Nivor Rhansi had never considered himself a sentimental man. He had been away from his home planet for 17 years, and never expected to visit it again. But staring out the window of his quarters, hands clasped behind his back seeing starfields that he knew were completely unfamiliar to anyone aboard the ship, clouds of gasses that no one ever knew the existence of, well… it could make anyone feel a little bit lost.

He turned from the window, running a hand through his blond hair before picking up the uniform jacket on his bed. He slid an arm into each sleeve then touched the two sides of the front together and felt the light tickle of the nano-fibers weaving together through his duty shirt. He checked the mirror, tugging down on the red-pauldroned top before nodding. He opened a box on the bedside table and pulled out two devices, each attaching to a cheek and running to his mouth, where they would catalyze the standard oxygen-rich atmosphere into his own atmosphere.

He stopped before the lightly glowing forcefield separating his bedroom - and his native atmosphere - from the rest of his quarters and the standard atmosphere. He took one long lungful of air before stepping through. The breathers immediately got to work, and the air changed taste and smell to him, and his irises slowly shifted from light blue to dark green in the presence of the oxygen. He couldn’t feel that, but sometimes, when he thought about it, it creeped him out.

He exited the room at a clip, continuing down the hall to the lift, where he spoke only one word. “Bridge.”

Rhansi stepped out of the lift onto the bridge of the Ark Angel, surveying the crew. He wasn’t a Betazoid, so could not read their emotions, and wasn’t a highly trained security officer who could read for tells in the quickening of a pulse or dilation of a pupil; but one didn’t need to be those things to feel the thrum of anxiety on the bridge.

The comm sounded. =^= Riley to bridge. I’m sending some sensor data to you, and sensor settings, regarding energy pockets in the local region. We’ll want to avoid them; they can cause damage to our equipment and circuitry, apparently. These settings will help us detect them and map them. =^=

Rhansi approached the conn station, where NLt. Wilbur was reviewing the data the young science officer had just sent. Rhansi peered over his shoulder, and when the lieutenant looked up at him he nodded. Wilbur hit the comm key on his panel. =/\= We got your information Ensign. We’re applying them now. =/\= Rhansi knew the subtle shifts in momentum would be unnoticeable by the crew due to inertial dampeners… but knowing they were there he swore made them perceptible.

He moved and took the center chair. Now to see what else this galaxy had in store for them.

XO Rhansi