Lieutenant Varyn K’lev was off-duty, resting in his quarters, yet his rest eluded him, his brain instead playing back the events of Culver City’s patrol and Chief Bong’s private polite admonishment of him and Ensign Lotharys for the moment of ‘gallows humor.’  To try and quiet his mind, he grabbed a PADD and started working on one of his pet projects, this time an enhancement to a navigational deflector that he’d been working on for a couple of years now.  The project worked for a while, but a persistent sneak circuit just would not disappear, and he felt his frustration starting to rise.

The door chime sounded suddenly, causing him to fumble the PADD as his head whipped around.  “Um…. Who is it?” he called out.

“It’s me,” came Lotharys’s voice through the door panel’s intercom.

“Come in!” K’lev called.

The door swished open and Lotharys entered.  Like K’lev, she was off-duty and looked short of sleep.  “Still up?” she asked.

“Yeah,” he replied.  “It’s…” he chuckled.  “It’s been a week.”

Ophelia nodded as she flopped down on the corner of the bed.  “Tell me about it…”  She sighed.  “It feels like we’ve been out here for a month.”

“At least,” Varyn said, shaking his head with a tired look in his eyes.  “What did we get ourselves into this time?” he asked, at least somewhat rhetorically.

“Wish I knew,” she replied.  “It’s a mess, though…”

He nodded with a bit of an affirmative exhaling of breath.  Ophelia sighed again, then nodded to the PADD.  “Whatcha working on?” she asked.  “Not reports, I hope?”

Varyn shook his head.  “Nope, got those done earlier.  Remember that nav deflector idea I told you about at the Academy?”

Ophelia laughed warmly.  “You’re still working on that?”

He nodded, grinning tiredly.  “Yup!  I think I’m finally close, too, if I can get the power drain issue solved without overcorrecting it into a surge.  It’s gotta be a sneak or a splice somewhere, but I can’t find it for the life of me.”

“Show me?” she asked.  “Maybe we can figure it out together!”

Varyn grabbed the PADD from where he’d tossed it and crossed to the bed, lying down with his head on the pillows and calling up the specs, holding the PADD so Ophelia could see it too.  For the next half-hour or so, the two friends chatted as they tried to figure out the wiring issue.  If truth be told, though, neither tried very hard, relaxed more as a result of each other’s company than the act of studying the plans.  Eventually, Ophelia nestled in close and fell asleep against him; Varyn carefully put the PADD on the side table and instead held his friend, falling asleep himself shortly thereafter.

The bridge was on fire, Culver City rocking as her hull absorbed blow after punishing blow.  K’lev clawed his way back to his command chair, using it to pull himself upright as he looked around the shattered room.  Bodies lay sprawled on the floor or draped across blown-out consoles, and the emergency lighting flickered as she ship started to lose power.  Culver City was dying, and he was the architect of the ship’s demise; he’d gotten too relaxed – too cocky – and let his caution slip, and now all hope was lost.  K’lev jabbed the intercom control on his chair, but nothing happened; the ship continued in its final spasms, and try as he might, he could not even order an evacuation.  His eyes flashed around the bridge again, taking in his fallen crewmates – his fallen family – before settling in desperation on the viewscreen; through the static of the failing display, he saw a Tholian cruiser fire its weapons.  There was a bright flash and-

Varyn started awake in a sweat as he broke free of the nightmare.  Looking around, his heart hammering, he saw his quarters looked fine, and gentle pressure against his side drew his gaze to Ophelia curled up beside him, fast asleep.  His heart rate slowed now, he laid back down.  Ophelia had noticed him stirring, though, and sat up.  “…sorry, fell asleep…” she mumbled, then noticed his condition.  “You okay….?”

Varyn nodded.  “Yeah…. Just a nightmare is all; I’ll be fine,” he said sleepily.

Ophelia nodded, rubbing her eyes.  “I should probably go…” she mused, starting to swing her legs around.

“You don’t have to…. I mean….” Varyn stammered.  “It’s already late…”

”You sure?” she asked.

He nodded.  “Yeah.  If you want to stay, of course.”

Ophelia smiled, lying back down and nestling in as Varyn put an arm around her.  Over the next few minutes, the two drifted off to an exhausted sleep once more, though this time no nightmares arose to interrupt their slumbers.