Olly had looked forward to returning back to the Atlantis and hoped things hadn’t changed too much, though he had an extreme amount of pleasure being away during his lecture tour Olly knew his place was on board the Atlantis. Stepping out of the Shuttle he looked around to see if anyone had been waiting for him. He wouldn’t have minded if not, besides the ship was one of those busy workhorses where everyone always seemed to be doing everything and he knew they’d eventually get round to seeing him one way to another.

He jostled the straps of his bag and proceed down the ramp, there was a number of people milling around, apparently, the shuttle he was on was also brining in supplies which accounted for the minimal leg space he had injured during the 36-hour flight, he hoped he wouldn’t come of too cranky, but he knew his eyes had bags and that eh probably didn’t spell to fresh either.

One person he did hope would forgo the initial meeting was Runa, he had neglected her since his time away and left a rather short notice. He felt terrible but he always followed his scientific need for knowledge which usually came at a cost, in this case, that cost was a broken heart.

• Lt Oliver Loughty.