The winds of Eldor III had shifted from a hot breath to an iceless chill. A steady current swept over the ridgeline of massive sand drifts beyond the compound. Inside of the three pointed rectangles, the air was dry but still. At 2340 hours, the only sounds were the occasional hum of the sensor suite above and sporadic conversations between crew on night watch. Dim yellow field-lamps provided a low glow that mixed with the silver starlight seeping in from the slit-like window. Overhead lighting was turned off for the night. There were no moons above Eldor III.

The distant brilliance of stars spread across the sky in a glittering veil bright enough to illuminate the night. Occasional streaks of passing light revealed a starship zipping across the quadrant. Many crewmembers entertained themselves by guessing the type of ship based on the color of the engine signature.

Two uniformed figures sat inside an office designated as the watch post. They sat across from each other on padded seats that faced a central table. Both chairs were jammed close to the table in fixed positions. Their legs had ended up tangled together from the start. Neither moved to shift away. Both of their hearts beat faster, as always when they were together.

Kian Harol sat with his back against the cushioned padding. A set of controls were on a raised pylon almost a meter to his right. The ensign known for his dirty brown hair and spotted features was relieved to be free from his environmental suit for the evening. Long, pale fingers occasionally tapped the side of his leg anxiously. They kept no rhythm as they strummed to release his internal tension.

Across from him sat a relaxed-looking Jenna Eaglesen. Her forest green eyes were wide and thoughtful. She had been the first to speak after the door sealed and left them alone in the low light. They glanced over each other as they spoke. Her gaze traced the shape of his profile when she thought he wouldn’t notice.

He had noticed everything.

There was the way her voice dipped when she spoke to him. She seemed terse around others, maybe even standoffish.

Her fingers brushed his as they both reached for the same ration bar sitting on the table. Gold highlights in her dark-blonde hair caught against the faint starlight that seeped through.

“Oops, sorry.” Kian tried to play it off as if he didn’t do so on purpose.

She laughed softly. Kian felt the sound dance through the air like plumes of burning incense. “You didn’t answer me. Do you really think they’ll greenlight terraforming here one day?”

He had been distracted while studying the minute brown specs flecked into her leafy irises.

Kian tilted his head towards the slight angle she sat across from him at. His breath left slowly through his nose in hot puffs. “Maybe. The te’dran rahl are doing more than anyone expected. If they keep up the pace we’ve seen, they’ll be the most efficient terraforming lifeforms since the start of Bolian seaweed farming.”

“I love that you actually think about this planet,” Jenna pondered. “Most people just complain about the heat or want to leave.”

“I’m not most people,” he said surprisingly confidently. Kian immediately regretted how cocky that sounded. His voice softened. “I mean, I like watching things change. Quietly. Over time.”

There was a brief pause. Jenna changed the angle that she sat. Her back slid forward and her legs extended to lock closer to the unjoined Trill’s inner thigh. Kian shifted into the contact, opening his legs to give her room to move closer. Their lower bodies embraced underneath the table as their upper bodies pretended they were just sitting there. Jenna’s hands were alongside her on the bench. Kian’s were clasped on the table in a forced effort to stop fiddling.

“Are you always this poetic on night watch?” she asked as she tilted her head. It was a teasing jab at the fact the he worked the shift with Ensign Kim last night. Her voice carried the grin she restrained through her negging tease. The soft fabric of their uniforms could barely be felt as her knee massaged a sensitive spot. Kian’s neck twisted along his spots as she sent shivers through his body.

He extorted a clenched laugh in the form of a snort. “I don’t think so. Only you bring this out.”

Another quiet moment passed. A chronometer in the corner clocked down the two hours of their shift.

Jenna traced a line along the seam of her undersleeve before slowly letting her hand drift toward his. Their fingers touched at first like a mistake. The back of her knuckle leaned into his grasp. She turned her palm up to lock her fingers with his. They fit together seamlessly. There was something reassuring about the connection. Both sensed the other could feel it.

The silence deepened. The pair never felt awkward together. Even when nothing was said, there was a feeling of companionship.

“The first time I saw you,” she began quietly, “you were arguing with that systems officer during a Phase II scan. You were frustrated, but quiet about it. You didn’t raise your voice. You just held your ground.”

“I remember that,” Kian said as his free palm stroked the back of her hand, her fingers locked in the grasp of his other. “I thought you were one of the visiting planetary specialists.”

“I was standing behind the console trying to figure out what you were working on.” A nurturing smile spread to show pearl teeth beneath her pink-ivory features. Her free hand leapt to rest on both of his. She squeezed to trap his hands in he grasp. “I thought you looked tired. But like you wanted to be there. Most people just go through the motions during something so mundane”, she added.

His fingers stroked the delicate wrist bones along her forearm. They brushed the thin line of fabric as Kian felt the warmth of her skin beneath. Each pass of his fingers sent a silent spark through her body. The way he traced just along the edge of her wrist where her pulse beat sent electric signals down her spine.

Jenna leaned back to push further towards him. Her shoulders pressed into the cushions behind her.

“You don’t sleep well, do you?” she asked. She used this moment of intimacy to ask something she had been wondering for weeks. She knew he would often avoid topics like this in public.

He shook his head once. “I’ve been trying. It’s worse after mission days. It’s even worse when I feel like I could have done something better.”

“You did everything right today.” She placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

He peered deep into her gaze. His eyes were softer and more focused than she had ever seen. “So did you.”

Happiness was reflected across both of their faces. Scarlet tinting painted their fair, ruddy cheeks.

Jenna looked down and released a bubbly laugh. “Your leg is asleep.”

Kian blinked. “Huh?”

“You’ve been sitting on it crooked. I can tell. You keep flexing your toes like you’re pretending not to notice.”

He smiled as he failed in the fight to restrain the expression. “I didn’t think you were paying that much attention.”

“I’m on night watch,” Jenna said softly. “I see everything.”

Kian shifted slightly to adjust his legs. He didn’t pull them away from her as he repositioned. Her hand returned to his. Delicate fingers traced the back of his knuckles. Every time she touched him, twitch at the contact.

“Do you ever feel like the sky is bigger here?” Jenna asked. Her eyes lifted toward the slit of stars above them.

He nodded. “I feel smaller. But not in a bad way.”

Jenna leaned back as she sat more upright. “Me too.”

They stayed still and wound together for several minutes. Outside, the wind moaned against the walls the three prefabricated structures. Piles of sand brushed in quiet eddies around the base of the structure.

Kian stretched to lean towards his right. His fingers tapped the micro-adjustment pad of the sensorcam’s manual controls. The panel buzzed faintly with low-power signal feedback. Mounted on a swivel gimbal just below the pointed top of the structure, the field sensorcam tracked the movement of the stars beyond. Its boxy form shivered slightly as internal instruments refocused to target where Ensign Harol pointed.

“There,” Kian murmured. “Right ascension is locked onto something interesting.”

The image on the dim monitor shifted. A pixelated shimmer trembled, then steadied into view. Two distant points of light, no brighter than a grain of quartz dust, flickered within a halo of interference.

“That’s a binary pair,” Jenna said softly as she turned and looked towards a viewscreen.

Kian nodded. “The system is so far off, this unit can’t do more than enhance the light source. You can barely separate the individual stars. Look at the distortion.” The sensors built into this structure weren’t meant to look deep into space.

The image trembled as Kian gently input adjustments. The sensor compensated as it brought the light into sharper contrast. A luminous golden orb nestled in the faint smear of its twin. They bled into one another, as they orbited a common center almost too small to detect.

“They look calm from here,” Jenna whispered.

“They’re not,” Kian replied. “Those two have been tearing at each other for a hundred million years.”

Jenna squinted as if to better absorb the image. “And they’ll keep doing it. Even if we blink.”

He didn’t answer right away. His hand found hers again, almost unconsciously.

“I have an idea”, Kian said excitedly. “Let’s look rimward.”

She nodded and watched as the view swiveled on screen. Stars dragged slowly out of frame. The image shook before it stabilized on a luminous dot floating just above the desert horizon. A blue-green orb faintly feathered at the edges with distortion replaced the stars.

“There. I found it,” he said quietly. “Janoor III.”

It wasn’t a live visual. The sensor simply magnified the light signature in the night sky. The pinpoint of light was amplified through layered signal echo and filtered quantum spectrum analysis. It was enough to piece together a rudimentary view of the blossoming colony where the rest of Task Force 21 was enjoying shore leave.

The sphere of light hovered in the blackness like a marble held between unseen fingers. The pair could barely distinguish where the ocean’s hazy sheen met the forested landmass. They couldn’t see the Cardinal from here, but the ship was suddenly on both of their minds.

Jenna spoke through a deep breath. “It’s beautiful. It’s like we’re watching what’s happening there.”

“Watching and waiting for what’s next,” Kian added.

“It will only be a few more days now”, she said reassuringly. “I heard we’ll still get time there.”

Ensign Eaglesen stood. She quickly forced herself onto the narrow bench alongside the spotted man. Her head landed on his shoulder as his arm wrapped around her upper back and waist. She pulled his head to rest gently against her chest. No words followed. There was only the faint, endless hum of equipment behind the prefabricated walls.

A patch of stars hung in the night sky between the two planets, almost two systems away.

On Janoor III, those same stars hung like pale threads drawn tight across the stratosphere.

Captain Raku Mobra stood beneath the curved canopy of a gazebo. He had taken a walk from Hotel Lanea’s Victory and found himself in a large park. He hadn’t moved from his seat on a wooden bench in several minutes. The wind along the ridgeline had dulled to a whisper. It brushed through the grove of manicured trees with steady force. The breeze ruffled the Bajoran’s dark brown hair. His silver earring jangled in the planet’s breath.

Around the park, small shops and restaurants formed an entertainment district. Gaudy, ornate structures glowed with neon signage even now, just before sunrise. Domed roofs blinking with perimeter lights leapt high in the sky two miles away. Stars shimmered like dust scattered on the ceiling of the world high above it all.

Mobra’s brown eyes were fixed coreward. He had measured the exact azimuth of Eldor III from here. It stood in a direction of 0315 degrees along a travel corridor with increasing traffic.

He could still see the star of the Eldor system as a distant twinkle

It was just a pale, steady dot beside brighter stars. He kept track of what time it was on the desert world. He could visualize the structures they were in. Captain Raku could see the gritty red-gold landscape they worked through. His mind tried to picture officers now turning in for rest or rising for watch.

He exhaled quietly, hands pressed into the wood of the bench.

Raku couldn’t stop thinking about Ensign Harol. He knew everything that happened with Kian and the loss of his friend, Ensign Rho. If anyone needed time off, Raku knew Kian did. The problem was that Kian had turned down previous attempts the Captain had made towards giving him time off.

When the opportunity for a working vacation of sorts came up, he assigned Kian right away. Raku had also noticed how different the Trill was around Ensign Eaglesen. Assigning her was part of the Bajoran’s grand plan.

He didn’t need sensor feeds to know that something was probably happening between the two right now.

Raku’s breath clouded faintly in the morning air. He looked down for a moment, then returned a glance to the sky.

“Find the stars,” the captain of the USS Cardinal said under his breath. “Walk the path the prophets show.”

He closed his eyes and felt the wind blow across his nasal ridges. Religion always kept the Captain grounded. He knew a better way forward was always just around the corner.

For a second, he felt like he could actually see the three long, pointed structures as they were pelted by sand under the starlight’s kiss.