[ Apazi Fellin | CO's Office, Frontier Station ]



"Thank you." Fellin nodded in reply to one of Judy's assistants. It was something he'd been getting used to again, being surrounded by the color-coded Starfleet personell. It reminded him of the harried and hastled reconstruction of Bajor's infrastructure, the Federation committing thousands of their uniforms to the effort. Apazi himself had worn a uniform for a short while, that of the Provisional Government. He didn't miss it. He'd always been too breezy to salute, people finding is bearing somehow impertinent even though he felt nothing of the sort.

Fellin adjusted his side satchel on his shoulder and went through Judy's open door to an office that could only be hers. He smiled at the surroundings and nodded to a tray on the desk. He approached and had a look, keeping his hands to himself.

"Where do you find the time?"


Judith Eastman

[ Apazi Fellin ]



Fellin joined Judy at the table without objection and settled back into a chair, one leg crossed over the other. Through the large porthole, one could see the comings and goings of distant ships taxi'ing in and out of dock. Frontier didn't bustle like stations closer to populated planets, but the traffic was steady. He took up a cookie - golden brown speckled with dark brown chocolate. Chocolate was possibly Earth's finest export. He didn't hesitate to tuck in even as he produced a PADD from his bag.

"I'm having trouble with customs on Arkaria. They're refusing to release a produce order," he said, the first touch of discontent Judy would have heard from him in many many years. "I know their game. They know if I hold out, the preservation packs will expire and it will spoil."

The PADD was open to the chain of communications back and forth between Fellin and Arkarian customs. It demanded a fee be paid to cover a superfluous invasive pest inspection, unnecessary because the crates had been cleared on Bajor.

He shrugged a shoulder. "Captain of a Federation space station could have some pull."

Judith Eastman

[ Apazi Fellin | CO's Office, Frontier Station ]



Arkarian prosecutors? Fellin raised his eyebrows and sat back, folding his hands in his lap. It was a planet that had seem some trouble in the recent decades that, if Fellin remembered correctly, had drawn in the Federation. It seemed they'd done so a second time.

"By the Prophets," he swore mildly. "How did that come to pass?"

Judy Eastman was many things but she was not to be underestimated. Humans were considered one of the softer species, with their inclination for equity and diplomacy, but Fellin knew well their species' history and dogged determination.

Judith Eastman

[ Apazi Fellin | CO's Office, Frontier Station ]



Judy took to her feet and Fellin recrossed his legs to give due attention. Who knew the legal systems on Arkaria fancied the dramatic? He could certainly see how Judy could delivered a juror or few with this pantomime as an example.

"Well, naturally," Fellin said with feeling. "And so gracious that you'd spend a token like that on an old man's stone fruit."

He finished the chocolate chip cookie and wiped his hands together to shoo away the crumbs.

"Mmm. What else? I'm sure you have other stories. People don't tell you this, but there is nothing sleepy about this corner of things."

Fellin felt a little like he'd been had, coming here to the edges for a slower pace of life. But by his sly smile it was clear he wasn't at all unhappy with how things had gone.

Judith Eastman

[ Apazi Fellin | ]



The Nyberrite Alliance. They were a major player in this and nearby sectors but Fellin had no experience with them. Judy's blithe summation indicated she'd had plenty for both of them.

"You laugh?" he commented. "The rumors must be exaggerated then."

He scratched behind his than recrossed his arms. He elaborated. "There was an admiral killed in a training exercise with the Alliance, I had heard. That wasn't here, then."

Fellin hadn't paid particular attention to the story, seeing as how he was neither Starfleet nor Alliance and an accident was an accident. At the end of the day, they were all only several inches away from the vacuum.

Judith Eastman

[ Apazi Fellin ]



"By the Prophets," Fellin said, taken aback. The truth of the matter was, if such things could be ranked, worse than the garbled fiction.

"That's terrible. And there's no trace? Is there any chance the ship's merely lost? I suppose it's been months now. Or more?"

It was a horrible thing, the missing. It didn't matter the culture or the species, a heart was lost without the closure of a the loved one's body. Such a thing wasn't uncommon in the Dominion War, and many including the Apazi family had those aching questions haunting them. The feeling subsided but never passed.


Judith Eastman

[ Apazi Fellin | ]



Fellin was thoughtful for a moment. He could see that this whole thing bothered his old friend acutely, as well it ought to. Be it a pattern, a curse, or a conspiracy, someone was next in line.

"We believe that everything happens for a reason," Fellin said of his religion, shying very close to cloying platitude, but he continued more practically. "I wonder who stands to benefit from instability in this quadrant. What's so special here?"

He picked a bit of lint from his trousers and rolled it absently between his fingers. It was a larger question than what would make a successful Bajoran retire to a remote Federation station to roll hasperat.

Judith Eastman