“What happened between the Sarek and the Olympic were the same events that overtook all of Starfleet,” T’Kaal said shortly. Despite the hard, matter-of-fact tone of voice, her face remained unexpressive. The teal cloth of her uniform jacket revealed wrinkles where her shoulders were tense.

T’Kaal said nothing more for a moment.  Her eyes darted left and right, as three officers moved past her and Arys, making their way into the transporter centre. Only after they had some small semblance of privacy again, in the passageway, T’Kaal offered Arys more context.

“Blood dilithium. The Dominion incursion of Deneb. The Borg and the Orion Syndicate,” T’Kaal said. None of them elicited much emphasis from T’Kaal except for when she mentioned the Borg more quickly than the others. The smallest of sneers curled the right side of T’Kaal’s lips on that one.

T’Kaal explained, “The then-captain of Olympic stepped down. I have been assigned to exploration missions in the Delta Quadrant since that time, moving farther away from my early specialty in archaeology. All of our samples from the dig on Ullho remained in Olympic’s deep storage. Until Starfleet Science granted a team to study them closely.”

With an impatient air, T’Kaal nodded into the transporter centre.  Her body language communicated that the interaction was complete.  She waited for only a moment before striding into the bustling room filled with the hum of multiple transporter chambers operating at once.

Arys shrugged her shoulder is a small shiver, and fell silent. That unpleasant memories were attached to these events wasn’t a surprise, but none of them were Starfleet related.
And despite the guileless nature of T’Kaal’s words, the part of Arys’ brain that didn’t quite trust anyone yet, put her nervous system into red alert. Just to be safe. Because perhaps it wasn’t an innocent comment. Perhaps she knew. Perhaps she-….

Arys groaned. Intellectually, she knew that neither of these things were true. Now she just needed to convince the rest of her body.

“Doctor,” T’Kaal said, striking the consonants hard.  With her eyes locked onto Arys, she said nothing more until Arys looked back at her, and then, “Shall we proceed?”

“Oh. Uh. Sorry.” Arys smiled, a little embarrassed. “So tell me more about those samples – is there anything specific you hope to find?”

T’Kaal cocked her head to one side.  She hesitated, evidently lost in her own thoughts.  Then she blinked.  After checking the coordinates with the operator, T’Kaal stepped up onto a free transporter platform.

“I do not equip myself with hope to embark on a new project,” T’Kaal finally answered.  “I equip myself with methodology.”

“That’s… wise.” Arys sighed, and joined her.

Perhaps this was indeed the best way to go about this second chance she was given – not just prepare for the worst and hope for the best, but be methodical about her approach.

She joined T’Kaal on the platform. “Well, for what it’s worth… good luck.”

“I find myself with little use for luck,” T’Kaal said, staring forward instead of looking to Arys. “You may retain it for the both of us.”