Annabelle O'Halloran

Note: This log takes place before last week's sim. Anna stood quietly, arms folded across her chest, hip leaning against the door frame, watching him work. He hadn't yet realized she was there and she didn't want to interrupt him. She'd gone to his quarters after finally leaving the science department and when she hadn't found him, the computer had informed her that First Lieutenant William Tomlinson was still on the Flight Deck. Not a big surprise--he'd been a lot busier since Angel had left. So, she stood, and while waiting for him to notice her, simply enjoyed the view. Will was brooding something fierce. Outwardly, the squadron was doing as well as ever but underneath a slim facade of normalcy there was a storm simmering. The morale of his fellow pilots, including his own, was low and going lower every day. Ever since Angel had left the squadron under very mysterious circumstances, to say the least, the squadron felt lost. Will knew that he had done his level best to keep the squadron functioning at an optimum level but without an official CAG on duty, the squadron felt as if it were bereft of solid leadership. A fill in leader was only a stop gap measure, just as an XO could only command a starship for so long before a new Captain had to be named. He took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to alleviate the headache that was threatening to form, when he stopped suddenly. He took another deep breath and smiled slightly. He knew that scent when he smelled it and turned around to find his lovely Anna leaning against the doorway, watching him quietly. Will smiled as he approached her, "Hey, Beautiful. Come here often?" Straightening away from the doorframe, Anna smiled and tipped her head, meeting his eyes as he walked up to her. "Only when I'm tracking down devastatingly good looking wayward pilots." Will gently caressed her cheek. Right now, this woman was exactly what he needed. "Well, fortunately, there is one of those left here." "And luckily for me, he's the one I came looking for," she murmured, leaning into his touch, her eyes still on his. For the first time since transporting back from the Juno, she felt herself relax. It was over; everything was back to normal. He was safe. Intellectually, she'd known it, but the physical confirmation was very comforting. He got lost in those beautiful eyes of hers for a moment and then remembered something. "If I remember right, we haven't looked at room configurations. How about we do that right now?" "That's a great idea," she agreed, her smile widening. "I'm so looking forward to getting everything into--" She broke off and looked past him to the desk before glancing back, a frown starting to form. "I did interrupt you, Will. Are you able to get away right now? You don't have to drop everything if it's not convenient." Will's smile faded slightly. "Actually, it would probably be good to drop this for awhile," he said, motioning to the desk as he spoke. He took her hand and led her out of the flight office. "So, since you are here with me, I assume you made it through decontamination just fine, yes?" He widened his smile again trying to forget what would be waiting for him when he returned. "I've been assured by Medical that none of my cells have started mutating but we'll know for sure later on tonight when we turn down the lights and I don't give off an eerie glow." Anna stopped in front of the turbolift and searched his expression while they waited. His smile seemed forced. "Nothing happened while you were on patrol, did it?" Will shook his head, "No." he replied a little shortly and sighed, "It's...other things." He gave her a brief glance and decided to talk about it, "Morale is low among us pilots. Between Tabor's problem, Angel just up and leaving with absolutely no warning or explanation, and Command being VERY slow in naming a new CAG or telling us that Angel is coming back, we're...lost." They entered a TL and Will leaned against the wall a little. "We don't have a definitive 'who's in charge' any more. I've done my best as a fill in but without an official nod from the higher-ups, it just isn't enough." His tone was quiet, almost introspective. He looked over at Anna, "Sorry, I'm rambling." "No, you're not. I'm just surprised." Anna fell silent as the lift doors slid back on Deck 8. She'd never heard Will talk about his work with such frustration. It had been going on since Angel disappeared and was apparently growing worse. This was the first he'd mentioned it and it bothered her that it hadn't come up before. She stepped out and waited until he joined her and they were walking towards his quarters. She glanced at him as they moved along the corridor. "You haven't said anything till now. How come?" Will thought about his reasons for a moment before replying, "Well first, I figured that Command would move faster than this. By now, we should have a clear idea of who the CAG is, whether it be myself, Angel or whomever. Second, I've done a pretty good job of keeping things together in the squadron but I have to admit that it is approaching the breaking point." They got to his quarters and then entered as he spoke again, "Ah well, enough of that." He smiled at her. "Let's get started. Oh and by the way..." His grin got positively wicked. "Let's leave the bedroom configuration for last, ok?" Anna wanted to talk to him about what was happening with the squadron but she recognized that grin and felt an answering leap of anticipation. "Save the best for last? I can do that," she answered with a look that made promises of its own.

Yet another attempt at speaking to some of the crew from the Juno had fallen more or less flat. Those who had been evacuated from the ill-fated and rundown freighter were being held in a manner somewhere between patients and prisoners as the Reaent crew tried to determine just what -- and whose fault -- exactly had led to the near catastrophe of their explosive cargo, and Caroline's few abortive conversations had led to little or no further light being shed on the matter. It was rather frustrating but not particularly surprising; the Reaent was not home to those people, nor was it a particularly supportive environment given how close they had all come to being incinerated by the explosion which had now spread radiation across several light years. Caroline pondered the question as she rode the turbolift up from their guests' temporary housing, and could find no immediate new angle to try. It would bear thinking about, but for now she would let the matter rest. Stepping forward as the doors slid open, she moved out into the corridor and, with a few quick steps, walked over to and through the doors of the science labs. "Anna?" she called, looking around for the SCI chief and spotting her inside her office. Anna leaned back in her seat, scowling at the screen in front of her. She was overdue in finishing her report on the Juno. Drumming her fingers on the arm of the chair, she reread the portion wherein she made her case for transporting the triceron from the Juno to the Reaent. Enough time had passed between her suggesting that it would be one way to avoid a precipitous explosion with a yield of over 6000 gigatons and the Captain's eventual refusal to allow it, that the point had become moot anyhow and now, here they sat...babysitting a radiation hotspot. It did sound a bit dicey but when you factored all of the elements in, she was still very certain it would have been safe. Of course, very certain was not absolutely certain. With a mutter, she continued the report. Closer examination after a moment's silence revealed that Anna was thoroughly absorbed in working on a report; Caroline chuckled to herself and lightly tapped the window with her knuckles to get her friend's attention before moving to the office door. "Hey, Anna," she repeated with a smile, poking her head through the doorframe. Looking up, Anna's frown was immediately erased by a smile when she realized who was at the door. "Hey," she answered, waving Caroline forward. "Come on in." "Not interrupting, I hope..." Caroline said, stepping fully through the door and letting it slide shut behind her before moving to take a seat next to the desk. "You look like you're engaged in a battle of wills with your work," she added lightly, gesturing at the console which had been the subject of Anna's scowl. "Hmmm....no not really a battle. Just a little bit of 'what might have been', which by the way, is supposed to be a good morning after exercise but in actuality is rather irritating." Shifting sideways in her chair, she nodded to Caroline, asking, "So, what's up in the realm of mental health? Anyone run amuck? You don't have to name names," Anna teased. Caroline laughed. "Thankfully, no. I'm still trying to get the full picture regarding the people we took aboard, but everything seems to have reached a certain equilibrium, for the moment at least. I think most people are just relieved everyone got back to the ship in good time at this point; I certainly am. As for 'what might have been'...well, I've never been a big proponent of focusing on it but I suppose in the context of a report it's somewhat necessary," she said wryly, leaning back in her chair, almost from force of habit leaving the line of conversation open if Anna wanted to air her frustrations. "The radiation still posing a problem, I take it?" Shrugging, Anna shook her head. "Not really. Nothing was caught in the blast radius and we're staying just outside the area until it dissipates enough to no longer be a threat in case unwary traffic does come anywhere near it. I think it's lucky on a few levels that the Juno was right on the edge of the system when she sent her distress call." Caroline nodded feelingly. "Agreed; from what I understand about the situation, it could have been a lot worse. And you and the others didn't even have to start glowing from the radiation -- though I'm told it was a close thing," she said, grinning to show she was joking. "How are you recovering, by the way? You looked a little green when the teams beamed into the cargo bay." "'A little' is probably an understatement," Anna replied with a grimace of remembrance. "To be honest, I didn't even notice while we were over there, but as soon as we transported back and got in line for decon, it hit me. Debbie said we were right up to the limit for what could be easily treated. I'm surprised the Juno's crew recovered as well as they have--it's a real credit to our Med staff; that ship and crew were treated disgracefully!" "It was. Mr. Lexi seemed rather offended by the fact that it had been allowed to get to that condition," Caroline said dryly. "Sounds like the adrenaline rush was doing its job for you on the Juno; I'm not surprised it hit you like a brick coming back. Yet another stroke of luck...we certainly cut our timing very finely on this one." She cocked her head sideways and then gave Anna a teasing grin. "On the bright side...not a temporal anomaly in sight!" "JJ was?" Anna was momentarily diverted, recalling how quiet the normally ebullient Brython had been after she'd returned to the bridge. "Well, I can certainly empathize with his viewpoint. No vessel should be served that way. That Captain should be thrown in prison for how irresponsibly he's behaved. I'm always surprised by how shortsighted some freight haulers can be. Their entire livelihood is tied up in the health of the ship and yet they don't treat it that way. Bad economics all the way around," Anna muttered. "Laziness and ignorance are unfortunately both traits which are found the quadrant over," Caroline answered with a faint shrug. "And I'm willing to bet one of them was at work here. Either that or they had some sort of economic incentive to lose their ship and shipment. I'm still hoping someone from the crew will be able to make things more clear to me on that score. With such a dramatic explosion at stake, it doesn't seem like something whose motivation should be easy to hide..." "If the engines hadn't been maintained so poorly, or experienced some sort of sudden catastrophe, whatever the reason for their spectacular failure, the triceron, even in its degraded condition, would have held safely in the containment field until the disposal site was reached." Anna tapped her workscreen, pulling up the initial tricorder analysis of the triceron. "It's just unfortunate that this particular shipment was produced explicitly for use in space. If it had been the kind used planetside, it wouldn't have included its own oxidizer and would have been rendered inert without oxygen. Wade's initial plan to decompress the cargo hold would have been effective." She glanced from the screen to Caroline. "Could be it was all just bad luck all the way around. Not necessarily anything more sinister than a drunken CO and a pathologically disinterested chief engineer." Caroline smiled slightly at Anna's downplaying of the situation. "Well, sinister enough to make a hard day's work, at any rate. You and Wade put in a hell of an effort." She leaned forward in her chair preparatory to pushing herself to her feet, and gestured at the console again. "I'll let you get back to work, but I wanted to check in and see how things were progressing...I'll let you know if I learn anything pertinent from the Juno crew." Anna nodded, as she watched Caroline stand up. "I'd be very interested to hear anything that would shed some light on how the Juno came to such an ignominious end. Maybe some of them will talk to you...they'd be dead if it wasn't for Reaent catching that distress call. Some of them may not even realize what exactly it was that happened." "I wouldn't be surprised; those not in engineering or on the bridge at the time were quite possibly just in the wrong place at the wrong time," Caroline said, a little grimly. "In which case they're the luckiest of all of us. At any rate, I'll see what I can do." Turning towards the door, she offered Anna an encouraging smile. "Good luck with your report; don't get too wrapped up in those 'what might have been's." "You're right," Anna agreed, her smile suddenly bright with humor. "There's always tomorrow to worry about."

Juno.....the ship was called Juno. If ever a ship was misnamed, it was the Juno. The name elicited images of snow covered landscapes and below freezing temperatures, icy blue skies and bald eagles..and most of all.. fresh air. Debbie found the reality of life on the Juno a stark contrast to the locale after which it was named. The ship was dark, hot and worst of all, it stunk to high heaven. Some of that was due to the current crisis but Deb suspected the air on this rust bucket was always below standard. She could only guess what the situation was like elsewhere on the ship but in engineering, things were desperate and growing worse by the moment. There were eight crewmen in engineering. Six of them were injured but not seriously. In fact, Deb thought a couple of them were capable of assisting their shipmates who were trying to help Wade Knight route more power to the failing containment field. The fact they continued to hug the floor and carry on like they were dying spoke volumes about their characters. It also brought into question the ethos of the rest of the crew. But there really wasn't time to ponder such things. Deb was no expert, but even she could see this ship was on borrowed time. The question was, how much longer could the Juno hold on. Commander Ridire had requested she check on the status of the ship's engines. She resisted the urge to remind Aidan she wasn't an engineer deciding instead to give it her best shot. And one of the slightly injured floor huggers was going to help her. She walked over to them, eying them carefully, trying to decide which one would volunteer when the com from Anna came in. "Doctor, I'm seeing a rise in radiation seepage as the containment field weakens further. Are you reading the same?" While awaiting Debbie's response, Anna heard Commander Ridire ask if the Reaent had the equipment aboard that could safeguard the freighter's cargo if Wade was able to get the engines operational. Keeping the neutral tone to her voice as she answered in the affirmative wasn't difficult but she was glad that both Ridire and the freighter's CO (whose name, logs showed, was Sten Angstrom) weren't looking directly at her. It would have been obvious, she was sure, from her expression that the idea of actually leaving the degraded Triceron canisters with this bottom line yahoo and his disaster of a ship was abhorrent to her. The Juno was a disgrace! "Radiation," whispered Deb, opening her tricorder. The radiation level was definitely on the rise. But how fast was it rising? How long before the radiation forced them off the ship? She glanced at the engines several meters away. Even from a distance, she could see an eerie cloud of something ominous leaking from the housings. She lightly kicked the middle aged man with the handlebar mustache. "Come with me," she ordered and started to walk away. She took three steps before turning around to find her volunteer still hugging the floor. "Now," she barked, clearly annoyed. "Unless you want to find out what real pain feels like." "Anna," she said calmly as she tapped her comm badge. "I'm aware of the radiation levels. I'll get back to you shortly after we do a more thorough study of these leaky engines." "Understood." Anna commed back, resisting the urge to say 'good luck' and that she'd keep her fingers crossed. That smacked of desperation. They weren't desperate. Yet. But close, though. Turning in her seat, she overheard Angstrom tell Ridire, "I'm just a poor scrub trying to make a buck." Spinning back to face the console, she tightened her jaw and glared at the ship's maintenance logs glowing on the screen. She'd already transferred them to the Reaent and as she scrolled through them, it became obvious that they should have begun with 'Once upon a time...' since they appeared to be just so much malarkey. Critical maintenance checks had not been performed in timely fashion. How the hell had they passed an inspection that would have qualified them to subcontract for ordnance disposal? The ship had been treated shamefully. It had been allowed to deteriorate almost past the point of redemption and if Wade wasn't successful, the odds were that this was the Juno's swan song. As they approached the Juno's dilapidated engines, Deb hoped her tone of voice hadn't betrayed her concern She knew Aidan was on the bridge with Anna. It wouldn't due for him to think she was nervous much less scared. But she was....at least a little scared anyway. He would be too if he could see these engines. "What's your name?" she asked the reluctant volunteer. "And what's your position on this ship?" "Pallu," came the terse reply. "Pallu what?" asked Deb. "Just Pallu." "I'm Dr. Matthews. What's your job on the Juno?" "Second engineer." "Oh thank heaven," mused Deb silently. "At least he's an engineer." Then another thought crossed her mind. "Are you licensed?" No answer. When she turned to face him, Pallu was tugging on one side of his mustache. Her heart sank. "You're not licensed, are you?" "Not really," he answered with a shrug. "Then how can you be a....." She stopped in mid sentence. It was quite obvious the Juno's captain had little if any respect for maritime rules and regulations. The engineering chief probably wasn't licensed either. It was a moot issue anyway. All she could do was make lemonade out of this huge lemon. "When did your engine problems arise," she asked, trying to maintain a civil tone. "What happened when they began to fail." "Don't know," answered Pallu. "I wasn't here." Deb took a step closer to the man and crossed her arms in front of her. "Then who was here and where is he?" Again, silence. "Who was down here when the engines started to fail? demanded Debbie. To her surprise, Pallu took a step back. Obviously, he could tell she was annoyed. "Nobody," came the quick reply. She was speechless, a condition Deb rarely ever suffered from. It took a moment for her to wrap her brain around this startling revelation. "You're telling me," she started slowly, her tone deadly. "Nobody was in here to monitor these engines when you're carrying high explosives that require a containment field.? He nodded and took another step back. "Is the chief engineer one of those men on the floor over there?" she asked in a low voice. Pallu stepped back again and shook his head. "No," he finally replied. "I haven't seen him in a few hours?" Deb slowly moved away from the man thinking it was probably wise to put some distance between them before she stabbed him with a scalpel or something. She swallowed a couple of times and then tapped her comm badge. "Anna, do me a favor," she said, her voice as calm as she could manage. "Have someone page the chief engineer and get him down here." The containment field around the Triceron had slipped another 3% per the latest scan, Anna read and fought back the sudden stab of fear that they were running out of time. Hearing Debbie's voice, she tapped her comm, answering in disbelief (although why anything that smacked of incompetence and dereliction of duty on this ship had the power to surprise her, she didn't know.) "The ship's chief engineer isn't down there with you? Unbelievable. According to the maintenance logs, which are suspect to say the least, his name is Lanak Haust. I'm going to do an all call over the ship's communication system for him to get his butt down there. Is it possible though, that he was injured in the initial explosion that happened before we transported over?" "He may have been injured," replied Deb, "but he isn't down here. The second engineer claims Mr. Haust wasn't here when the engines started failing." She paused a second before dropping the other bomb. "Nobody was here. Mr....Pallu, the second engineer claims he hasn't seen Mr. Haust for hours. We're not waiting for him but it would be nice to have him down here." Anna nodded in understanding, even though Debbie couldn't see her and she kept her voice low in response, very aware that Juno's CO was not too far away, still engaged with Ridire in the kind of fencing that meant Reaent's XO wasn't getting any answers to his questions. "Deb, I'll put a call out for him now." Toggling a switch on the grimy control board, she requested that Chief Engineer Lanak Haust get down to Engineering on the double. Of course, he'd never heard her voice before, none of this crew had. Anna doubted he would do more than try and get a hold of Angstrom and demand to know what was going on. Haust had to know he had biologically degraded and unstable Triceron sitting in the hold. Maybe he didn't know the explosive yield was over 6,000 gigatons but he had to figure it would make a pretty big bang. She wondered if he'd been scared witless. She and Pallu were now standing in front of the main engineering console. Deb reminded herself once again that she wasn't an engineer. So, maybe it wasn't as bad as it looked. Red lights blinked on several panels while muted alarms tried to warn of the impending disaster. Digital pressure readings were on the high side of normal and rising steadily as Deb and Pallu stood there watching. "How long?" asked Deb, glancing at her volunteer. "An hour," came his immediate response. "Maybe less." He may have been a third rate engineer but Deb tended to believe him. The look of fear in his eyes convinced her things were as bad, if not worse, than she expected. She looked back at the pressure readings and tapped her comm badge. "Anna, please inform the Commander that Juno's second engineer believes these engines have no more than an hour of life.....maybe less. Personally, I think it's less." "I know Wade's still working on trying to stabilize the containment field," Anna commed back, while slowly turning her seat to see how the conversation going on behind her was progressing. "He needs to assess those engines, but I will tell the Commander what the Juno engineer thinks..." Anna waited a beat, before smiling a little and adding, "..and that you think he's an optimist. I am sure Reaent has identified and locked onto every biosign on this ship so evacuation can be done within minutes." Deb glancing over to where Wade was feverishly working to restore a modicum of stability to the containment field. "I hope you're right, " she replied to Anna. "Let's pray the engines give us a few minutes warning before they go." She was about to say something else when an ominous hiss erupted from behind her. Pallu ran toward the engines and stabbed a couple of buttons on the console. The hissing sound diminished to a mere squeal. "Anna, I'm going to ask Wade to take a look at these monsters. Maybe he has some magic up his sleeve to keep them going. I'll get back to you." With that, Deb closed the com and hurried toward Mr. Knight uncertain what was most critical.....the containment field or the antique engines. Anna didn't tap her comm badge as she murmured, "Let's hope so," in response to Deb's hope that the engines might give enough of a warning to make escape possible and that Wade had a little magical ability up his sleeve. She rose from the console to go tell the Commander what Debbie had reported and it was only then that she noticed that Sten Angstrom had disappeared, leaving her and Ridire alone on the Bridge. It didn't seem like a positive development.

Still in the turbolift after their meeting with Commander Ridire in the Observation Lounge, and ostensibly heading back to their respective workdays, Anna suddenly called out, "Deck 22!" She met Will's inquiring look with a happy shrug. "I don't feel like getting back to the lab, right away. Can you take a little time before heading back to the Flight Deck?" He was a lot busier these days since Angel had gone but she really wanted to spend a few minutes alone with him. Will smiled and nodded to her, "If you want, the rest of the day is free. With no activity going on, I've already done what I needed to today." When the TL doors slid open, he took Anna's hand in his. "So where do you want to go since we are here on Deck 22?" "Botanical Garden," Anna answered promptly, gently tugging his hand to steer him down the corridor to the left. He laughed as he let Anna pull him along, like a child wanting to go on her favorite ride at an amusement park. "Ah yes, one of your favorite places on this ship, isn't it?" He deliberately kept his speed a little slower than hers so that she had to pull him along as if he were reluctant to go with her there. "One of them," she agreed, turning her head, and looking up at him, her eyes sparkling with laughter. "Haven't you noticed there is never anyone in there?" He smiled warmly at his love as they made it to the garden. "Well, there's someone here now, isn't there?" He looked at the great variety of plant life. "So if you had to choose, which one is your favorite plant here?" Enjoying the rich, humid smell of soil and vegetation, Anna turned to face him, reaching her arms around his neck, her focus on a gorgeous pair of green eyes rather than any greenery. "My favorite plant? So hard to decide," she murmured, wondering absently if Will actually thought she brought him here because she was mad for a garden. "Not that I don't love gardens, I do," she told him earnestly, vocalizing the second half of her thought. She started to kiss him as she'd wanted to since Wade's comm had interrupted them in the turbolift, but stopped just shy of touching his lips. "Bromeliads! Bromeliads--definitely. They make their own ecosystem." You could find all kinds of things living in bromeliads. Beetles, snails, even salamanders. Anna smiled dreamily at him and finally reached her destination, thinking the fountain behind them sounded beautiful. He kissed her softly as the sounds of the garden filled their ears. Once he broke the kiss, he moved with her and they sat on a nearby bench. He took a hold of her hand and interlaced their fingers, brushing a stray hair out of her face before looking around. "Well, it's not a star field going by at warp speed, but," he looked at her lovingly, "it is quite beautiful in here." She started to laugh, lifting their linked fingers to brush a kiss over the knuckles on his hand. "Flyboy," she chided softly, leaning against him, letting her head drop against his shoulder. "I'm glad you have to refuel now and again or I'd probably never get you back." He leaned his head so that it was gently resting on hers as he whispered, "Sure you would. Before this relationship, I was always disappointed when a flying sortie came to an end. At least now, I have something else to look forward to other than just waiting for my next flight." He wrapped an arm around her shoulder as they both watched the fountain gush water. "Oh, at least," she teased gently, unconsciously relaxing against the strength in his arm as it held her. "Glad to know I help keep the boredom at bay." For a long time, nothing more was said between the two. All there was to do was enjoy the peace and watch as the water continued to flow in the fountain. Will closed his eyes for a time, reveling in the sensations of the fountain on his ears and the feel of a wonderful woman against his body. Anna enjoyed the companionable silence, feeling the tensions of the day fade away. It's not that they were any less important but a little time away from them offered some perspective. Time away and the man beside her. Will was an excellent sounding board and though normally very self-contained, she'd found him easy to confide in, appreciating that he listened with total objectivity. She could rely on his point of view. To that end she broke the comfortable silence. "Eric Ferguson blew up one of the labs this morning." Since her tone didn't imply anything catastrophic, he spoke easily, "Any casualties? How much damage to the lab?" Not taking her eyes off the fountain, Anna answered, "No casualties--Eric was at lunch and so missed the big event. Caroline Curtis and I happened on the scene just after the explosion. There's some damage to the surfaces, and though I can't say for sure at this point, I think that Engineering will just need to do some refinishing." She paused for a moment before adding. "When Commander Ridire commed and asked me to come immediately to the Lounge, I thought it might be about the accident." Will chuckled, "Is that way you looked like a deer caught in the headlights when you came in?" He remembered how contrite she looked until she locked eyes with him and then immediately relaxed. She nodded, able to laugh about it now. "Yes, and though there are many reasons why I'm always happy to see you, it was a huge relief today. It should have occurred to me that if I was getting called on the carpet it would be the one in his office, not the Observation Lounge." "Well, it is the XO's privilege to choose the time and place to discipline people, but yeah you're probably right," Will replied as he hugged her a little closer, intoxicated by her nearness. "So, do you have any plans after we leave here today?" Anna slid her arm around his waist as he pulled her closer, thinking work was the last thing on her mind. "I need to file a report before the end of the day regarding the lab incident and put in a repair order to Engineering." She turned a speculative eye towards him. "Of course, the end of the day is still quite some time away." Will smiled, "Yes it is." Finally breaking the warm embrace, Will stood up and held his hand out to her, "I'm sure we can fill the intervening time with much more...pleasurable activities, hmmm?" He winked at her suggestively. Taking his hand, Anna rose to her feet, his wink causing her to blush, as always. "I have all the confidence in the world in us," she assured him, as they walked to the exit. She'd been going to suggest they look at room configurations but his idea was better.

Anna entered the officer's mess, and immediately looked around to see if Wade had gotten there before her. Not seeing him, she went up to the counter and remembering what he'd said earlier about a lunch preference, ordered up two plates of Bolian Bobs and was stumped for a second when it came to a beverage. All she could recall were the various alcoholic beverages Wade preferred when they'd eaten dinner together. "Just let me have two ice waters with that," she told the server, taking the tray from him after he added the glasses. Stepping away from the counter, she saw Wade come in and called his name, lifting the tray and then nodding towards a clear table by the bank of windows. Still nursing a hangover from the big party the night before, Wade entered the mess hall, eyes half closed to shield from the bright lights. He spotted Anna making her way to a table next to the windows with a tray full of Bolian food and waved back, moving to greet her. "Well, good morning, sunshine," he said with a grin, perfectly aware that it wasn't morning. "Afternoon, bright eyes," Anna responded with an answering grin. "Looks like you got about as much sleep as I did," she added, setting down the full tray. Wade slumped into his chair, grinning despite the burning in his head. "I slept like a log last night, actually. It was the waking up that caused the problems," he explained, picking up a kebab from the tray and eyeing it. Anna thought about how Will had woken her up this morning, and smiled as she moved their glasses off the tray. "You can go to bed early tonight," she suggested cheerfully while picking up a skewer from her own plate. "I love this sauce even though it is unbelievably sticky and I always end up wearing some." "I'd much rather wear sauce on my uniform than gagh," Wade chuckled, picking off a piece of some yellow vegetable and stuffing it into his mouth. "So, how has your week been so far?" "Well, yeah, definitely," Anne muttered in response to the gagh remark and then sighed as a drop of sauce fell onto her jacket. "It's been great, actually," she answered, taking her napkin and dipping it in her water glass before trying to wipe the stain up before it set. "We've been patrolling and the Benicia System has been unabashedly dull--I love this place. If there were a nebula to study that would make it perfect." She looked up; having decided the stain was now barely noticeable. "How's Engineering treating you?" "Oh, you know. When the Reaent isn't breaking apart, imploding or blowing up it's running like a dream. The most exciting thing I've done this week has been repairing an EPS conduit in Ensign Cola's sonic shower." "Well, it's in your best interests to keep him smelling fresh since he works the same shift you do and things can get mighty crowded around the pool table," Anna replied seriously, taking a quick bite of the roasted vegetable next in line on her skewer to keep from laughing. Wade grinned and ripped a piece of meat off of its skewer, chewing intently for a moment, holding off a chuckle of his own. "Ohh, he's nowhere near as bad as Lieutenant Tursk. You know, the Tellarite fellow? I'm not even sure he knows how to turn his sonic shower on." "Hmm...thanks for the warning, I haven't had the pleasure of proximity when it comes to Mr. Tursk...I'll keep that in mind." Anna decided to give in, cry uncle and eat her shish kebab with a knife and fork after one of the meat chunks slid off the skewer and plopped in the sauce, spraying her wrist. She didn't have time to go change her uniform before she had to get back to the lab after lunch break. "So," she asked casually, "since you have been busy with such heart-stopping tasks as the Cola shower, can I take that as an indication that you might have time for a small project?" Will's taken the engineering extension course, I'm sure. He can probably fix your shower if it's broken," Wade said, watching Anna pick up her flatware. Somehow the only place he'd managed to get sauce was on his forehead. Anna glanced at Wade, fork paused in mid-air, a piece of roasted pineapple on it. "I'm sure he could, he's very good with his hands, but it's not that small a project and in fact, it's quite serious. The focus of this project will be the health and welfare of one of our passengers." She noticed the sauce on Wade's forehead and gestured with her fork, causing the pineapple chunk to fall off and plop into the sauce on his plate, sending a couple of droplets onto his sleeve. "Um...you have sauce on your forehead..." She hoped he wouldn't notice the sleeve. "What? Oh." Wade reached up and felt his forehead, noticing a bit of the brown sauce on his fingers tips and could hardly suppress an embarrassed chuckle. Grabbing a napkin, he wiped himself off. "Health and welfare of a passenger you say? That sounds like a lot of responsibility." "It is a huge responsibility," Anna replied, immediately adding, "Which is why I thought immediately of you, Wade." She smiled warmly at him, leaning forward. "I wouldn't trust Chauncey's safety to just anyone, you know." Wade almost choked on the piece of meat he'd been working on. "Chauncey? Your pet bird?" Anna looked momentarily concerned. "Be careful, Wade. The last time I performed the Heimlich, I accidentally broke someone's rib. Of course, Debbie Matthews has trained me in emergency medical procedures since then so I don't think that would still happen. Hmm...where were...oh yes! Yes, of course, Chauncey is my cockatoo." Wade rolled his eyes, but managed a pleasant grin while carefully chewing the rest of his food before speaking up again. "Well, I suppose I do have some off-duty time coming up. What does your cockatoo need?" "I knew you'd be interested," Anna said excitedly. She pulled a PADD from her jacket pocket and activated it. "I know how thorough you are--measure twice, laser once, etc. I have made some pertinent notes regarding Chauncey's needs as well as all the particulars on his dimensions--height and weight. Here's a picture of him right on top. He's on Will's arm in this one so you get a very good perspective on his size." Anna smiled fondly at the picture before handing it to Wade. "We're getting bigger quarters and Chauncey is going to have his own small room." Wade almost burst out laughing at the picture, with Will grimacing, presumably at the pain of the bird digging its claws in. "Ah ha! No wonder the bird's getting its own room. Bloke looks like he's afraid his arm's going get ripped off." "Don't be ridiculous, Wade," Anna retorted coolly. "Will has been wonderful with Chauncey, and likes him very much. It's just that Chauncey bit him in the ear right before I took that picture." Anna sighed and took a drink of her ice water. "I was so sure he would give Will a kiss--you know he gives kisses on command but for some reason he just hasn't taken to Will." Anna set the glass down and brightened, saying, "But I think that will change now that we're going to move in together. Chauncey will feel safer since I won't always be leaving him, and he'll grow used to Will." Wade looked at the PADD and nodded, tapping it on his palm. "That's all right here. I'll look into it, no need to fret." "He has destroyed my couch." Anna fixed a look on Wade. "He is a very special bird who has also shown the ability to open the latch on my jewelry box. He's clever and it's important that he be mentally stimulated so that he doesn't grow fractious and become a feather plucker. I..uh...also don't want him to be able to get out of his room on his own. He has learned to mimic my voice and was able to leave my quarters once by instructing the computer to open the door. I am sure it was just a coincidence that he stumbled on the correct phrasing but he is fiendishly clever and easily bored." Wade just sort of stared incredulously. "He..used your voice..to talk to the computer?" Scratching his beard, Wade looked thoughtful. "That's quite a bird." "I'm sure it was accidental, " Anna hastened to assure Wade. "They are wonderful mimics but really, nothing nearly as accomplished say, for example, an African Grey." She shrugged. "He's really just a baby--the pet store I got him from, they assured me he was only about eighteen months old. They can live to be nearly eighty, you know." "Wow, I did not know that," Wade said, loosening his belt a little bit with a groan. "Well, I'll get right on it, but this is something that I'll have to do in my off time. Which has been taken up with a little project Shane and I have been working on, but I'll make time," he said with a smile. "Will only put the requisition for larger quarters in today," Anna replied. "I don't know how long that takes, but if it comes through before you're ready for the installation, that's ok. He has a huge cage he sleeps in and of course, I do have him out and about when I'm home. He loves to interact." Wade decided not to mention that he wasn't much of an animal person. "Sounds good to me." "I think you should come over and meet with him, Wade." Anna had a sudden thought and smiled brilliantly. "You could come over for dinner." She would invite Caroline, too. "I would enjoy that," he acceded with a smile. "Just let me know when and I'll take time out of my busy schedule of fixing showers." "I'll talk to Will and find a good night. I'll let you know." She would be sure to make sure it fit into Caroline's schedule, too. Anna forked up a last piece of kebab. "This is so kind of you, Wade. I really appreciate it." "Don't mention it," he said with a smile. "What are friends for?"

As they entered her quarters, Will chuckled as he and Anna kissed and nipped teasingly at each other. He let Anna go and stepped back a little to drink in her beauty, his smile widening as she walked around his quarters. He loved how she moved in the cocktail dress that she'd worn to the anniversary party earlier in the evening. He wanted nothing more than to unwrap that dress and once more experience the treasures that lie underneath but instead, he took a deep breath and spoke, "Anna, before anything more happens, I have a small proposal for you. I think that it is time to..." "Oh, Will, I do, too!" Anna exclaimed, interrupting him. She'd been kicking off her high heels, but excited and sure she knew what he was going to say, rushed across the room to him, stumbling because one shoe was still on, and ended up flinging herself at him, winding her arms around his neck to keep herself from falling. Her eyes sparkling with excitement, she kissed him enthusiastically, not even allowing him to speak before she breathlessly said, "I know it hasn't been that long, but all this back and forth, down one deck and over four corridors, and worrying about Chauncey--yes, sweetheart, I think we should combine our quarters." Loving that they'd both been thinking the same thing, she kissed him again, thinking it was almost like they could read each other's mind. As Anna kissed Will, his mind raced furiously. He remembered a piece of advice that his Dad once told him: ~Flashback~ Young William watched his father and mother who were talking. After his Mom left, Jared waved Will over, picked him up and put Will on his lap. "Son," Jared spoke slowly, "we're going for a picnic today." Will tilted his head with confusion, "I thought ya said that we was goin' flyin' today, Dad." Jared nodded, "Yes son, I know, but your mother was under the impression that today's little family day was going to be spent out on the lake." Will frowned, "Well, why didn't ya jus' tell her we was goin' flyin' today?" Jared smiled slightly. "Son, let me give you a little piece of advice that you might find useful someday. Are you listening?" Will nodded and listened intently. He loved hearing his father's little pearls of wisdom. When Jared saw that he was listening, he spoke again. "When a woman agrees with you, agree with her because it will make her happy. In this case, we'll go to the lake today and we'll go flying next weekend. It'll make Mom happy. You want Mom to be happy, right?" Will smiled and nodded, "Yes Daddy." Jared kissed Will on the forehead and then set him down to get ready. ~End Flashback~ As their kiss ended, Will ran his fingers through her hair, his confident grin restored when he looked her in the eyes, "Yeah, you're right. Combining quarters would be a wonderful idea." He sat on the couch and patted his lap. When she sat on his lap, he smiled up at her, "I was curious on who should move? You? Me? Requisition bigger quarters? What do you think?" As she began to respond, Will thought to himself, Thanks Dad. Once more his father had come to his rescue at a critical moment. Anna wreathed her arms around his neck and leaned into him. "I've been thinking we should try to requisition new quarters. It would be perfect if we could get a configuration that includes one smaller room besides the main bedroom. That could be Chauncey's room. If he has his own space there's less chance of him destroying the furniture in the other rooms. He's ruined my couch." She looked silently around the room, happily imagining how it would be to not have to go back and forth between two places anymore. How all their stuff would be in one place and how much easier it would be. Will looked at the couch and nodded, "Yeah I see that." He inspected the damage for a moment before settling his gaze on the light of his life once more, "All right I'll put the requisition in to the XO when I go on duty next." His hands circled around her hips, "It would be nice to know that I'd be coming home to you every night. It would make the more boring days on duty more bearable." His eyes wandered off for a moment as if recalling a pleasant memory before returning to her once more. "I don't know what I did to deserve you, but I'd do it again and again and again." Anna smiled impishly and bent her head so that their foreheads were touching. "I'll remember this conversation and remind you of it the day you reach a breaking point and demand of the Universe at large, just exactly what it was you did to deserve me." Will caught her gaze and held it with is own. "Yes, I'm sure you will as I am sure that I will have to remind you of it as well, when our kids are screaming at Mom for everything from having dinner ready to new toys," he replied as he ran a finger down her cheek. She mentally raised an eyebrow at the 'children', not having given much thought to the idea of having a child, let alone having plural of them. If she'd stayed on Kilo with Colum, no doubt she'd have already had her first by now, and since she'd left, she'd put the idea of a family squarely behind her. Apparently, Will had been giving it some thought. She gave him a faintly suspicious look wondering what else he was planning, but then turned and gave his finger a kiss before slanting him a bold grin. "I don't worry about them screaming at me, William," she told him airily. "They'll be very bright children who'll want to stay on their mother's good, sweet side. It's their da who'll hear the screaming, what with me working late in the lab. I'll come home to find them all tuckered out from driving you crazy." "Oh, thanks a lot." He replied drolly, but smiled again at a thought. "Well, the good news is that when they drive us both to the point of insanity, we can send them to Grandma and Grandpa on Earth. Of course..." His fingers brushed her neck suggestively, "Time to ourselves might lead to more children." He chuckled as he let his hand move to her shoulder. "Well, we're by ourselves right now, and I can assure you it is not going to lead to any children for the foreseeable future," she answered lightly. "However, I see no reason why we shouldn't practice in the meantime." With that, she gently held the side of his jaw as she bent her head to kiss him deeply. Will didn't realize it, but when he talked about his own parents as grandparents, she felt all too keenly, that any children she might one day have, wouldn't enjoy the benefit if knowing their maternal grandparents. After he kissed her, he looked at the sadness in her eyes, "Hey what's wrong? Something I said?" Though her face was smiling, he could see that something had upset her. "No, of course not," she hastened to reassure him. "It's just...all this talk of children, well, I know it's hypothetical, of course, but it reminds me that I won't have my own family to share that with if the time ever comes." Anna shrugged impatiently and deliberately changed the subject. "Hey, I don't know how we got so ahead of ourselves. We're just talking about moving in together. We haven't even gotten the new quarters yet and you've already foisted our children off on your parents." She smiled warmly, and ruffled his hair with her fingers. "We have much more important stuff to talk about." He thought about her family and briefly wondered if he could remedy that situation but decided that now wasn't the time. He didn't want to upset her further. "Yes, you're right as always. So tomorrow we can both put the request in for new, bigger quarters. But since that is tomorrow, perhaps we can make use of these old quarters tonight?" He winked suggestively. She winked back. "You really can read my mind, Will."

Will Tomlinson and Anna O'Halloran entered Anna's quarters after saying good bye to Caroline Curtis. Immediately upon entering, they were both greeted by the very angry screeches of Anna's pet bird Chauncey. Apparently, the bird did not appreciate being locked up in his cage for any amount of time and it also appeared that having Will in the room only served to further fuel the bird's agitation. Will shook his head, looking at his love. "How about I go into the other room and get your gift set up for you while you soothe the savage beast, eh?" He began to back away as he kept the box carefully behind him, deliberately teasing her with her gift by keeping it completely out of her sight. Watching her unhappy cockatoo agitatedly rock back and forth from one foot to another while frantically bobbing his head up and down as he raucously squawked his displeasure, Anna responded with a muttered, "From the sounds of it, I'm going to need a whip and a chair." She turned her head in time to see Will backing away from her, still hiding what he'd been acting so mysterious about since he'd met up with her and Caroline in the station's commercial district. He had refused to even give her a hint as they accompanied Caroline back to the ship and he didn't know it but for her that was part of the present, too. She loved how he always managed to surprise her and take her unawares. Smiling, she turned back to the cage and opened it, extending her arm for its occupant. "Come on, Chaunce...that's right...yes, you're my sweet baby, aren't you?" She gently stroked his head until his crest feathers relaxed and then she deposited him on the standing perch in the corner of the living area. She watched him extend his wings and flap them--probably in triumph at escaping his cage. "Happy now? Try to keep it down, pal." Leaving a very quiet bird behind, she walked towards her bedroom, calling out to Will, "Is it safe to come in?" Hearing her sweet voice, Will finished setting up his latest gift to her, "Yeah just finished. Come on in." When she entered the room, all she saw was Will standing in front of a table. After letting her take a couple of steps closer, he stepped to the side, finally revealing her gift. On the table was what looked to be a crystallized form of a small bonsai tree. "It's a Bravian crystal plant. I saw it in a gift shop while talking to Angel and knew it was perfect for you." He held up a finger and gently touched the top of the crystal which caused the it to withdrew into its 'pot'. A moment later, the crystal emerged once more and quickly grew back to its original height, but the branches were in a different configuration than from last time. "Every time you touch the crystal, it withdraws and then grows again but never in the same formation twice. Once you touch this formation, it is gone forever, replaced with a new one." He stepped further aside to let her examine it. Enchanted, Anna moved closer to the table, taking Will's place and immediately reaching out a finger to trigger the reaction. It was fascinating how quickly the crystal took shape again. "The color striations are different each time, too," she murmured, carefully picking up the base of the 'plant' and turning it under the overhead lighting to watch it sparkle from different angles. "I've never seen anything like it, Will--it's just beautiful...unique." She set it down gently, so as not to disturb the current formation and then turned to face him, moving forward until she could wreathe her arms around his neck, tilting her head back to smile up at him. "I love it, thank you for thinking of me." He brushed a stray hair from her face and smiled with pure adoration. "I find myself thinking of nothing but you during my off time...and sometimes during my on-duty time as well." He encircled her waist with his arms and kissed her deeply for a moment before looking into those sweet eyes of hers again, "It seems that I've become VERY addicted to being anywhere near you." She laughed softly, tightening her arms around him. "I know you'll take this the right way when I say I hope there's no cure in sight. After all, I suffer from the same affliction and you know what they say... Misery loves company. Here, I'll prove it." She pulled his head down and kissed him, taking her time about it. Will could never get over the fact that every time they kissed, it took his breath away. Just as the kiss broke, they heard an angry squawk from the living room and Will sighed, "I guess you are being paged." He got an idea, "I tell you what, you go deal with him and I'll add a little more romance in this room, sound good?" "Will...you're already in the room. There's no way you can add more romance than that," Anna teased, before reluctantly stepping back and turning to go and see what the feathered menace was up to. "If I don't go check, he'll find his way in here and attack your feet again." She started to laugh as she left the room, adding, "As I recall, that takes all the romance out of the room very quickly." After Anna left, Will went to work quickly. If it was true that his mere presence was romantic enough, he decided that he just had to improve on perfection. He turned the lights down to 1/2 intensity. He set some nice soft close dancing music to start the instant she reentered the room and turned up the luminescence on her new crystal plant to add to the soft glow of the mostly dark room. He'd just finished as she reentered the room and the soft dancing music went off, "How is this?" he asked her pleasantly. "It's wonderful," she replied with an appreciative smile, pausing for a moment to take note of the changes he'd made to increase the romantic ambiance of the room. Her gaze lingered on the crystal plant, the beauty of which was even more dramatic in the half-light before meeting his. "I think they're playing our song," she said softly, as she moved into his arms and placed her head on his shoulder. He gently took Anna into his arms and closed his eyes as they danced slowly. He inhaled deeply, enjoying her scent. He tightened his arms around her slightly, loving the feel of her body in his arms. As they swayed back and forth across the room, he quietly whispered the words that were also playing in the room into her ear, "...and all I need to survive, is to be with you..." As the song ended, Anna's head left his shoulder and he looked her in the eye as he spoke again, "I love you..." "And I love you, Will," Anna answered steadily, her head tilted so she could hold his gaze. She'd yet to tell him how amazing she found it that he did love her; how completely accepted and safe she felt with him. Maybe it was because she still couldn't quite believe it. He was better, or maybe it was just that he was more comfortable with expressing his feelings than she was or even that he was more experienced, but she had no trouble telling him the basic truth in her heart. She just wasn't any good at the romantic gestures the way he was--but he deserved them. He made her feel so important to him...like the way he'd seen the crystal plant and had somehow known she would love it. She resolved to get better at the whole business. He looked at her and saw that she was thinking about things and it looked like she wanted to say something but didn't. He smiled at her and then swept her off of her feet. Carrying her toward her bed, he decided that it was time for his actions to express how much he loved her. Anna looped her arms around his neck and bent her head to kiss him, loving how he carried her even though it was only a few feet. As he went to set her down, she looked past his shoulder, glad she'd remembered to shut the door on her way back in. She didn't need Chauncey interrupting them--she planned on making Will feel as wanted and cherished as he always made her feel...even if it took all night.

Will opened his eyes and smiled at the beautiful woman that was sleeping next to him. Remembering last night, he silently extracted himself out of the bed and pulled his clothes on. He left the room and let the sleeping beauty sleep for a little longer. Eyes still closed and half-asleep, Anna took a deep breath and wondered what smelled so good. It smelled like...heaven...or close to it--it was...breakfast! Rolling over in bed, she realized and remembered two things at once--this wasn't her bed...and the night had been...wonderful. Will had obviously gotten up ahead of her--pilots probably always got up before dawn. She would have liked to wake up with him...but it was just like Will to let her sleep and make breakfast to surprise her. Being very quiet, she slid out of bed and snagged the t-shirt off the floor that she'd gone to sleep in. Just as she slipped his shirt on, Will walked in with a tray full of breakfast. Eggs benedict, nice extra crispy bacon, toast and orange juice. "Good morning, my love." "Good morning," she smiled, suddenly feeling very shy. "I see you've been busy...it smells delicious-in fact, it's what woke me up and I have to tell you, it's not a bad way to be woken up." She was talking too fast and could feel the hot blush at the base of her throat starting to work its way up. It was amazing how different morning felt compared to the middle of the night. Amazingly uncomfortable. She sat back on the bed. His smile widened at her creeping blush. He set the tray on her lap as she sat up, "I hope you didn't mind your sleep being interrupted early this morning." He cleared a stray hair off of her face. She met his eyes and started to chuckle, the tray giving her something to do with her hands. "I don't know... Let me think...as I recall, I don't think I minded my sleep being interrupted by you a couple of times." He lay down next to her, propped up on one elbow as she ate. "Well good, after all I wouldn't want to be anything but a gentleman for you. Though if I remember last night, I didn't have to worry about gentlemanly manners, did I?" She ate a bite of perfectly cooked bacon and just managed not to choke on it before throwing him a dignified look. "Ah, no..." If anything, she had a feeling it had been her manners that had suffered. He was wearing his t-shirt again but she had a feeling his back was a little scratched up. She also knew he'd be too much of a gentleman to mention it. "This is great bacon." "Thank you. I try." He snatched a piece of the bacon and started eating it. His back was a bit itchy from last night but he enjoyed it as a reminder. "So what's the plan for today?" She looked at the plate sitting in front of her. He'd made eggs benedict. "Plan?" She remembered now--they'd been in the gym and she'd told him that she wanted to stay with him that night and have eggs benedict for breakfast. The pesky Observatory from Hell had gotten in the way. "You made me eggs benedict." She felt like she was going to melt. Tilting his head, "You didn't think I'd forget, did you? I was wondering what you have planned to do today, if anything." "I shouldn't be surprised but you have a habit of catching me off guard..." She took another bite of the very romantic eggs benedict, and shook her head. "I have two days off...and orders from the Captain to press no buttons." Anna smiled suddenly, and mindful of the tray, reached over and gently stroked the back of his neck. "I think metaphorical buttons are ok." He smiled as she rubbed his neck. "I have no objection to you pressing these buttons. That's for sure." He stroked her cheek gently. "That's very reassuring," she said softly. "I guess that encompasses my plans." "So you are free for two whole days, eh?" She can see his imagination running wild with how to fill the next 48 hours of their lives. "I'm completely at your service," she grinned, feeling much more relaxed. "And what about you? Won't the flight deck be missing you?" Will grinned, "Maybe, but I think I can arrange something with Angel to allow me the time." He gently moved the tray over to the nightstand before sliding up to her until his face was only a few inches from hers. "So, are you fully rested right now?" "I'm not exactly feeling rested right now," she answered a little breathlessly, while sliding one arm up around his neck and pulling him a little closer. He closed the distance and kissed her deeply, for the longest time. As they kissed, he realized that he might not be able to get enough of this...enough of her, but he was sure going to try.

It was amazing how much better she felt after showering and changing, Anna mused as she exited the turbolift on deck eight. Getting out of the uniform and into a softly fitted dress that fell mid-calf went a long way to making her feel more human. Commander Ridire's assertion that the away team had only been gone three hours was belied by the fact that she'd felt like they'd spent a couple of days traipsing around the observatory, not really getting anywhere but being passed from one time to another. The whole team had been exhausted and during the meeting in the conference room she'd felt that if she'd closed her eyes for more than a moment she would have fallen asleep. But the shower had energized her--that and the chance to eat dinner with Will. She came to a stop outside his quarters and pressed the chime, thinking that although the experience had been frightening and frustratingly confusing, it had also been made better because he was there. Will checked himself over once more as he heard the chime. He had taken a quick shower and then changed into some nice slacks and shirt. He'd seen how much of a toll the station mission had taken on her, so he intended to spoil her rotten. He smiled and checked the table. The crystal was laid out, the plates and cutlery were perfect and to top it off, there was a large arrangement of deep red roses in the center of the table. He rushed to the door, took a deep breath and put on his best smile for Anna as he pushed the button that opened the door. Once more his breath was taken away by the vision of loveliness that stood in front of him. "Good evening, Anna." She smiled warmly, her eyes lighting up, as she took in his appearance, answering, "Good evening, Will." Her breath caught a little as it always did when he looked at her that way, and she stepped forward, lifting the tricorder and PADD she'd brought with her to show him. Even though she hadn't changed back into uniform, she was still on duty per Ridire's orders to get working on the data brought back from the observatory. "I know you're tired, but I hope you won't mind if we go over some stuff while we eat-" She broke off as she walked far enough past him to see the table set with the roses and the crystal. "Oh, Will..." She turned and reaching up, slipped her arms around his neck, one hand still holding a PADD and the other holding the tricorder, not even noticing as the equipment thumped against each other behind his back. "You are so sweet," she whispered before kissing him. He enjoyed the kiss immensely and was sad when it ended. "Well, when I have the opportunity to have dinner with you, it is always a special occasion. Now take a seat in the living room while I set the food out and then we can sit and...talk." He kissed her cheek lovingly before breaking the embrace and heading for the replicator. Warmed by the kiss, she followed behind him, stopping next to the table while he went past it to the replicator. Setting the tricorder and PADD aside, she gently brushed her fingertips over one of the roses, loving the feel of the velvety petals. The replicator got that right even if it couldn't quite capture the actual fragrance. They were beautiful and she looked over to Will, "You didn't have to go to all this trouble, you know--you were right there with me---getting shot at by Romulans from God only knows when." His back was to her but she could hear the smile he was wearing in his voice. "You are no trouble, Anna." He began producing a good pasta dish from his mother's recipe. He turned and set it on the table, smiling, "Facing the unknown isn't nearly as scary when you face it with someone you love." He turned back to get the salad he'd replicated. "You're right about that," she answered softly, looking with interest at the plate of pasta on the table. Alfredo sauce and were those mushrooms? She folded her arms across her chest to avoid the temptation of picking off the plate, turning so she faced his back. "I was thinking about that on my way over here and it also occurred to me more than once while we were on the observatory--it was so...well, nice is a silly word, that doesn't do it justice, and fun doesn't sound right because we could have been killed...but it was fun to share that with you...even though I worried about your safety." Will chuckled softly as he set the salad down. He led Anna to a chair and pulled it out for her. After she was seated, he poured a nice synthehol red wine for both of them and then put the bottle on the table before sitting next to her. He picked his glass up and offered a toast, "To friends and family and a safe return to both." Anna touched her glass to his, echoing, "A safe return" before taking a sip and setting her glass down. "This looks delicious as always, thank you, Will." She picked up the serving fork and spoon from the salad bowl and set some on her plate before passing it to him. "I'm still feeling disoriented from finding out we were only gone a total of three hours." Will began building his own salad plate. "When it comes to temporal anomalies, my dad always said, 'Son, don't try to figure it out, you'll only get a headache. Just roll with it.'" Will smiled, thinking about his dad. "That is always one of Dad's favorite sayings: 'Just roll with it'." The affection and love Will felt for his family was always apparent in his voice when he spoke of them and never more so than when he talked about his father and she smiled, once again so glad that she'd had the opportunity to meet is parents, able to picture Jared Tomlinson saying just that, though her voice was a little tart as she answered, "Easy for him to say--he doesn't have to try and figure out what's going on here and whether or not it's a localized phenomenon or spreading." Will laughed as he chewed a mouthful of salad. When he swallowed, he looked at her. "Anna, my father spent 27 years as a Starfleet Officer. He knows ALL about rolling with it, I assure you." He laughed. "Very funny," she grinned, enjoying the sound of his laughter. "I maintain that he may have changed his motto if forced to endure the last three temporal anomalies that the Reaent has experienced. Although," she murmured, reaching for the PADD, "It's entirely possible that these events have been connected." Anna absently forked up a bite of salad, chewing thoughtfully, thinking the salad dressing was terrific as she scrolled through some of the data she'd uploaded before attending the meeting in the conference room. Will finished his salad and began to build a plate of pasta. "Yeah I was thinking that too. My question would be: How would an event that happened twenty-five years ago be connected to an away mission that Dr. Matthews was on nine years ago and how are those two events connected to the Proxima mission?" Still munching salad, Anna swallowed before saying, "You are asking all the right questions. I can see, based on what we experienced on the observatory, how Shane's changing the array's coordinates from where they were set while we were phased into the past some twenty-five years ago could result in what happened to the Proxima to cause it to end up in its recently discovered location in the Neutral Zone." Pushing the salad plate to the side, Anna placed a serving of the pasta on her dinner plate, and took a forkful, savoring alfredo sauce, mushrooms and something else that was not easily identifiable, but delicious nonetheless. "Have I mentioned lately how gifted I think your mom is?" Not waiting for a reply, she pointed her now empty fork at Will, adding, "It's the Phoenix mission that doesn't add up. Nine years ago--an away team visited the observatory and found nothing conclusive as to why programming changes resulted in the array being moved to a position that was not in accord with the treaty. According to the data available, the Phoenix away team did NOT experience any of the temporal crap we did. They left the observatory none the wiser. We saw that away team while we were on the observatory but not clearly...not the way we experienced the observatory during other times in its past." Anna looked at Will and shrugged before taking another bite of pasta. He chewed his pasta thoughtfully before answering, "I remember when I saw the Phoenix away team. They were calling out as if they had spotted someone in the hangar bay. At first, I thought that they were calling out to me, so I identified myself to them but they weren't seeing or hearing me. After they left, we saw each other." He sighed, "I don't know Anna. I really don't." He twirled his fork in his pasta and took another mouthful. After swallowing, he spoke again, "We need to know what caused this temporal problem and how to plug it first, then we can wonder about the connection between the three events, I think." Anna nodded, agreeing with him, as she picked up her glass but didn't drink from it. She swirled it slowly, watching the liquid slide against the crystal confines. "We tracked the Proxima's transponder across the Neutral Zone, white knuckling it the whole way, wondering why a single ship had been sent on what seemed like a mission designed to fail. You weren't on the Bridge so you didn't witness firsthand how unhappy Michaels and Ridire were over the orders. They didn't say anything outright but it was obvious. We had our hands full trying to avoid detection but I spent some time looking over the Proxima crew manifest. Missing and believed lost in the Gamma Quadrant during the Dominion War, I wondered about them; what their final fate had been--how it must have been agony for their families not to know what happened to them. Then, when we found it, trapped inside that asteroid...I had hopes we could download the final logs, maybe answer those questions that had remained unanswered for twenty-five years. But then, we had to fire on it, destroy it, before going back through that wormhole...to keep it from the Romulans." Anna finally raised her glass and took a long swallow before saying, "We were so close to finding out what happened to the crew--scans showed no signs of organic remains on the ship. It was such a blow to come so close and then lose the chance to get some real answers." Will sat back with his wine. "Well, maybe can find out more about the Proxima later, right now the question is: How do we seal this temporal breach?" Anna doubted they would ever find out the actual fate of the Proxima crew but didn't say anymore about it, hating the feeling of melancholy that sad ship always engendered. She picked up the tricorder that looked a little out of place among the crystal, china and roses and activated it. "The containment field that was set up in the observatory lab was being used to transfer a power overload and that in turn was being used to power the array. We know there was some sort of event that led to a severe hull breach and I think it's possible that it was at that point the temporal anomaly formed." She shifted in her seat so she was facing Will while tapping her thigh with the tricorder. "It's possible that we could trigger a temporal inversion and cause it to collapse in on itself." Will looked at her and began to get lost in her eyes. He shook his head and spoke, "I hope so because I don't think destroying the station is an option." Setting the tricorder to the side, Anna took one of his hands in hers and rubbed her thumb over his knuckles. He had such strong but gentle hands, she thought, meeting his gaze for a long moment before saying, "Well, that's just it... Triggering an inversion carries risks. It might very well destroy the station--in fact odds are good that it would, and just to keep things from getting boring--it could also tear a hole in the fabric of subspace and cause a rupture that could destroy this solar system." She twined her fingers through his and smiled wryly, adding with false cheerfulness, "Then again, it could be that the anomaly is spreading at too great a rate to reverse or collapse--look how the Reaent was affected--crew and fighters disappeared right off the ship. It seems to encompass more than the observatory now." He loved the feel of her hands on his and brought her hand up to his lips. After giving her knuckles a gentle brush, a thought occurred to him. "Hey, maybe it will cause another wormhole to open like the one during the Proxima mission. I wonder if the circumstances here are similar." He was able to distract her so easily, Anna thought, warmed by his touch, only half listening to the ongoing discussion, though she made an effort to focus, replying, "We surmised at the time, that the Romulans were only able to trigger the wormhole with the device we found because there was a preexisting weakness in that area of subspace." He nodded, letting himself get lost in her eyes for a moment again. "Well, with the temporal anomalies abundant here, maybe subspace is weak also. Perhaps a...scan of the local subspace may...reveal something..." He was fully lost in her eyes now. Anna felt the thread of the conversation slipping away from her, not overly caring, as she concentrated on what he wasn't saying. "Perhaps." She leaned forward, close enough that her left shoulder brushed against his right as she whispered in his ear, "I think we have time for a little dessert before I go hunt up Debbie and Dr. Merina for their input." She slid her arm around his neck and pulled him close for a kiss. He pulled her to him as he got himself fully lost in their kiss. About two or three minutes later, they broke the kiss and had to come up for air. His smile turned wicked, "Well, if we have time for dessert, I intend to make it a full course." Breathless, Anna helplessly laughed and then groaned as she drew back. "This is why they always advise you to have dessert first--in case you run out of time." She made herself stand up. "You are a slippery slope, Lieutenant. If I don't go now, I won't go at all and I have my orders." She grabbed one of the roses from the vase on the table and then swooped down, giving him a lightning fast kiss on the cheek before removing herself from his reach with real regret and backing towards the door. "Thank you for dinner, Will." For a moment, Will thought about keeping her there but instantly thought better of it. There would be time after this mission, he thought before smiling, saying, "My door is ALWAYS open to you, Anna. Thank you for coming." Her feet feeling heavy as lead and with a smile tinged with longing, Anna turned and left his quarters, lifting the rose to brush it against her cheek as she headed for the turbolift and Medical.

Velan Observatory certainly kept itself busy, Anna thought absently; as she scrolled through data detailing the various cosmic events it had been witness to. She stifled a yawn, and kept looking. She'd been at it for a couple of hours and when finished perusing, would have to compile a report to give to Commander Ridire. Giving her back an experimental stretch, she touched the crystal globe that sat in a place of honor on her office desk and watched as the hologram inside exploded into a profusion of colors. It was called Nova Starburst and Will had surprised her with it a couple of months ago. She smiled at the memory and that naturally led to her thinking of more recent memories, and before too long, she was daydreaming as she watched the colors explode over and over again. Wade yawned a bit as he headed down the corridor towards the science department. No matter how many times he tried to convince himself that he was just tired because of all the refitting and maintenance work they had done while the Reaent was in space dock. No matter how hard he tried however, he couldn't deny the truth of the matter, no matter how much he tried to ignore it. Stepping over to a well-known office, he knocked twice on the open door and poked his head inside. "Hey, you busy?" Looking away from the pretty object, Anna grinned at Wade and tapped her work screen, answering, "Well, if you consider looking over data that incorporates scans that reflect 12 billion years of history for the surrounding galaxies, then yes, I guess I'm busy." Wade looked disappointed for a moment, looking down at his shoes before nodding. "Ahh, I see. You do sound terribly busy then, I won't bother you then." He turned, moving to head out the door while hiding a grin. Rolling her eyes, Anna easily recognized Wade's flair for the dramatic at work and called him back. "Hello, stop right there. Come back and tell me what's on your mind. It's hard to digest 12 billion years in one sitting anyway," she joked. Actually, the scans taken by Velan of the surrounding galaxies were intricate, wonderful things that she was now storing for Astrometrics to study more thoroughly when they had the leisure time. Wade smirked, immediately turning back and taking a seat in the chair in front of her desk, propping his feet up on her desk. He looked curiously at the translucent object she was holding and tilted his head, asking, "What's that you got there. One of the lost crystal skulls? Oh wait, no, what did they call those crystals in the old Tolkien novels?" Anna raised an eyebrow, giving Wade a pointed look as he put his feet on her desk. She protectively moved the crystal globe to a safer location. "No, it's not a crystal skull or a replica of a Fëanorian lamp, Wade. It's a hologram that's a depiction of a star going nova." She eyed him for a second, and finally, breaking first, said, "Well??" "Well, what?" Wade grinned for a moment, scratching his goatee. "Oh, right. I remember what I came here for. I've been writing this hologram program for a while; I think I have all the kinks worked out on it. Was just wondering if you'd like to come and join me." Instantly intrigued, Anna leaned forward, her curiosity flaring. "Really? Some sort of engineering exercise? Oh! Something to do with you meeting Captain Spock?" Wade laughed, switching his feet a bit before handing her a PADD. "Are you familiar with James Bond?" "Shaken not stirred, right? Doesn't sound like he had much of a libido," Anna muttered, taking the padd. "I really don't know more than that about him...some fictional character. I didn't grow up on Earth so I'm not too familiar with common themes from old time entertainment sources." Anne smiled, shrugging as she activated the padd. "Tolkien is different, of course. Someone gave me a copy of The Hobbit in the Academy and I fell in love." "Yup, that's exactly right. Drove fancy sports cars around, drank martini's wore a tux. Sounds to me like it'd be a welcome break from fighting Scots." Wade paused for a moment. He knew he had been spending a bit too much time in the holodeck. "I mean replacing plasma coils." "Uh-huh, replacing plasma coils." Anna decided not to comment on the 'fighting Scots' comment. She had no idea what it meant and Wade would no doubt take her through some long, bloody history to tell her. The Irish history forced on her as a child had been bad enough. "Fancy sports cars? This is circa 1973?" Anna continued to read through. "World domination?" "Oh yeah, it's got it all. Cars, world domination, sexy..." Wade trailed off for a moment before continuing. "Cars." "Cars." Anna looked a little confused. "Cars?" She read on. "Oh, sexy and dangerous females, I see the attraction." She eyed him over the top of the padd. "So, ok...what do I do while you drink martinis, get seduced by seductive vixens and drive around in a car while trying to keep this world domination thing from happening?" "Oh no, the attraction is about fighting the bad guys and saving the world. Even if it is all imaginary," he said with a grin. "I was thinking maybe you could be my side kick, my compatriot, my voice of reason in those times when I'm stoned on holographic martinis." Anna's eyes fell on a character description. "You want me to be the voice of reason and not the dangerously seductive vixen? You do little for my confidence level, Wade." Wade laughed, getting a sly grin. "Well, that's if you want to be the dangerously seductive vixen. But I'm sure Lieutenant Tomlinson wouldn't appreciate that." Wade scratched his chin, looking a bit curious. "That is what I heard, right? You and Will are an item now?" "Yes, as a matter of fact," Anna answered with a smile that only just avoided being smug with her current happiness. "I just wanted to know I could have been the dangerously seductive vixen." She leaned back, thinking, "As the voice of reason, I also get to be armed, right? I mean I would think your sidekick will need to be ready at a moment's notice to kick butt as well as pay your bar bill?" "Oh, you bet." He said with a grin. "The program calls for you to save my butt a couple of times and you'll be armed to the teeth to do it." "Ok, count me in!" Anna agreed with enthusiasm. "Who else are you going to get? From what I'm seeing you have programmed all the characters except for four: yours--the super secret agent and me--the sidekick. That still leaves the dangerously seductive vixen and the megalomaniac villain intent on world domination roles to be filled." "Well, I was sort of hoping you could talk your head shrink friend into coming along, and was going to see if the chief was interesting in joining us. I think I can get Tayjer to play the part of a crazed villain." "My 'head shrink' friend?" Anna gave him an exasperated look. "That would be Dr. Caroline Curtis and...You know...I think she'd be on board with it." Anna leaned back in her chair and started to chuckle. "Oh, this is going to be too much fun."

Caroline stepped off the turbolift on the Reaent's science deck, heading for the Astrometrics lab where the computer told her she could find Anna. The two of them had had a conversation interrupted by the perplexing briefing from McQueen in the conference room, which had included the arrival of the Reaent's old captain, a man of whom Caroline had only the vaguest knowledge. This (combined with her curiosity about the situation in general) had led her to seek out the young chief of science again at whatever work she might be doing at the moment. She looked around as the lab's heavy doors slid open and caught sight of Anna standing at the far end at a console. "Hello!" Anna heard the doors slide open but didn't really register the sound until she heard her name called. Turning her head, she saw Caroline at the far end of the lab, and smiled at the sight of her friend. "Hello, to you, too. Welcome to the Nimbus system," she added, waving her arm to indicate the starscape overhead. "Why, thank you kindly," Caroline said, laughing as she crossed the room. "I knew I felt somehow different. Anything interesting making itself known?" "Hmm...define 'interesting' from the point of view of a Counselor," Anna replied, tapping the console in front of her. The view above them changed dramatically as Anna zeroed in on Nimbus III, itself. "Here's where we're headed, although actually, this is just a view taken from the Velan Observatory," she added. "Tales of the strange, weird, and otherwise bizarre," Caroline deadpanned, sliding onto a chair with a good view of the screen. "But I'll settle for the scoop on what it is we're supposed to be going to see. Beautiful starscape," she said, leaning back in the seat and eyeing the vista with appreciation. "Have any more readings come in like those Captain McQueen was talking about?" "Nope," Anna replied, stepping back, hand going to her hip as she turned to pace a bit. "Nine years between incidents is strange. Someone is either very patient or what they originally scanned was in the process of becoming something else. Something that might possibly have come to fruition just recently." She paused for a moment and then deadpanned, "Unless the place is just haunted." Caroline smiled. "Very scientific of you, though I suppose after we've accidentally met James Kirk face to face, I shouldn't be labeling anything impossible, eh?" She folded her arms, keeping her eyes on the starscape for a moment before looking back at Anna with a chuckle. "Seems we're making a habit of finding interesting things where there is supposed to be 'nothing'." "Well, Reaent's motto is 'To learn all that's learnable' and I just hope this time we actually are able to find something," Anna responded. "We never did find out how the whole 'now you're dead and now you're not' scenario happened and going back in time to 2293? That distortion never did reappear and remains a mystery." "Third time's the charm," Caroline offered casually, spinning her chair slightly to face the other woman. "And somehow I have a feeling you could be quite tenacious if you found a way to get your teeth into a corner of the problem. If it turns out to be anything we can observe, I'm sure you'll get to the bottom of it." "It's funny you should say that," Anna chuckled, thinking of the conversation she had earlier with Will at the gym. "As it turns out...you're right, Caroline--I am tenacious to a fault. No wonder you're such a terrific Counselor." Walking back to the screen, Anna leaned forward and tapped in a series of commands bringing up the scans that had caused all the fuss nine years ago. "I've been looking through these and I have to be honest, I can't tell which interests were best represented by the programming changes; Klingon, Romulan or Federation--a case could be made for each of them." Caroline looked gratified at the compliment, and, despite her lack of real knowledge on the subject, her interest was perked by the mystery. "They've ruled out any kind of automated process, I guess? Internal maintenance or something, malfunctioning and behaving abnormally?" "The Phoenix ruled that out nine years ago but came to no actual conclusion of what did instigate the changes in scanning parameters." Anna blew a piece of hair off her forehead as it escaped her headband. "I swear, Caroline, this ship never seems to get the kind of missions where supplies are needed by a colony and we drop them off and then get invited to stay a few days and enjoy their seashore." She glanced over to the other woman. 'Did I mention they have a seashore? No, well, in my fantasy they do. In reality, if we went to deliver supplies, we would find that the colony, no doubt located on a fetid swamp, had disappeared, leaving behind nothing but a bad smell. Which...I might add, we would not be able to figure out because it would be from another dimension or something." Caroline bit down on a grin. "That does sound more or less accurate," she said dryly. "And I could tell you that you'd be tremendously disappointed and bored if things were so simple but I'm not sure you'd believe me." Anna slanted a sideways glance at Caroline, and started laughing, shaking her head. "Of course I know that--what kills me is that you know it, too. I am clearly just a pane of glass to you, Dr. Curtis." "Not a pane of glass," Caroline said with amusement. "Call it a tapestry in which I've managed to trace a few threads. But I do hope we find something of interest -- conclusively. Do you think they'll send you over to investigate or will it be strictly flyby until they know what's going on?" Settling into the seat next to Caroline, Anna turned her head and meeting her gaze just shrugged. "I swear to you--the only time I have ever stepped off this ship for an away team is when we went to see the Guardian of Forever to ask his advice and enjoy a photo op." Anna smiled, adding, "Well, you know what I mean. While training at the Academy, I pictured myself finding extraordinary examples of rare cell structure or the ancient remains of long vanished civilizations. So far, it appears that I'm posted to the U.S.S. Temporal Disaster Locator and I have to tell you, Caroline...I hate temporal anomalies. So, in answer to your question of whether or not we'll leave the ship" Anna paused dramatically for a second and then said, "I don't know." Caroline couldn't help but be impressed at the fact that despite some amount of aggravation or disappointment inherent in the younger woman's words, her expression held more good humor than anything else. "An admirably open-minded approach," she said, chuckling. "Though you of all people as a scientist should know that two samples is hardly enough to establish a pattern -- it's been an unfortunate coincidence for you to start off with two such missions at once, but you've got a lot of time ahead of you. For the rest -- I guess I'll just have to stop demanding that you be a prophet in addition to all your other duties," she added with a wink. "As a quantum biologist, I am obsessed with finding patterns," Anna huffed as if offended, and barely managed not to start laughing. "And I appreciate you letting me off the hook Nostradamus-wise, Caroline," she answered humbly, shifting gears and now even more amused by a sudden vision of McQueen asking Science to report and answering him in quatrains written in a number of dead languages. It would surely take the cake, she thought and managed not to giggle. "If we get a third one anytime soon, I am going to assume it's a curse of some sort." "On the ship, I hope, and not on you personally," Caroline said dryly. "It'd be a great loss if we had to treat you like a modern-day temporal Jonah rather than Nostradamus." She turned her chair slightly to look at the starscape again for a moment, then shrugged. "Well, I look forward to hearing what you find out, whenever the captain sees fit to hold a meal -- I mean, staff conference -- again. Speaking of which -- the last one interrupted me before I could really ask...how was your leave? Go anywhere interesting?" "I am not a temporal Jonah!" Caroline's sense of humor always delighted her, and Anna, already on the verge of giggling, burst out laughing over her reference to staff meeting as meal. "Did you see Captain Michael's face when he saw all the cakes lined up? I thought he was going to have a stroke! It was really good to see him, though." Still chuckling, Anna nodded, saying, "Yes, I did go somewhere--Big Bear, California. Will Tomlinson invited Tabor Nansk and me to join him at his family's home." "Big Bear...not familiar with it, but that was very generous of him." Caroline had only met Tomlinson a few times, but she remembered it as if it were yesterday, first when the young pilot had spoken to her soon after she'd come aboard, during the whole "back from the dead" debacle, and then again later when she and Anna had purchased their respective pets back at the Reaent's *last* leave, base-side. He'd seemed steady enough, a nice fellow. "Did you enjoy yourself?" "It was wonderful for the most part," Anna answered, wishing she could tell Caroline about Tabor's mysterious disappearance but reluctantly aware she shouldn't. "His parents are such nice people, so welcoming. They're so proud of Will, Caroline-he's really lucky." Anna's smile softened with the memory of it, and she looked at the other woman, adding, "They made me feel like part of the family. Tabor too." Anna paused, suddenly feeling shy and a little embarrassed, but she knew Caroline would understand, she already knew Anna's background, so she continued, "They treated me better than my own family would if I came home, and there'd be no question of Will being welcomed like that if I were to take him to Kilo." Caroline nodded quietly; Anna had told Caroline a little bit (though, Caroline was sure, certainly not all) about the home life she had come from and she could believe Anna when she said that Will would probably not receive a warm reception there. Too, she suspected there was probably a little jealousy at work on Anna's part as well; her father's disappointment in her, more even than her own potential death, had preoccupied her most after the Reaent's near-destruction, and she probably envied the pride she saw in Will's parents. Most importantly, though, Caroline could tell that the Tomlinson’s easy acceptance of her was significant to the younger woman, on a couple of levels, and she couldn't resist a slightly knowing smile at the shy happiness she saw abruptly glow in her friend's expression. "That must have meant a lot to you," she said lightly. "I don't doubt they felt themselves lucky in their son's choice of guest." Shooting Caroline a sharp glance, Anna nodded slowly, remembering her conversations with Lisa Tomlinson and her kind, actually, loving words when she'd gifted Anna with the holoslides taken during the visit. "It meant...a lot," Anna confirmed. "He's important to me, Caroline." Caroline nodded understandingly, her smile widening a little. "And that's a very good thing," she affirmed, leaning back in her chair slightly. "We all need something -- or someone -- important. Keeps us getting up in the morning." Her tone was not teasing; Anna's expression had an earnestness about it which was at the same time amusing and very serious. But a wicked grin twitched at the corner of her lips for a moment as she added, sotto voce, "Or, occasionally, makes it overly difficult to want to do so. Either way, it's worthwhile." She felt herself safe in the joke; there was none of the pain of unrequited love in Anna's tone. Something was in the process of working out for the young Lieutenant, and Caroline, for her part, was pleased to hear it. "Very difficult," Anna murmured, thinking back to the other morning and how she'd wanted nothing more than to stay in bed and make Will finish what he's started the night before. "And, we're here on this ship---it's really a world all its own, backgrounds don't necessarily have to matter...do they?" Anna realized she wasn't asking Caroline, she was asking herself. And unfortunately, it mattered to her. Caroline didn't say anything for a moment. "Your background will always be a part of your past, a part of you...but the future...you make that on your own, especially out here," she finally said carefully, realizing that she was as much an eavesdropper on internal monologue now as anything else. "It is a world all its own indeed." Anna looked past Caroline to the work screen which showed a picture of the Velan Observatory with Nimbus III looming behind it. But in her mind's eye she saw Kilo Station, a place that for better or worse, would always mean home. Because it's where her family, her clan was. "Our past forms us, Caroline. You of all people know how important a role early environment plays in who we become. Our identity begins there." "Yep," Caroline said, nodding agreement. "It will always be there -- and should be. It gives us a grounding while we determine how high we want to reach." "I used to think it would always be there for me," Anna replied quietly, her words only lightly tinged with sadness. She'd had almost five years to get used to the fact that her choice to go to the Academy and join Starfleet was seen as a betrayal. "Do you miss it?" Caroline asked neutrally, watching Anna's expression, looking for hints as to the direction of her thoughts. "Yes, of course, I do," Anna answered unequivocally. "I loved growing up there and I miss it very much. There's no other place like it, Caroline, but..." Her voice trailed off, and she struggled to find the right words. "Intellectually, I know the bylaws are rigid and based on a world that doesn't exist anymore and yet I know in my heart that the reality is that the community I grew up in is unique, still thrives and wouldn't be able to exist the way it is now without those rules." She shrugged, "Rules which I chose to break and a choice I would make again." She smiled at Caroline. "I am a clear case of wanting to have my cake and eat it, too." "Well, you're aboard the right ship for that," Caroline said dryly, then added more seriously, "I know what you mean, and I don't blame you. There's always a point where we...realize the disjoints between where we came from and where we're going, though I have to admit yours are a little more sharply defined than most. For what it's worth, I think you have plenty of time to find a balance. And I think you will." "Caroline, you're absolutely right!" Anna exclaimed, feeling a weight drop off. "There's nothing but time, and on this ship, we occasionally get to bend it." Will and she were at the very beginning of something that would last a long, long time, she was sure of it. There was no rush to formalize anything. "I feel so much better, Caroline, thank you." Caroline felt a familiar rush of gratification, the rush that had gotten her into this occasionally crazy business in the first place; even though this hadn't exactly been a conversation Caroline had been expecting, the expression on Anna's face was a satisfying one. "I'm glad to hear it," she said, smiling, and she leaned forward, her elbows on her knees, letting her voice take on a slightly teasing tone. "Besides, between the man and the station, it sounds like you've got plenty to keep you occupied right here in the present. Everything else...it'll work itself out." "I'm holding you to that prognosis, Doctor," Anna answered, in the same teasing vein, before glancing at her watch. 17:30. She had ninety minutes. She looked back to Caroline, smiling as she rose to her feet. "I have to get going, I'm meeting Will for dinner, but how about we get together later in the week? Come on over to my place and bring Nelson. It's the least I can do since I trapped you into a session outside your office." "Sounds excellent," Caroline said with a grin, standing up as well. "Have a great time, and tell Will I said hi. And when we next meet, I look forward to hearing all the ghost stories of the Haunting of Nimbus III." "I, myself, am hoping it's something along the lines of a programming glitch or evil minded spying or anything explainable." Anna, mood far more cheerful than it had been a few minutes before, moved towards the doors at the far end of the lab, her mind already on the evening ahead, but before she reached them, she turned around, calling back, "I've lived on an old station-and Velan used to be manned--you wouldn't believe the nightmare old plumbing can cause."

The thing about the treadmill, no matter what VR program you launched was that you knew you were running fast and getting nowhere. She'd been on this thing for almost forty minutes and was determined to do sixty before finishing. She was currently running through an alien landscape that purported to be someplace called Hephastia V. It was nothing to write home about but it beat looking at the wall in front of the machine and her stats. Anna tapped the control on the machine, increasing the incline, forcing her legs to work a little harder than the program called for. They'd been back on board the Reaent for three days now and she wondered how long it would take for her to stop missing the trails around Will's family home. In his workout gear, of sleeveless shirt and workout shorts, Will entered the gym and stopped when he saw a vision of loveliness. Without disturbing her, he looked at her stats and smiled before he went back to admiring her. The program began subtly changing and Anna was beginning to understand why it had been recommended. The rather dreary landscape with its monotonous low, rolling hills and unremarkable vegetation was starting to turn into a dense jungle with brightly colored plants. "This is more like it!" she muttered, not caring if anyone overheard her, as she realized the longer you ran, the more you were rewarded with visual stimulation. Will grins as he gets on a neighboring machine and plugs in. He plugs into her program and beings jogging. It doesn't take long for him to catch up to her until he is just behind her. He moves to the side and moves around her and speaks: "The view is lovely. All the way around." He laughs. Really rewarded, she thought turning her head, and seeing Will loping along next to her and realizing from his comment that he'd just come up behind her. "I was just thinking that this program rewards you if you stick it out and it turns out to be even more generous than I thought." Anna grinned, deliberately allowing herself to drop back a little so she could take in the whole view. Will laughs as she falls back behind him. He pulls ahead a little before moving off to the right and falling back behind her once more. "Like what you see?" "Only everything," she answered flashing him a bright smile that lit up her eyes. The banter keeps up for the rest of the run time. When it is over, he unplugs and walks over to her. "Anybody ever tell you that you are beautiful when you sweat?" Wiping her face and arms off with the towel she'd carried from the locker room, Anna laughed and pulled the soaked t-shirt away from her skin. "Oh yeah, Lieutenant, all the time," she joked, lifting her wet ponytail off the back of her neck. He gallantly offers her his hand and helps her down off of the machine and walks with her toward the locker room. As they get there, he sniffs her neck and whispers in her ear, "Well you could take a sonic shower or perhaps, I could be of service in that regard?" She turned so that the wall outside the women's entrance to the locker room was at her back and he was standing just in front of her, blocking the rest of the gym and the crew using it from her line of vision. "You beat a sonic shower any day of the week and twice on Saturday," she teased, but I have to get back to the lab inside of an hour and you're just too much distraction." He puts on his most disarming, charming and melting smile, "You have an hour? I could think of a few things that we could do with that amount of time." "I have all the faith in the world in your abilities," she murmured, distracted by the smile and promise in those green eyes of his. Unconsciously, she sighed and leaned closer to him, letting her forehead drop against his shoulder. "You're very bad for my concentration," she complained into his shirt. He kissed the top of her head gently and put his arms around her. He held her close to him, whispering to her, "You have a choice, give me this hour now or I let you go and we have dinner at 19:00. Choose now, Anna." Pulling her head back to meet his gaze, which seemed accountably serious for him, she smiled, and this time it was her eyes which were making promises. "You know if I come over for dinner, there is a 99.978% certainty that you will end up making dinner and breakfast, don't you?" Since waking up in his bed, still fully clothed, two mornings ago, they hadn't talked about it but Anna realized he was being very protective of her, almost as if he were protecting her from herself. He smiles so gently it almost breaks a heart. "That's what I'm hoping. After all, I wouldn't mind the opportunity to...tell you that I love you." His eyes glowing with an extra light as he says those words. Feeling her heart turn over, Anna slid her arms around his neck, and stood on her tiptoes, missing the extra height her boots ordinarily gave her. She whispered in his ear, "You already told me that...what you didn't give me was the chance to tell you back." "You left in a daze my love. I think you needed my little declaration to sink in a little." "That's not why I was in a daze," she mumbled, "Well, not all the reason," she corrected. His kisses always left her less than clear headed. Will laughs, "You never gave me an answer. What do you choose? Now or later?" "I thought I did," Anna answered promptly, a definite gleam in her eyes. "I choose eggs benedict." He nods. "Done. In the meantime I'll leave you with a little preview of things to come." He lays a passionate kiss on her that curls her toes. "Fair's fair," she murmured when he let her up for air, and slipping her hand behind his neck, pulled his head down for another kiss, turning back on him everything he'd taught her. It was a first for him to have HIS toes curled by a woman. When he is done, he finds that he has to take a deep breath and finds himself smiling with pure joy, "Annabelle O'Halloran, I am NEVER letting you go..." Completely delighted with his response, Anna leaned back and grinned at him, "You say that now...and before witnesses," she teased, nodding over his shoulder at the stares they were garnering, "But be careful William Tomlinson, the O'Hallorans are known for being extremely tenacious. We never give up that which we've claimed...without a fight." She paused, letting a second go by, her eyes dancing, before she added, "Usually to the death." He takes her hand and kisses her knuckles, "You are mine and I am yours. I'll see you tonight." "Tonight," she agreed, her heart beating faster than it had the whole time she was running.

It was later than she expected when she got back to her quarters. The meeting in the Conference Room had gone on for a while, although it had been wonderful to see Captain Michaels--he seemed...well, he seemed the same. Clearly he'd recovered or he wouldn't have been able to join them for the upcoming mission. After the meeting, she'd spent the rest of the afternoon in the offices of the science department, catching up with everyone, meeting a couple of new transfers and going over department objectives and schedules. She didn't especially enjoy the admin side of the job and was very grateful that Dr. Smith's office door was always open to her. He was enormously helpful and very patient. All in all, the day had stretched on and gotten away from her and it wasn't until she checked for personal messages and found none waiting that she realized she'd expected to have one from Will. She checked the small crystal clock secured to a shelf in the living area--it was precious to her, having been her great-grandmother's and was now showing it was past 19:00 hours. Her gaze fixed unseeingly on Chauncey sleeping in his cage (a miracle), she raised her hand and was about to tap her comm badge when she hesitated, her hand slowly dropping back to her side. Her relationship with Will was still as shiny and newly minted as a fresh bar of latinum sporting its maker stamp, but she knew that if he wanted to talk to her, she would be hearing from him. But she wanted to talk to him. "Computer, what is the location of Lieutenant William Tomlinson?" "Lieutenant William Tomlinson is in his assigned quarters on Deck 8." Anna immediately left her quarters, still dressed in the day's uniform. Hastily walking the corridor bend to the nearest turbolift, she looked back over this morning's events with a slightly different viewpoint. Will had come racing back up the trail and told her that Tabor was gone. His father had known something was up because he'd urged her to stay on the porch, but her first thought had been that Will might be in trouble. Next thing she knew, Will and his dad had rushed into Jared's office and they hadn't emerged until three minutes before they'd beamed back to the Reaent, with Will muttering he'd talk to her later. Her worry had all been for Tabor's well being. Will had made it clear, and Tabor's own behavior had backed it up, that Tabor was going through something, and she shouldn't ask questions about it. But now, taking the first opportunity she'd really had to think about it, she realized something else--Will was probably blaming himself. It would be just like him, she thought, stepping into the turbolift and requesting the deck. He was very protective, it was his nature and he referred to Tabor as his wing mate, his 'brother'. He was probably wracked with guilt. Anna stepped off the turbolift and now walked a little more slowly than usual till she stood outside his door, hesitating to tap the chime. She wasn't sure of her welcome or even that there'd be one. But she needed to see him, see how he was...even if he didn't want to talk about the details or felt that he couldn't. She took a deep breath and tapped the chime. The door silently slid open and the first thing she saw was that a few knick-knacks were broken on the floor as if they had been hurtled at the wall with great velocity. Looking past the destruction, Anna spotted Will at the window with his back to her; he appeared to be gazing at the stars. When she came to his side, he finally turned his face to her. He was obviously a mess; his eyes were red and bloodshot as if he'd been crying hard very recently. He opened his mouth to speak to her but found he didn't have any words to say. He merely grasped her hand tightly while making sure that it was loose enough so that she wouldn't lose circulation or be harmed. He sighed and looked down, still having no idea what to say to her. "Will?" Shocked by how ravaged his face looked, Anna unconsciously tightened her grasp in his, wishing he would look at her again. She stood at his side, facing the window but not really seeing the view, wondering if there'd been some terrible news--if perhaps it had been discovered that Tabor had been hurt...or worse. "Will, please," she asked again, turning her head to look at his profile, while giving his hand a gentle tug. "Please tell me what happened this morning." Will looked at her with sadness, "I went looking for Tabor so that we could all beam back here. As I went out on the trail, something didn't feel right. It was like there was an intruder nearby. It's a sense that my father helped develop." He looked out at the stars. "I started looking for Tabor and I began to hear a transporter beam cycling. I got there just as Tabor and someone else disappeared." He looked at Anna, "If I had kept track of Tabor, I could've prevented this, but I failed. I failed to protect him and now he is in hostile hands, God only knows where, doing God only knows what." Will's face suddenly hardened. "I want him back, Anna. I want him back." He looked at her and chuckled with no humor. "It's funny, if this is how I react when Tabor is missing..." He stroked her cheek ever so gently, "How would I react if you went missing?" "You'd come looking for me because you know I have no sense of direction and would realize I probably zigged when I should have zagged," she answered with a half smile that didn't reach her eyes. She realized he was torturing himself with what ifs. With 'what I should have dones' and 'if onlys'. "Will, Tabor is a trained Fleet officer. He knows how to take care of himself--you know he does. And how could you have prevented him from being transported? If they wanted Tabor dead, they would have killed him already. But what if you'd gotten to him? What if they'd killed you because you got in the way?" She heard her voice rising and strove to control it, making an effort to bring logic to bear. She suddenly felt as if he'd had a very narrow escape. "Did Tabor know he was in danger? Is that why all the secrecy this past three weeks?" Will regarded her for a moment before answering, "Remember when he tried to steal a fighter, and was going to be transferred but mysteriously came back no questions asked?" When she nodded, he continued, "Someone way high up has Tabor on a leash. I don't have all the details but I'm pretty sure whomever it is, I'm sure he or his cronies have him doing God knows what." He sighed again, "He doesn't want many people knowing the details for fear of endangering them." Will looked out the window, "Bottom line, he is in trouble and I can't help him right now. I've never enjoyed the feeling of helplessness and now I feel it more keenly than I have ever felt it before." He looked at her as if asking for help. "I know it's not easy for you," she answered gently. She did know that about him. He had a take charge personality and wouldn't ever be comfortable having to cede control of a situation to someone else. One of the reasons he was such an excellent pilot but not conducive to sitting around and waiting. "You're not alone--I know your father knows the details and you've told Angel. It's a Starfleet matter. You blame yourself, but no one else does. I know Tabor doesn't." Will nodded, letting go of her hand. "Well, I always have been my own harshest critic." He didn't know what else to say so he walked away from her and sat on the couch. His gaze once more drifting away from reality as he sat there. Anna turned from the window, watching as he moved away, missing the warmth of his hand around hers. She felt a little defeated, realizing she didn't know the right words to try and make him feel better. He wouldn't cease blaming himself until he knew Tabor was safe, and even then, she had a feeling he would always carry some residual guilt. It was clear to her that he wanted to be alone and though it was hard, she started what felt like a long walk across his living area, her eyes fixed on the door. "You are too hard on yourself, but I understand," she said softly, moving past the couch, wanting nothing more than to sit down and throw her arms around him, promising that it would be ok. That really only worked on her nieces and nephews and by the time they reached eight or nine, they'd started giving her the fish eye. Will was incredibly stubborn, she'd found that much out already and if his mind was set, it was set. "I'll talk to you tomorrow," she offered, thinking it was wrong to leave him like this, as she tripped the sensor and his door slid open onto the corridor. He heard her but the words didn't sink in until the door opened, and his eyes flashed back to reality. "Anna wait!" When she paused, he got up and approached her. He put his hands on her shoulders and whispered in her ear. When the door slid closed again, he felt her slowly turn until she was facing him. When she looked into his eyes, he suddenly felt a need that he'd NEVER felt before. He kissed her gently at first but it quickly become more and more passionate and fervent. He wasn't even aware that he was slowly moving her back away from the door and deeper into the room, leaving the living area, and entering his bedroom. Don't leave. He'd whispered and she'd turned, searching his expression, so grateful to see he was really looking at her, that the blank emptiness of just a few moments ago was gone. As always, whenever he took her in his arms she forgot about everything else. She was aware of them moving but didn't realize they were in his bedroom until she registered the light changing. There was no light activated, the only illumination came from what spilled through the open doorway. They'd never made it this far before and she tightened her arms around him, her need for him greater than at any time before. This had a feeling of inevitability about it and Anna had a fleeting thought that at least he wasn't thinking about Tabor when he was with her like this. It was only a few moments later when they landed on his bed. She fell on to her back and he landed beside her. He stopped kissing her long enough to look her up and down. He loved the idea of having her in his bed like this. Will bent down and kissed her over and over and over again until all thoughts fled from his mind. The next morning... Will opened his eyes to find Anna comfortably asleep, curled up next to him. He smiled for a moment though it was tinged with a bit of regret. For a moment, he wished they hadn't slept the night away in their clothes but he knew it was for the best. He remembered last night that she'd with him and would've let him do anything he wanted, but he also could see that she wasn't ready yet and so they kissed and kissed until they finally fell asleep. He kissed her forehead and shook her gently. "Anna. Wake up. Wake up now..." Not quite waking up, Anna smiled, eyes still closed, turning into his warmth and cuddling closer. This was such a good dream. He didn't realize how wonderful it felt to be happy until this very moment and he truly wanted this moment to last forever but even such perfect moments do pass into memory. So he decided to wake her in the best way he knew. He managed to bend his head down and kiss her lips gently hoping to rouse her. "Mmm...." Anna purred and stretched, her arm hitting Will in the head. Her eyes flew open and she looked up at him, bemused, still not quite awake. "Will!" Memories of the night before came flooding back and she felt herself blushing, suddenly feeling intensely awkward. "Morning? I mean, good morning..." Will chuckled, "You're always cute when you blush." He got up and offered his hand to help her, "Join me for breakfast?" It was some small comfort that his clothes were easily as wrinkled as hers, but of course he wasn't going to have to go up one deck and over two corridors to fix that. She took his hand and with a smile, answered with just a little tongue in cheek, "I've been waiting to have you cook me breakfast." Will nodded. "Well my Mother gave me a great eggs benedict recipe...I think we had three or four days ago..." They talked and ate together and Will found that he felt much better than he had yesterday. Yes the darkness and sadness were still there when he thought of Tabor but for now the despair had been driven away by the beautiful beacon of love that sat across from him. Eventually, they got up and he walked her to the door. Before she had a chance to leave though, he turned her around and hugged her warmly. "Thank you for staying with me." And then his face grew serious, "I love you Anna. Never doubt that. And never doubt that if, God forbid, you were missing, always know in your heart that I will ALWAYS come for you. Nothing in this universe will stand in my way to see that you are safe." He smiled warmly as she left his quarters. It was in something of a daze that Anna made her way back to her quarters, nodding to a few Gamma shift souls on their way to whatever Gamma shift did this late in their day. He loved her! This is what it felt like to love and be loved in return. She felt utterly protected and in turn, fiercely protective of him. Entering her quarters, she was immediately assaulted by the sounds of angry bird that hadn't been put to bed properly. She smiled at Chauncey who looked like he wanted to kill something by the way he was squawking and rapping the bars of his cage with a bill that could bite through boiler plate. "I love him, Chaunce."

The wind shifted suddenly and blew her hair forward, bringing with it the smell of the campfire Will had started. It was their last night of shore leave--tomorrow they had to get back to the Reaent and Anna had asked Will if they could sleep under the stars; something she hadn't done since she was a child, camping with her family. It was funny how quickly the last three weeks had passed, Anna thought as she brushed her hair back. It had been nice feeling like part of a family again--Jared and Lisa Tomlinson had been so very welcoming. Will was very lucky in his family; they were so obviously proud of him--and rightly so. Anna smiled unconsciously as she thought about the last three weeks. They'd spent surprisingly little time alone together because of activities and day trips that included the whole family. She couldn't say she minded though, actually far from it. Seeing Will with his family was seeing a whole other side to him--she'd heard him talk proudly about them before, of course, but seeing them all interact and the obvious love and respect they shared for each other had meant a lot to her. Besides, there was no telling when they would see him again; Reaent would be shipping out within the next forty-eight hours or so and there was no telling when they would return to the Sol System. Will finished setting up their tent and sleeping bags. He stepped out to find Anna facing away from him, looking out at the panoramic view of the lake. He found himself admiring her beautiful feminine form for a moment. Thinking back over the past three weeks, he was kind of sad to be leaving home once again but he was very glad that his parents accepted Anna so willingly and more so that Anna appeared to enjoy herself. He grinned at the thought of how his mother would steal Anna away from time to time so that they could talk, probably about men and their quirk as most women tend to do. It hadn't been easy keeping Tabor's business away from Anna but all agreed that it was better that she didn't know anything about it. At least until later. Over the past three weeks, Tabor seemed happier, or at least more content about his situation. They all knew it would take time but in the end, Will felt that everything would work out for the best. He came up behind Anna and slid his hand around her shoulders and gently hugged her to him, whispering, "What'cha thinking about?" Letting her head rest against his shoulder, Anna smiled, and gaze still on the view, murmured back, "Oh, this and that. It's our last night and I'm wishing we could stay longer and yet I'm eager to get back and get going on our way." She thought for a second, and then twisted her head to find him looking back at her. "I'm wondering what it is that had Tabor so tense before we came down and now why he's suddenly, in the past week or so, seeming more relaxed." She noted the frown starting across his forehead and lifted her hand between them, palm facing out to hold off whatever he might be about to say. "Don't even bother to make up something. If you or he had wanted me to know, you'd have told me. I just don't want you to think I didn't notice or that I'm not concerned." She lowered her hand, giving him a searching look for a second before nodding, keeping her eyes fixed on his, while she said with a half-smile, that said she was more serious than not, "Oh, and don't make the mistake of thinking I'll always be so reasonable and patient, either." Will laughed and gave her a tight hug before loosening his grip to its original easy tension, "I would NEVER make that mistake. And as for Tabor, he does have a few issues that he would like to stay private. I'm his wingmate and it still took a Herculean effort to drag it out of him. I think he'll be alright though." Will felt Anna's body against his and he realized that he didn't want to talk about Tabor anymore right now. He closed his eyes and nuzzled her neck for a moment before whispering in her ear, "Perfect moment. Beautiful lake, beautiful sky and a very beautiful woman in my arms..." He trailed off as he laid a gentle line of kisses down the side of her neck. "You must think I can be distracted pretty easily, Lieutenant," Anna replied, even as she angled her head to give him better access, thoughts of Tabor and his problem, whatever it was, fading away, no match for Will's kisses which were doing wonderful shivery things to the nerve endings in her neck. Especially that spot right at the base... Will hands traveled to Anna's hips as he continued to kiss her neck for a few moments before he turned her around so that she was facing him. He smiled softly and ran his fingers through her hair as he held her with his other arm. "So Anna, we haven't had much time to continue our little experiments while we've been here. Would you like to proceed?" He grinned at her teasingly. She looked past his grin that so easily melted any defenses she might think to put up, meeting his gaze and holding it with her own, knowing just how vulnerable she was to him, and very aware he didn't quite realize that yet. But he did know this was new to her and she trusted him, so with a teasing tone that matched his own, she wound her arms around his neck and pulled his head down to meet hers, her lips just brushing his, as she whispered, "You know no scientist can resist an experiment." It was over an hour before they got back to thinking about dinner. As they ate, they talked about nothing in particular, just reminisced about the past three weeks, and Anna made a point of not bringing Tabor's situation up. When dinner was done, they both began to feel the bite of the cool mountain air and figured now was a good time to roll out their sleeping bags and get ready to get some sleep for their final night of shore leave. Anna had thought Lisa Tomlinson was exaggerating when she'd handed her a pair of flannel pajamas and thick wool socks for sleeping in. When it came to pajamas, Anna definitely thought that less was more, but as she untied her sleeping bag, she started shivering almost uncontrollably as the wind ripped the tent flaps back and shook the canvas. She rolled her bag out, letting it settle next to Will's and then looked over to him, noticing he didn't seem to be overly bothered by the cold. "It's only nine-o'clock...do you think the temperature's going to drop much lower?" Will nodded as he put more wood on the fire, "Yeah when the fire finally dies down it will get pretty cold but as long as you are wearing the extra clothes that Mom gave you and you're snuggled up in your bag, you'll be fine." Will gave her a wicked grin, "Of course, if you are still too cold, well I made sure that my bag is big enough for two." He gave her a teasing wink as he opened his bag. Anna looked at his bag and then back at hers--they looked exactly the same. Giving him a skeptical look that said 'Yeah, right', she blushed a little and sat down, quickly getting into her bag, and shifting around to find the most comfortable way to lay, which turned out to be facing Will and peering out between the side of the bag with it drawn over her head. "I'm sure this will be warm enough." She did feel a lot warmer, although that probably had as much to do with Will's proximity as the insulation in the bag coupled with flannel pajamas and wool socks. She was feeling pleasantly drowsy and waited till Will had gotten situated, and the lantern was off before saying, sleep starting to slur her words a little, "It's funny now, being here like this together, to think of your holoprogram." She stretched luxuriously, definitely feeling warmer, and then started to laugh, remembering something he'd told her--and realized now he'd just been teasing. "Bears. There's no bears." Will snuggled into his blanket and smiled as she spoke. He opened his mouth to tell her about black bears, brown bears and grizzlies, but he didn't want her having nightmares about bears so he just whispered, "Nope. No bears at all. Goodnight." I love you... The words formed in his mind but he stopped short of speaking them. He didn't want to pressure her. He knew that she was still very new to this and he wanted her completely comfortable before he spoke those three words to her. Instead, he watched her sleeping face in the dim firelight until sleep took him as well into the world of dreams.

Will Tomlinson finished gathering the data he needed from recent events and rubbed his eyes. He looked at the time. Seeing it was 1730, he smiled at an idea he had. He dearly hoped that Anna would be free tonight. They had much to celebrate. He input a message to Lt. O'Halloran's inbox: Anna, If you are free tonight, I would LOVE your company for dinner tonight at 1900 hours. Tonight perhaps we could have dinner in my quarters and I will treat you to a special recipe. Hope to hear from you soon. Will Will was smiling the entire time he was typing it and decided to mark it high priority. After all this is a high priority meeting, at least in his mind. He sent the message off and awaited her response. Anna was sitting on the couch in her living area, holding one large salmon colored cockatoo in her arms like a baby while she scratched his tummy, his eyes and beak both closed, which made for a nice change because he'd been squawking like a mad man when she came in. She was murmuring the usual nonsense to him, about what a handsome boy he was, such a love, and wasn't he excited to be back in 2385? That last bit was for her benefit. Chauncey didn't care what time period they were in as long as he had his seed mix and a large amount of material available to chew on. A soft chime from her computer alerted her to a priority message and she got up, carefully shifting her feathered burden to her shoulder although it still elicited a squawk of irritation. "Now, now," she soothed absently, used to his frequent complaints. Chaunce was a real crab at times, although it was probably her fault for spoiling him. She settled in her desk chair and tapped the screen to access the message, expecting it to be from someone in the science department. It was a more than nice surprise to see it was from Will. She didn't even realize she was smiling as she read his invitation and then threw a glance to the current time. He wanted to have dinner in less than ninety minutes? Her smile morphed into one of slight panic as she tapped back the answer that she would love to have dinner with him and was looking forward to his 'special' recipe. She jumped up and was immediately assaulted with flapping wings as Chauncey tried to keep his balance on her now heaving shoulder. "Oops, sorry, baby...I'm in a hurry." Anna put her other arm under his feet and then unceremoniously launched him at his perch. "Come on...this is the Reaent, you have to get used to the deck never staying steady under your feet!" She noticed as she went into the bedroom, stripping her shirt off, that Chauncey had managed his revenge--the downside to owning a bird. A very large bird. She was going to have to train him to only use the cage or give up on ever wearing anything more than once. Will was whistling while cleaning up his quarters a bit when he heard a beep on his computer. He smiled when he saw Anna's reply saying that she will be there. He quickly finished up cleaning his quarters before going to take a nice sonic shower. Afterward, he came out whistling, feeling great at being clean. He selected a nice shirt and pants for his outfit before getting dinner ready. He filed through the recipes that his mother had sent him and decided on glazed ham, scalloped potatoes and green beans. As the replicator began to make the food, Will set out two places on the small table and lowered the lighting to a more romantic level and waited for Anna to come to him. Last time they'd had dinner, she'd been a hurry too, Anna remembered as eighty-five minutes later she stepped off the turbolift and onto Will's deck. Everything had been rushed--the meal, getting dressed. Well, this time it was different, she thought, as she arrived in front of the door to his quarters. She had been rushed--what man gave you less than an hour and a half notice? However, she was satisfied she didn't look rushed. She hadn't shared a bathroom while growing up with four brothers, and gotten through the Academy without learning to do things efficiently. Her hair was up, and not just piled up like it was when she was in the lab, while her dress was a midnight blue silk, shot through with tiny threads of silver that looked very demure until she sat down and it revealed the slit up one side that went high enough that if a fire broke out she could flat out run for it. Of course, she would have to shuck the heels she was wearing if it came to that. She pressed the chime, feeling a sense of anticipation for the evening ahead. She hadn't seen Will since they'd been in the Arboretum and she'd missed him. Will was just placing a flower in a slim vase on the table that he'd almost forgot about when he heard the chime go off. He went to the door and took a deep breath to calm his nerves. He was a fighter pilot with nerves of titanium, yet here he was nervous at this woman's arrival. He hoped she liked dinner. He pushed the button to his door and his breath immediately left him when he caught sight of his dinner date for this evening. He actually had to blink and bring himself back to reality quickly before he looked like a complete idiot, "Good evening Anna. You look...breathtaking." He managed to smile and stepped aside so that she could enter his quarters. She was blushing as she stepped past him, and turned once inside to face him, replying with a grin, "Just imagine what I could have done if I'd had more than five minutes to get ready." The grin faded to a warm smile as she took in his appearance, thinking that as handsome as he was in uniform, she liked him in regular dress that much more. Actually, she just plain liked him. A lot. More than was good for her concentration. "You look terrific, First Lieutenant Tomlinson and thank you for asking me to dinner." She looked past him into the living area, this was the first time she'd been to his quarters and she was curious. Her eyes zeroed in on the single flower in a vase at the center of his dining table. A red rose. They'd had a discussion about the language of flowers once before--he'd given her a yellow rose at the time. She felt the butterflies in her stomach beat their wings for a moment before they subsided back to fluttering. Lady, five minutes or five hours, you always look incredible, Will thought, as he followed her further into his quarters. "Well, thank you First Lieutenant O'Halloran," he replied. He couldn't help but take in her form; even in the reduced lighting, she was amazingly well curved. He took a deep breath to keep himself under control as he conducted her to the nice little spread that he had laid out. "I hope you enjoy dinner tonight, Anna." He held her seat out for her like the true gentleman that his parents had raised him to be. "Ham, glazed with crystallized ginger, scalloped potatoes with my Mother's special seasonings and green beans team to perfection, according to the replicator anyway." He chuckled as she sat down and he gently pushed her seat in. He poured two glasses of red wine and set them down on the table before sitting opposite of her. The look in Will's eyes was making her blush for the second time since coming in and Anna looked instead at the beautifully set table, suddenly aware of the wonderful aromas emanating from the serving dishes. "I know I will. Your mother is obviously a great cook, Will and it's very nice of you to go to all this trouble for me." She didn't mention that if he'd put a cheese sandwich on her plate it would be fine with her. She reached for her wine glass, making sure she had a firm hold on it before meeting that devastatingly direct green gaze again. She was finding that close proximity to Will was making her just a little bit clumsy with increased awareness. "So, your priority e-mail mentioned celebration. It's good to be home again, isn't it?" Will nodded, "Indeed. Successfully defeating the Klingons, making our way home and our promotions. There is a lot to celebrate." He held his glass up to hers, "To successful missions, well deserved promotions and..." He made sure that he held her gaze, "...to wonderful company during dinner." He clinked his glass to hers and took a sip, his soft, warm gaze never leaving hers. "The Klingons...wonderful company," Anna murmured absently as she raised her glass and took a sip. If asked, she would have had to say she hadn't noticed the taste, of what was no doubt, a very nice wine. It just didn't come anywhere near the potency of what she saw in Will's eyes. The rest of dinner went by fairly quickly. They ate the wonderful meal and made small talk until the food was gone. Will refilled their wine glasses and then led Anna to the window where they could see the stars a they streaked by at warp. He handed her glass to her and then turned, staring out at the stars. He put his arm around her shoulders, commenting, "It's beautiful out here in space, don't you think?" "You see it through the eyes of a pilot," Anna answered, a smile in her voice as she let herself lean against him, his arm a comfortable weight on her shoulders. "A vast horizon, it might as well be endless for our purposes, but for me, as a biologist, I've been used to looking at things from a much different perspective, usually at the cellular level. I've had to adjust my focus since coming aboard Reaent; get used to a much broader canvas. I think these streaks of stars that we're warping by are beautiful mainly because they are our stars...this is our time period and I doubt I'm likely to take that for granted any time soon. But for me," she paused, taking a moment to put her thought together, before continuing, "The real beauty, I find, is when we come to a stop and take a look around." Anna turned her head, to look up at his profile, her smile teasing, "I know that generally means a red alert is lurking just up ahead but there are sometimes whole hours spent in blissful research before you adrenaline junkies are called upon to harness up." Will smiled as he listened to her, and when she fell silent, he turned to faced her. "Very true." He brought his face mere inches from hers, "So, would I put you on Red Alert if kissed you right now?" She felt the butterflies go into overdrive again, as she smiled and shook her head, answering, "No, you don't have to worry about shields going up or weapons being brought online." He merely smiled in response before parting his lips, covering the small distance between them and delivered what he was severely hoping was a kiss that was both gentle and passionate at the same time. Once he felt her warm to it, he deepened it and for a moment everything was perfect but as with all perfect moments, it passed. When they finally came up for air, Will found it harder to breathe than he ever thought possible in this environment. He swallowed the lump in his throat before speaking again, "Well that was...electrifying, eh?" She'd known it! Being kissed by Will was nothing like being kissed by Colum! Anna slid her arms around his neck and pressed closer, murmuring, "I need more data before I can commit to any particular theory. I think we should repeat the event immediately." Will laughed with pure delight. "Absolutely. In fact, I was hoping we'd repeat this event many, many times." He moved in again before she had a chance to respond. In fact, they kept "experimenting" with kissing for the better part of an hour before he finally tore away from her. If they kept this up they wouldn't get any sleep and Will had a feeling that this was all very new to Anna. He didn't want to scare her away. He gave her a kiss on the hand just before she left. That kiss promised many more interludes to come if he had anything to say about it...

Leaving Tobias researching old communication codes, Anna stepped over to the console where Jon was sitting. "I'm heading down to Engineering to talk with Wade Knight. He and I've talked quite a bit about the temporal distortion and how we might get back. You said you'd like to help," she said with a smile, adding, "Want to come with?" Responding with a smile, Jon said, “Sure, it would be a nice change of pace from the current situation.” "If only it were so easy to get away from our current situation," Anna replied dryly, before heading across the Bridge towards the turbolift. "Maybe, but if everything was easy we would not strive to succeed,” Jon says calmly as he follows Anna to the lift. "I don't know...if everything was easy, I am sure I would get a lot more done," Anna replied with good humor as the lift doors closed behind Jon, saying, "Main Engineering." Feeling the lift begin moving, she said, "Since I've come aboard this ship, it feels like we've not done anything the easy way. That short, happy period of laying sensor buoys to track ship traffic seems like a distant dream." “With me it was investigations, fighting wars, and other endeavors,” Jon says in a casual fashion. “Perhaps we can get some shore leave after this. Hopefully Risa or some other planet not suffering from chaos.” "I have to admit, I was feeling pretty envious when I heard that Debbie Matthews and the Commander were going to Pacifica." Anna sighed a little wistfully but then brightened, saying, "Still, I wouldn't have missed seeing the Guardian of Forever for anything. I am sorry it's under these bizarre and dangerous circumstances, but really...how else would we have encountered such a phenomenon? It sure beats seeing everyone die and the ship being destroyed. That mission was my first one and this mission, ninety-nine years into the past, as well as the seventeen ships on our tail, notwithstanding, actually feels like it's going better." She paused for a second and then smiling, a little lopsidedly, added, "They say 'third time's the charm.' We make it through this, heaven only knows what the next mission will be." “The first mission is always the toughest to deal with, I still remember my first mission. Not the best way to get a person used to the life of a Knight of the Order” he chuckles for a moment. “Perhaps our solution will be an easy one to spot.” "Well, we have a solution," Anna began, raising the padd in her right hand. "These are the calculations used for a certain Constitution class ship to piggy back a ride home on the sun's gravitational pull. Unfortunately, we're not on a Constitution class vessel and according to the Captain, they had two months to do these calculations, I'm betting we have twenty four hours...at most." She stepped forward as the turbolift doors opened, and glanced about before spotting Wade sitting at one of the workstations. “We’ll just have to do our best then,” Jon says as he follows Anna into engineering. Grumbling quietly to himself, Wade didn't see Annabelle and Jon enter engineering. In fact he didn't seem very much aware of anything else going on in the room, his gaze focused on the console ahead of him. "Don't we always?" Anna asked with a grin, as they approached where Wade was sitting. He seemed as oblivious to his surroundings as always. "Mr. Knight...have you had a chance to look at those calculations I sent you?" Wade nearly jumped out of his seat when Anna spoke up, turning around to look at them. His wide-eyed and surprised stare faded away, replaced by a somewhat weak and exhausted looking grin. "Calculations. Yeah, I've looked them over," pausing for a moment he looked between the two of them, his grin fading. "Is the captain serious about this business about slingshotting around a star?" "The Captain was dead serious," Anna replied, "And I'm understating that." She looked sideways at John. "You heard him...I think we can all agree he was not in a joking mood?" Jon sighs at the comment; “I think captains don’t have a sense of humor. Think that went out of style long ago. As for our situation it’s either that method or we convert the Reaent into a sleeper ship. I’m not liking option two just for situation’s sake.” Wade stood up slowly, picking up a PADD with his calculations on it and tapping it against a tightly closed fist. "You know, there's a damned good reason I didn't suggest that in the first place. It's dangerous, hell it's practically suicide. There's a lot of margin for error, and if our arithmetic is off by just a few decimal points, we'll find ourselves hurtling towards a gas giant with no way of slowing ourselves down!" Wade face contorted with frustration for moment, then to disappointment. "Did he even give any consideration to my proposal?" "He didn't mention it, Wade," Anna replied quietly. "I've started the computer doing an analyses, taking into account Reaent's greater mass as well as the propulsion differences." Handing Anna his PADD, Wade shook his head and placed his hands behind his back, pacing around the pool table. "Your calculations were correct, for your approach vector, but the vector was too shallow. Too shallow and we don't gain enough speed to make any difference. Too steep, and we don't have enough speed to reach escape velocity." Thinking for a moment, Jon said, “So we need to find the sweet spot is what you’re saying. Even if we run simulations that prove successful it’s only theory.” Anna traded glances with Jon, and then looked back to Wade, saying softly, "They knew they were taking a risk when they tried this, but they felt there was no choice. They'd already discovered that history had been changed and they fixed it and had to leave so as not to do any more damage. We have to get out of this period. At least we now know we're in the right timeline." Wade nodded to the both of them, sitting back down at his desk. "Right, even simulations cannot take into account all of the variables in the equation. And when we're talking about such a large gravitational body and this much energy, there's a lot of variables," Wade pointed to the PADD, grimacing a bit as he did so. "I've reran the calculations, the approach vector and speed during our approach is all there. We'll need to go three-quarters impulse once we reach the perapsis. Once we leave the star's gravity well, we should reach enough speed to get us back to our time in about five days." He paused, tapping his chin, considering for a moment. "With a considerable margin of error." “Every explorer in history has dealt with immense margins of error. If the chance for success is good, it should be considered," Jon said. "Any thought about our angle of approach?” Anna swallowed dryly, pushing her unease to the back of her mind, as best she could, needing to focus. "We have some time before we reach Wolf 359. Long range sensors will begin picking up information on it soon enough and that will be added to the calculations." "The angle of our approach will need to be about ten degrees off perpendicular. If we are too close to a ninety degree angle we will escape the star's gravity as soon as we make our impulse burn at perapsis." Wade looked over to Anna, noticing her unease. They had been friends for awhile, and though she tried to hide it, he knew how she felt. "As pessimistic as I may sound about this, if the Captain thinks it's the only way, then it must be the only way." Seeing no reason to mention that she'd argued for actually attempting to interact with their pursuers, Anna merely nodded decisively. "It's what we've been tasked with and all we can do is keep running simulations tweaking as we go. Those seventeen ships are not going to stand by at a respectful distance and burn candles for our safe return to our own time. We're not going to have much of a window and we all know that it's the window that matters the most for this kind of undertaking." “Who would you suggest take the helm for this stunt? Mr. Lexi is still too fresh to perform such a maneuver. The fighter pilots could be considered, but a ship is different in mass and handling in contrast to a fighter. I might pull it off since I’ve had to fly the ship on multiple occasions. In the end it’s trying to roll a lucky seven with loaded dice that guarantee a snake eyes.” "That will be McQueen's choice, but I would suggest that the computer actually do it," Anna offered. "It will have to be following the program decided on." Wade nodded, drumming his fingers nervously on the pool table's desktop. "I agree. We're going to need precision flying, and the best solution would be to take the human element out of the equation." Shaking his head, Jon says, “That’s a leap of faith. Admirable but very risky. I guess we could submit the idea and go from there. I could run some test simulations just to be on the safe side.” "Test simulations are the name of the game at this point," Anna agreed, feeling the enormity of what they had to do weighing heavily. "We have one shot at it." Wade stood one last time, nodding in agreement to Jon. "That sounds like the best we can do for now. I'll keep working on the math down here." Turning he placed his hands behind his back and stood up straight. "I have one request. I would very much like to be involved in any further decisions on this matter. I have a particular expertise in this sort of thing, and I rather dislike being left in the dark." Wade took a deep breath, and ran his fingers through his hair. "But then, if we fail, we have plenty of time to try again." "I only wish that were true, Wade," Anna replied. I only wish it were true.

Will Tomlinson entered the TL and spoke softly, "Deck 19, Sickbay." As the TL whisked him away, Will took a deep breath as he slumped a little against the TL's wall. He felt his energy draining as the adrenaline in his system began to dissipate. And as the adrenaline wore off, the cut on his arm began to throb. He'd done a decent patch job to stop the bleeding but knew that he had to make a trip to sickbay to get it fully healed. Will thought back to his landing and considered everything he might do better if that kind of situation ever came up again. Once the doors swished open, he straightened up and entered sickbay. One of the medical staff directed him to an empty biobed and began assessing his injuries. He was asked to remove his uniform shirt for a better view of his injury. He did so wincing slightly at the movement and let the medic tend to him. They were on their way, fastest speed possible to Wolf 359. The name resonated for anyone in the Federation and beyond who knew of the events of 2367. But... This was 2293. Why was McQueen taking them there? This was on her mind as Anna entered Medical. She nodded to one of the nurses who came up to speak with her and explained she'd dislocated her shoulder earlier, and while it had gone back in by itself, was still very painful. Sitting on a biobed eight minutes later, the privacy screen now around the bed, her thoughts returned to Wolf 359. A dim, red dwarf star. What was there? She didn't doubt McQueen, even with the head injury he'd suffered, although, she thought uneasily, it did remind her a little of what had happened to Fred Michaels. She let that thought go as Doctor Rocco Studly regenerated and repaired the muscle in her shoulder. He really was very attractive, she thought, though not as much so as-- Suddenly distracted, she leaned forward, absently shushing the doctor as he chided her for moving. It sounded like Will was just over in the next station. Will nodded as he spoke with the medic about the prescription pain meds. "Just for a day then. Thanks." He felt the medic give him an injection of pain meds which caused the pain to vanish almost instantly. Will worked the kinks out of his neck but otherwise held still as the medic used the dermal regenerator on the cut on his arm. It turned out to be about 6 inches long and almost to the bone but repairable nonetheless. He suddenly found himself hoping that Anna would have a little free time soon. They hadn't had much free time since that dinner they'd had a while back. He resolved to find her as soon as he was discharged from Sickbay. Anna sat impatiently as Doctor Studly repaired the shallow head wound after finishing up with her shoulder. She glossed over how it happened, no need to burden him with the information that she'd neglected to stow her tricorder properly and it had rushed up to hit her in the head during impact. Let him continue to think she'd been wounded valiantly. She dressed hurriedly, said 'thank you' and was already out of the exam area as his 'your welcome' echoed faintly behind her. A quick look around told her that if she had heard Will, he was no longer around. If he hadn't been ok, they wouldn't have released him, she thought as she walked through the double doors leaving Medical behind. Looking up the corridor, she saw a familiar set of shoulders and dark head just rounding the corner. She didn't waste any time following after and soon fell into step next to him, casually asking, "Lieutenant Tomlinson, why were you up on the Bridge earlier playing doctor when you should have gone directly to Sickbay?" She looked over to him, her tone teasing, but her concern for him obvious. "I just came from there and while getting my shoulder fixed up, overheard you receiving treatment." Will smiled warmly as she came to his side and shrugged, "Ah, I patched myself up just fine to attend to..." He looks at her warmly, "...others of higher priority. It was a cut on my arm about 6 inches long. I was so hyped up on adrenaline I didn't even notice it until after we were off of the shuttle." He held her gaze for a moment before looking ahead. They entered the TL and Will was about to return to his quarters but stopped and looked at her, "If you aren't busy right now, want to take a stroll through the arboretum with me?" His tone hopeful, as he asked. They were less than 2 days from Wolf 359, they were being pursued by...how many ships was it now? And her department had data to analyze. She needed to confer with Dr. Smith to find out exactly what had happened while they'd been off visiting the Time Planet and upsetting the local Fleet presence. She really had no choice but to refuse and get back to work. "I'd love to see the arboretum," Anna answered, pausing a second before smiling and adding, "with you." She kept her eyes on him and called to the computer, "Deck 22." She and Debbie had enjoyed a conversation regarding the arboretum while in a beautiful fern garden on a star base that was now many millions of miles and approximately ninety-two years in the future. Debbie had mentioned that she used to enjoy working in the arboretum but there was never enough time, and when they'd gotten back from that star base, Anna had gone to take a look-see for herself. The arboretum had suffered the same damage the rest of the ship had and while it was now structurally sound and its environmental systems repaired, it needed some planning and care. She'd actually planned on talking with Debbie about it, asking her if she'd like to be involved, but there hadn't really been a chance. The new mission had come up and Debbie and Commander Ridire had finally managed to slip away for a much needed, well-earned, long awaited vacation. Anna missed her and wondered, not for the first time if the Ridires had yet discovered that a certain starship was nowhere to be found. "I think the arboretum is currently something of a blank canvas and I'd like to take a look at it, actually." Will chuckled, "Well I would've offered a trip to the holodeck, but I don't want to scare you off since we haven't had much time to ourselves recently." He saw how close they were together in the TL but before he could capitalize on the close quarters, the doors slid open. He took her hand gently and led her out of the TL. When they got to where the arboretum was, he turned and looked at her, "You want to talk about anything or..." He locked his gaze on to her and trailed off as he got lost in her eyes. Such a beautiful green, Anna thought as she looked into Will's eyes, waiting for him to finish his sentence. When he didn't, she smiled, and continued holding his gaze until she finally blushed and reluctantly looked away. It took her a moment to answer, sounding bemused, "I'm sure I do. I just lost my train of thought there for a second." Very conscious of the warmth of Will's hand still holding hers, Anna squeezed his fingers and gave them a tug, as she stepped forward towards the double doors that led to the arboretum. Will let her lead him past the double doors and into the Arboretum. He saw that the restoration of the Arboretum was still going on though no crews were working on it right now due to the current crisis. They sat at one of the benches next to an operational fountain and listened to the water flow. Will took his hand away and put his arm around her shoulders. He closed his eyes and relished the sound of the water and the feel of the woman next to him, "Mmmm, danger and excitement is fun but it's nice to enjoy a few minutes of peace like this, don't you think?" The light splashing sounds of the fountain and the fresh, earthy smell of live plants made for a calming, very restful atmosphere. "It's very nice," Anna replied agreeably, her eyes lighting with silent laughter that Will didn't see because his eyes were closed. Danger and excitement is fun? He'd surely chosen the right career. She shifted slightly, enjoying the feel of Will's arm around her shoulders. It's unaccustomed weight felt...comfortable; not heavy, not a burden the way Colum's arm had felt. "Interesting," Anna murmured to herself, her eyes slowly closing, lulled by how comfortable she felt being here with Will. It was like being at an oasis for a little while. A stolen moment. After a few moments, Will opened his eyes and kissed her forehead. When she opened her eyes, he took his free hand, held it palm to palm to her opposing hand, interlaced his fingers with hers and squeezed her hand gently. "We're going to be ok, Anna." He caught her gaze in his once more and smiled warmly at her, "I think that things are going to work out quite nicely." The gentle kiss surprised her into opening her eyes, and Anna stared at him for a second without saying anything. She looked down, her gaze resting on their linked hands. She had a feeling he wasn't just talking about making it back to the correct timeline. "Something you should know about me, Will," she smiled, and this time it was her turn to give his fingers a squeeze. "I'm an optimist. I always think things are going to work out for the best." Will gazed at their interlaced hands for a moment, marveling at how much he enjoyed just being with her before looking into her eyes once more, "I know." He gave her that crooked grin of his, "I just love being the hero telling the beautiful damsel that everything is going to be alright." There they were, two people with a deep affection for one another, in a moment out of time that would last forever in memory.

"So did the Captain tell you why he was interested in the Guardian?" Caroline forked a large mouthful of lo mein into her mouth and chewed on it thoughtfully before picking up the glass of mao tai wine at her elbow. In the brief lull from action which the ship had managed to find in this uncertain situation, Anna had found Caroline in sickbay and suggested they grab something to eat -- a suggestion which Caroline had been only too happy to accept. The past twenty-four hours had been some of the most intense of Caroline's life up to this point; if someone had told her a month before that she would soon be experiencing a red-alert in an unfamiliar time period from the bridge of a starship, she would have advised them to...well...get their head checked out. But that was exactly what had happened, and for a while she had been quite certain that everything was going to shake itself apart around her. It hadn't, though, and she was glad to take the opportunity to get somewhat rested and refueled -- and to grill Anna for information about just what on Earth she thought was going on. So far they still seemed to have more questions than answers, but at least it was good to have the chance to talk to someone and make sure she was not the only one somewhat confused by the situation. That was reassuring, in its way. Sort of. "Does he think we can use it to get back to our time?" she continued, with a somewhat hopeful expression. She didn't know much about the known incidents surrounding the Guardian, but she didn't think it was capable of allowing a starship passage. Still, she'd already seen strange things happen on this ship -- it seemed somewhat silly make any assumptions at this point. Anna finished ladling 3 Delicacies soup into her bowl, and looked at the mixture of shrimp, crabmeat, chicken, black mushrooms, peapods and bamboo shoots, redolent with sesame oil, before glancing over to Caroline who actually looked hopeful of receiving an answer. Not for the first time, it occurred to her that Caroline was doing a good job of taking recent events in stride. She seemed well nigh unflappable to Anna. She hated to disappoint her friend, but was forced to say, "No, the Captain didn't say what he hoped the Guardian could accomplish, but The Guardian of Forever is a construct of an unknown, ancient alien race, that apparently functions as a time portal, or gateway to other times and dimensions. It's located on an ancient planet where the focus of all timelines throughout at least the Milky Way Galaxy converge. Presumably, the Captain is hoping we can find a solution to our current problem." Anna smiled faintly and picked up her wine glass, raising it slightly in the other woman's direction. "Here's hoping." With a particular timing, the door chime rang, revealing Tobias Jaren, Reaent's assistant science officer. With him, an armful of padds which was usually the norm when he wasn't hustling to the bridge for some catastrophe or another. He stood silent for a moment, debating the intimacy of the dinner he'd just walked in on, before simply raising a brow and clearing his throat. "Here are the latest scan readings of space ahead. We also got some preliminary long range ones on the Guardian of Forever. Thought you might like to have a look," He paused, looking from Caroline to Anna. "I can come back if I'm interrupting." Anna looked up in surprise as Tobias appeared in her doorway, arms full of padds. She'd told him to call her as soon as he'd found anything. She was about to tell him to come on in, that it was no interruption, when her comm badge pinged and she heard Wade Knight's voice. She tapped the badge, telling Wade to go ahead, as she waved Tobias in with a smile. "I've got some information for you on the Guardian," came Wade's voice through a comm, followed by a crunch. He continued on, sounding as though he had a mouthful of something. "It's not much, something about all points in space and time converging on one point on this planet, a portal through time and dimensions. Sounds like a bunch of hoopla to me." "Hoopla? I recall my professor in temporal mechanics taking the Guardian very seriously," Anna replied, obviously amused at Wade's comment. "Want to come up to my quarters? I'm having dinner with Caroline Curtis and Tobias Jeran has just stopped by." Anna eyed the stack of padds her assistant was holding. "He seems to have some information also. Come on up--we're having Chinese." "Chinese you say?" Wade answered. "That sounds great, I'm absolutely famished. I think I've got something around here I can bring," There was a short pause and the sound of some thumping as if he was moving things around frantically. "Okay. I'll be right up. I hope you like beer." "Beer?" Anna shrugged and then stood up, walking to Tobias and taking the padds from him. "You look like you've been busy. Let me take these and you take a seat." Anna tapped the back of a chair, adding, "Might as well have dinner with us while we go over what we think we might know. What do you want to eat? Caroline's having beef lo mein and moo shu pork. I'm having soup and cashew chicken. What's your pleasure?" Tobias took a seat and looked a little awkwardly at the table, he never really understood Human's needs to mingle their work and personal lives, but then again Starfleet was all about exploring the unknown, so he figured he'd give it a shot. He glanced over both of the ladies' meals before looking to Anna. "I don't have much experience with Chinese food...I suppose I'll stick with what I've had before. Some sesame chicken, and pork fried rice, if that's okay?" "Sounds fine," Caroline said with a smile at the young man. "The wine's excellent as well; want some?" Reaching over to pick up the bottle, she poured out a glass for him. "So did you find anything interesting?" she asked, the hopeful look popping up on her face again. "Mmm yes please, thank you." He let Caroline pour him a glass, and took a sip before continuing. "I haven't found anything too particularly interesting about the Guardian, at least on our scans. We just entered extreme sensor range when I recorded these padds and came down here. It will be several hours before we get anything other then a confirmation of mass at the coordinates Captain McQueen gave us. Other then that, there is nothing of note along the way either. No hidden Klingon warships, no distortions in the space time continuum...that I can see anyway." Anna came back from the replicator and set two bowls of chicken sesame and pork fried rice on the table before returning to the kitchen area and coming back to set a plate and chopsticks and spoon before Tobias. She also laid a place for Wade. "No hidden Klingon warships is a good thing." There was a chime at the door, but Wade didn't wait for an answer before entering with two six packs connected by those plastic rings that had been phased out decades ago. Making a grand entrance, he stretched out his hands and let out a hearty and drawn out "Hey!" before walking over to the table and setting the packs of beer down. One of the cans, which read "Tsing Tao Beer", was missing. Anna saw the markings on the cans and threw Wade a grin. "Looks pretty authentic, Mr. Knight. What do you feel like eating? We've already got a pretty good selection going. Take a look at what's on the table and tell me what else you have a taste for." Wade nodded around the table to Caroline and Tobias and smiled warmly to Annabelle. "My family has had a long history of never throwing anything away. Especially alcohol in a world filled with synthehol," he pretended to scoff, looking exceedingly disappointed in the human race for a moment. Sitting down at the table he looked around at the various items that had been laid out. "You've got quite the feast here," he said, tucking his napkin behind his belt and picked up a pair of chopsticks, breaking them apart. "I don't know where to start... oh sesame chicken." He reached across the table, picking a few pieces of chicken out of the container and onto his plate, followed by some rice. "Plenty to choose from," Caroline said cheerfully; perhaps it was the wine or simply the collection of people just eating together, but she was feeling considerably more relaxed than she had a few hours before. Lurking on the bridge or in sickbay during a crisis was not conducive to low blood pressure. She eyed the beer with curiosity and then picked up a can thoughtfully. "The Reaent think tank is certainly well-supplied with mental lubricant." "Yes, plenty." Tobias eyed the beer curiously. "I'm not usually one to ingest alcohol in this manner, but as you humans say 'When in Rome...'" He fuddled the antiquated tab for a moment before the beer let out a carbonated hiss as it opened. He brought it to his mouth, sniffed, and looked around the table before finally taking a drink. He did his best to keep a straight face, but he still contorted in disgust just slightly. "It's...interesting." "Interesting isn't a bad thing, Tobias," Anna said cheerfully, smiling at the Trill's expression. "In fact, wasn't it a Chinese curse to wish for someone to live in 'interesting times'? I'd say the Reaent perennially suffers from that." She took one of the cans of beer and popped the tab, having watched Tobias do it first. "I hope this mixes well with the Mao Tai wine we've been drinking, Wade." She lifted the can and took an experimental swallow. "Hmm...not too bad." In fact, there'd been times, she'd tasted much worse. Wade grinned at the reactions to the beer around the table, and cracked the tab on one of his own before holding it up in the air in toast like fashion and returning it to his lips for a sip. "It's certainly not my beer of choice, but I thought it would suit the atmosphere." He said with a smile. He picked up his chopsticks and quite adeptly grabbed a piece of the chicken before popping it in his mouth. Caroline eyed the can for a moment more and then popped it open and gave an experimental sip. "Seems it's an excellent addition," she said with a faint grin, then glanced from Wade to the stack of datapadds Tobias had brought with him and back. "So what have you found out? You said you had some more information?" Wade shook his head, swallowing a mouthful of rice before speaking up. "Not too much. For something that could be of a lot of use, or a lot of danger, to a lot of people there doesn't seem to much data on it," he explained, pausing for a moment to take a drink. "At least data that would be of any real use. I can tell you one thing though, according to the report from the Enterprise's encounter with it, it's a portal of some sort with a door way about 10 feet across and eight feet high." Wade grinned for a moment, looking around the table and finding the soup, ladling a bit of it into his bowl while he continued. "Which you may notice is considerably smaller than a Ambassador class starship." "Yes there is that. I've been thinking about the...limits of the Guardian, if there does seem to be only one. I wonder, would the Captain have us abandon the Reaent to return to the future? There begs a question of where and how we would arrive. Even in the 24th century, it's slightly odd for several hundred people to appear out of thin air, claiming to have traveled from the past." He sighed deeply, before having a bite of his chicken. "Then there's the question of the ship. I should hope he would destroy it, and prevent any further contamination of the timeline..." Anna set her chopsticks down, her eyes resting thoughtfully on Tobias. "If it came down to that, I have no doubt but that Captain McQueen would order the Reaent's destruction in order to avert further contamination. However, I'm hoping perhaps this trip to the Guardian's planet is just to seek information. The planet itself is at the center of a field of spatial distortions. It's not a bad place to hide. It's rumored that the Guardian itself is more than five billion years old. Something that's been around that long should be able to fifer some insight into our problem." Caroline nodded slowly, setting down the can and poking her fork at the plate of lo mein again. "At the very least maybe it can confirm if we're in the right universe or...something like that? That was up for debate, wasn't it?" "Well, hopefully," Tobias answered. "Quantum mechanics isn't my strong point, but in my opinion the timeline has already been altered, just by our being here. Anything you observe also changes, and that's not even taking into consideration our engagement with the Klingons, or the build up of their fleet at our point of entry into this time. Hopefully this Guardian can shed some light on our situation, because I couldn't begin to guess how we've changed things." Wade looked around the table, nodding but not really listening. It had all been discussed a hundred times between science, engineering, and anyone else aboard this ship that had taken any notice or consideration of their current pickle. Caroline had a certain hesitance about her, though not blatantly apparent. Tobias seemed fixated on the thoughts at hand, and Anna looked hopeful of something. What, he didn't know, but he'd bet the rest of the beer it was that they'd find their way back home to their loved ones and find them all the same ages they were when they left. Grinning, Wade slapped the table and picked up his beer. "Whatever the case may be, the skipper will find us a way home." Anna smiled in response to Wade's grin and easy confidence in McQueen. "Well, I replicated these for fun, but I have to admit that the little superstitious side I rarely admit to, at least when on duty, was hopeful there might be a sign, so, let's see what this fortune says." Anna cracked open the half moon shaped cookie and read aloud, "Live for the present. The future will take care of itself." She looked around the table. "Well, that was less than helpful." Tobias cracked a small grin at Anna's fortune, and then picked up his own cookie. "Well, perhaps mine will be more helpful." He broke the cookie in two, raising a brow as he read it over. "...'Hard work achieves great things'. That's not even a fortune!" Wade opened his fortune cookie, reading it aloud, "Each day, compel yourself to do something you would rather not do." He paused for a moment and a slight grin played across his features before adding, "In bed." Anna burst out laughing and turned to Caroline. "Please, you're our last hope." Caroline swallowed a grin and looked down as she broke open her own fortune cookie. Her eyebrows went up and then she smiled faintly. "Your friendships will be a light in the darkness," she read, then looked around at the others. "A bit cheesy perhaps, but I'd say the sentiment's good. We'll find our way back...together."

Anna left the Captain in his ready room, his decision to maintain their current accelerated rate of speed precluded dropping out of warp to retrieve a sample of RNA. Will and Tabor were in agreement that since it was an established fact that all matter in the universe resonated on a quantum level with a unique signature which could not be changed by any known process, then a comparison of RNA from this Reaent's crew should not match that of a sample taken from anywhere in this time period--if this Reaent was not from this universe. There was no doubt that Reaent had slipped back in time when she'd gone through the distortion, but Will and Tabor believed it possible that she'd also slipped into a parallel universe and maybe in this universe...there were four cloaked BOP's. And just maybe...Reaent was about to screw up this timeline royally by lending a helping hand. She crossed the bridge and stepped into the turbolift, tapping her comm badge as the doors slid closed in front of her. "Will, I've just spoken with the Captain. Where are you?" Will tapped his commbadge, "I'm in Sickbay. I'll wait for you here." "Deck 19," Anna said aloud, sure that Will had already conferred with Dr. Merina. He wasn't going to like what the captain had decided and she wasn't looking forward to telling him as she stepped off the turbolift and walked towards the doors of Main Sickbay. Uppermost in her mind though, as she entered the heart of the medical department, was that they would only have nine minutes of stealth before the cloak would fail and they would be revealed. She was no tactician but nine minutes didn't seem long enough to take out three Birds of Prey. He was sitting with his back to the doors, his focus on a work screen. She came up behind him and softly called his name. "Will." Will turned and smiled when he saw Anna's beautiful face. He allowed an instant to reminisce. It seemed that Anna was becoming more and more important to him everyday. The Chief Science Officer had caught his eye when they first met but unlike other women he'd been with, he didn't just want a quick fling but perhaps more from her. His smile faltered when he saw the expression on her face. He knew it wasn't good news. "Tell me." He stated. Anna's own smile bloomed in response to his and she caught her breath, momentarily distracted by the warmth in his green eyes. Her response to Will was always a little disconcerting to her but the urgency of their current situation easily intruded and her smile quickly faded. "We're going to intercept the Klingons in less than three hours and Captain McQueen will not slow the speed of our arrival for anything, including dropping from warp to attain a sample to test its quantum resonancy against our own." Will sighed and looked at her again, "If he attacks those BOPs and we are in the wrong universe, we'll be violating the Temporal Prime Directive. Doesn't he realize that?" He kept his tone civil because this was Anna he was talking to but she could hear the frustration in his tone. "That's not his overriding concern," Anna replied quietly, recognizing the barely veiled frustration evident in his expression and tone for what it was--a combination of fear and anger. Fear that they were about to commit a colossal blunder that would have enormous and possibly terrible consequences for a timeline that might not be their own and anger because McQueen didn't feel the time could be spared to verify whether the timeline was their own--that the history they were so desperately going to try and enforce was, in fact, the correct history. "His thought is that he's not willing to take a chance on stopping for anything with the time to intercept so close." She didn't tell him that McQueen's exact words to her had been, I'm not willing to take a chance. Knowing if we are in the wrong universe is an issue for getting home. Right now, I'd rather change someone else's timeline if it means making 100% sure ours doesn't. He'd said that in the privacy of his ready room and she didn't feel it right to quote him on it to anyone else. There was also the fact that a part of her selfishly agreed with him. Something she was going to have to think long and hard on. "There's too much danger in our presence being discovered if we drop out of warp and we can't afford to lose the element of surprise." Anna paused for a second, but then continued, holding his gaze even as she deliberately pushed back the anxiety that had been growing since McQueen had told her about the limitations of the cloak. "And Will, there's something else--Angel will be getting this information and passing it along but I'm going to tell you now. Jontilles Shamor has been working with Engineering on adapting a piece of tech he has--something called a personal shield that has been modified to act as a cloak for the entire ship. The problem is--it looks like it's only good for nine minutes." She didn't say anything else. Three ships to one, even if the Klingon ships were ninety years older and that much less technologically advanced was still bad odds and the man standing in front of her would be tasked to protect the ship by leaving it and putting his life on the line. Not for the first time did it occur to her how inherently dangerous Will's job was. Will listened stoically as Anna laid everything out. His frown deepened at everything she told him. Tactically it was a dicey situation at best. Will knew that even with their advantages in technology being outnumbered this badly, especially by Klingons was ALWAYS a bad thing. He looked at Anna and saw the worried expression in her face. He knew that she was worried about the situation but it wasn't until he gazed deeper that he realized that she was worried about him. He couldn't help feeling a little glad that she was worried. He didn't want her to worry but that meant that she cared for him. He smiled slightly and caressed her cheek wishing he had the time to express how much he cared about her. Meanwhile his mind was working on alternate methods of getting the data he needed. He whispered in her ear, "Everything will be alright. I promise." After brushing his lips against her cheek, he left sickbay headed for the nearest TL. As he walked, he brought up the star charts on his PADD and plotted a course to the nearest body that sustained life. Not noticing that they'd drawn a few stares from the medical staff, Anna stood for a moment, watching Will leave. He hadn't said anything more than 'Everything will be alright' followed by a very sweet kiss on the cheek, and while she very much appreciated his attempt at reassurance, she was extremely puzzled by the fact that he hadn't said anything else. Over the comm, both he and Tabor had passionately conveyed how important they both felt it was to prove that Reaent was in the correct timeline before any attempt was made to protect the Enterprise and ensure that it made it to the Khitomer conference. She'd expected that Will would have expressed his misgivings at the very least. She left sickbay lost in her thoughts, her mind switching gears as she took the turbolift back to the bridge. Will's odd reaction she filed away, her attention turning to other mysteries, such as why the buoy left at the coordinates of where they'd exited the distortion had stopped transmitting. Perhaps Tobias and Wim had discovered something in her absence.

Jon sits at a workstation in the science lab modifying his personal cloaking device to work on a much larger scale. Aside from making blueprints as he works, he is also constructing an adapter for the device due to its limited power. Rather than wait for someone to tell him to get started on this project he decides to get an early start. He’s completely focused on his work, not paying attention to his surroundings. Anna walked slowly back from the mess where she'd gone to grab a sandwich for dinner which she planned to eat while she started the research requested by McQueen. She was expecting Caroline to come along in a little bit and give her a hand. She walked into the lab and paused on the threshold, surprised to see Jon there. He hadn't looked up when the doors opened and she realized that he most likely hadn't even heard them. He was riveted on whatever it was he was working on. She walked over, calling softly, "Jon?" Jon turns his head slightly as if he heard Anna but then returned to his work. He jots a few notes on a PADD next to him before returning his focus to the cloaking device. Even though he’s paying attention to his work he is aware someone else is in the room. This time Anna tapped his shoulder. "Hello?" He turns to Anna after setting his tools on the table. “Sorry, I get a little ‘in the zone’ when I work. I hope you didn’t mind me setting up shop here, it’s the only place where I can get some peace to work on the cloaking device.” "Of course, I don't mind," Anna answered, shaking her head. She gave a curious look to the counter. "What are you working on?" He points to the device on the left, which is no bigger than a wristwatch “I’m modifying the cloaking device so it can hide the Reaent. Due to its limited power I’m also making an adapter to where it can draw power from the Reaent and function as intended. As for power consumption, it won’t take much to run it.” Points to the adapter on his right, which appears to be in construction at the time being. Anna looked thoughtfully from one device to another. "We can track them from their emissions. Based on the sensor package they had in this time, what, if anything will they be able to scan from us?" “Truthfully…” taking in a deep breath, “the Reaent will be like a ghost. The cloaking devices from the Shadow Corps are very efficient and put out almost no emissions whatsoever. I say almost because if the device becomes compromised it won’t work as intended. Hence the reason I’m carefully working on it while making blueprints. I hope that answers your question.” Yes, it does, thank you," Anna answered "Can we fire weapons through it?" “Yes and no” he replies. “We can fire while cloaked but I wouldn’t recommend it. There’s a chance, albeit a slim one, that it might or will give off our location. That’s why a majority of Shadow Corps agents do not carry energy weapons.” "They would be able to determine our position probably with analysis of the weapon trajectory but by then we would have moved. Reaent has better maneuvering ability than those old K'Tinga ships." Anna slid onto a stool and looked at Jon for a moment before asking. "The Shadow Corp. Is that where you were...are...right now? The you in this era?" He lets out a sigh. “You knew I was a member of the Knights, but there’s something you didn’t know. After that war I fought in a long time ago, I joined the Shadow Corps as a freelancer. That means I was a member but I acted on my own. As for this particular time, I was monitoring the activity between the humans and the Klingons up until they established their peace. I have a gut feeling that my past self is in the area; it’s a feeling I can’t shake and it bothers me.” "You are in a unique position on the ship in that you are the only one who was alive in this era. I wonder if your self has scanned Reaent. Knows that we're here..." Anna looked worriedly at Jon. "What would you do?" “Depends on which version you’re referring to” he says in an inquisitive manner. “If you mean the current one, me naturally, I would first check our ship to see if we had leftover particles responsible for temporal distortions. Rule of thumb is that any ship going forward or reverse in time will have a chronological stamp to indicate where or when it was from. In the event that you are talking about my past self, however, I might have noticed the Reaent’s appearance but would have done nothing since neither my ship nor the temporal prime directive was threatened. Long story short we have to be careful.” "I was wondering what the 2291 Jontilles Shamor would do," Anna replied with a smile, which quickly faded. "We do have to be careful, and yet--the Captain has decided, and there was a definite consensus, that we will act to make sure the Enterprise makes it to the conference." “Are you sure we’re doing the right thing though? If my past self gets involved and tries to stop us, it could be dangerous. It might be possible to reason with me but it would have to be very convincing. Back then I usually acted before questioning those around me. I know for a fact we can’t blow up my ship; if I die on the ship I could not exist in the present. That makes for a difficult situation for me. If we must help the Enterprise; then we need to handle it quickly, quietly, and carefully.” "I have no way of knowing if we're doing the right thing or not. It's a gamble but it's a gamble based on our knowledge of history that tells us that the Enterprise did make it to the conference and foiled the assassination of the Federation President." Anna watched Jon, adding, "That's the Captain's reasoning and it feels right. As for your other self being so close by and in a position to interfere...we're going to have to program his ship's particulars into the computer so we can monitor what he does." He nods “I’ll upload my ship’s transponder codes so we can track it.” Motions to his workstation “it won’t be long for me to finish the modifications to the cloak, but the adapter might take a little while to finish.” Anna nodded, still turning over the ramifications of Jon's other self being so close by. "And you have no memories at all associated with Reaent having come back, do you?" He scratches his head “I’m currently drawing a blank as to whether I saw the Reaent at this time or not. I truly wish I knew but I can’t seem to remember.” "Because it hasn't actually happened yet?" Anna asked softly, not expecting an answer. This was one of the reasons that temporal anomalies were so frustrating. Things didn't stay linear, lines blurred and suddenly what should be up was down. Jon was right--they would have to be very, very careful but that was like telling a blind man to watch his step as he crossed a room with a floor covered in broken glass. "We know what happened--it's possible we just don't quite know how it happened and this is how it's supposed to be."

Anna had left the Bridge. The Captain's orders for the Science department were very clear--find a way back. Sooner rather than later. There was already looking to be more traffic in this area than they could be reasonably comfortable with. They were a terrible temporal accident waiting to happen. It hadn't been comforting to see Captain McQueen's expression as he'd contemplated the damage they could inadvertently do. And so...here she was, back in the lab, sitting glumly in front of a work screen while the data they scanned from the distortion was twisted and pulled by the computer through more convoluted contortions than a piece of taffy. Caroline was feeling at loose ends, and had been for some time. While she had never had any particular interest in advancing her medical degree beyond the confines of psychology, she couldn't help but envy some of the doctors in the medical department; at red alert, they had a definite job -- prepare for casualties. Caroline, on the other hand, had no particular place in the middle of sickbay during a crisis, and her office was not likely to be seeing many customers while the red alert lights were glancing off the walls (after they stopped, of course, was another matter altogether). She had been somewhat glad to get off the bridge, which had been tense as a taut wire as Captain McQueen had described the situation, one that would have unnerved anyone. However, with nothing else to do (besides sit and wait in her quarters) she had ended up wandering around the ship and had ended up in front of the science labs again. Anna had been sent back to the labs to do research, she remembered, and tapped the door open immediately. She doubted Anna would have any compunction in telling her the labs were too busy for visitors, and if they weren't, Caroline had a feeling they would both appreciate the company right now. Anna glanced up as the doors to the department slid back and it was with some surprise that she saw Caroline standing there. "Dr. Curtis," she said with a smile, "What brings you down here? Come to see if we've been driven crazy by yet another anomaly?" Caroline grinned, stepping into the room and letting the doors close behind her. "Don't tell me you're going to disappoint me...I was counting on it!" she said dryly, then cocked her head, glancing at the console over which Anna had been bent when she came in. "I hope you don't mind a visitor; there's not much for me to do in sickbay at the moment." "Don't be silly," Anna answered, her smile only widening, "you're always welcome--at anytime." She stood up from the workstation giving the screen one last rueful glance before looking back to Caroline. "The computer is offering many possible reasons why the distortion appeared but is not so generous with back to the future options. We're working on finding all the variables and running simulations." Caroline walked over and settled onto another seat in the room, glancing curiously at the console as she saw the look Anna directed at it. Her heart sank a little; unfair as it was, she realized she'd hoped the younger woman's department might somehow work a miracle at once. "And why does it think the distortion appeared?" she asked, with as much honest curiosity as desire to take her mind off things. "If its comprehensible to someone with a rather different degree?" Anna took the seat in front of the workstation and swiveled it so she was facing Caroline. "It's not actually that unusual for a space/time distortion to occur. A weakness in the fabric of subspace is not uncommon, and in cases of severe weakening a tear can occur. The distortion is most likely caused by a tear and it in turn has formed a wormhole...but not to another sector of space--a wormhole in time. The gravimetric distortions we encountered were a precursor to the opening of the wormhole and unfortunately, our sensors were overwhelmed and were unable to perceive the event horizon. We were through it before we even realized what was happening." Anna flicked a moody glance back to the data on the screen. "What I wouldn't give to have an accurate reading of what we encountered as we went through. It's very frustrating to have all this technology that always seems to crap out at the worst possible time." Caroline bit down a grin. "Yes, I would imagine so," she said, nodding. "I don't pretend to be an expert so forgive me if this sounds incredibly foolish, but...we can't just go back the way we came?" "That doesn't sound silly at all, Caroline. It's practical," Anna replied. "When sensors came back on line, the distortion was no longer apparent and we had to get the heck out of that area so as not to be discovered by ships of this era. At some point, we have to go back but in the mean time, if we can figure out how it was triggered, we may just be able to repeat the sequence of events that are now giving us a front row to history." Caroline nodded slowly, her face displaying a certain amount of disappointment. "I hope so. I doubt many of this crew would enjoy being stuck here; it was tense enough on the bridge after only ten minutes." Anna realized, with little surprise, that Caroline felt the burden of the crew's emotions very keenly. "Nobody wants to stay here. Obviously there is the chance that we could do something that would upset the timeline but then there are the personal considerations--our lives, the people we love, they're all ninety-four years in the future." Anna thought of Jon, and her expression softened. "Of course, one of us risks meeting himself if we stay here. I can't help but feel that needs to be avoided." Caroline's lips twitched. "Oh, I don't know...I've always been a great proponent of self-examination." "Well, maybe you have the temperament for it," Anna retorted with a grin, "but I know myself and I can tell you that I wouldn't appreciate hearing what I did wrong from future me. I'm sure she wouldn't be at all diplomatic." Caroline laughed aloud at that. "You're probably right. Luckily, as of right now, you haven't been born yet." "There's that silver lining that's been so elusive." Anna stood up and stretched till she felt her back crack. "Oh, that's better." She glanced down at Caroline, and asked, "What will we do if we are stuck here? We'll have to let Starfleet know. Won't we? Or would it be wrong to do anything more than try to disappear? We would be the Reaent H...the ship that mysteriously disappeared like the original Reaent...the Reaent A." "From my admittedly loose understanding of the Temporal Prime Directive..." Caroline said slowly, glancing down at the decking, "We would have to make ourselves as scarce as possible." She winced. The idea of herding this crew -- any crew -- through such an ordeal, with no hope of return to where they had come from, was not a pleasant one. "We would never give up trying to get back. We might grow old in the process, only to finally return to the point in time we left to find the people we left behind still the same as when we left--as if no real time had passed at all." Anna abruptly sat back down. "It sounds like one of those scary stories I collect." "Well, there's no need to give up on a happy ending just yet," Caroline said with a faint smile, catching Anna's gaze as her friend retook her own "Yes, of course, you're right, Caroline," Anna nodded vehemently and then met the other woman's gaze. "And I wasn't giving up, not really. I think I just felt a little morbid for a moment." She smiled then and added, "I would never give up...I'm far too stubborn." Caroline grinned at the expression of determination that had shot into Anna's eyes at the mention of giving up. "Well, I'd say we're in excellent hands, then." Anna laughed, Caroline's sense of humor always enjoyable but then her smile faded and she shot a quick look to the other woman. "I am glad that Commander Ridire and Debbie weren't on board when this happened. If, well if for whatever reason we can't make it back, they'll stand for us and they'll be able to continue on with their normal lives." Caroline's thoughts drifted to Merina, the Caitian doctor who had been left to take on command of sickbay for the first time now, in Deb Matthews's absence, and to the loss that the Reaent's XO and his wife would be left with, not even having the luxury of knowing what had happened, and privately she reflected that there were downsides to this as well. But she nodded. "Yes. It's good to know we have something of us left behind."

"I know sensors are down, I don't care what you have to do," Wade ordered the young ensign in a booming voice. "Go up to Ten Forward and look out the window if you have to, but I need to explain to the captain why we aren't moving!" The young engineer straightened her yellow uniform and stormed away from him, her face as red as a tomato. Anna stepped off the turbolift in time to hear Wade's 'suggestion' and nimbly hopped out of the way as the agitated young woman came barreling by. "Excuse me," Anna murmured to empty air and then walked to where Wade was standing. "I decided to come down and see where Engineering is at with our current situation and I have to tell you, Mr. Knight, it didn't occur to me to hit Ten Forward on the way," she said, eyes sparkling, as she swallowed back a laugh. Wade leaned against the bulk head with a sigh and turned towards Anna. A slight, yet tense, chuckle passed his lips at her remark and he shook his head. "I doubt the solution is going to present itself outside of any window." he said coolly, the frustration that was apparent only a moment ago faded behind a mask of pragmatism. "Have you guys up on the bridge figured out why the sensors went out?" "Oh, of course we have. I came down to tell you the good news in person," Anna replied dryly, and then just shook her head. "Nope, all we have is that very pretty cloud on visual. I really did come down to run a couple of things by you." He looked hopeful for a moment before he realized her tone and sighed even louder as she continued. With a nod he headed over to the pool table and leaned against it, crossing his arms in front of him. "What's on your mind?" Anna followed Wade and took a seat at a workstation, spinning it around so she could look up at him. "An increasingly strong gravimetric distortion field was recorded before sensors went out. Any gravitational or spatial distortion large enough to cripple the ship and fool the sensors would probably warp space time." Turning away for a moment, Wade pointed to another ensign working across the room. "Cola, work on getting me a status on the warp field." Tapping on the desk behind him with a finger, he looked down at Anna with an inquisitive look. "I had been thinking about that as well. Here on my end it seemed to me that all systems were go and for all intents and purposes we were moving." Pulling a pencil from behind his ear, he broke it in half and sat half of it on the desk in front of him. "Lets say that this pencil represents space," he began, placing his finger tips at each end of the pencil, "And lets say that this finger is the Reaent, and this is another point in space, say the nebula." Placing the other end of the pencil a foot and a half down the table and moving his finger to the end of that pencil he continued, "Now let's say we 'stretch' space out, adding more space between point A and point B, it would take far longer to close the distance. So let's say the other end of this pencil was on the other side of this room, it would take a long time to measure the distance traveled between them in millimeters." He looked back to Anna and grinned, trying to fit the splinters of the broken pencil back into place. "Am I making any sense at all?" Anna smiled in response to his grin, and nodded. "The strong concentration of graviton particles; you're theorizing that we're in an area where space itself is stretched out? Is that correct?" "Well, that's what I'm thinking, but it's only a theory at this point based on what my sensors were telling me before they blew out." He said with a nod, "That's basically the gist of it." Anna idly swiveled the chair back and forth a bit, thinking it over. She stood up abruptly and walked a few feet past Wade and then came back, turning to face him. "The thing is...that 'nebula' is not a nebula. It's some sort of distortion and that transmission fragment that was scanned and you identified as being sent on a Fleet emergency band somehow bled through from somewhere...some time. I think you're right that space is distorted in this area and I don't pretend to understand why. I think we may be dealing with a couple of things and the end result may add up to a temporal anomaly." Wade brushed the hair out of his face and grumbled to himself, "I hate temporal anomalies." Yet he leaned his head back, mulling over her theory. "What if that transmission we received..." He paused for a moment, thinking of the right words. "As you know, space and time are so closely related that they are essentially one and the same. What if that transmission we received became caught in this region of space, where things travel more slowly?" "And if it did," Anna asked reasonably," how long ago was it? What ship was being told to come back to port? Why was it being told to come back to port?" She smiled all of a sudden, and gave Wade a sideways glance. "I hate temporal conundrums, too. We could just as easily say that the transmission is bleeding back from the future." Wade's eyes lit up, "Right! It could very well be at the source of the anomaly that the opposite may be true. Space could be compressed, having the reverse effect, meaning if a radio transmission passed through that region at some given time in the future it would been..." Trailing off once more he threw his hands up into the air and growled with frustration. "This is all unproven anyway. As far as I know, we could have been standing still the whole time." Wade's enthusiasm was short lived but Anna wasn't disheartened. She enjoyed seeing the usually pragmatic engineer get excited and she had an idea... "And now we come back to the most immediate concern. We've got to get the sensors back online. What do you think about calibrating them to compensate for high density graviton particles?" Musingly he scratched at his short goatee, and gave a quick nod. "Right, we'll need to adjust the sensors to account for the strong gravitational field," he said, stretching out the final word in his sentence. "I think we can pull it off." "That's good enough for me, Mr. Knight," Anna replied with a satisfied smile. She knew he wouldn't say it if he didn't really think it would work.

Anna reached her quarters with only fifteen minutes to spare before Will was due to arrive for dinner. She was calling herself six different kinds of an idiot for not saying they should meet in one of the lounges or the mess when she heard a squawk she was becoming very familiar with. Sitting right by his cage door and bobbing his head was her new roommate, still unnamed, and looking desperate to be released. "Hey there, sweetheart, who's a handsome boy? That's right, you are. What a pretty baby," Anna crooned to him, releasing the very secure door latch. The pet storeowner had been adamant that this bird was good at releasing locks and so his cage had a latch on it that supposedly could defeat a clever primate. She grinned as a couple pounds of parrot stepped onto her outstretched arm and climbed to her shoulder. Will had picked out a nice sport shirt and slacks. Nothing too fancy but nice and comfortable. He smiled as he replicated another little gift for Anna. He had taken a shower and cleaned up nicely. He looked at himself in the mirror once before departing his quarters. "I have to get changed. Will's coming over. You remember Will? You should; you bit him and he didn't bite back." Anna set the bird on the perch in the bedroom. It was made of something supposedly indestructible and hopefully would fare better than her couch had. She went to the closet and grabbed a blue tunic and slim fitting trousers, changing quickly. She pulled her hair out of its usual headband and let it fall loose to her shoulders and then ran a brush through it. She gave a little grimace to the mirror and then looked at the bird. "No time, hon, no time." She offered him her arm again and transported him back to the living area. The sight of her half destroyed couch made her sigh and she tossed the afghan made by her grandmother over the wrecked half. "I should have said the lounge, I really should have," she muttered. Will made his way to Anna's quarters. He straightened his clothes and pushed the chime on Anna's door and raised his hand with his latest little gift: A yellow rose. Feeling just a little harried, Anna called 'enter' and gave the cockatoo a warning look before walking to the door, and then realized she hadn't given dinner much thought. She bit back something she'd been taught a lady didn't say out loud and managed a smile that warmed into something genuine as the door slid back to reveal Will. Holding a yellow rose. And looking very nice. "Will, right on time!" She even managed to make that sound like a good thing. Will gave her a quick once over and his smile was warm and soft. There didn't seem to be any real mischief behind it...yet. "You look lovely tonight Anna. I went through the database and the computer told me that one of the primary meanings of the yellow rose is friendship. May I come in?" "it is?" Anna looked a little puzzled as she took the rose and then stepped back, gesturing for him to come in, as she answered with a smile, "Of course, please do. I just got in a little bit ago so things are a little messy, but I know you understand about not wanting to leave the bird alone too much just yet." Will chuckled a bit but kept a respectful distance from the bird. "Oh yes I understand indeed." Will looked around, "So what are we doing for dinner?" "Well, ok, the thing is, I meant to get back here in time to actually have something ready for when you got here. But I didn't. I lost all track of time and now I'm wondering if you wouldn't mind just having something from the replicator?" Anna looked once again at the rose in her hand. Yellow means friendship? She looked back to Will, her smile bright but her eyes a little worried. "I'm sorry, this just turned out to be a busy day." Will smiled, "Well, the company is good so I'm sure the food will be fine." He sees her confusion and goes to the replicator. "So, what would you like Anna?" Embarrassed, she followed him over. "Will, I can do that. You tell me what you want. Do you want to start with a salad? There's a great beet one on file and what do you want to drink?" Will stepped aside, "The salad sounds fine and I'll take a sweet tea. Thank you." Feeling more relaxed, Anna waved him towards the living area, setting the rose on the counter of the tiny kitchen. She had to put it in water. "Sweet tea. it is." That was served cold, she remembered, having had it once before. "Sweet tea," she told the replicator, and then took the frosty glass over to Will. "Beet salad is really good with fish stew. Would you like to try that? It's kind of spicy. I brought the program from home." Will accepted the glass, "Spicy fish stew sound great." Will took a seat and watched as Anna busied herself with the food. She glanced at him over the breakfast bar that sat two, and smiled as she put the rose, now in a slender glass vase, on the counter. "You looked up what different flowers mean?" Will nodded thoughtfully, "Well I just wanted to express myself clearly with you. The globe I bought you was perfect because it was a nice way of saying how beautiful and vibrant I find you." He gestures to the rose, "The yellow rose expresses friendship because you are my good friend right now." She felt a blush start, the warm flush moving its way up her neck. "You're very generous, Will, and I want to say thank you again for the globe--it's beautiful and you've paid me a wonderful compliment along with it." She turned away and requested the salads from the replicator. She brought them over to the small dining table and then grabbed cutlery and napkins. She looked over at Will sitting on the couch and smiled, glad he couldn't see the wrecked part. "Please, come join me." She really wished she'd gotten around to getting candles. She'd spent no time decorating since moving in. Unfortunately, it showed. Will stood up and followed Anna over to the table. He smiled at the salad and went to her seat and pulled it out for her. "Ladies first." She gave him a smile over her shoulder as she took the seat he held for her. "Thank you." She shook her napkin out and laid it over her lap as he went around the table and took the seat across from her. "Did you have a busy day today?" Will shrugs as he picks up his fork, "Not too bad, just running errands for Angel while he went to some senior staff meeting." He looked at Anna, "I assume that you went to said meeting as well. New mission coming up?" Stabbing a pickled beet, Anna paused, nodding, her eyes on Will's. "Something strange was picked up on scans. A repeating signal coming from an area where there's...nothing. It seems to be a fragmented data packet transmission--it's Federation, but not much else is known about it." Anna took a bite of the beet and chewed it before adding, "I think of you as a good friend, too." Will mulled that over for a moment before smiling again, "One thing my father always told me when it came to women, 'Will, never ask more of a woman than she is willing to give.'" Will reached over and touched Anna's hand. "I am your friend. If that is all we are than I will count myself fortunate. If it becomes more than that then I will count myself blessed." He smiled gently. "Your father sure has a lot good advice, Will," Anna said, after a moment, very aware of the warmth of his touch. She smiled shyly, and then stood. "I'll get the stew." He released her hand and watched her move to get the stew. He took a few bites of his salad, his eyes never leaving her as she moved. Will smiled at how graceful she was. Calling up the stew and the crusty sour dough rolls that went with it took no time. She glanced over to look at Will and blushed to find him watching her. He must think she was backward or something, she thought, as she carried two bowls of the hot stew to the table. "Go ahead and try some. It's a family recipe and may be something of an acquired taste. It won't hurt my feelings in the least if you don't like it and I can easily make something else." She squeezed his shoulder lightly as she headed back to get the bread and butter. "I can always make you a peanut butter sandwich," she tossed back over her shoulder, thinking of the lunch they'd shared in the holodeck while exploring his Big Bear program. Will nodded, "Thank you Anna." Will waited for Anna to be seated once more before trying a bite of the stew. He tasted it slowly and thoughtfully, discerning the different tastes and smiling, "Actually its very good." He looks thoughtfully at her, "Salmon?" "There is salmon in there. Very good!" She smiled and dipped her own spoon in. "It's peppery and that can mask the flavor." She picked up her glass of water and took a sip, fighting a little battle with herself before she put the glass down with a sharp clicking sound. "I think there's something I should tell you about myself, Will." Will's brows rose slightly as she set her glass down with a little more force than necessary, "Please do." She sat back and eyed him across the table, momentarily distracted by his eyes. They really were a pretty shade of green, she thought, and they were so intent on her. She liked how he watched her when she spoke, it was as if-- Oh for heaven's sake! She looked at him thoughtfully, and then decided to just plunge in and be straightforward. "My upbringing was a little different than most everyone's I encountered at the Academy and I soon came to realize that it was a little unusual by normal standards. In my family...well, culture really, we enter into bond agreements when still very young. Our families arrange them and we grow up knowing who our bond mate will be and then in due course we go through the ceremony, very like what you think of as marriage. I had every expectation that I would go through the same thing, but in the end...I chose Starfleet for a variety of reasons and left my family and my Promised behind." Anna shifted uncomfortably in her seat, continuing, "Anyway, I went to the Academy and had to work my butt off to maintain grades high enough to do well enough to make the cut. I never made time for anything extracurricular and when the subject came up and someone was interested I never let it go anywhere." She leaned back in her seat. "I must sound like an idiot." Will sighed patiently, "You are not an idiot for wanting your life to be your own Anna. And you never sound like an idiot when talking to me." Will sat back and thought for a moment, "It's not really my business, but do you plan to go back to your family and the one you were promised to?" "No!" Anna stated vehemently. "That is, no, I have no intention of returning to him, the one I was promised to, or of taking up my designated role in the community. I would love to be able to be accepted by them for what I've become," she added wistfully, "but that seems a rather vain hope as things stand now." She looked down at the roll she'd torn to shreds, and then smiled at Will, her eyes starting to sparkle a bit. "I bet you're really glad you came to dinner." His smile grew and he rested his chin on his hand, "I am VERY glad that I came for dinner." Will thought for a moment and stood up. He winked at her and went over to the computer. Anna couldn't see what he was doing though as he was deliberately blocking her view with his body. "I'm glad," she smiled, suddenly very happy herself that he was here. She watched him, wondering what he was up to. Will was full of surprises and he had a way of making her feel just a little off balance, something she was not used to at all. "Uh, Will...what are you doing?" Will merely smiled over his shoulder at her and winked before going back to what he was doing. A moment later some soft music came up. Will offered his hand to her, "May I have this dance?" Anna set her napkin on the table and took his hand, allowing him to draw her out of the chair and into his arms "You really do have a way of disconcerting me," she murmured. He takes her into his arms and holds her close but not stifling her. "I'm sorry if that makes you uncomfortable." He whispered in her ear. "It does," she whispered back, and then turned her head back to meet his eyes, still whispering, "I don't think you're sorry at all." She didn't sound like she minded. She saw that twinkle in his eyes and smile of mischief surfaced again, "You might be right, but right now I am probably one of the happiest unmarried men on this ship since I'm here with you." Will cleared a stray strand of hair out of her face before running his fingers through her hair once as they continued to dance. His touch was very gentle and Anna tightened her fingers on his shoulder in response. "I'm happy, too." Will being one to go for what he wants slowly moves in with his lips parting slightly. Anna realized his intention and smiled softly, angling her head to meet him. He slowly closed the distance between wishing to enjoy the moment for as long as possible. With only a few scant centimeters left, Will moves forward... ..but just before they can make comment, a screeching sound comes from the bird cage and Will ducks his head a bit as the bird does a couple of flybys over his head. The bird then proceeds to return to his original post on his cage. The moment shattered, Anna watched in disbelief as the bird resettled himself and went back to quietly preening as he'd done throughout their meal. Excitedly, she stepped back, meeting Will's gaze. "He's never flown like that before! The storeowner said he wasn't a good flyer!" She beamed over at the cage, saying proudly, "That guy didn't know what he was talking about!" Will laughed, "I guess it was just a matter of motivation." Will checked the time, "And I think that is my cue to leave." Will began to walk to the door. "I think I just need to work with him on his timing," Anna chuckled, following him to the door. The door opened and Will turned before he left, "I had a wonderful time tonight Anna. I hope we can do this again soon." Will looks over at the bird. "My quarters perhaps next time?" Anna followed his glance and then turned back to face him, her eyes alight with amusement. "You pilots are supposed to have nerves of steel but I take your point. Next time, it's your pick." Will nodded, "Deal and maybe next time I'll have a red rose ready for you." He winked at her and after a quick glance at the bird; he gave Anna a quick peck on the cheek before stepping out the door before the bird can respond. She smiled at the wink but raised an eyebrow. She knew what a red rose meant. She turned away from the closed door and eyed the bird from across the room. "Nice timing. Keep this up and you may never get out of that cage again."

Lt. Will Tomlinson pushed the chime for Lt. Anna O'Halloran's office door. When he didn't get a response, he pushed a button and the door opened. He was glad that she didn't lock it. Will quickly entered and set down the small gift box on the desk and placed a card in front of it, nodding with satisfaction that it was perfect. He quickly left her office, glad that she hadn't spotted him coming out and headed for the nearest turbolift so that he could finish his duties for the day. The staff meeting over, Anna left the conference room and headed directly to the science department. The bridge station was in the very capable hands of Tobias Jaren and she wanted to get a first look at the signal material before conferring with Engineering. It sounded like there was very little to go on, and she frowned, thinking of Jon's suggestion that it could be a trap. Her first thought had been that a ship might have gotten itself into some trouble while in the middle of transmitting a data packet. Walking into her office, lost in thought, she didn't see the small box or the card with it, until she'd seated herself behind the desk. The card had writing on it in a hand she didn't recognize. Picking it up, she read, From your friendly neighborhood fighter pilot. Smiling, she flipped it over. On the other side of the card it read: It's beautiful and vibrant, just like you. --Will Holding the card, she reread it before looking thoughtfully at the small, colorful box. She was surprised by Will's gesture; the unexpectedness of it and the knowledge that he'd chosen something specifically for her, along with the very flattering sentiment expressed on the card had her gently setting the card to the side and lifting the lid of the unsecured box with a great deal of anticipation. When she opened it, she saw that it was another globe from that little shop they visited at the Starbase they'd just left. But instead of the lightning storm he'd bought his mother, this one held what seemed to be a bright star in the center. For a second, the star just stayed static before flickering and then it silently exploded in a dazzling display of luminescence that seemed to cycle through all of the colors of the rainbow for about thirty seconds before dissipating. Then the star reappeared in the center and the display started over again. Anna noticed something else in the box; It was a display stand for the globe and it read: Nova Starburst. Taking the display stand from the box, Anna set it on her desk and placed the globe on it, watching as the movement once again triggered the amazing display. It was extraordinarily beautiful and she enjoyed it a few more times before tapping her comm badge. "Lieutenant Tomlinson, please respond." Will just finished posting the duty roster and was heading for his quarters when his comm went off. He smiled at hearing Anna's voice. "Tomlinson here. Go ahead Lieutenant." Anna, watching the imprisoned star repeat its dazzling swan song, smiled unconsciously, and tapping her badge, replied, "You have wonderful taste in souvenirs. Thank you very much, Will. You surprised me." Will kept his smile as she spoke, "You're welcome Anna. Just a gift from the heart." His response gave her pause. Aside from one hair raising holodeck adventure (well she'd thought it hair raising--he'd thought it hilarious) and a hurried lunch spent discussing their shared worries over the now transferred Tabor Nansk, they hadn't seen very much of each other. "You've caught me by surprise again, Will," she replied almost cautiously. "It's a disconcerting habit you have." Will heard the uncertainty in her voice, "Anna, if you've got some time, why don't we meet somewhere so we can talk a little." Anna chewed her bottom lip for a second, before responding, "I'd like to, Will, but we had a staff meeting not too long ago and something's come up. Science and Engineering have been ordered to work together on it and I have some preliminary research to do. Maybe once we're off shift?" "Sure. Tell you what, how about an early dinner after shift? You pick the place," Will replied, trying not to increase her concern. "Dinner sounds good," she answered. "How about my quarters if you don't mind? The bird'll have been alone all day and he's still getting acclimated." She recalled that her quarters were rather messy, but made a note to get there before Will did. She could wad and stuff things into a closet with the best of them. Will nodded, "Agreed. 1730 hours? Maybe your new friend and I can come to an understanding in the process?" He couldn't see the almost unholy smile of amusement on Anna's face, as she simply replied, "Oh, he's a sweetheart, Will. I'm sure the expression 'Charm the birds from the trees' was invented with you in mind. I'll see you then." Will smirked slightly at hearing the amusement in her voice. "Understood, Tomlinson out." Anna tapped the globe and started the lightshow one last time before forcibly dragging her thoughts from the Will Tomlinson equation and turning her attention to the mysterious signal. It wasn't easy.

"...and that's when I realized I'd misjudged the boiling point and there was no going back! I had no idea, until that moment, you could actually melt sheet rock. Good lesson to learn." Anna took another lick of her ice cream cone, and wondered why the strawberry scoop had a distinctly metallic taste. "I don't know about yours, Caroline, but my ice cream tastes peculiar." She shrugged and kept licking. Caroline walked along bemusedly a little to Anna's side, listening as the young woman chatted and glancing around at the tourist-ish areas of Starbase 435 with a somewhat appraising eye. She had arrived on the base for the Reaent's short period of leave about an hour before, and had run across Anna while trying to locate something to eat; Anna had obliged her by pointing out a confectionary she had spotted earlier in the day, and while that wasn't perhaps nourishing for the ages, Caroline had been more than content to go along with the plan. She had, however, been eyeing the vanilla cone which she had purchased with some skepticism for about fifteen minutes, and seemed somewhat relieved when Anna mentioned the taste. "Oh, good, it's not just me then," she said, chuckling, then added wryly, "Yes, there's definitely a few...more exotic additives in this I think." "Exotic additives? Yeah, and they are no doubt listed somewhere at the bottom of the Periodic Table of Elements with all the other toxic metals." Anna glanced sideways as they passed a corridor where nothing more exciting than floor mopping was going on. "I can see why the Gorn ignore this place." Caroline followed Anna's gaze down the side corridors and laughed softly. "It is rather...deteriorated, isn't it? I know it's a border base, but still...I'm surprised at the condition of some of its facilities." Anna looked at Caroline, a little surprised. "I was thinking it had the usual homogenized Fed feel to it." Caroline looked at her curiously, and then shrugged. "Well, I suppose it's all the same architecture." And she couldn't deny that there was a certain amount of welcome familiarity to be had in the structure of a starbase, even if it was not a very well-maintained one. "I suppose you're used to even more on the side of rough-and-tumble, hmm?" she added, remembering that Anna had mentioned growing up on a station which made no claim to any Starfleet influence. "It's just...different on a Fed base. There are certain amenities you can count on and I always enjoy the chance to sample a new one, but they lack a...uniqueness of spirit. And as for architecture..." Anna shrugged and tossed her napkin into a trash receptacle. "They are generally beyond dull." Caroline smiled, deciding not to mention that she had drawn a certain amount of comfort from the predictability of starbases. That was something she had to start moving past. "You are an adventurous soul, Anna," she instead said cheerfully, checking her step to deposit the remainder of her ice cream cone in the same receptacle. "Well, seeing as how you are walking right beside me, Caroline, I could say the same about you," Anna said with a grin. "After all, you did manage to tear yourself away from the comforts of Oklahoma and join Starfleet." "True...perhaps there's hope for me yet," Caroline said, laughing. "So...it sounded like you'd been exploring here for a few hours; any points of interest to look into?" "There's no hope for you, Caroline," Anna teased. "You were transferred to the Reaent and she doesn't let go easily that which is hers. Oh, and I really haven't explored, other than to look over the schematic. I found a tavern and while eating an early dinner there, was lucky enough to run into an old friend." Caroline chuckled. "Well, she seems like a solid ship, and I suppose if one is going to get its claws into me, I'd like it to be a good one." She winked, then looked curious again as Anna mentioned meeting a friend. "Oh? That must have been nice; someone from the academy stationed here?" "She's a good one," Anna answered simply and then smiled, adding, "No, not from the Academy. From home, he was really my brother's friend and he was just dropping off some freight. He runs one of PlaxiCo's ships out in this area." "You have wide-ranging connections," Caroline said with amusement. She was honestly interested in the sort of communities which Anna hailed from, as it seemed like quite a complex system and one which had done a great deal to shape Anna's personality. "Do those organizations do business with the Fleet suppliers? Or do they simply use the facilities?" "It's twofold. Plax is a huge company, very broad based, many fingers in many pies. They've been vetted by the Federation as a supplier and will also carry Fed freight, outfitting starbases, colonies, as well as moving people. Starships have other things to do and so companies like Plax will do mule duty. It's lucrative for the civilian companies to get Fed contracts and it allows the Federation to keep the far flung reaches supplied." Anna chuckled, adding, "You have to jump through a lot of hoops to get the Federation Seal of Approval." "I would imagine so...I can see how they'd need to keep a tight hold or risk things slipping through the cracks," Caroline replied thoughtfully, and then chuckled. "Complicated business. I have to say it's very interesting, but this is no doubt old hat for you to have to recite." Anna shook her head, "Actually, No...no one asks me about the freight forwarding business, Caroline. Why would they? I grew up in it but it's not something that comes up too often in the Science Department," she finished dryly. Caroline laughed at the expression on Anna's face. "Yes, I can see how that might be a little out of the norm conversation. Too busy with probes and such. I, on the other hand, am at leisure to pursue my curiosity." She smiled cheerfully. "One of the benefits of listening for a living." "You are a great listener," Anna agreed, "And you have only yourself to blame for me monopolizing the conversation. A less polite person would have feigned a coughing jag or pointed at something in the hopes of distracting me." Caroline smiled. "If you ever bore me, I'm sure I'll find a way to let you know. For now...I'm quite happy to hear all about it." "Oh, that's very comforting, Caroline, thank you."