Protocol dictated that newly arrived Chief Intelligence Officer Belle Harper must be cleared for duty by the ship’s counselor. The counselor didn’t know it yet, but the bald gray creature with a terrifying beauty consider this a formality only and a complete wasted of time. Perhaps once, long ago, she would have been delighted to meet a new crewmate and excited to share intimate details of her life. That was no longer the case.

She stood outside the counselor’s office and activated the chime.

-Lieutenant Belle Harper, Chief Intelligence Officer