Star Traks: Banshee "A Day In The Life Of... Dr. Elizabeth Lang" By Brad Dusen 0500 Hours Peace and serenity. That was what Doctor Elizabeth Lang felt as she lay in bed. The room was filled with a luminous pale blue glow as the Banshee breezed her way through a dense, soupy nebula. Years ago, Liz had developed the habit of talking in her sleep. Her soft, delicate voice broke the silence of the room. "No the test tube doesn't go there... Yes they're real, stop staring at them... Of course I was talking about the plants, what else would you think was fake..?" Abruptly Liz was thrown out of bed as the loud crash shook the Banshee. The red alert sirens began blaring as she picked herself up off the floor. "Carn to Lang!" The android's voice suddenly rang out over the comm. "Carn? What the hell is going on up there!?" She stood up, dusting off broken shards of ceramic from a vase that just fell off her nightstand. "Umm, doctor, we might need you on the bridge, this is probably something one of the command staff should handle and I really don't want to wake up Captain Vorezze or Commander Burns." Confused but too groggy to argue, Liz simply nodded. "Okay, I'll be right there." 0510 Hours The bridge was a clamor of activity as Liz arrived on the scene. Various low ranking officers on the bridge night crew scurried about in the dim light. Lieutenant Carn sat in the command chair, his purple eyes darting across a PADD listing damage reports on them. Dr. Lang emerged from the turbolift, her uniform half unzipped and her hair hurriedly tied up in a bun on top of her head. "Lieutenant, what happened?" Dr. Lang asked as she neared the android. Carn put the PADD down and motioned to a large brown mass, barely visible in the thick haze before them. "We just suffered a head-on collision with what appears to be some sort of space deer." "How the hell can a starship hit a space deer?" Liz asked. "It just jumped right out in front of us, I swear!" Carn pointed to Ensign Trenton, the night helmsman. "He tried to avoid it, honestly." The android changed the viewer display to an exterior of the ship, which showed a massive dent in the saucer module. "Oh man, Captain Vorezze is going to kill me when he sees this." Liz yawned, her eyes still weighing heavy on her. She was anxious to get back to bed. "So why did you need me again? I have to be up for my shift in 4 hours." Carn turned to the good doctor and, as much as an android could, looked at her sheepishly. "I was kind of hoping you might break the news of what happened to the Captain. I mean he can't get mad at you, you're too pretty." "I'm not taking the fall for this!" Liz protested. "I don't even know why we're in this nebula to begin with!" "Because the captain wishes to take a shortcut through this nebula rather than travel around it, which would take an extra week." Carn replied with a shrug. "I do not question the captain's orders, I just obey them. When he tells me to pilot the ship through a dense, sensor-blinding nebula to save time, I do so. When he tells me to fix the plasma conduit manifolds, I do so. When he tells me to fetch him a pair of handcuffs and a leather mask because he's 'too tied- up at the moment' to do it himself, I do so." Liz threw her hands up in the air. "I'm having nothing to do with this. I just want to go back to bed, you step up to your duty and explain this to the captain yourself. I'm going back to my quarters before he gets here." Liz began to head for the exit when the turbolift doors opened and Captain Vorezze staggered onto the bridge. His normally well groomed hair was a clumpy, spikey mess, and he was clad solely in a bathrobe and a pair of boxer shorts emblazoned with the phrase "Betazoids Do It Better" across the front. He smacked his lips and squinted even in the darkened bridge light before quietly asking, "What the hell just happened?" Carn nervously elbowed Dr. Lang. "Yes, tell him what happened!" A look of loathing came across Liz's face as she glared at Carn, before turning to the captain and sweetly saying, "Well apparently while Lieutenant Carn was in command of the ship, someone piloted it into a massive space deer." The captain groggily breathed in a deep breath. "Well... that's certainly a new one." Carn hunched over the operations console to read the status displays. "We have severe damage to the structural integrity system, dozens of other smaller systems are offline as well. If these readings are correct, if we move at all, we risk snapping the saucer section in half somewhere along section 33 of decks five through nine until we restore structural integrity." "Section 33? My quarters are in that section on deck six." Jad let out a long, sleepy sigh. "I think I'll sleep in my ready room tonight actually." The captain slowly trudged across the bridge to his ready room door. "Doctor, take command of the ship. Try to coordinate the repair efforts until the daytime crew comes in at 0900. You can have the morning after that off to catch up on your sleep." Liz wanted to go back to bed at that moment, but opted not to argue with the captain for fear of waking him up a little more. "Yes, sir." She could tell already this wasn't going to be her day. "Wake me if something important comes up." Jad turned to enter his ready room. "Umm, captain?" Carn asked. "Didn't you say Commander Tagel was to be spending the night with you tonight?" "Oh... right..." Jad tapped the combadge on his boxer short's waistband. "Axik, hun, take that hot candle wax off the heating plate, we're having a campout in my ready room tonight instead." "Oooh!" Axik said giddily over the comm. "Are we going to be in a tent?" "Trust me," Jad said, "I'll be pitching a tent." The bridge crew collectively shuddered. 0905 Hours Waking up early and then going back to bed was not something Dr. Lang could easily do. She stumbled out of the turbolift in a half asleep daze, clutching her cup of coffee as if life itself depended on it. Actually that probably wasn't very far from the truth... 'I just have to make it down the hall that's all I have to do.' She thought to herself. The hallway became a gauntlet of obstacles. Step to the right to avoid an ensign. Swerve to the left to make way for the medical team. Get flat against the wall so the giant mutant lizard could scurry by. 'Hmmmm... that's odd..." Liz thought to herself, "I thought the lizard lived on deck twenty." Her quarters were in sight. Behind those metallic red doors lay her big, comfortable bed and all the sleep-related joys and pleasures it could offer. It was like a second wind, her focus became clear. She darted between the two security guards and around the engineer coming down the hallway. Just a little further! The door was in sight! It was right before her! It was the most beautiful sight she'd ever seen, though her eyes were only half open at the time. She walked towards it, but it didn't budge. 'What the hell!?' She thought to herself. 'Did I lock myself out or something?' Liz reached down and fumbled with the control pad for the door when suddenly they slid apart. Lt. Cmdr. Ben Rachow stood on the other side wearing his crooked smile and a pair of Throgus the Klingon Action Hero pajama pants. "Wow, and here I thought all that wishing on a shooting star was a load of targ excrement." Ben said exuberantly. "What can I do to you, good doctor... uhh, I mean do FOR you?" Liz furrowed her brow in her state of sleep deprivation- induced haze. "Commander Rachow? What are you doing here?" "I live here. Everything else I do here is between me and my right ha- errr-right hand man." Liz paused for a moment then looked at the address label on the wall. "Oh no I'm on the wrong deck." "Well while you're here..." Ben winked at her. "I'm very tired, and very cranky, Commander." Liz growled. "Come inside and I'll-" "Save it!" Liz snapped. "But I just want to-" "Not interested!" "Not even if I let you-" "No!" "But you can-" "I'm leaving to my real quarters now, I'm too tired to deal with this rudeness." Liz glared at Ben and walked away. 0915 Hours After trying four other decks and interrupting a medical operation, phaser target practice, a janitorial closet make- out session and a midget drag show, Dr. Lang finally found her real quarters. She opened the door and gasped at the sight inside. "Oh no!" She hadn't noticed during her sleepy stumble to the bridge that morning just how much damage her quarters had sustained during the crash. Everything was knocked over. Books and PADDs and papers were all over the floor and broken glass was everywhere. This bad day was getting much worse. Glass crunched under her boots as she slowly made her way across the room. She needed someone to talk to and was going to fetch her beloved hamster. Then she screamed in horror. Her hamster's cage lay on the floor, pine shavings strewn across the area it lay and the side panel broken loose. Its occupant was nowhere to be seen. Liz rushed over to it, sifting through the shavings to see if he was buried under there, scared and lonely. There was nothing. "Zeke!?" She cried out. "Zeke, are you in here!?" She'd hoped to have heard something. Maybe a squeak, maybe a rustle, maybe just maybe the pitter patter of little hamster feet on a shelf or the floor. All she heard was silence, backed by the soft drone of the distant warp engines. "Zeke!?" She cried out again. "Computer, locate Zeke the hamster!" The computer beeped an error message. "Unable to comply, internal sensors can only locate life forms that weigh at least one kilogram." "No..." Liz began to cry. "Yes." The computer shot back. "I wasn't talking to you!" "Oh, sorry." "Zeke..." She repeated the hamster's name over and over again as she curled up on the couch. She couldn't fight her fatigue anymore. Her watery eyes closed and her whimpering stopped as she entered a deep, restless slumber. 1234 Hours She was on a mission, now, wandering slowly through the Banshee's lower decks with a tricorder grasped tightly in her hand. A nervous look graced her normally warm and beautiful face. Her clear blue eyes held a look of pained worrying. She was buried in the tricorder, intently studying it as she walked briskly down the corridor. She did not even see Commander Dan Smith as she walked into him. "Oh, Commander, I'm so sorry, I didn't see you there." Dan looked down at the herbal tea he was carrying that now adorned his uniform coat and part of his pants. He sighed, "That's okay, I didn't want that anyways." The chief of security's expression of exasperation quickly evaporated as he saw the pained look on Dr. Lang's face. "Is something wrong, Doctor?" Liz lowered her tricorder and looked around nervously before hesitantly speaking. "During the collision with the space deer, Zeke's cage was broken and he escaped while I was on the bridge. I don't know where we went!" Her voice began cracking. "Zeke?" Dan raised his eyebrow. "You mean that saber- toothed, four legged, bundle of fuzzy evil you call a hamster?" "I can't find him!" Liz began to tear up. "He means so much to me." Dan put his hand on the doctor's shoulders before gently saying. "Come on, let's go to my office and we'll see if I can use my security monitors to hunt the little bugger down." 1300 Hours Commander Smith sat at his desk, running sensor sweep after sensor sweep throughout the ship. Dr. Lang paced nervously back and forth. "Any sign of him?" Dan sighed as another sweep finished. "It's hard to say, the sensor grid was damaged in the collision. I'd say these scans are about 98% accurate and that he's simply not alive anymore." Liz began to tear up, her lips trembling as she said "No! He can't be dead, he just can't!" "Doctor, it's just a hamster." Dan shrugged. "You can buy a new one." "Dan you don't understand. Zeke is my only friend. If I lose him... I've got nothing..." Cmdr. Smith leaned back in his chair slightly, staring up into Liz's eyes. "Doctor... Liz, you're a beautiful woman, you should have no trouble making friends here." Dr. Lang's pain suddenly evaporated and was replaced with an expression of anger as she looked down at Dan. "That's what everyone says." Her tone of voice became flush with rage. "I'm attractive so people must like me. I want people to like me for my intelligence and personality, Commander!" "Doctor you know what I was trying to sa-" "After all I'm so attractive who wouldn't want to be my friend. God, people just look at me and all they see is my long blond hair!" She began to frantically bounce her wavy blond locks around. "They look at me and all they see is a firm, round, well proportioned butt!" She promptly began waving her rear end in Dan's face. "Does this make you want to be friends with me, Commander!? Huh!?" Dan began stuttering incoherently as he held onto his chair for dear life. "Or how about these!?" Liz clutched her breasts and shoved them hard up against Dan's face. "Do my ample breasts make me friendly and outgoing!? Do these merit friendship with me!?" Liz began waving and rubbing them against Dan's face before she abruptly stepped back and took a few deep breaths to calm herself down. She spoke in a soft, resigned voice. "People only associate with me because of my looks... I want something more than that. That's why I consider Zeke my only friend." She glanced over at the display, which showed where holes in the sensor grid were. "Come on, Commander, help me look for him in these areas." Dan sat rigidly at his desk, staring bewilderedly at the parts of Liz's luscious anatomy that were just moments ago pressed hard up against him. Sweat glistened off his forehead and an uncomfortable look graced his face as he slowly said, "I will in just a few minutes, Doctor. I don't think me standing up right now would be a terribly good idea." 1330 Hours The lunchtime rush was dwindling as Liz wandered into The Twilight Zone and plunked down at the bar. Bartender Peter Stefanski wandered over. "Well hello good doctor, what can I get you?" "My hamster." Liz said solemnly. Peter paused for a moment and shrugged before pulling a hamster out from under the bar and dropping it down in front of Liz. The doctor's eyes widened for a moment before she peered in for a closer look. "Hey, that's not mine." The bartender huffed. "Eh, I tried." He grabbed the hamster and tossed it back under the bar. "Lose your friend?" "Yeah, I don't know where he could be." Liz sighed. The Banshee suddenly started rumbling and shaking before abruptly stopping. "They must be testing the structural integrity field." Liz noted. "I swear one collision and the ship is on the verge of falling apart. It's like it's not well put together or something." Peter finished making a drink for a person on the other end of the bar when he looked up. "Oh shoot, the duct tape holding the ceiling together is starting to peel." "Doctor Lang?" A voice came from behind Liz. The doctor spun around to see Counselor Stokes standing before her. "I heard about your tragic loss." "Hopefully all is not lost yet." Liz said with a slight pout. She didn't like the word "loss," it sounded too final. She still had a great deal of hope she'd find her hamster. "Well I know how during times in which you've lost someone close to you, sometimes you wish you had another friend you could fall back on, someone you were close to who could share your grief." "You've got that right." Counselor Stokes drew a leather-bound book from the bag slung over her shoulder and handed it to Liz. "God is your answer, then." Liz furrowed her brow. "First off, God is an intangible force that may or may not exist who can provide no real companionship to me other than to give me hope for a better life when I die in another fifty years or so." Counselor Stoke's hopeful smile evaporated. "Secondly did you not just last week call me a whore to science who was going to burn in Hell for writing that paper about evolution?" "God will still forgive you though. Put your faith in Him." "I'm really not interested, Counselor, but thanks anyways." Liz turned back to face the bar. "All might be lost, doctor. You're going to have to move on eventually. God will always be there for you." Counselor Stokes then turned and left. Peter, who'd been keeping a distance from the good counselor for the duration of her visit - mostly due to her accusations that he was dispensing Satan in a bottle - returned to Liz's side. "She does have a point." "About what?" Liz asked in a surprised tone. "Maybe you should start trying to make some real friends, even if it's just a pet to replace Zeke. You have to accept that he might not be coming back." Liz let out a long sigh. "I guess it couldn't hurt to try. I do have an hour before my bridge shift begins, maybe I can see if there's anything in the arboretum's pet shop." 1430 Hours Captain Vorezze nervously paced the bridge as he listened to communications coming from two of the Banshee's shuttles as they circled the exterior of the ship. "This is Commander Rachow in shuttlecraft Letterman, we'll be in position in one minute." The turbolift doors parted and Dr. Lang strode onto the bridge. Perched on her shoulder was a rather large chameleon, which had turned almost jet black in color to match her uniform. "Ahh, good, you're here." Jad spun around to greet the doctor. He then paused and furrowed his brow. "What the heck is that?" Liz smiled and gently rubbed under the lizard's neck. "This is Leon, he's my new pet." "I see..." Jad raised his eyebrow and nodded. "Just don't let it shed its skin on anything." Commander Burns emerged from the bathroom and gave a relieved sigh. She immediately spotted the lizard perched on Dr. Lang's shoulder and wandered over. "Well who's this little fella?" Charlotte asked as she pet the top of the lizard's head. "His name is Leon, I'm glad you like him." Liz smiled. She was feeling better and better about her choice of a new pet. She glanced over and saw that Charlotte was wearing new earrings. "Oh those are so pretty!" "You like them?" Charlotte smiled. "They're in the shape of ladybugs." Leon's rotary eye rolled to its side and spied the insect shaped earrings on Charlotte's ear. Before anyone could react, the chameleon shot its tongue out and latched onto Charlotte's ear, yanking her head down as he opened his mouth and chomped down on her earlobe. "ACK!" Charlotte screamed in pain. "Get him off! Get him off!" "That's probably one of the few species who as of yes has NOT nibbled on Commander Burn's ear." Captain Velorn said quietly to Captain Vorezze, who proceeded to snicker. Liz finally pried her hungry reptile off of Commander Burns. "I'm so sorry, Commander!" Charlotte rubbed her ear. "Just keep that thing away from me!" She darted down to her seat in the command area. "Shuttlecraft Letterman to bridge, we're in position, as is the Shuttlecraft O'Brien." "Very good," Jad said as he stood up, "begin the stabilization process." "What are we doing?" Liz asked. "Our efforts to stabilize our structural integrity field have not been successful, so we're trying a different approach to hold the saucer section together until we can get to the nearest starbase." The captain then motioned to the main viewer where two shuttlecraft were in the process of using their tractor beams to wrap a giant rubber band around the circumference of the saucer module. Liz blinked. "That's original, to say the least." The turbolift doors opened and Lieutenant Commander Vincent DiSanto wandered onto the bridge. "Commander, you're late." Captain Vorezze said sternly. He just loved pretending to be all authorative. "Sorry, Captain, I had to get my pet cricket, Chirpy, ready. She's coming to work with me today!" Captain Vorezze shook his head. "Commander, I'd say that's the oddest pet ever, but then again I have met this woman who works on the USS Explorer who-" Jad was interrupted by Commander Rachow, who was frantically screaming over the comm, "Captain I think we're losing tractor beam integrity! The band is becoming too tight and we don't have enough slack to wrap around the saucer!" Everyone looked at the viewer as the two shuttlecraft, stretching the rubber band to its fullest, suddenly lost power from the stress of the band. With a mighty snap, the rubber band flew backwards and slammed into the starboard warp nacelle, taking it clean off. The Banshee rocked briefly before a stunned silence overtook the bridge. Commander DiSanto was the first to speak. "Did we need that?" The captain closed his eyes and breathed in deep, restraining the urge to scream his head off. "Commander... I can only hope some deep pain manages to befall you for that remark." Vince put his head down and pouted, only to see that Chripy the cricket had gone missing. A worried look overtook his face and he glanced around nervously. "Hey... has anyone seen my cricket?" His eyes met with Leon's, who was sitting leisurely on a nearby console as Liz worked on processing some sensor data. A loud crunch became audible from the lizard's mouth. "OH MY GOD NO!" Vince screamed as tears welled up in his eyes. "NOT CHIRPY!" Captain Vorezze leaned back in his chair and smiled. "Okay... that works." 1500 Hours "Doctor Lang!" A voice called out from behind Liz as she strode down the hallway. Liz turned around to see Commander David Riley run up to her, panting for breath. "What is it, Commander?" "I thought you'd be on the bridge, but..." David stopped, looking at the bright red parrot sitting on Liz's shoulder. "What the heck is that?" Liz glanced over to the bird. "This is Guido, my new pet parrot. The chameleon just wasn't working out for me. I guess this parrot used to belong to Captain Velorn." "Mwrawk! Vorezze is a dipwad, mwrawk!" The parrow squawked. "Interesting..." Riley rubbed his chin. "Anyways I was trying to find you on the bridge, but all I found were a few people trying to console Commander DiSanto, who was bawling his eyes out and screaming 'Chripy!' and they said you'd left." "Yeah, I wanted to take a walk. What did you need?" David held up a PADD. "I wanted your help on this, we're trying to figure out how big of a rubber band we'd need to wrap around the saucer module without it becoming so tense it breaks the tractor beams again." "I don't even know where the heck you got such a big rubber band to begin with." Liz picked up the PADD and glanced at it. "Oops, watch out!" David pulled Liz off to the side of the hallway as two crewmembers holding opposite ends of a shuttlecraft-sized paperclip came marching down the corridor. Liz glanced over the information on the PADD. The answer seemed easy enough to her. She tapped some numbers onto the screen and handed it to David. "This should help a little bit, it's a combination of a larger band and a modulation frequency for a stronger tractor beam." David looked at the PADD and smiled. "Thanks! I knew coming to the smartest person on the ship would be a good idea." Liz let out a weak smile that broke through her deliriously bad mood and looked up at the commander. "You really think I'm the smartest person on this ship?" "Of course! You're probably one of the most intelligent people I've ever met." David smiled back. "Mwrawk! Ship is full of morons! Mwrawk!" Guido squawked again. Liz turned her head to glare at the parrot. "I told you, one more remark out of you and I'm having poultry for dinner!" "Mwrawk! I'll be good! Mwrawk!" David put the PADD back with the stack he had under his arm. "Okay, I need to get back to engineering to start work on this, but thanks a million! If I have any other questions I know where to go!" With another warm smile revealing his bright pearly whites underneath, David headed down the corridor. Liz stood alone for a moment in something of a daze. Those were the kindest words anyone had spoken to her in recent memory and they echoed again and again in her mind. She sighed and smiled weakly again. "At least somebody around here appreciates me for my intelligence." "Mwrawk! Dr. Lang has a nice rack! Mwrawk!" "Okay that's it, you're going back to the store." She huffed and charged into the turbolift. 1600 Hours Dr. Lang sat in a darkened presentation room on the lower levels of the Banshee was a PADD in hand. She looked up towards the stage, where the normal podium had been removed and a large table was in its place. In the bright spotlights stood Ilona, the proprietor of the Banshee's arboretum pet store. "Okay the first pet we have up for display is this one." She removed a small fuzzy kitten from under the table. "Her name is Nibbles, she is a 4 month old Tabby from earth." Liz shook her head. "I tried a kitten this morning, we didn't get along well." She proceeded to pull back her uniform sleeve to reveal several deep gashes along her forearm. Ilona shrugged as she put the kitten back under the table. "Okay next I have a bunny named Hoppy." She paused, rummaging around for the rabbit. "Hey, where'd Hoppy go?" After a few more seconds of rummaging she gave up. "Okay, moving on, after that we have this sweet, lovable, oh so cuddly boa constrictor named Lewis." She removed a large, four foot long snake from under the table. Ilona paused for a moment as she realized that the snake had a large bulge in it from freshly eaten prey. "Uh oh. Maybe I shouldn't have put Hoppy and Lewis in the same box..." Liz cringed. "I'm not a big fan of reptiles... at lest not ones that are capable of eating someone else's pet. Lord knows I found out the hard way a few hours ago." Ilona put the snake back into its box. "Alright then, moving on..." 1730 Hours Increasingly fatigued Ilona removed yet another pet from the box. This time it was a Cardassian vole. "This is Velma the Vole. We found her when we raided a Cardassian transport ship during the Dominion Wars, but she was given up for adoption to me at the store because her last owner died of some mysterious illness shortly after he got her." Liz raised her eyebrow as she jotted some notes down onto the PADD. "Aren't voles a common form of Cardassian disease carrying vermin?" "Yes, this is true, but they also make excellent pets." Ilona smiled as she rubbed the vole under its chin. The giant alien rodent let out a hissing sound and chomped into her finger. "OWWW!" The pet shop keeper quickly drew her hand away. "That's going to require another 20 or so hypospray vaccinations." "I think I'll pass on that one." Liz said dryly. "What else do you have." Ilona's fatigue finally gave out as she plunked down into a nearby chair. "Doctor we've been doing this for over an hour and a half, I've shown you eighty different pets and you've rejected them all." Liz sighed. "They're not really what I'm looking for in a pet. They lack personality." "Small animals don't have personalities. All they do is eat, sleep and poop." "Mine did... before I lost him..." Liz sighed softly. Ilona's frustration evaporated and she walked off the stage and over to Liz putting her blue Bolian hand on Liz's shoulder. "Doctor, why didn't you tell me you'd just lost a pet? If that's the case, I don't think you are ready to move on just yet. I could stand here for days and show you every animal in the galaxy and nothing would feel like the one you lost. It's just like the end of a relationship when someone tells you 'you'll move on.' You don't think you can, not because you doubt your capacity to love, but that no other love be it for another person or for an animal, feels quite the same." Liz hung her head down and tears began welling up in her eyes. "I don't want to be lonely, though." The shopkeep sighed. "You will find another pet who some day makes you just as happy as the one you lost did. But it will be happiness in a different way, no better, no worse than that of the one you lost. When you're ready to accept that reality come see me again. But until then I don't think I can give you another pet for now. It's not fair to you, and it's certainly not fair to the pets." "I have no one else, though." Ilona looked at Liz with a perplexed look. "I doubt that's true. You might think you don't, but if you dig deep you can find people who will be there for you." What sounded like the roar of a lion echoed out from underneath the table on the stage. "Good lord, what else do you have under there?" Liz's head shot up at the noise. "Oops." Ilona darted back up towards the stage. "I think Larry is getting hungry." The Bolian glanced down to Liz. "Go talk to people, real people, not animals. They can help you cope with your loss. When you're ready, I'll be more than happy to help you pick out a new pet." Liz turned her PADD off and slowly stood up. "I guess you're right. Thanks, I guess." Liz paused for a moment, looking up at the Bolian. "What the hell is your name anyways, I just met you earlier today." "Ilona." The shopkeep replied flatly. "Ohh... I'll have to remember that." Liz turned and left as the jungle sounds from underneath the table got louder. 1745 Hours Interpersonal relations had never been Liz's strong point. She tried to become friendly and outgoing during her academy days, but too many people wrote her off as a blond bimbo who used her body and not her brain to get the straight A's that she attained. She never tried to be friendly after that. She stood at a doorway, holding her breath, terrified of the person on the other side. She had to do this, though, she had to reach out. With no small bit of courage, she pressed the door chime. After a few moments, the doors parted and Lieutenant Commander DiSanto appeared on the other side. He furrowed his brow and glared forward and Liz. "Oh... it's the cricket killer." "Can we talk?" Liz asked sheepishly. Vince stepped aside to let Liz through the door. "Fine, but I'm not in a very good mood." "Neither am I, that's why I'm here." She sat down on the couch and looked around. "I know you were a lot more attached to that hamster than I was to Chirpy..." Vince said softly as he sat down in the adjacent chair. "I never really gave you my condolences." "It's hard..." She began to stutter. "Not because Zeke is gone but because he represented my only companion." "I can imagine." Vince nodded along. "You're almost as introverted as I am." "Why are you so introverted?" Liz got up to walk around, glancing down at various knick-knacks on Vince's shelves. "Ummm, hello, everyone on this ship thinks I'm gay because I never show any interest in women." Vince snapped. "I mean I'm perfectly butch otherwise." Liz pulled an isolinear chip from the music player on Vince's desk. "What album is this?" "The Immaculate Collection." Liz paused and set the chip back on the desk. "I see..." She sighed and sat back down on the couch. "In this day in age you shouldn't worry about what people think. 99.9% of our society accepts it as normal, I work with several homosexuals as is and I don't think anything of it, nor does anyone else. Even if it's not true I wouldn't be offended by it." "But it's not who I am, that's what bothers me, it has nothing to do with sexual orientation." Vince explained, his voice half flush with anger, half echoing sadness. "People label me before they get to know me. It doesn't matter if it's acceptable if I really were, I'm still being labeled before people even get to know me." "Yeah..." Liz said, "I know what you mean." Vince chuckled slightly. "I guess we've got a fair amount in common." Liz smiled through all her sadness. It felt good to vent, and even better to hear someone else vent and relate to her on a deeper level. "Maybe that's a sign we might want to consider spending some time together. We might work very well as friends." Vince smiled with Liz. "Yeah... I'd like that a lot." "Besides, every lonely straight girl's dream is a gay best friend." Liz grinned. Vince's smile evaporated and he began growling. "I'm kidding!" Liz laughed. For the first time in a long time she laughed because she was happy. Vince smiled again and laughed with her. The comm beeped and Captain Vorezze's voice came booming over the sound system. "All command crew report to the bridge immediately." Vince stood up. "Well, duty calls." "This is probably the first time I'm walking to the bridge with a friend in tow." Liz smiled. "Yeah... we might scare people, especially when they see me with a woman." Vince said as they walked out the door. "Oh my god!" A passing crewmember shouted. "Commander DiSanto's with a woman!" 1800 Hours Liz and Vince arrived on the bridge as Captain Vorezze continued his nervous pacing. "Status?" He asked for the thirtieth time. "No different than it was ten seconds ago, pookiekins." Axik said from the ops station. "What are we trying now?" Liz asked, half afraid to know the answer. "Ahh, good, you're here." Jad smiled. "First our goal is to get the starboard warp nacelle back on, which we're in the process of doing right now." Jad motioned to the viewer. Four shuttles were circling the empty stump where the nacelle once was. Two of them had the detached engine pod locked in their tractor beams, while two more came into view with a large metal object with a barrel on the end locked in their own beams. Pushing their beams into each other they sqeezed the metal pouch and a white fluid came out of the barrel, coating the top of the warp nacelle pylon. Liz furrowed her brow as she strained to see the viewer. "Is that Krazy Glue?" Jad nodded. "It was the strongest adhesive we could find." "Is that safe?" Vince asked nervously. The Banshee shook gently and all eyes again returned focus to the viewer as the shuttlecraft secured the warp nacelle back on the pylon. With a quick flicker, the red Bussard collectors and the blue warp grille came back online. "Ship's held together by Krazy Glue." Vince shook his head. "They really don't make 'em like they used to." "This is the important part, doctor." Jad sat back down as the shuttles began tractoring another giant rubber band out of the main shuttlebay. "This is where all that input you gave Commander Riley should pay off." "Shuttlecraft Kimmel in place." A voice came out over the comm. "Shuttlecraft Letterman also in place." "Shuttlecraft Leno in place as well." "Shuttlecraft Stewart just found a coffee shop out here, we'll be in place as soon as our grande mochachino's are done." Jad grumbled. "Why am I not surprised there's a Starbucks in the middle of this nebula..." "Okay, Shuttlecraft Stewart is in place." "Remember to keep your tractor beam modulations at 47234.456." Liz said over the comm as she read her notes on the issue. "This will grip best to the rubber and prevent the bond from weakening as the band gets tighter." "Thanks, Doctor." The crew watched in silence as the four shuttles began stretching the rubber band. They attached it behind the saucer section's impulse engines and stretched it forward. It went over the bridge first. Then down the front across the weapons arrays. "It's getting tighter!" Commander Rachow said nervously from the cockpit of the Letterman. "Keep your tractors at full power." Liz said. "Then begin frequency modulation Lang Alpha One, it will make the beams even stronger." "We've almost got it!" Ben cried out. "We have it wrapped around the saucer, now what do we do?" "Slowly bring band up to the hull. When the hull and the band have made contact gently release the tractor beam." Liz replied. The Banshee gently rocked again. "Contact made, the band is on." Vince glanced down at his controls. "Structural integrity is holding." Jad nervously nodded. "Let's see if it stays that way. Helm, move forward a few kilometers, start out at thrusters only, move up to full impulse." The Banshee slowly began to move. Everyone held their breath as the ship picked up speed. "Structural integrity is still stable. No changes at all." Vince reported. "We did it." Jad said, stunned. "We actually did it!" He proceeded to slap his combadge. "Good work, Commander Riley!" There were cheers audible in the background in engineering as Commander Riley responded back. "Thank you, sir, but the real credit goes to Doctor Lang, we wouldn't have been able to do any of this without her." Jad smiled and walked over to Liz, extending his hand. "Good work, Doctor." Liz blushed and shook Jad's had. "Thank you, Captain. It means a lot." 2100 Hours Liz sat in a booth in The Twilight Zone as the crew celebrated the ship's liberation from the nebula. She sipped a strawberry daiquiri and hungrily ate a grilled chicken salad. Her mood over Zeke had wrecked her appetite for most of the day, but being out for once, with real people who were honoring her for her brains had suddenly restored her appetite. "Great work, Dr. Lang!" Lieutenant Rayhan said as he walked by her booth, reeking of Aldeberaan whiskey. "I wish all the people on this ship were as smart as you!" Liz was beaming with pride as she wiped a dab of salad dressing off the edge of her mouth. "Why thank you, Lieutenant, that's very nice of you to say." Rayhan smiled. "Well I do value intelligence a lot. I think it's an important thing for an officer on any ship to have." "Hey dorkwad!" Assistant chief engineer Lieutenant Serric, came up behind Rayhan. "I bet I can drink more of that fluid that came out of the plasma conduit before blacking out than you can!" "You're on!" Rayhan followed Serric out. Liz turned across her table to Commander DiSanto, who was nursing a fuzzy navel. "So this day turned out to be pretty good after all, huh?" Vince said to her. She nodded, thinking about the course of events as she spoke. "Yeah... it has. I feel a lot better about my place in the world, I guess. More confident in general." Vince nodded and raised his glass. "Good, you're a wonderful person, and you deserve all the happiness the galaxy can offer you." Liz raised her own glass as well. "A toast to new friendships and new beginnings." They clinked their glasses together and drank to the start of a beautiful new outlook on life. 2330 Hours Liz quietly walked into the arboretum pet store, tiptoeing so she did not disturb the sleeping animals. She was surprised to see Ilona still behind her counter, reading a trashy romance novel about a Breen cowboy and the Ferengi women who loved him. She looked up when she saw the doctor walk in. "Back already? It's kind of late to be pet shopping." Liz nodded as she yawned. "I was trying to sleep, but it's hard to sleep without something warm and fuzzy to curl up with. I've made so much progress today, I feel so much better. I think I might be ready to move on to a new pet." Ilona smiled. "I'm glad things have worked out for you. I think I have something you might like. You said you liked small and fuzzy, right?" Liz nodded. Ilona took a box out from under the counter with air holes in it. "I found this little guy running around deck five a few hours ago. He was so scared I had to take him with me to make sure he'd be ok." She withdrew a little bundle of fluff from the box and set it on the counter. It was shaking slightly, terrified and unaware of where it was. Liz looked down in wonder. The texture of the fur looked so familiar as did the color. "Zeke?" She whispered. A little head suddenly popped up out of the curled up bundle of fur and looked around. The hamster's little black eyes widened as he saw his master and scurried over to her. "Oh my god, Zekey!" Liz cried as she scooped the rodent up in her hands and held him firmly against her body. "I thought I'd lost you forever..." Ilona raised her bright blue eyebrow. "This is the pet you lost?" Liz nodded as tears came to her eyes. The shopkeep smiled. "Take him home, then. He was such a little wreck until he saw you just now." Liz smiled and turned around, slowly walking out. She had her best friend back, and she had new friends to go along with him. Walking through the corridor, she felt a strange contentment. Her head hit the pillow minutes later, with Zeke by her side, and for the first time in a long time. Dr. Elizabeth Lang felt truly happy.