Jaza smiled.

   Titanmight be home to the most diverse crew in Starfleet but there was surprisingly little variation when it came to mating rituals. People of every social and biological distinction generally managed to make a hash of love as often as not. He had long since learned the lesson that shipboard relationships were best kept casual and short in duration.

  Now this ensign, Loolooa he thought, remembering her name suddenly, was getting the news. She was young. She would likely be liasingwith someone new in the next few weeks. It was the nature of life on a starship.

  The other female said little during their exchange, confining most of her responses to semi-audible murmurs of agreement and support.

  He found her fascinating for some reason, despite the fact that her back was too him most of the time. Something about her, the contours of her shape, perhaps, or the way her hair bounced slightly with each of her nods, reminded her of his wife.

   She would have hated all this,he thought. All this quiet, painstaking creeping into the unknown quarters of the galaxy.Sumari could scarcely conceive of traveling offworld, much less the long-term deep exploration that now defined his life.

  “There’s too much on Bajor to work out,” she would always say. “Too much that needs doing here.”

  Of course those had been in their days in the resistance, in the time before her death.

  It had taken years for the thought of her to come to him as something other than a cold, serrated ache in his chest and years more for him to take any joy in his memories of her, but he had eventually learned to accept the loss of her as another stone on the path he was destined to walk.

  “And, anyway,” said Ensign Loolooa. “I much prefer your company to his.” She ran fingers softly along her companion’s cheek, eliciting a sharp exhalation from that quarter.

  The other female took Loolooa’s hand gently and leaned close enough to her that, at first, Jaza thought they might kiss. He was suddenly self-conscious at the turn of events and, not wishing to intrude on their privacy further, swallowed the last of his protolact and made for the exit.

  Only the other female did not kiss Loolooa. Instead, as he passed them on the way to the door, he saw her whispering something to her friend, directly into her aural cavity.

  Whatever she said caused Loolooa to draw back sharply and bolt from the room, unmindful of the superior officer occupying the space between her and the exit. She collided with him, even as he moved to get out of her way and sent the two of them sprawling to the floor.

  She was up instantly, terribly flustered and full of apologies for which he assured her there was no reason. When she had expressed enough contrition to satisfy her personal sense of decorum, she quickly exited the observation area.

  “I’m sorry about that, sir,” said the other ensign placidly. “Loo can be excitable.”

  “So I see,” said Jaza.

  “She’s,” the ensign seemed to be searching for the right word. “She requires companionship. I believe her people are not well suited for solitary life.”

  “I’m guessing yours are?” said Jaza, looking at her fully for the first time. She wasn’t wearing a metallic skin tint; her sheen seemed to be the natural look of her flesh. If not for her occasional movement and the size and contours of her eyes, she could have been the sculpture of a humanoid woman cast in copper or gold. Fascinating.

  “We are suited for many contingencies, sir,” she said. “But I am not suited for Loo.”

  It was the same old story and he didn’t press her for more details. In fact he felt a little odd standing there with her, especially as both of them had stopped talking and were just sort of lookingat each other.

  It was impossible to read her expression; her wide turquoise eyes were like glass marbles and, though beautiful in their way, did not have pupils or lids. She didn’t blink. He felt naked suddenly, scrutinized, and not a little bit panicked.

  “Well,” she said.

  “Yes,” he said.

  “I am returning to duty now,” she said. “Sir.”

  “I’m starting my shift as well.”

  There was another moment of awkward silence before she finally departed. He stood there alone for the next few minutes, his heart beating thunder inside him. He had again that same strange sensation of invisible hands taking hold of him and pulling that he’d felt from the dream-the same sense of being drawn inexorably down.

  For a second, he thought of chasing after her and asking if she had in fact intentionally inspired these feelings via some species-specific means. Such exchanges weren’t unheard of.

  The second passed however and the strange hot/cold pressure in his chest did as well. By the time he reached the turbolift he’d forgotten he’d experienced those feelings at all.

  “Begin final phase,” said Mr. Jaza from the coordination dais. Had any of his subordinates been capable of tearing themselves from their work to look his way, they would have seen what appeared to be the shadow of a humanoid figure standing in the center of a ring of floating disks of light, the coordination display.

  The silhouetting effect was the result of low ambient light settings in effect during this mission. Jaza actually found the perpetual twilight relaxing.

  Jaza’s position at the base level gave him a clear view of the upper tiers-three segmented decks outfitted with control nodes for the most powerful sensor array Starfleet technology had ever produced.

  All around him, hidden beneath the deck and beyond the bulkheads, that array focused itself entirely on piercing the secrets of the surrounding ring of exotic matter.

  Ordinarily automated, the Titan’s dorsally-mounted sensor pod was configured for temporary manned operation at the discretion of the ship’s senior science officer when a less orthodox and more hands-on approach to an investigation was deemed appropriate. On this occasion, the Occultus Ora had pushed Jaza’s buttons in all the rights ways.

  “Probe three, returning to dock,” said a voice from above.

  Scattered among the many consoles were other shadows, the members of his research team-Hsuuri, Polan, Fell, Roakn, aMershik, the two Benzites whose names he could never keep straight: Berias and Voris, and the young Cardassian cadet, Dakal.

  The other members of the group, Bralik and Pazlar, were cloistered down in the astrometrics lab, analyzing the massive holographic simulations translated from the collated probe data.

  Jaza confirmed the arrival on his own display but still asked for a verbal report from Dakal. The young Cardassian had the makings of a good scientist, despite his protestations to the contrary.

  “Probe Four, away,” said Dakal, somewhat mechanically. “Preparing for sensor sweep, series omega.” He was bent over a viewing node in the upper tier of the Starship Titan’s dedicated sensor module instead of availing himself of the view from the thick forward viewport that was normally shuttered when the pod was unmanned.

  There really wasn’t much point in looking out the window. Thanks to the darklings that surrounded them, all he would see that way was endless black. Through his little viewer he could see the real target of his team’s investigation.

  “Probe Four, accelerating to plus-two ionic,” said Ensign Hsuuri in a voice that managed to be equal parts purr and snarl. Only a meter or so away, she too was hunched over an observation node, focused entirely on its readouts, completely ignoring the panorama outside the plexi.

  Hsuuri was a Caitian, a feline species from a world Dakal had only read about and in whose existence he hadn’t quite believed until he found himself working with actual representatives. There were three others like Hsuuri on Titan-another female, Hriss, and two males. All the others occupied positions in Starfleet security. Dakal found the species arresting.