Cobb had been meaning to pay the Doctor a second visit for a while now. In part so that he could seek her professional opinion on Synthi-er’s injuries and in part so that he could follow up on the previously exhausted condition of the ship’s engineers. And perhaps also in the hope that she might furnish him with another selection of cookies, since the last shuttle had sadly departed for planet stomach yesterday evening. But overriding all of those motivations was the wish to acquaint himself better with Fey Kastil the woman, since such a mystery-swaddled enigma he had never before known!

But while Zachariah had taken several large steps towards ‘non-awkward socialisation’ through his regular breakfasts with Casela, still the art of initiating casual conversation remained so elusive as to be terrifying. And so it was with no less trepidation than his first time that he entered the Leviathan’s Alpha sickbay and began searching for the Medical Chief…

• Captain Zachariah Cobb