Sixteen

At the door to Room J-21- Theera’s quarters, about to be hers as well-Hoshi paused a moment.

She tried to remember what she had felt like after being rescued from the reptilian ship, after returning to Enterprise. Numb, mostly. There had been no time to reflect on her experience, not right away, not with so much else going on-it had been a week, at least, before she’d had a chance to really absorb what had been done to her. How she’d been violated. There was the anger, and the revulsion associated with that violation, and then there was the fear that when they drilled into her brain, the Xindi had done some kind of permanent damage. Theera had to be feeling all the same things-and more, even. After all, she was now aboard a ship deliberately seeking out the very race that had kidnapped her. It would be, Hoshi thought, like her going back into the Expanse and looking for the reptilians.

Theera had to be scared. And maybe there were things about those four days she’d spent aboard the Antianna vessel that she was repressing-either deliberately or involuntarily. She’d have to work her way into the Andorian’s confidence before finding out what they were, though. And she had to do it quickly-it was, as Elder Green had pointed out to her, a matter of life and death.

There was a touchpad to the side of the entrance. Hoshi pressed it, and the door slid open.

The room was small-half the size of her quarters back on Enterprise, shaped like a flattened capital “T.” Each of the letter’s arms held a bunk and storage shelves. Directly in front of her was a terminal, a workstation.

In front of it sat Theera.

At the sound of the door opening, the Andorian spun around in the chair. Her eyes widened in surprise. There was a picture on the terminal behind her-an Andorian male. Theera punched a button and the screen went to black.

“Ensign Sato.”

“Theera. I’m sorry,” Hoshi said, nodding toward the screen. “I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

“It is a recorded message. I was simply reviewing it.” The Andorian got to her feet. “What are you doing here?”

“I’ve been assigned to these quarters.”

“What?”

Hoshi took a step into the room. “I’ve been assigned to these quarters,” she repeated. “It seems like we’re going to be roommates.”

“There must be some mistake. I told the Kanthropians I did not want to share quarters.”

“Maybe they had no choice,” Hoshi said. “Maybe the ship got too crowded.”

“No one has come aboard save yourself that I am aware of.” The Andorian frowned.

Hoshi chose to ignore that frown and take another step in the room. The bedclothes on the bunk to her right were rumpled. The one to her left looked fresh.

“Okay if I…” she asked, gesturing toward the empty bunk.

Without waiting for an answer, Hoshi put her kit down on the bed, opened it, and started to unpack.

“So how long have you been here-on S-12?” she asked.

Theera took a moment before answering.

“A week. Almost immediately after the bombing on Procyron.” She paused a moment. “I heard about your captain. My sympathies.”

“Thank you.” Hoshi pulled out the spare set of clothes she’d brought, and her data viewer, and put them on the shelf. “It’s still… sinking in, I guess.”

“I am glad to see that you have recovered, at least.”

“Good as new.” Hoshi folded her kit and stowed that too. She turned to face Theera.

“So I guess you didn’t make the trip back to Andoria after all.”

“No. I was ordered here, to provide the Mediators with whatever assistance I could.”

“Ambassador Quirsh’s orders, I take it.”

“Quirsh’s, and the Imperial Council’s.”

“You don’t sound too happy about that.”

“I serve the Empire.”

“Yes,” Hoshi said. “I’ve read about some of your work. The Universal Translator project. I was very impressed. Your thinking parallels…”

“That was a long time ago,” Theera interrupted. “And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to get some sleep. I have an early shift in the analysis chamber tomorrow.”

“Oh. Of course.” So much for working her way into the Andorian’s confidence tonight. Hoshi glanced around the room. “Should I turn down some of the lights, or- “

“No need.” Theera stepped back to her bunk, and Hoshi saw there was a touchpad on the wall above it as well. The Andorian pressed a button on the pad, and a wall of polarized light came to life, a blue curtain of light that cut off her side of the room entirely. The high-tech equivalent of a privacy screen.

The screen vanished. Theera reappeared, still standing next to the bed.

“The force-screen blocks out sound as well as light. You are free to utilize the room as you wish. It will not bother me at all.”

“Okay,” Hoshi said. “Good…”

Night, she was about to finish, but the privacy curtain was already back up.

So much for breaking the ice, she thought, and sat down on her bunk. What now? Report back to Elder Green, mission unaccomplished? Contact Enterprise, and try and obtain a lift back home?

She kicked off her boots and lay back.

It had been a long day, she realized. Twenty hours or so since she’d gotten up early to meet Carstairs for breakfast, and what was more, for the last twelve or so, she hadn’t eaten a thing. She wondered when and where meals were served aboard S-12, if there was a mess hall on the ship, or…

Her gaze wandered over to the workstation. She could probably find the information on that. She got up and sat down in front of it.

The machine used a standard command interface, unlike the ones in the analysis chamber; Hoshi quickly found a map of the ship, and saw that indeed, there was a mess hall-two of them, in fact, one on this deck, one right next to the analyis chamber. Looked easy enough to find. Grab a midnight snack-or rather, a twenty-two hundred hours snack-come back here, and get to sleep herself. If Theera was on the early shift, she probably was too; Elder Green would have her stick as close to the Andorian as possible. She wondered how early early was for the Kanthropians. She wondered if, on really her first full day back on the job, she’d have enough energy to get up then. She’d have to find it, she decided.

What was it Captain Archer always used to say? A little hard work never hurt anyone.

She supposed a couple more early days wouldn’t kill her. Especially with some food in her.

She was about to log off when she saw a little status bar at the bottom of the screen. It read: