The Runabout had docked with the huge ship easily, neatly and efficiently. It was only to be expected when you let a glorified taxi driver control a machine meant to feel the open spaces of the Galaxy and the invisible currents that real pilots knew existed in space.

Rovan felt sorrow for the Runabout as he stepped out of the passenger door, for once not being the man in the pilots seat. He remembered that he didn’t like that feeling, not being the one flying the machine and it made him tense in the way that every fighter pilot was when a stranger was at the controls of a machine. In the sky you trusted yourself and your wing-man, in a space taxi you trusted a second rate Ensign to press the right buttons at the right time. Rovan had flown fighters in combat for too long to trust a two bit Ensign to push the right buttons, especially when the docking had been done as automatically as you would expect from a procedure drilled shuttle lackey.

It honestly scared him a little and as he stepped down, the Ktarian placed a hand on the hull of the runabout and paused slightly. To many the gesture would go unnoticed or even earn a second, odd glance. To any real pilot, even an Engineer, they would understand that Rovan was taking one small moment to give his thanks for safe passage not to the pilot, but to the beast that carried him here.

While the new, uniformed crew of the Athena moved past the Ktarian and towards the docking bay doors he finished the quiet, whispered words of thanks and hefted his simple kit onto his shoulder. Off duty, Rovan preferred to avoid wearing his uniform. He could relax better out of it, become somehow less noticeable in a crowd as people focused on the uniformed officers. When on a transport or in a bar, he often found people bothered him less when he wasn’t in uniform. It gave him an air of anonymity that was refreshing as others had to think more about how to approach him if he wasn’t advertising his profession. Adjusting his high collared overcoat around his neck and kit bag, he began to follow the rest of them. Signing in with the Duty Officer watching arrivals he got his room number, and made his way through the decks, following the markers on the wall given to him by the computer and arrived at his room.

He let the light stay low as he unpacked in the largely empty room. He didn’t posses much, he had taught himself not to worry about material items as he moved too often. Even a couple of years on a Starship was short when you had to pack up your room and move light-years away, so he only carried the items he treasured most. The rest went back into replicator credits.

With a few hours yet before he had to check in, the Ktarian decided to sleep. He hadn’t slept at all on the journey to the Athena, he wasn’t at the helm and that didn’t feel right to him. Now he could sleep and he lay on the bed, his hand falling on something hard beside him that had half emerged from his mostly emptied kit. His fingers closing on it, he picked it up and brought it in front of his eyes.

In the low light, with his bed beside the view port with the stars of the Galaxy beside him in the wide open spaces, Rovan looked at the picture of himself and a Human woman. Both in uniform, he of gold and she of blue the two of them were smiling at the camera. Rovan was behind the woman who was only slightly shorter than him. Her dirty blonde hair was loose here and rested on her shoulders. He smiled as his eyes moved over the picture, she normally wore her hair in a ponytail but when she wore it loose he had loved the way it hung and how she would move her head to get it out of the way. Her orange-brown eyes looked straight at the camera and were full of life that was mirrored in her smile, and that caused his own smile to falter as he looked at it.

Last he had seen her she was lying eyes closed in a bed in sickbay. Comatose, the doctors had not known if she would ever wake. Last she had seen him, they were looking at each other and smiling as the doors to a turbo-lift closed and Rovan had returned to his quarters after their final date. He had never even told her just how much he had felt for her, about how he had been able to talk to her like nobody else. He had never shown her how much he had begun to care for her by touching his lips to hers. His eyes returned to the picture and he noticed that his hand was around Allison’s waist, his other hand pressed against the tree where they had first sat and talked. The tree where they had their first date, although neither had realized it at the time. In this picture, Allison’s hands were over his own around her waist, holding it tightly against her and his eyes returned to the smile and light in her eyes.

She hadn’t even known of his people in her time, when Humanity first began to explore the stars. Never seen many species other than her own and Vulcans. Yet despite her sorrow at being torn from her world, family and time she had accepted him, opened up to him and he in turn had spoken to her about things in his heart he had told no one.

His own smile slowly returned, and he placed the picture on his side table facing him before turning his head to look out the window at the stars outside. Comfortable here, he fell into a sleep from which he could wake rested and begin his duties. Now that he was back in a place where he could communicate and send messages, he was going to try to get word of Allison and if she had woken. She may have no memory of him or have moved on, but he wanted deeply to know that she was alright.

Lt (j.g) Rovan Moor
Engineer/Pilot