He was watching Starsa’s other sister, Maree, trying to get food into her two boys. They were nearly as big as Reoh, but acted like ten‑year‑olds, poking at each other instead of eating. Reoh sat in the only other chair in the room, trying to stay out of the way. He preferred this room to the bedroom because it had a window overlooking the living towers of Hohonoran, marching down the steep hillside.
“Hello, everyone!” Starsa sang out, as she came through the door.
“Starsa!” the boys called out, scrambling up to hug her. She laughed and tipped her basket of trinkets over, letting the rodents and bugs crawl on the tiled floor.
“What are you doing home so soon?” her sister asked.
“They kicked me out. Mom stopped by and fetched me.” Starsa pointed upward. “She took my stuff up to their rooms. I guess I sleep there, but I thought the boys would like the trinkets.”
She left them shouting over the intricate constructs, coming towards Reoh. “Hi.”
“I’m glad they released you,” he said, not sure what to say. Her body had changed in only a few weeks. It was a subtle difference, but a vital one. She even moved differently, more smoothly, like everything now fit together properly.
“I made them send me home,” she told him in a confidential voice. He could smell her skin, she was so close. “I want to have some fun with you.”
Reoh swallowed, not sure how he could tell her his doubts. The way her sister smiled over at them made it clear. Starsa’s entire family was acting like they were pledged to each other. He wasn’t sure how they had formed that mistaken impression, but he could find no polite way to correct them.
“Let’s go on the balcony,” Starsa suggested over the squeals of her nephews.
Outside they heard the din of the city noises, and the low percussion sound of a pneumatic drill, digging the support posts for yet another tower just uphill. But the balcony offered a liberating view of the city, nearly 180 degrees of shimmering forcefields that encased the towers. Reoh moved carefully, barely able to see the rainbow edge of the forcefield at the edge of their balcony. He couldn’t get used to not having a railing.
Starsa went right to the edge, of course. He smiled, glad to see a bit of her fearlessness had returned. He would hate to have her forever bowed down by the loss of her innocence.
She checked to be sure her sister couldn’t hear. “I heard about the failure of the power grid on Earth. And the declaration of martial law. They think there’s an invasion force coming, don’t they?”
“They’re preparing for it,” he agreed, not expecting this.
Looking over the city, she asked, “Are you leaving on the Cochrane?”
Reoh hesitated. “I probably should, Starsa.”
“Why?”
He was glad she was still looking away from him. She was notoriously blunt, but this could stretch even her limits. “Because of what your family thinks. You know, that caraposastuff.”
“Oh.” She wasn’t acting as shocked as he thought she would. “That bothers you?”
“Uh, I thought it would bother you.”
She shyly smiled. “I don’t mind it. It’s just my busybody family.”
“Really?” Now he didn’t know what to think.
“I know this wasn’t your idea, Reoh. It was thrust on you. You only meant to be sweet, bringing me home and taking such good care of me along the way. They don’t understand that’s just the way it is in Starfleet. We take care of each other.”
“Yes, we do.” He kept thinking Starsa didn’t understand what was happening, which was not an unreasonable assumption when it came to her. Yet she basically said she didn’t care if her family called him her “boyfriend.”
As if that wasn’t enough, Starsa grinned at him. “Don’t you want to stay with me?”
Nev Reoh felt the tightness in his stomach ease. He never wanted to leave Starsa behind. He wouldn’t be comfortable unless he could personally make sure she got back to the Academy safely. But Starsa was offering him more–or at least it seemed that way. If he stayed, he’d have a few more weeks here and the trip back home to find out how she really felt about him.
“If you’re sure,” he said, waiting for her nod. “Then I’ll stay.”
“Good!” She beamed at him, then faced the city again, as if those brief words had settled everything to her satisfaction. “But what if the Dominion invades Earth? What will we do then?”
Reoh turned to face her homeworld. He had a lot to see in the next few weeks. He wanted to find out everything there was to know about Oppalassa.
“Don’t worry,” he told her. “There’s hundreds and hundreds of starbases, and hundreds of starships. Even if the Dominion attacks Earth, we’ll always have Starfleet.”
Epilogue
“WHERE’S MY TRICORDER?” Starsa called out.
“Check the black bag,” Reoh replied from the other room. “I can’t figure out this Cardassian replicator . . . and the vent is stuck closed in the bedroom.”
“Just be glad we got a posting together,” Starsa told him, going in to put her arms around him.
“Not many people want to be on DS9 right now,” he reminded her.
They stood arm in arm, looking out the eye‑shaped window in their bedroom as the wormhole opened up. They both held their breath until a Starfleet runabout appeared.
“Probably Lieutenant Dax,” Reoh said, “with those samples. I should go help her–”
“I’m going to call my family after I check in with O’Brien,” Starsa interrupted. “They’re less than a week away. Maybe some of them can come visit?”
Reoh laughed on his way out of their quarters, remembering how he had been thrown headfirst into Starsa’s family months ago when they were first getting together. “Sure, why not? Have them all come.”
Ensign Jayme Miranda kicked open the door to her room–finally, after four years of quads, it was private! She did a little hop‑skip as she entered, tossing the stack of transport containers containing her growing medical disk library on her bed.
She flung open the curtains, and breathed deep of the mild Paris weather of late summer. The comm beeped before she could fall on the bed and relax.
“Hello!” she called out.
“Hi, Jayme,” Moll said even before her image had fully appeared. “Welcome to your new place.”
“Moll! You look great.” Jayme sat up on her knees, pleased that her first call had come from Moll.
“I just got back from dinner. You’ll never guess with who.”
“Did you already get back to DS9?” Jayme guessed the answer, as Moll knew she would. “How are Reoh and Starsa? What a couple, eh?”
“They’re happy. It makes me wish I could see you,” she added wistfully.
“Ten weeks,” Jayme told her, “Midterm break, unless you get sent back to Earth before then.”
“I’ll see you soon,” Enor agreed. “I can’t tell you how proud I am. The first Miranda to ever be accepted to Starfleet Medical.”
“Watch out, galaxy!” Jayme agreed. “Here I come.”
Bobbie Ray Jefferson walked along the line of young humanoids, sniffing slightly as he eyed each one. “I’ve never seen such a . . . puny lot of new cadets.” He didn’t mention the fact that this was the first lineup of cadets he had everseen. It was his first year teaching Self‑defense 101. But these cadets didlook much smaller than those he remembered from his first year, though that had been four years ago.
Bobbie Ray sneered at each one as he swaggered by. “You do what I tell you, and by this time next year, nobody in ten solar systems will be able to touch you. You want that, don’t you? Don’t you?!”