuck me!" I coughed, "that was a ride. Tendi... that was awesome, you need to train with us more."

"No problem~," Tendi laughed.

"I'm not going swimming for a long time~," O'Connor smiled.

"We..." I gasped, "Need to get out of-" Another explosion rocked the ship.

I watched a large boulder fall from the ceiling in slow motion, right over Tendi's head.

I... I couldn't do anything, we were soaking wet, and a blast powerful enough to destroy the boulder would fry Tendi.

"LOOK OUT!" O'Connor jumped forward, shoving Tendi out of the way of the rock, but not himself.

"O'CONNOR!?" I yelled as the rock came down. And the lieutenant was gone. Crushed by the massive rock.

"WHAT... ARE YOU IDIOTS... DOING!?" an angry Nate roared, slowly lifting the boulder on his back, his powers at full display.

"NATE!?" We screamed.

"MOVE YOU IDIOT!" he yelled at a surprised O'Connor, who I grabbed and moved out of the way. Allowing Nate to slump the boulder to the side and shimmy his way out. "We're leaving!"

"How did you know we were here!?" I asked.

He held up his PADD. "Warp Tube maintenance, it was your duty for the day! I was already here when shit went down, the other in engineering told me you guys got trapped behind some coral, we have been trying to break through but the damn shit kept regrowing. You guys alright?"

"Tired," I hissed. "My adrenaline rush is dipping."

"You... you tried to save my life," Tendi whispered. "You could have died."

"It's what friends do~," O'Connor laughed, "I was ready."

"O'CONNOR NO!" Nate screamed; his eyes filled with fear.

"Wha? Whoa~." he was glowing. "I'm Ascending."

"O'CONNOR BREATHE! BREATHE O'CONNOR! STAY HERE!" Nate demanded. "FEEL THE WORLD AROUND YOU! STAY CORPOREAL! STAY WITH US!"

"Nate!?" Tendi screamed, "What's going on!"

O'Connor hissed, his body was completely blue, "It burns!"

"O'Connor?" I called out.

"IT BURNS!"

"NO!" Nate reached for him, his hands burning as he touch his fellow ensign.

"NATE!" I screamed, trying to get him to let go.

"NOT AGAIN! I WON'T LET YOU GO! I CAN SAVE YOU!" Nate cried.

"AHHHHHHHHH!" O'Connor screamed as his flesh melted away. By the gods. "TIME HAS NO MEANING! AHHHHHHHH! IT'S HAPPENING! I'M EVERYWHERE AND NOWHERE! I CAN SEE EVERYTHING! I'M TURNING INTO PURE ENERGY!" he slipped through Nate's fingers. "AHHHH! I SEE ABRAHAM LINCOLN! THE UNIVERSE IS BALANCED ON THE BACK OF A GIANT KOALA! WHY IS HE SMILING? WHAT DOES HE KNOW!? THE SECRET... OF LIFE... IS..." and he vanished... becoming... more.

The stone around us turned to orange dust, the red alert turning off.

"Damn it," Nate hissed, slowly getting to his feet.

"I..." Tendi whimpered. We turned to her, tears running down her face. "I didn't mean to..."

"Tendi," Nate brought her into a hug. "It's not your fault."

"But-"

"It's not your fault!"

"If I didn't-"

"No! O'Connor made his choice," he muttered. "Come on, we need to get people to Sickbay and, who knows what happened to the other ship." he gently lifted her into his arms. She didn't fight, just... held on to him, her soft sobbing bleeding through his shirt.

I could still see her tears.

Only idiots ascend.

-/-

A whole lot of shit went wrong today, jealous captain, crazy boimler, crying Tendi, the ship nearly turning into a jungle, O'Connor turning into energy, and Mariner being promoted and then demoted. Just another day in Starfleet.

The noise of bare feet on the floor woke me up, not that I was doing a lot of sleeping. I turned to find a pair of green legs.

"Nate?" Tendi whispered.

"Mmm? Yeah, what's wrong?" a drowsy Nate asked.

"I... had a bad dream."

"Come on in," I heard rustling as Nate made room, Tendi quickly jumped into his cubby.

I peeked out of my cubby hole to find Tendi peeking back, she didn't say anything, just offered her hand.

I didn't say anything, just climbed out of my bed and hopped into Nate's. If he noticed, he didn't say anything. We just... cuddled. Just... making sure we didn't disappear.

I didn't want to disappear.

-/-

Beckett Mariner Freeman POV

Another day, another chance to mess with people~.

I cracked my back and got ready for the day, not that we were doing anything, Mom, Ransom, and Shaxs were off on some kind of secret plant mission. I didn't read the report, it meant nothing to me, not my mission, not my problem.

Olly and Tendi were finally able to sleep in their bunks last night. Dude, I couldn't imagine what watching someone turn to energy would be like, but the way they toss and turn at night, it probably wasn't pretty.

Note to self, if Nate ever warns me about something, think it over before doing it.

I checked my PADD to see if there had been an update on our visiting captain, but of course, we got nothing.

"You alright?" Nate asked, a towel around his waist and toothbrush in hand. You know, if Nate was a bit more of a bad boy and less of a Boy Scout, he would hit that Goldilocks zone I'm into. He wasn't overly muscled like Jet or skinny like Brad, just right, he even had a few scars, but if I ever dated him, I'm sure my mom would be over the moon, and I can't have that.

"Becky, my eyes are up here," I huffed.

I scoffed. "I know where your eyes are, now give me a little dance~," I teased.

"Ha! Yeah right, you can't afford this~." he sassily snapped his fingers.

"I can!" Tendi laughed, "I still have two favors!"

"I still can't believe you didn't get into a fight in the first 3 days~," Nate huffed. "I was sure you were going to punch someone in Delta shift."

"Believe it mister!"

"TENDI! My girl, get him to dance for me~."

"Dance for you? No way!" she held up her PADD, "I just finished my Dog project, and I need to put her through her paces." she gave Nate her PADD. Right... The Dog~. I looked over at the golden retriever from hell, that thing was way too smart.

Nate looked over her PADD and nodded, "I can do these, well, I can't do the medical ones, but I can handle the rest, do you want to cash in that Favor, we do have a visiting captain today, that's usually an easy time~."

"It's okay," she nodded.

"Alright~," he pressed a few buttons on her PADD, and Tendi's chores jumped to his PADD. "Olly, you have free training this morning~." he walked toward the sonic showers.

"Alright~," Olly cheered.

"Olly help me with The Dog!" Tendi cheered.

"Sure, maybe I can teach you what a dog really is," She huffed. "You gonna be in bed all day today?" Olly teased, getting ready for the showers.

"No~," I huffed, "I have bridge duty. Have to greet the new captain."

"Ooh~, have fun with that," Olly smirked, "Me and Tendi are going to teach The Dog how to play basketball."

"Like those classic Earth movies!" Tendi cheered following Olly to the showers.

I don't think either of them knew what a dog was.

"You should hurry if you want to take a shower, the temporary captain should be here in about an hour," Boimler warned, putting on his boots. Brad always wakes up early for his shower, his wasn't good with public displays of nudity.

"Maybe I don't want to be ready, stink up the place, get sent to the brig for the day," I scoffed.

"Please don't, we have to work together today, and I want to make a good impression on the captain," he whined.

"Ugh, you're such a kiss ass," I huffed.

"Squeaky wheel gets the oil, I wanna be captain one day and if that means kissing some ass, hand me some lipstick," he huffed.

"Oh damn, assertive, where's my dorky little Cha'DIch?"

"You only have yourself to blame, you wanted to be my mentor, well guess what, I'm going to learn! Now if you'd excuse me, I need to talk with Rutherford to impress the new captain." he gave me a sarcastic Vulcan salute while moonwalking out of sight.

"Damn it, that's still cool," I muttered. I gave another groan. I might as well get ready. I flopped out of bed.

Maybe I shouldn't do that from the top bunk.

-/-

Boring~, Boring~, Boring~. I hated the bridge, I couldn't exactly goof off here, not with the captain 10 feet away, and comms were the worst, everything was automated, so I just had to stand here and do nothing, if I'm lucky I might get to press a button once during my shift.

The whine of the door caught my attention, "Okay~, babysitter alert people~, look alive," I drawled. The door opened to reveal a Vulcan, Trill, and Rigelian, they were all younger than I thought but they weren't the captain.

"Who are you calling a babysitter?" I voice I remember all too well walked into the bridge.

"Holy shit, Amina!?"

"THERE SHE IS!" she cheered, wrapped me in a bear hug, and swept me off my feet. "Are you surprised?" she put me down.

"YEAH! I thought you were on the Oakland?" I quickly looked around, "Sarah isn't with you right? I've got a Witt on board and if he finds out about me sleeping with another one of his cousins without calling her back, he's going to slap out my molars."

"Still a Minx I see," She giggled.

"This is crazy! And you're a freakin' Captain now? Get those title bumps, girl~," I teased.

She polished her fingernails, "Yeah, I'm kinda a big deal," she smirked, "I even have a team." she gestured to the people she brought with her. "Warren," she gestured to the female Trill. "Prachett," she pointed me to the Male Rigelian. "and Durga," she finished with the Vulcan woman. "This is Beckett Mariner, my old friend I was telling you about."

Durga looked me up and down, "Captain Ramsey... speaks fondly of your time at the Academy."

"Well, isn't that a terrifying sentence," I muttered.

"I only told them the truth," she teased.

"That's even scarier," I huffed.

"That when it comes to boots-on-the-ground planetary action, you're the best. And look damn good doing it." Amina teased.

"Oh yeah, I'm sure you were looking at my boots~," I drawled.

"Curious that you're still an ensign," Durga pointed out my rank.

"Ensigns get away with far more than a captain, Lieutenant," I smirked. "Trust me, I've been promoted and demoted enough times to know that."

"Curious-" Durga was cut off as Boimler walked into the bridge, glowing like a lighthouse and giving off a stupid amount of noise. That idiot must have tested Rutherford's new teleporter, I warned Sam not to use it without more tests.

"Boimler! What the are you doing!?" I yelled over the noise.

"Nothing! Just phasing! No biggie!" he tried laughing it off.

"Disagree! It's kind of a Biggie!" I countered; the noise was starting to give me a headache.

The door opened again, revealing a confused Nate, "The hell is that-" he froze, eyes as big as plates, looking directly at Durga, who was also looking right back at him. "Durga?"

"Nathaniel," she nodded.

Nate gulped, "You... you look nice. I see you made Lieutenant. I'm happy to see that."

"Yes, I was able to succeed in my goals."

What the hell is going on over there? "NATE!" He didn't even look at me, it was like he was hypnotized by the Vulcan woman. I walked over and tapped him on the shoulder, he sharply inhaled, like he just remembered he needed to breathe.

"Becky?"

"BOIMLER! Get him to Sickbay!" I ordered.

He looked over to the glowing ensign trying to act nondescript.

Nate blinked, "Right. BOIMLER! WE'RE LEAVING!"

"But I'm okay! It's mostly cosmetic."

Nate didn't even argue, just threw him over his shoulder and walked back to the elevator. His eyes locked with Durga as the elevator closed, taking the noise with him.

The Bridge was quiet for a second.

"You know Nate?" I asked.

"Ensign Witt and I were romantically entangled for a time of 5 years," Durga answered.

"You and Nate, dated?"

"That is a summary of what I just said," Durga nodded.

"Okay, I have a million questions," I muttered.

"That makes two of us," Amina added.

"Does my previous relationship have anything to do with my posting here?" Durga asked.

"Uh," I looked over at Amina.

"Will you be able to work with him?" Amina asked.

"Ensign Witt and I separated on amicable terms," she answered.

"That was amicable!?" I drawled. "I've never seen Nate do that before, and I've seen him sleep with a beautiful Orion woman and a Demi-god at the same time! That was some storybook shit. I'm surprised he didn't just take you on this table."

A flash of something crossed Durga's eyes but it came and went before I got to see it clearly.

"Our time together was... intimate, he may still have some feelings I am unaware of," Durga muttered.

"Yeah, I would say a few," I nodded.

"I shall talk with him-"

"NO!" Amina and I screamed.

"Durga, maybe you should take a break, retire to your room, our mission is over a day away," Amina ordered.

"...Yes captain," the Vulcan nodded and walked into the elevator.

We stood there in the quiet, the whole bridge waiting for someone to say something.

"Stay put until Dr. T'Ana gives us an all-clear on Mr. Boimler," Amina ordered. "Mariner, office." Amina took a deep breath, "Visiting captain's log, Stardate 57752.6. The Cerritos is en route to the planet Khwopa to perform a repair of their water filtration system. Once completed, we will rendezvous with the USS Rubidoux. End log."

"They're going to fuck," I pointed out.

Amina rubbed her face, "Of course they're going to fuck! I have never seen Durga act like that!"

"Is that a bad thing?"

"I don't know, I've never seen Durga go through Pon Farr."

"Pon Farr is a load of horse shit, they bone all the time," I scoffed. "It should be fine, Vulcans are all ethical and shit, right?"

Amina just looked at me and shrugged.

fuck~.

-/-

Durga POV

"Lieutenant Durga's Log, Star date 57752.6. I have arrived on the Cerritos with Captain Ramsey and my team, our mission is to..." I took a deep breath. A smell I know all too well entered my nostrils. A knock came on my door. A rhyme that haunted my dreams for the last 3 years.

1... 1 2... 1,1 ... 1,1

I opened the door to Nathaniel Witt, my previous Paramore.

"We can't do this," he whispered. Blinding rage threatened to break out. The nerve of this man to come to my room and then run. "Durga," his voice was so soft. So weak. "I can't do this again. Please. Let me go."

Ah... he did have feelings for me. "You can leave at any time."

"No, I can't, you know I can't. You need to let me go. I... I don't have the will." Something stirred in me. Something I haven't felt in a long time. Pride. Dangerous pride. I remember all the females in the academy fighting for his attention, but it was mine, only mine.

I slowly reached out to his uniform, and with the gentlest tug, I pulled him into the room.

"No," I answered.

Whatever willpower he had left disappeared, as he lunged at me, greedily attacking my lips and tearing off my clothes. He was hot, always hot, just short of boiling.

"Durga~," he whispered. "I love you~."

"I know," I gasped.

His lips danced down my body, the foreplay was not necessary, my body still remembered him, and was ready, but I did appreciate it. He was always generous, but sometimes I just wanted him to-

"Durga."

Suddenly Nathaniel was gone, and I wasn't naked on my bed. I was still holding my PADD, standing in the middle of my temporary accommodations. My face was flush and my body was warm.

"Durga, do you read?" Captain Ramsey's voice came from my communicator.

"Yes, captain." I quickly gained control of my body.

"We're getting a tour of the ship if you wish to come along."

"...Yes." I can't be blamed if I run into Nathaniel, if we accidentally get trapped in a janitorial closet, it would be a shame.

I quickly made my way to the elevator where I joined the captain and the rest of my team and ensign Mariner.

"So, Becky, how's your time here on the Cerritos?" Captain Ramsey asked.

Mariner shrugged. "Meh, Starfleet. Doesn't matter where you're stationed, something is going to try and eat you, we did have someone turn into pure energy... I wouldn't recommend it."

"Yeesh~," Ramsey muttered. "I thought Cali-class ships got the easy gigs."

"Oh, we do, but their Starfleet gigs, there's a good chance of being bisected. Case in point," she opened the door to the Sickbay, where Ensign Boimler was still phasing but at least was not making that irritating noise.

"...Relax, division 14 is great, I worked there for a summer with one of my cousins, I even got my massaging license for 41 diferent species there," Nathaniel comforted his fellow ensign and showed Boimler his PADD. His back was to us, his large... chiseled back.

"Wow, didn't know you needed a license to touch people?" A cybernetically enhanced human male muttered.

"If you want to do it right," Nathaniel huffed. "Did you know that humans have different muscles than Vulcans or Orions? Oh sure, we look the same but things are different on the inside. Tendi, if you would?" he tapped the empty medical bed in from of him, and the Orion jumped to his touch, something I found to be... unpleasant. "Normally, Orions have more cartilage than humans, making them more flexible but as you can tell from last week's workout, Tendi can pack a hell of a punch."

"Yeah," The Cyborg rubbed his jaw.

"That's because Orions have evolved denser bones and tighter, stronger muscles to use their extra cartilage, they whip more than they punch." he started moving his hands, as the Orion woman gave a small moan of comfort. "Given time these muscles become deadly weapons. Most Orion males tend to look like bodybuilders, muscles stacked on muscles, but most females, like Tendi here," he groaned, putting more strength to his massage. "Have compressed muscles, giving them a slim figure. Cheese and crackers Tendi, your tight, are you under stress?"

The Orion gave a loud groan, "No more than usual. Medical isn't for the weak," she huffed.

"Breathe in... and out," Nathaniel ordered before a loud pop echoed in the room.

"Ahhhhhhhhhh~," Ensign Tendi gave a long happy moan. "Great mother~, that was killing me~."

"I think I got a little relief from that~," Ensign Mariner teased.

Nathaniel turned to us, freezing at the sight of me. His muscles tense, ready to run... or attack.

The captain said something but I was too focused on Nathaneil's eyes.

"You are not wearing your glasses." I don't know when it happened but I was a foot away from him, looking up into his eyes. His smell was intoxicating.

"I... don't need them anymore," he whispered. "I... have a ship, no need to hide them anymore."

"Your eyes are aesthetically pleasing," I placed my hand on his chest, I could feel his emotions. Fear, love, lust, joy, sadness, hope, anger. He was filled with them, each trying to be first. I wanted to feel them all, to mold them like I did before.

Mine, he was MINE.

Before anything happened, Nathaniel was pulled away from my touch. Rage coursed through me as the Orion woman took his place.

"Hi, I'm Tendi!" she smiled, but I've been around enough species to know that it was a false cheer.

This was a challenge.

-/-

D'vana Tendi POV

I don't like this woman. I don't like her being here and I don't like how Nate was acting around her.

"Nate, you have duties," I called out. "Go do them," I ordered.

Nate finally snapped out of whatever spell the Vulcan had over him, it was almost like he was dosed with pheromones.

"I..." he blinked some more, gaining his mind, "Yeah, sorry. Boimler, you'll be fine, and Rutherford, use nonliving dummies, we only have the one." he gestured to Brad.

"Hey!?" Boimler huffed.

"If you would excuse me," He sped walked out of the room.

"I'm not a dummy," Brad huffed.

"You're blue and hard to look at, literally," Mariner teased.

I focused on the Vulcan in front of me.

"So, you know Nate?"

"Yes, we were romantically involved," she glared at me.

Oh yeah, I didn't like this woman.

"Oh, you're the one who dumped him for your career," I gave her a fake smile.

She narrowed her eyes. "Our separation was amicable."

"Truly? Admiral Witt said you dumped him and danced on the ashes of his love."

"One second!" Mariner called out, pulling me to the side. "Uh, girl, what's going on?" she whispered.

"I don't like her," I hissed.

"You like everyone."

"Not her. I don't like the way she looks at Nate, almost like a piece of meat," I whispered.

"I look at Nate like a piece of meat," She countered.

"Not like her, you tease and flirt. She bites. She's playing for keeps, she's going to try and steal Nate," I whimpered.

"Steal Nate? What are you talking about? Is that an Orion thing?"

"Yes, no! Just... I don't like her, so she can't take him."

"Tendi, Nick is a grown man, and he can make his own choices."

"You tell Brad what to do all the time," I huffed.

"That's different, Boimler is a little dumb sheep that will jump into the lion's mouth the second we look away," She gestured to the glowing see-through ensign. "Nate has a head on his chiseled shoulders."

"Mariner~," I whined. I looked her in the eyes as tears threatened to spill out of mine.

"Okay! Okay! Just put those away!" she hissed. She turned to the rest of the group, "Sorry about that! Girl talk. Anyways, this is Tendi... Nate's wife."

I slowly turned to her. "One second!" I pulled her back into a huddle. "What the hell are you doing!?"

"What? Nate's off the market, isn't that want you wanted?"

"Not like this!"

"Hey! You wanted to play hardball, this is hardball," she hissed. "You want her to back off? Well, this is the fastest way." she brought us back to the group. "Sorry about that, she wanted to know if I could handle her afternoon duties so she and Nate could go one a, uh-"

"Date! Married date, like a married couple!" I nodded. I looked at the Vulcan. "That ends with sex."

"Rutherford... how out of the loop are we," Boimler asked.

"Uh, a bit. When did you get married?" Rutherford asked.

"Uh, remember when you got your memory erased?" I asked.

"...no?"

"That was when," I gave a cough, "well if you would excuse me, I need to find my husband, so I can... give him a kiss."

"I heard you and Nathaniel had a romantic evening with a 'demigod'?" the Vulcan asked.

I slowly looked over to Mariner who was doing her best not to look at me. I brought her into another huddle.

"...okay... so I might have said something like that, but I never said sex, just cuddling," she gave an embarrassed smirk. I gave her a deadpan look, before returning to the group.

"Yep... it's an Orion thing, don't worry about it, excuse me." I walked out of the room and the second they couldn't see me I sprinted down the hall, I had Warp core maintenance today.

I turned the corner and bumped into Olly and The Dog.

"I'm so- OLLY!" I cheered.

"Tendi!?" she cheered back, confused at my yelling.

"I have no time to explain, if anyone asks, I'm married to Nate, and you're our plus one who we have wild sex with!"

"What?"

"I GOT TO GO!" I took off, jumping into the elevator.

"WHAT!?" was the last thing I heard before the elevator closed.

The door opened to Main Engineering. I raced into the room but didn't find him.

"Billups!" I called out to the Chief engineer.

"Ah, Tendi," he greeted, "I thought Nathaniel was taking your duties for the day?"

"Yes, he is, where is he, I need to talk with him."

"He's organizing the storage room."

"THANK YOU!" I ran back out of the room and took a left toward storage.

"Why don't they just make a ladder?" I heard Nate rummaging through some of the older tubes in the back.

"NATE!"

"...Yes?" he popped out from the back holding a tube.

"We're married."

He quirked an eyebrow, "... Mariner?"

"I... Yeah, how'd you know?" I asked.

He shrugged, "Easy guess, out of all of us she's the only one who would think up something like that. So, why are we married? Are alien species threatening to kill the single people on board? Secret couple mission? Pie eating contest but only for couples?"

"It's not important, we just have to be married and in love, until the new captain and her team leave," I ordered.

He shrugged, "Okay but aren't you going with Boimler to deliver The Dog to Division 14? That should take a couple of days."

I froze... Fuck! "I'm sure Boimler can handle it."

"He's blue and see-through," Nate countered.

"...I'll send Olly with him." this way I don't have to explain Olly's disappearance... Wait! Why don't I just take Nate!? "Why don't we go?"

He shrugged, "That's probably for the best, Durga has me all, messed up. Exs, am I right?" he laughed.

"Haha, yep."

"Alright, I'll talk with Captain Ramsey."

"Her? Why her?" I asked, getting in his way.

"Shaxs isn't here, that means I need to go to the current highest leader, which is Ramsey," he answered.

But Durga's with Ramsey! "Let's go together! You know, as a married couple!"

He quirked an eyebrow at me, before shrugging, "M'kay, couldn't hurt." he placed his hand just above my hip and below my waist, sending shivers up my spine. I have no idea why but it felt way more intimate than either, it was an almost... relaxed placement, like he's done it for years. "Are you sure you're okay with this?"

"Yep!" I squeaked. "Married couples do this all the time!"

"Alright, but I do need to finish with this." he gestured to the storage room.

"Huh? Oh no, this is just busy work, we move stuff around, and then someone else moves things around very slightly, making it look like we're cleaning. If someone is looking for something they just replicate it downstairs, everything here is just in case the replicators break." I led him out of the room.

"Tendi!?" Olly came around the corner, finding Nate's arm around my waist. "Please explain."

"What part of, 'you are our lover' are you not understanding?"

"A lot!" she huffed.

"Yeah, I'm lost here, is there or is there not a pie-eating contest?" Nate asked.

"We're eating pie?" Olly asked.

I wanted to scream into my hands. "No more questions! Olly you are our lover, Nate you are my husband, done."

"...where do we sleep?" Nate asked.

"...What?"

"Married couples have their own room," he explained. I moved to the nearest screen on the wall.

"Computer, nearest empty married room. Oh my," there were easily 30 free rooms.

"Yeah, The Cerritos is statistically the horniest and singlest ship in the federation," Nate muttered. "I'm pretty sure we're just using these as storage."

"That can't be true," Olly huffed.

"True story, Most Cali-class ships tend to be filled with single people due to their size."

I let them talk as I pointed to one the rooms closest to the Sickbay. Suddenly, a name prompt appeared for the couple. "D'Vana Tendi and Nathaniel Witt."

"Tendi? WHAT DID YOU JUST DO!?" Nate panicked looking at the screen, his face going pale.

"I picked a room?"

"Tendi, you adorable green tomato, that's more than a name, it sends a message to the captain that we're asking for their blessing of our union." My eyes just kept getting bigger and bigger.

"Does that mean that Ramsey knows?" I asked.

"No, Ramsey is just a temporary captain, this message will be sent directly to Captain Freeman's PADD, and since she's on a top-secret mission any outgoing messages like these go to her superiors."

I quirked an eyebrow, "like who?"

Nate's PADD started vibrating. We looked down at it. The Name, Old Man, flashed on the screen with Admiral Witt's face.

"Like him." he put on a smile and picked up the call. "Gramps-"

"MY BOY!" the Admiral cheered. "You got married!"

"Gramps listen-"

"Don't you worry my boy, I've already signed the paperwork, I had it ready since you turned 20."

"That's way too young!" Nate huffed.

"HA! Nonsense. I'll call your mom, smooth things over, trust me I know what it's like to have a quickie wedding, my Peki didn't want her fellow Romulans to find out she got a human mate."

"Gramps please-"

"I know, don't you worry, no one will bother you for the next week, but I can't hold back your mother after that. My boy... getting married." he had a big smile on his face. "It's one of those things that just... it makes you better, smarter, faster. Have fun! I'll Call the Tendis to see what I can do about the last name." the call ended.

.

.

.

We stood there, in the quiet, looking at the PADD.

"...How long did you want to pretend to be married?" he squeaked.

"I, uh, until Ramsey left," I answered with the same high voice.

"Mmm, uh-huh, it might be a bit longer than that," I warned. "Maybe... you want to tell me again, why we got married?"

It didn't take long for me to explain Mariner's plan and my fears.

"Oh, Tendi, you optimistic butterfly. You thought I was going to leave with Durga?" he smiled down at me and brought me into a hug.

I hugged him back, "I mean, the way you looked at each other."

"D'Vana, I'm not going to lie, Durga has a sway over me that I might not ever be able to break, I was ready to marry her." I held on to him harder. "But she left. You know what she said? Our last goodbye?"

"no."

"Our time was pleasant, but you are now an obstacle to my ambitions. Thank you for your time." he had a sad smile on his face, I hated Durga now. She's the worst. He gently pulled me away. "There was no lead-up either, just logic. So yeah, there are still some emotions going around, I still remember our time together, and I sometimes want to go back to that, but I know that if I ever did, there might be another time, another day, where logic will choose for her. And I don't want to be there when it does. I'll call back my Grandgramps and get him to toss the paperwork."

"NO!" I yelled. "Not while she's still here!"

"Tendi~," Nat teased.

"I'm serious! You're head over heels for her! You say you'll stay but every time she's in a room together, you go all stupid! Not until she's gone!" I hissed.

"And Olly?"

"Yeah, what about me!?" Olly pointed to herself.

"You, are, our, Lover, why is this so hard for you to understand?" I huffed.

"You can't just make someone your lover!" she hissed.

I blinked at her. "Why not? You're my best friend, lovers are like best friends who kiss, right?"

Nate started giggling.

"Just kissing huh~," Olly scoffed sarcastically. She grabbed my face and got really close to the point where our noses touched. My face was about to burst into flames, "Just a tiny kiss right, we are lovers, this is normal~."

"I... I..." SAY SOMETHING!

"Okay~, Okay~," Nate pulled us apart. "So Tendi? How was our lover?" he teased.

"That was... more than kissing," I muttered.

"She didn't even kiss you," he smirked. "You really need to stand up to Becky when she goes off on her wild plans. Come on, let's get Ramsey's permission to take our dog to the Farm." I nodded, and looked at him... then his hand... then back at him. He sighed and put his hand around my waist. "You know what~, no. I think my wife needs a little more love. Olly, my dear, please join me."

Olly gave a little huff and mimicked Nate, placing her hand around my other waist. Static danced across my skin.

"I hope you don't mind, you're just so electrifying," she whispered into my ear.

Ahh~, I've done goofed.

-/-

It's wrong, I know it's wrong, but watching Durga's tightened fists made me happy. Her face was passive but I could feel her rage from where I was standing, it warmed my soul.

We met up with Captain Ramsey and her team as Mariner gave them a tour of Deck 4. Nate was quick to ask Captain Ramsey to go with me and Boimler to Division 14.

"I was hoping to accompany my wife to take our Dog to division 14, Captain," Nate asked.

"Well-"

"Is that wise," Durga cut in. "I'm sure ensign Tendi can handle this simple away mission. The Cerritos is already missing her Chief Security Officer."

Nate tightened his grip around me, bringing me close, it was like he was using me as a shield.

"I think we can handle a day or two without Nate," Mariner came to our help.

"Curious, was it not you who said and I quote, 'Doesn't matter where you're stationed, something is going to try and eat you.' would we not need a Security officer in case of such an emergency?" She continued to look at Nate in a way that made me angry, like he was a naughty pet that ran off to another owner.

"Well, that's a bit out of context," Mariner muttered.

"I'm sure I can pick up Nate's slack," Olly huffed.

"Curious, I was not aware you were part of security, ensign Olly," Durga's eye slid over to the demi-god.

"I'm on the reserve team, Nate and Shaxs have given me their blessing."

"I see, then why don't you accompany ensign Tendi? As a reserve, you can be spared."

"huh~..." Olly hummed. "Because... Engineering?"

"Engineering?" Durga quirked an eyebrow.

"...yes."

"I have vacation days," Nate cut in.

"Which you need to get approved by your captain," Durga countered.

"Which is why I'm talking with Captain Ramsey," he huffed.

"Well-"

"Captain Ramsey is only a substitute Captain," Durga cut off her captain. "You need permission from Captain Freeman, and she has gone radio silent."

"Lieutenant Durga, do we have a problem?" I asked with a fake smile.

"...Problem?" she asked.

"I understand that you and my husband used to date, is our marriage distracting you? I'm sure things would go smoother if we weren't here to distract you," I countered.

"You are no distraction. Just following protocol."

"I see." Change of plans, I grabbed Nate's uniform and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "See honey, she's okay with it~." I would never admit it but Nate's wide-eyed blushing face will forever be etched into my mind. I hope this doesn't awaken something in me.

Nate leaned a little more, "uh, is this part of the plan?" he whispered into my ear. His warm breath sent a shiver down my spine.

"Just follow my lead," I ordered. I gently pushed him away, "Nate~." I giggled. "Sorry about him, he's insatiable, Durga gets it." I laughed. "That's why I got Olly~."

"Hot sex!" Olly nodded. See, this is why we're best friends, no need for words or plans.

"Uh... yep... we do the lovemaking," Nate nodded awkwardly.

"I didn't want to rub it in Durga's face, but since she's okay with it then I'm okay with it," I smiled at the clearly annoyed Vulcan.

"It is, inappropriate," Durga hissed.

I laughed, "I know, but you know Nate, the Witt gene is strong within this one, I mean last night-" My voice hitched as Nate's hands firmly held my waist.

"Honey~, I'm sure Captain Ramsey, doesn't want to hear any of that," Nate warned.

"He did this thing with his tongue!" Olly interrupted.

"... Okay, I didn't want to hear it before, but now I kinda do," Mariner muttered. I glared at the woman who got us into this mess. "But I'm not!" she coughed, "Because it would be wrong. Sexy and wrong."

Huh... Nate was right, sometimes you just want to launch your crew out of an airlock.

"Sorry, Nate is right, that's more pillow talk. Captain Ramsey I never got an answer from you about Nate accompanying me to Division 14," I pointed out.

"Uh-"

"We need a security officer to accompany us on our mission," Durga answered.

"Freakin' Q," Mariner huffed. "Durga, you broke Nate's heart, he found someone else, let it go. Tendi, stop asking, just take Nate. Nate... you should be shirtless. Olly... you're doing okay, I guess. Ramsey, take control!"

We all looked at her.

I reached over and took Nate's and Olly's hands, "I'll be back in a few days," and walked away.

Nate and Olly didn't argue, just followed me.

"That was kinda hot~," Olly muttered.

"See, I told you she'd be a good admiral~," Nate teased.

We got to the elevator. "Computer, Sickbay. Nate... Take off your shirt." he quirked an eyebrow at me. "It's an Orion thing." he knew it wasn't an Orion thing, but shrugged and took off his shirt anyway, his bare chest for the world to see.

Olly and I gave a peek, Not the first time I'd seen him shirtless, but for some reason, this felt... different, more, intimate.

I liked it.

Yeah... I've done goofed.

-/-

A/N: should I be making another Fanfic when I have two other ongoing projects? *shrugs* why not. I really liked Lower Decks, it was the thing that got me into Star Trek. I found it funny and simple to get into, and since it just ended, I wanted to write some stuff about it.

Anyway, the NSP series is still in the works, things are still moving forward.

Sorry for any poor grammar mistakes.

Still making Art from my Fics and posting them on my DeviantArt, link in my bio.

I also made a YouTube channel where are post my stories, link in bio.