<One week later>

The Cochrane has returned the various refugees from the "Island" to their proper peoples. The Romulans in particular were surprised to learn of the Remean Upheaval and consequent restoration of the Romulan Senate (Star Trek: Nemesis) during their absence. Admiral Janeway was surprised and ostensibly glad to have the USS Nucleus found so quickly.

The entire Promos-Claris System, not just Promos VIII, has been quarantined to allow the FSJ to live in peace.

Today, a shuttle is arriving from the USS Ryan, and which is later to rendezvous with the USS Ramies.

Lt. Commander Biff Argyle and Lt. Commander Evory "Rory" DeKelley are both aboard the shuttle, so they can resume their duties aboard the Cochrane, along with a security team from Starfleet Command, so they can take Bruno Tiny into custody.

Captain Starkin, Commander Nganga are both on hand to meet the shuttle. Lts. Klaus and T'valla as well as Ens. Hurt are here to hand Tiny over. Dr. Jayngo is on hand to provide specific instructions needed to keep Tiny sedated.

Dr. Leah Brahms had not been happy when a member of the Starfleet Admiralty had, in essence, forced her to take Biff Argyle onto her team. Brahms has assumed, mistakenly, that this was done as a favour for Biff, and as such made their working relationship less then amicable. Biff's skills, while impressive, were redundant within the team, and combined with his problems with Brahms, he was not fitting in. When it was learned that the Admiral Uklik had reassigned Argyle as a favor for Admiral Belov so her son could take his place as the Chief Engineer of the Cochrane, Brahms apologised profusely to Argyle and had a letter of praise added to his permanent file before he left.

Admiral Belov had tried to use her influence to keep the incident with her son aboard the Cochane quiet, as she had on other occasions. In this particular case, though, the Cochrane is to high-profile within the upper echelons of Starfleet for it to go unnoticed. Further more, the leading scientist in the study of warp drive technology has also made some rather pointed complaints to Starfleet about being used as a pawn in the Admiral's machinations. Bruno Tiny is certain to face a court martial. Admiral Belov probably will as well. There are too many unanswered questions in her son's background (at the age of 29, he has completed Starfleet Academy, completed medical school, received an engineering degree, and, perhaps most telling, had been genetically engineered by the Cardassians to become an agent of the Obsidian Order.)

Counselor DeKelley is awaiting news about the Assistant Counselor that Starfleet will be assigning to the Cochrane. The size of the crew, as well as the number of civilians onboard, as well as Dr. DeKelley's needing to be available for diplomatic duties has led to the decision to have two counselors aboard.

The shuttle from the Ryan has just powered down, and the hatch is opening.

A couple of security officers come down, follwed by a slightly weary looking Biff. The look on his face is a mixture of chagrin, relief, and awkwardness.

Starkin spoke first. "Chief... it's good to see you again. I wasn't expecting it to be so soon, however."

Chief Argyle responded, "Thank you Captain. Neither did I, to tell you the truth." He stamemred a little bit. "Things just..."

"It's alright," Starkin responded, trying to diffuse his embarassment. "I'm aware of the situation with Dr. Brahms." She reached up to shake his hand. "There doesn't seem to be any hard feelings, and her loss is our gain. Especially given the circumstances." She turned towards Jayngo, Tiny, and the security detail.

While the nature of Lt. commander Tiny's appointment to the Cochrane had become widely known through the grapevine, Dr. Jayngo couldn't help but be torn about the engineer's fate. He too had felt as though Tiny had been sent to take his place; after all, how many giant doctor's did one ship need. But, on the other hand, he hated to think of anyone throwing away their career like the Tiny family had. The fact that this type of corruption took place at such a high level of the Federation was a bit discouraging and went against the entire reason he had joined Starfleet.

As the security personnel began the prisoner exchange, he checked Tiny's sedative levels and the hypo-introvenus feed of chemicals that would both re-balance his medication and keep him sedated for the trip. Having ensured that it would be a quiet trip, Jayngo handed the datapad with all of his notes over to the security detail. Turning to his own commanding officers, he stated, "All set, sirs. He shouldn't so much as flutter and eyelid the entire trip. They won't even know he's aboard."

::Kind of like how it was for us for most of his stay.::

"Very well." Something in Starkin tightened. She hadn't really known Bruno. She had already dealt with her anger towards him - his irresponsibility, the threat it posed to the ship. But now she just felt a little sorry for him and his family. It was always tragic to see a Starfleet career go down in flames. ::Even if he shouldn't have been in Starfleet in the first place... it's never pleasant to see anyone fail.::

"It's never pleasant to see anyone fail, is it Captain?"

Starkin tunred, raising an eyebrow. "Counselor..." Rory had a slight mischievious smile about him. She had a feeling he picked and quoted her brain like that just to lighten the somwhat awkward situation. (Or was it just a conisidence?) She wasn't really in the mood for it, but appreciated the thought and effort. She raised her hand up. "It's good to see you too."

"Likewise," replied DeKelley, returning the handshake.

Starkin turned back to the now sedated former engineer. She recalled her first meeting with him, in that strange looking costume (It was later Starkin found out how inappropriate and ridiculous it was for a human, even one who's bio-enhanced, to be casually wearing and ancient sea-faring uniform.) She also remembered him asking if he could have a pet, that wolf. ::I wonder what's happening to that thing? :: She recalled some of the personnel reports, indicating that he rubbed people the wrong way a lot. She quietly muttered her thoughts aloud, "In a lot of ways, he was like an immature child, trying desperately to fit in, but having no idea on how to do so." She turned to Nganga. "I guess with his mother always covering for him, he never completely needed to grow up."

"Parents will sometimes go to great lengths to protect their children, Captain, whether that's stifling their personal growth or holding three ship crews captive," Nganga replied.

"Rory," David shook the Conselor's hand.

"Dave."

"Biff," as Nganga stepped in front of the engineer he opened his arms wide.

The engineer gave his friend a fraternal hug. Nganga was bound and determined to not let the sad circumstances of Bruno Tiny get him down. Biff and Rory were back.

"Well, now that you guys are back, you have to come down to the Arcade for a welcome back dinner. I was talking to Moss to get a status report on the 'Theta Omicron wolf.' He said H'gak has an idea for a new entree, a variation of an old Klingon dish."

Rory and Biff looked at each other. "What's a 'Theta Omicron wolf?'" they asked in unison.

Jayngo spoke up, reaching for Rory's hand to shake. "Supposedly a very fierce creature, but his whimper was bigger than his bite."

Starkin paused with a stunned look on her face. She slowly turned her head to her first officer. "This 'welcome back dinner'.... You want us to eat his PET?!?"

"No, but I wanted you to think that I did," Dave smiled. "And H'Gak has actually suggested it and offered to take the wolf off of Moss' hands. Remember, Klingons don't quite make the distinction between pets and livestock that garman and many human cultures make."

T'Vala stood several feet away from the group talking, her internal termoil raging against itself as she listened to the discussion. She desired to lash out at those who made jest at providing a beloved pet an honorable end, while at the same time struggling to quench the bloodlust and maintain the logical approach. With just a few breaths, the decades of Vulcan training once again captured and caged her Klingon passions behind the walls of logic and decorum.

Biff had kind of suspected that Nganga had been leading them on. Rory, of course, had known, but had played along with the prank.

Feeling some chagrin, Uriell looked at Biff, then at Rory, noting him looking a little too innocent. Squinting just a bit, she turned back to Dave with a half-smirk, half-mock scowl.

"Actually, Tiny's pet was injured before you," Nganga looked at Jayngo, "got down his quarters. Moss has been trying to nurse it back to health. The problem is that its too wild to be a pet, and too domesticated, with an injury to boot, to survive in the wild. Moss nearly took H'Gak up on his offer."

Jayngo shrugged. "I'm a doctor, not a veterinarian."

"You had bigger things to worry about," Nganga replied.

"Hmm," DeKelley said, "Let me make some inquiries and then talk to Moss. There's a colony world, Sherman's Planet, near the Klingon border. They've been importing predator beasts to help get the pest population under control."

"Learned this from the diplomatic talks?" Nganga asked.

"From a member of the Klingon delegation," Rory replied, "The High Council is afraid of the infestation spreading to Klingon space. Might be just the place for this, you said it was Tiny's pet?"

"Yeah," Ensign Hurt stated, almost absent-mindedly. "Apparently taking care of big, dumb animals ran in the family."

::Aparently, Chief Tiny didn't win over too many people here.:: Starkin's mouth twisted at the junior officer's comment, but she chose to let it go. "I don't know. But given our recent encounter, I think we've had enough of oversized animals, dumb or otherwise."

She turned back to DeKelley. "Yes, the pet's name is Ranger, if I remember correctly. It's not your normal narget or feline we might keep as a pet, but Bruno seemed most fond ::obsessed:: with it," Starkin informed. "He claimed it was safe, that it was domisticated. But it may have been domesticated for Tiny only." She shook her head. "Without the supervision and accountability of its owner, we can't keep it here, and it certainly won't be going with Tiny. Counselor, please do look into it. If the Klingons are willing to take it, it's one less thing to worry about." She stopped and looked around at all of them, a slight (evil) smile pulling at her lips. "Unless one of you would want a pet..."

T'Vala was tempted, if nothing else than to aide the creature's passage into the next life. Her soul cried out to take the animal and the shopkeeper, the two of them hunting the creature together. She had noticed H'Gak on the boardwalk; he was a fine specimen of Klingon flesh, or so her loins told her, but she had long ago rejected the barbaric life of her "father." Instead, she stood in silence, allowing the creature's fate to be decided by her superiors.

Starkin glanced across all their faces. She noted the slightly awkward silence that fell upon them, answering her question. "I didn't think so."

Klaus walked away from the shuttle as a gold-shirted human female approached the Captain. "We're all set, ma'am. Our passangers disembarked, their belongs transferred, and we have the prisoner secured onboard."

"Very well then, you'd best be going. Fly safely, Lieutenant."

"Thank you, ma'am." The officer turned and entered the shuttle. The group stayed to watch the shuttle depart, then turned back to head towards the arcade.

The captain again spoke as they walked, "It will be good to have you back with us, Chief. It's been a little rough for the engineering crew, to make do without a chief for the past week. Thankfully, Lt. Norallah really stepped up to help fill in the gap."

"But she's looking forward to having you back here," Nganga added. "And to see you."

Biff smiled. "Yeah, me too." He turned brightly to his dark skinned friend as they continued walking. "So, I see you didn't get stuck in the Delta quadrant after all."

Dave smiled, "No, and it didn't take us seven years, either."

"For which, the admiral was pleasantly surprised. Though, if anyone on the Nucleus thought it was necessary to put us there, we certainly might have..." The Captain's voice trailed off as they walk down the hall.

Klaus was in his office removing all his security gear. After he had taken off his vest, he sat down at his desk and let his mind drift over the preceding weeks.

This posting just keeps getting weirder and weirder, thought the security chief. Sure, the transfer of Mr. Tiny went off without much incident. The amount of sedation the doctor used did most of the job for the security force. He just hoped those Starfleet Command security jocks didn't screw it up.

Klaus, noticing it was getting quite late, decided to head to his quarters. It would be good to have the next few days to himself. Maybe even get a little target practice in.

After crawling into his bed, his mind drifted back to when he last spoke to Ensign Corbin. Klaus had never been a ladies man, but he wasn't stupid either. But being her superior officer complicated things....a lot. On the other hand, he hadn't had time to make many friends since arriving on the Cochrane. It was something he would have to consider.....

Next: GHOST SHIP

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