Armed with his berthing instructions, Nikki took the (to him) tortured lift down to Deck 4. Senior officer quarters. He rather thought that it was an oxymoron for one of his arbitrary rank to be ‘senior’. He would have to see whether anyone in one of the shops might be interested in some poker. While Fizbin had been debunked as a clever ruse of Kirk in his day, a clever Iotian had invented the game - albeit rather different in rules than had been originally laid down. It also had never caught on anywhere but among Iotians. That was on his list.

The doors opened at his touch and the lights obediently ‘flickered’ on. “Quaint,” he said around his cigar as he stepped inside. It smelled faintly of cleaning chemicals and wet dog. Curling his nose he stepped inside; the doors behind him closing. Eyes traveled around the sparse territory. This was the ‘main’ room - a mix of sitting room, workroom and whatever else he wanted to make of it. An alcove held a communications system. Nikki glanced at it. “Might as well use two tins and a string for all the good that will do,” he murmured. Turning to the ‘window’ he took in the sight of space beyond. Below him ships were docked and worker bees moved about. “This is more like it.” Closer to home. Something he could relate to. Otherwise the room was empty. Sparse. No furniture at all. He would need to see the quartermaster for furnishings. Three doors were near the middle of the back wall.

The center door turned out to be, unsurprisingly as the lavatory. The one redeeming feature of it was what was a replica of an antique claw footed bathtub, but larger. “Now that’s more like it!” He said with a smile widening on his face. Kneeling he saw it was replicator fed with subtle controls that mimicked knobs. Looking further he saw that it connected to two other rooms - likely bedrooms. His thought was found to be correct in going through the adjoining door to the right. It too was conspicuous by its emptiness. Looking into the closet he saw it was spacious enough but smelled of vole. “No surprises there,” he said into the emptiness. His voice seemed to echo hollowly. Again the best part of this room was the view outside into space. Standing there Nikki just took in the view before inspecting the other room. Nearly identical to the other it was slightly smaller and could double as a bedroom, work room or anything. Nikki had the image of a classic ‘man cave’ here. It could work. It was missing an outside view but that didn’t matter.

Thumbing through his civilian Comm-PaDD he brought up the promenade menu. “There ye be,” he said. “A hotel. Had to be one. He shook his head at the name. The ‘Veni Somnum Vincere’. “Quaint but it will do.” He chuckled around his cigar, then taking it out and flicking imaginary ashes. “Come Sleep Conquer. Has got to be an egghead who thought of that name. But beggars can’t be choosers. Old Nikki needs a bed tonight.”
- Nikki, COO