For the first time in well over a year, Captain Shae Voss was not in close proximity to the USS Jhamel. Though the term was a relative thing, as she was only several light minutes from the Jhamel. There was a line of thought that she was neither close nor far in relation to the Jhamel, but for the sake of her own splitting headache it was a line of thought that she quickly extinguished from her mind. Morning fog rolled in off the lake created by violent geological mechanisms long ago in normal time, though not too long ago in what science called 'geological time.'<br/><br/>Shae met the morning and it's fog with a grimace as she slipped from the front door of the lake side log cabin that had belonged to her mother's family for over five generations. Her maternal grandfather had finally turned the cabin into a 'smart dwelling', though the large two story workshop just a short walk from the front door of the cabin was still had simple as wood and nails until Shae inherited the property. She added a small but powerful computer core to the building, powered by an interlocked array of micro-M/ARA reactors; each no larger than a bottle of wine. It could power the lake side property for a few hundred years. Or it could power a small starship's warp drive.<br/><br/>It was a new toy, thanks in part to captured Jem'Hadar technology. But after a night of heavy drinking between her and Earth's moon, Shae had a different sort of toy in mind. A quick glance up at the digital clock just inside the ancient work shop told her that her few days of liberty before the launch of the Jhamel were nearing an end, with less than eight hours left to her. After a quick self-applied hypospray to deal with the hangover and an even quicker lit cigarette, Shae took in a deep breath filled with nicotine from the cigarette and the overwhemling smell of grease.<br/><br/>The grease came from the toy Shae had in mind; an old tractor that she'd found in the back of the workshop, covered by canvas and dust and years. Though wildly drunk, she'd managed to repair the body of the tractor and most it's internal parts. Even given a few days off, it was beyond Shae to not tinker. To not want to find some mechanical puzzle, and play.<br/><br/>Even if it resulted in her being covered in grease and coolant, after her last few hours on Earth were spent repairing the old tractor's radiator, then showering herself clean, and loading her last few cruise boxes onto the shuttle that sat upon the shuttle pad just behind the log cabin. Shae kept the uniforms packed, opting instead for an old brown leather jacket, faded and fitted jeans, and a black teeshirt with a front left breast graphic that read, "ATT SFA", the graphic on it's back listing each ATT grad in her class, including herself, hidden under the leather jacket.<br/><br/>With a quick check in to San Fransisco's Shuttle Control, Shae was headed out of Earth's orbit and to Starbase 74. Instead of rely on her own piloting skills, Shae opted for the auto pilot and a quick nap. It wasn't until a few hours later that the rocking of the shuttle awoke her quickly just in time to see the shuttle come to a gentle setdown within the superstructure of Starbase 74's spacedock. A quick request to Spacedock staff to get her cruise boxes moved to the Jhamel in time, and Shae was walking corridors, giving her personal security code when challenged by the computer in order to enter the more secure areas of Starbase 74, like the office of Admiral's office and 74's Command Deck--both of which she needed to check into before settling on the Jhamel.<br/><br/>The entire day may have been made worth it when Shae was given a small cherry lollipop by the Admiral's yeoman when she checked in with the young officer in order to see Deren. There could be times when Shae's superiors found it hard to tell whether they were addressing the Vulcan or the human, an unbalancing act that Shae perfected over the first five decades of her life.<br/><br/>But when she walked into Admiral Deren's office once the yeoman gave her the all clear finishing off the piece of candy and smiling...odds were good it was the human that Deren addressed now. "Sir, checking in before heading to the Jhamel. Onload shouldn't take too much longer, so Spacedock is telling me."