—- USS Falcon, Sick Bay —-

Doctor Askr Njord was not a bad man, despite what his commander and former fiancé seemed to think about him. At least he was not a bad man in his own estimation of himself which he had to admit was biased. He had just achieved a place in life that he was happy with and being in a marriage had been a daunting arrangement the closer the wedding had come. His weakness was that instead of just having an honest conversation with Ashley Attwell he had cheated on her, and had done so in what had been for her a public and humiliating way. The she had not yet forgiven his was not a surprise.

Unlike Njord though she was professional and other than with Captain Aike she had not let their past relationship be revealed.

Which was why when the ship’s new Chief Operations Officer entered Njord was able to give her a cheeky smile, attempting to be charming especially if she was here to hand out replicator credits. She had not, she had transferred to the Falcon from Starbase 86 days before they had left to deal with the stolen Klingon ships and what with all of the chaos she had not been through her administrative checkup.

“I served on 86 too,” Njord said as he examined her file. Neither had been a section chief back then, and neither had met each other, or at least known of each other.

“Okay,” Lieutenant Leylani Aka said, not particularly impressed a lot of the ship’s crew were either drawn from Starbase 86 or the USS Selene. She wanted to get checked up, get her transfer officially complete and get back to work.

“I was a surgeon there,” Njord said, trying to sound impressive. When he did not notice a look of envy, or at least intense affection he added, “So you’re from Hawaii? That’s like Earth Risa.”

“I never thought of it as Earth Risa,” Aka said. Humans had been myticising and making Hawaiian culture or the islands something it wasn’t for generations. First the British and then the Americans had lay claim to the islands, against the wishes of the native inhabitants. By the time the nation state era of human history was over Hawaii was forever changed demographically as mainlanders had flocked there to settle in paradise.

“Do you surf? You look like a surfer,” Njord observed, adding, “Nice legs. I mean you have good legs for surfing.”

“Does any of this actually work with women?” Leyalni asked, studying him deadpan.

“You’d be surprised,” Njord said, remaining chipper and upbeat.

Laying on the exam biobed the Operations Chief made a surprised noise, “Tell me what women actually fall for it.”

Doctor Njord grinned, “Oh I will.”

—- USS Falcon, Main Bridge —-

Following her administrative checkup Lieutenant Leyalni Aka headed to the main bridge. She was still settling into the daily rhythms of the Falcon, which were different than those to the ones on a starbase.

Starbase 86 had been like being in a fair sized city, not quite Honolulu or San Francisco but certainly Wailea on Maui. There had been restaurants, entertainment options and more that were not availed to the crew of a five hundred person starship. There were a few civilians onboard to run the bar and grill and other basic functions, such as a barber, but were 86 had been the hub of life in the quadrant this was just a ship. It was almost enough to make Doctor Njord interesting.

Almost.

While the ship’s engineering team were busy with repairs as they travelled to their destination, the operations department had less to do. Other than installing software locks on the replicators for the time being, to ensure compliance with the Falcon’s rationing of replicator usage, there was little for them to do. On 86 she had basically been an engineer, tasked with keeping the station’s weapon systems online. Here she was mostly ensuring that nobody drank too much fizzy water while various subsystems were being worked on.

At flight control, the conn next to Aka at the front of the bridge Chief Flight Control Officer Lieutenant Thomas Winfield gestured to the console, “I’m getting some drag on this that I usually don’t.”

“Engineering is working on the engines in places, but I’ll take a look,” Aka said.

She crawled under the console and popped the back of it off, opening the energy conduits to the world. There was an obvious issue with a broken relay juncture, so she rolled out from beneath the console and went to a supply closet on the bridge, pulling out a small tool box. Lying back down on the floor she scooted beneath the console and began to work.

About twenty minutes later she emerged having popped the back of the console back on.

“I’ll open a ticket and get engineering to look at that, check my work,” Aka said, “but it should be working better now.”

A lot of operations fell fairly close to engineering. Repairing replicators, for example, but the ship’s steering function was pretty firmly in the territory of engineering and she knew they hated someone else doing their work.

Sitting down at the console Winfield grinned, “Hey thanks. Hey some of us are getting together at the lounge, did you want to come? I know the old Selene crew can be a bit clique and you’re new.”

It did not take Aka long to make a decision, “Yeah sure that would be nice.”

—- USS Falcon, Captain’s Ready Room —-

Captain Paul Aike was sitting sitting at his desk when his first officer entered. Commander Ashley Attwell was pleased to see him as relaxed as she had in her months serving as the ship’s XO. They had not yet developed the kind of easy comfortable relationship of trust that many captains had with their first officers, and so she had suspected that it was just not within the man’s wheelhouse. His last executive officer had left and had taken more of Aike’s crew to staff his new ship. It was clear that Aike had taken that as a kind of betrayal and was going to find it hard to trust a new first officer.

“You seem to actually be enjoying this mission,” Attwell observed, taking a seat on the other side of the desk.

Aike smiled, and chuckled a little, “What’s not to like? We get to get out there, stretch our legs. We get a show the flag mission, easy and comfortable and that damn Vulcan isn’t aboard.”

“Hume is, she’s his eyes and ears,” Attwell pointed out, the Lieutenant Commander had not been shy about representing Captain Radak the commanding officer of Selene Division.

“Easier to ignore a lieutenant commander than a captain. Besides this mission isn’t the result of a Vulcan’s big brain math project, it’s straight from Starfleet and has a point,” Aike said.

It was clear that whatever his personal feelings were about Captain Radak the Vulcan not being aboard the USS Falcon for this mission was seen as a blessing. Radak had been careful not to intrude on the actual captaining of the Falcon but clearly having a senior officer aboard in overall command was a source of contention for Aike.

“We meet with the station’s senior staff, be seen by the Breen and pirates and give Murf a chance to get the Falcon in tip top shape. It’s the perfect first mission back,” he said.

—- USS Falcon, The Millennium Lounge —-

Lieutenant Leylani Aka noticed a group of young department heads around a table, including Lieutenant Thomas Winfield who’d been the one to invite her out. Because of the high turnover recently on the Falcon everyone was seemed to be a Lieutenant, and there were only a few Lieutenant Commanders around. She recognized many of them from briefings and the daily stand ups that the senior staff did, though there were a few new faces.

“Our new Ops Chief,” Winfield called at her, raising his arms in celebration at her arrival.

Aka was not given to being nervous, but all of a sudden lots of focus was on her, which was a bit unsettling. She managed a smile, and headed towards the table, “Aloha.”

A young man that Aka recognized as the Security Chief Lieutenant William Hume grinned, “A Hawaiian. I think it’s our first.”

Winfield explained, “Since our first posting we’ve been meeting up, and having what was then Deputy Department Heads drinks, now we’ve been upgraded.”

“A few of us have been together for a while, the Anaheim, the Seattle, the Luna, the Selene, and now here on the prestigious USS Falcon,” William Hume said, “I don’t think you’re the first Hawaiian we’ve served with. Just the first in the club.”

“Remember that ensign, he was from Hawaii. He’d take whatever opportunity to roll up his sleeves and show off his tattoos,” Winfield said.

“They were awesome tattoos,” admitted Lieutenant Torma the Gideon Chief Counselor.

“Do you have any tattoos?” Lieutenant Hume asked.

“William, no that’s private,” Lieutenant Junior Grade Rosa Flores poked the Security Chief.

From the manifest that she’d studied Aka recognized her as the Assistant Chief Security officer.

“We keep Flores around to keep Hume in line,” joked Winfield, “Must be nice, having a woman wanting to transfer with you.”

Hume explained, “Winfield’s still sore his girlfriend stayed on the Selene.”

“She took better labs over me,” lamented Winfield, half joking. He waved off his complaint, “It was the smart choice for her, it’s a heck of a science ship. I took being a chief navigator over her, so we’re both to blame.”

Torma sighed, “Nobody is to blame. You’ve both just prioritized work over relationships, and that’s fine at this juncture. Not every Starfleet couple is going to be Riker and Troi.”

“What’s Riker and Troi?” Aka asked, not getting the reference.

“They captained the Titan and got married,” Rosa boiled it down.

“Hume go get us some drinks,” Winfield said pushing the other officer out of the booth seating and towards the lounge’s bar.

“Who else comes to this?” Aka asked.

“Murf, but she’s at a different life stage, but I think she finds us amusing. Basically any of the department heads,” Torma said, adding “Save for our new doctor, we’re still deciding on him.”

“He has trouble with eye contact,” Rosa pointed out.

“Unless you’re a species that keeps its eyes in its torso,” Torma said.

“Ah yes, seems to be a problem maybe that women have with him,” Aka said having met him earlier in the day.

Winfield nodded, “Look as dumb as we are, and as basic as Hume can be, we look out for our own. We check ourselves and try not to be creeps. The doctor, well his appointment seems to have been a surprise, and it’s a bit…”

Winfield’s voice trailed off but Aka nodded. Starfleet was good on harassment, but there were a lot of ways that someone could make you feel uncomfortable that did not go against a specific guidelines and she had met people who knew how to stay just on the right side of the rules. Normally they were shunted away, and on Starbase 86 she had heard that their new doctor was on that route, but that Captain Aike has intervened and recruited him.

“Unless he crosses a line, we can’t do much but look out for each other,” Torma said, the officer who most directly would be working with him at the table. She seemed, perhaps not tough, but wise. Aka hoped that she could take care of herself if need be.

“What do we actually do here?” Aka asked.

“Usually they just tease me,” Hume said setting down a tray of drinks and distributing them.

“We used to use it to coordinate departments, and complain about our commanding officers. Now that’s us, we’ll use it to coordinate departments and complain about our lieutenant junior grades,” Winfield joked.