When the channel to headquarters closed, Grey was grateful he had moved to his ready room for that discussion. He had left Ali in the conference room with one of Wood's men outside to ensure she stayed put, given that officially she was a security hazard. He took a breath - he could practically hear the 'I told you' from twenty decks away - and pinched the bridge of his nose. He knew she hadn't come to him from choice alone.

When he regained his composure he strolled back onto the bridge and allowed his gaze to sweep over his crew, occupied with their duties and their conversations around him. On deep space missions, the crew became more than coworkers and colleagues, and work became more than just a job. A ship was a community. He couldn't help but linger on the tactical and science banks - each manned by multiple specialists with one senior duty officer - and the comm station; the senior officers he'd lost because of Bert Barker three years ago.

He tapped his fingers against his left palm to open a comm channel. USEP uniforms had technology woven into the fabric, allowing versatility and capability without hindering the user with bulky and weighty technology. The most basic functionality was a variety of sensors enabling remote monitoring of vitals and location, along with sophisticated translation algorithms that synced to an auditory device of the wearers' choice.

The shirt sleeves themselves were long enough to cover half the hand, and a DNA coded activator sat in the palm of the left sleeve to allow quick comm access without it being activated by just any pressure. "Senior staff meeting, ten minutes," he curtly informed his crew, adding the meeting room information before striding off the bridge.

Grey arrived before anyone else to find Ali still sat in her seat, with her feet on the table in front of her, reading something on the holodisplay from the earpiece she'd put in. Of course she would repurpose something designed for engineers into her own use. She deactivated it and returned the device to her belt as he returned. If he didn't know better he would have said there was a hopeful look in her eyes behind her expectant expression. "Technically I'm supposed to have you arrested for breaking into a secure USEP facility," he explained.

Ali gave a short laugh and relaxed back into her chair. "Is that my four minute warning to escape before Wood comes back?" She joked and Grey couldn't help but laugh.

"We both know Bert Barker is too much of a threat for me to compromise our greatest asset."

Ali looked away unhappily, before nodding. "That's all I ever was, wasn't it? An asset."

"I was trying to protect you." Grey rubbed at his face but his tone was sincere.

Ali scoffed. "That worked like a charm," she said as she leant forward onto her elbows and leveled her firmest gaze on her former captain. "You should have come to me first."

Grey held her eyes for a moment before finally sighing. "Yes," he admitted, making Ali lean back in surprise.

They were saved from discussing it further by the arrival of Grey's senior staff. Their medic was first, a jetra called Narla. If it weren't for the impracticalities of his chief medic being his second in command everyone knew she would have the role - and they all respected her opinion as such - because she was his longest serving officer.

The jetra were a long, lean race, with rubbery skin typically a shade of green, and eyes a vibrant pigment providing the starkest contrast to their particular skin tone with no white sclera. They had tentacles branching from the back of their head and the lower ones were partially fused to their necks - limiting the degree of rotation slightly - that often reached their elbows when resting. Being a telepathic species, their auras physically controlled with their tentacles, and mentally controlled with years of discipline and social understanding. Narla herself had avocado-green skin, offset with subtle patterns of greens and turquoises typical of her species, and her eyes were vivid purple on her heart-shaped face; prominent cheekbones and narrow chin.

Ali had been around Narla long enough to recognise that particular shift in her tentacles as surprise. "I was expecting a surprise, but you…" Narla started gently, "it is good to see you, Ali."

"And you, Narla," Ali agreed with a smile and Narla returned the gesture. After a few decades surrounded by multiple species - especially humans - she was well versed in their customs and she had picked up some habits.

Narla naturally drifted to the seat at the foot of the table, allowing her the most personal space. It wasn't that jetra were adverse to physical proximity, but the additional distance helped during crowded meetings. Especially ones where emotions ended up running high. She was just about to take her seat when the bridge staff arrived. Lartyne almost walked into Frost when the latter stopped abruptly at the sight of Ali sat at the table, before continuing into the room as if in a daze. "I didn't believe Wood when he told me you were our intruder…" Frost admitted, before coming to a stop next to Ali's seat. "Feet," she scolded with a light thwack to the offending limbs. Ali smirked but complied, and Frost happily took a seat next to her as the others filed in.

Wood returned to his seat opposite her as Lartyne shared a confused look with Lieutenant Brian Marsh, their senior scientific duty officer. Ali thought he could have been Wood's younger brother if it weren't for Brian's olive complexion, but then again if they only shared one parent… She shrugged it off as the door opened for their engineer.

"How did you manage to make a diplomatic mission interesting?" Commander Zoë Bohr asked with a thick Danish accent over the sound of her heavy, protective boots made as she entered the room. Her long hair pulled into two messy buns either side of her head behind her ears and currently dyed a dark purple.

"Hey, Spud," Ali greeted with a tiny salute motion.

"Lort," Spud muttered to herself - Ali didn't need the translator for Spud's cursing anymore, in fact she'd never enabled swear word translation just so she could learn more -, "the last time I saw you, I didn't sleep for three days."

"That's so not the record," Ali laughed.

Spud couldn't help but laugh too as she took one of the few seats left. "What've I missed?" She asked as she looked around the table, "things must be serious if Ali is here."

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Grey pressed a few buttons on the conference table again, bringing up the files that Ali had brought with her for his senior officers to view. "Ali brought this to our attention earlier today and I have just had a discussion with Admiral Witworth. Officially we're to take no action," he explained as his crew assimilated the information with varying degrees of horror.

"Who's Bert Barker?" Marsh asked.

"My predecessor," Frost replied, "we chased him down before he could destroy Tuthu IV."

"A planet?" Lartyne was shocked. "We would have heard about that."

"USEP classified the records," Narla explained softly, "they were worried about the ramifications if it became common knowledge, about what or who it might inspire. They didn't want him to become a household name."

"'Cause who wants to learn from history?" Spud muttered. "What?" She challenged with a shrug as Grey gave her a warning look. "What's the plan then?" She asked instead.

Grey looked conflicted. "Let me guess, USEP don't act on information from unreliable sources of ill-repute?" Ali asked as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Would you?" Wood challenged.

"I don't have much of a choice anymore," Ali retorted with an innocent grin before turning back to Grey with a more serious face. "Honestly, it's why I came to you," she admitted unhappily. Grey nodded once as if to assure her that he had expected as much. "If you don't want to disobey the Admiralty, I have a ship, I will do this alone if required."

"If you wanna get killed," Spud retorted with a derisive laugh, "we're going with her, right?" She paused as her eyes darted around the table before adding, "we can make up a different reason to go to Kentar."

"Spud…" Grey warned tiredly.

"Actually, she's right," Narla suddenly cut in. "Ali, are there any outstanding reasons to arrest you?"

"Breaking and entering counts, right?" Wood answered instead.

"I feel like I should start running," Ali admitted.

"No one is running," Grey interrupted the discussion firmly. "I haven't made a decision yet. I called you all here to hear your thoughts on the matter," he said.

"I still think we should've shot him three years ago," Spud admitted with a nonchalant shrug.

"After last time, if there's a chance he can become a threat again, we can't ignore it." Narla was more logical in her approach, and spoke more softly, but had no less conviction in the action she believed they should take.

Wood sighed. "I don't trust the source, but someone should check it out. Normally that would be Security Core," he suggested, and though no one said anything about the suggestion he did catch the look Spud and Ali shared at that.

"Even if Security Core took the lead, we're the ones who know Bert," Frost followed on, "we can't not be involved."

"We can advise from a distance," Lartyne counter argued.

"Real time data is more reliable," Marsh stated, "we'd have to at least send someone on one of their ships. Assuming they think it worthy of investigation."

Grey nodded as he absorbed the opinions of his senior officers. They were fairly evenly split on whether or not they specifically should go, but they were generally in agreement that they should be involved in some capacity. "Our mission here is nearly complete," he stated. "Once we're finished, we'll travel to Kentar for recon. Depending on what we find there will determine our next step, even if it's just to hand it over to S-Core." No one could argue with that, so they all headed back to their respective stations.

~-x-~

It would take them a couple of days to get to Kentar so Ali figured she had two choices to pass the time. She could hole up in the bunk that had been temporarily assigned to her, or she could make herself comfy at one of the Endeavour's lounges with a drink in hand and spend her time in a much better way.

Soon she was sat at a bar surrounded by a semi-familiar sea of faces - some she knew, some she didn't - as she sipped the concoction that had been placed in front of her. The old proprietor had retired apparently but Tun'luh - a tuthum who had worked the joint during Ali's service - now ran the place. Tun'luh had happily used Ali and her friends as guinea pigs for his experimental cocktails. Apparently some things never changed, and before she even had a chance to order, he put a glass down in front of her. It was filled with a bright liquid that was almost off-putting. Ali looked up to see an amused twitch of his trunk before he moved on to his next customer.

Ali made a noise somewhere between a scoff and a chuckle as she sipped the strange drink, swirling it around her mouth before swallowing and giving an appreciative nod when she caught his eye. She stood corrected, and happily so.

That's how Spud and Frost found her when they finished their duty shifts for the day. "Narla's on her way, and I see Tun'luh has made sure you got a head start on us," Spud joked as she leant over the bar to peruse a menu.

"Haven't you memorised that by now?" Ali teased.

"He keeps changing it!" Spud objected, making the other two laugh as she scrolled through the options. By the time Tun'luh returned she was ready to make their order with suggestions from Frost and Ali; a large collection of drinks and snacks. Once he was sure none of them were about to add anything else he said he'd bring it over to them if they claimed a table. Spud told him to just put it all on a couple of trays and they'd carry it over themselves. With an expression conveying that Tun'luh had learnt not to argue with her and that this was Spud through and through, he carried out her request.

Frost went to scope out a table for them as Ali and Spud carried their supplies over when everything was ready. They quickly settled in and whilst Spud was returning the trays Narla found their table. "Which is mine?" She asked as she looked over the table approvingly, especially at the large sharing pitcher of water.

"Even Spud's not daft enough to fight you for a Steamy Star," Ali teased, indicating to a cocktail she remembered Narla being partial to, and Frost giggled at the image.

Soon enough their table descended into laughter and nostalgia as they recalled funny stories from their shared service, finding out what Ali had been up to since she'd left the Endeavour and catching her up on all that had happened since then. "Wait, you won the Hotpot in a bet?" Frost asked disbelievingly.

"Oh, yeah," Ali agreed, about to put her feet up on the table before she caught the warning shot that Frost gave her. "Poor girl was in an absolute state and barely worth what they claimed," Ali chuckled, "probably worth about three times that now."

"Wanna make it five times?" Spud challenged with an all too innocent grin and a wiggle of her eyebrows.

"I'm not gonna stop you," Ali agreed, "but go easy on the old girl, I don't want her flying apart because you tried to break physics… again."

"Like when Ch'o asked Spud to overpower one of the shuttles?" Narla asked as her voice took on a lilting, relaxed tone, which was normal for her people when they were amused.

"Hey, that was 'cause he was a lort pilot!" Spud corrected firmly, sitting up straight to defend her modifications.

"The poor shuttle never did fly right again though," Ali added as she tried to fight the corners of her mouth lifting into an amused grin. Spud shook her head at her as if to warn her but the engineer couldn't hold back her amused giggle at the memory of Ch'o attempting to tame the modifications he'd asked her to make. He hadn't dared set foot in a shuttle again for a month.

A loaded silence came over the table as their laughter died down. Ch'o Konu had been their head of security before Bert Barker had killed him when they tried to bring him in three years ago. He hadn't been the only casualty from the crew. "It's going to happen again, isn't it?" Frost finally asked in a quiet voice, barely daring to look up from the drink in her hands.

"We're going to Kentar to prevent it," Narla reminded her.

"That doesn't mean we will," Ali corrected and Narla's tentacles twitched sharply in irritation. "What?" Ali retorted, "you want me to start lying now?"

Spud sighed. "Hope for the best, prepare for the worst," she figured, "it's all we can do." They all raised their drinks to that.