Molly stared at the empty walls of the ready room, and the empty walls of the ready room stared back at her. Everything felt ethereal. As if she was walking on a dream she hadn’t awoken from just yet.

She hadn’t slept that night. Instead she had snoozed on the shuttle with Cal’s shoulder serving as a pillow, but even then it hadn’t been enough to hide the dark circles under her eyes.

In her hands she carried a few personal objects: a blue mug with UCLA spelled in large yellow letters, an old and battered copy of Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth, a small spherical glass terrarium, and a framed picture of her and Cal laying on the grass of a holographic version of Oklahoma City’s Scissortail Park.

There was something eerie about the emptiness of the place. Like a distant memory she’d repressed for a long time that was only now coming to the surface. Her grip faltered and the book slipped from her grasp, hitting the ground with a thud. Promptly placing the other objects on the desk, Molly crouched down to pick up the book that had once belonged to her mother, only to notice that two pictures had fallen from inside of it. One of them was a picture of two little red haired girls smiling at the camera. It had been her uncle that had taken the picture, in one of the rare occasions where his nieces had enjoyed a day out. A soft gasp left Molly’s lips as she looked at the second one and at the half-Korean man smiling beside a five year younger Molly — Ashton Young. The first man to truly steal her heart. She would never forgive herself the pain she had put him through.

Take care of Ashton, yeah? The words, uttered in the holodeck of the Montgomery by none other than Lai Lysis, now seemed so distant. She had failed Lai, and she had failed Ashton. And yet, here she was again, on the center chair of a ship. She had promised herself she would never take the job again, but just like the promises she had once made to both Lai and Ashton, this one too had been broken.

Blinking, hoping to stop the tears threatening from falling, Molly slid the pictures into random pages of the book and placed it on the desk, near her terminal. The terrarium on top of it, and the framed picture and the mug sitting by its side. It was everything she had at the moment. In fact, together with the small gold Rosary currently around her neck, these were the most important things she owned. Everything else she could do without.

With the soft tap of a button the terminal’s screen came to life. Sitting down on the chair that had up until a few weeks before belonged to Cal, she brought up her messages. Her eyes still didn’t want to believe what they was seeing.

The first XO Command had placed with her had been Gren Aullar. An Orion female and granted, a peculiar choice for a newly minted Captain, but Molly had learnt a lot from her. The second one… well, she’d rather forget about him. And now, once again, instead of letting her choose, Command had determined who her right hand would be. Only this time the choice had been certainly intriguing.

Taking a deep breath Molly tapped her commbadge, opening a commlink.

=/\= Holloway to Renveer. Please report to the Ready Room as soon as you can. Holloway out. =/\=

Why a counselor? Molly didn’t trust counselors. She didn’t like them one bit. And yet, on more than one occasion she had found herself opening up to the Trill officer with an easiness and peace of mind she hadn’t shared with almost anyone before. Had that been why he had been chosen?

Propping her elbows on the desk, Molly rubbed her eyes. Staring at the naked walls around her she waited for her new Executive Officer to arrive.

Capt. Holloway, CO