Still on the Observation deck, time quietly passed by until Katherine’s fatigue finally caught up with her.  Giving up the notion of trying to sit in on the meeting with Colonel Miller, it was all she could do to make it back to her room and crawl into bed, succumbing almost instantly to a deep and blissful sleep, free of troubled thoughts and dreams.  When she woke the next morning feeling more refreshed than she had in days, she quickly showered, dressing in blue jeans and white cotton blouse, before heading to grab some breakfast.  As she made her way towards the mess hall, the events of yesterday slowly resurfaced, but she gently pushed them aside, and focused instead on planning her next research project.<br/><br/>The bittersweet aroma of coffee drifting down the corridor was a pleasant surprise, and Katherine grinned, picking up her pace.  Once inside the hall, she wasted no time pouring a steaming cup of coffee, leaning down, breathing deeply and savouring the delicious scent.  Looking around she grabbed a breakfast ration, and scanned the room until she saw Dr. Rahimi, Dr. Davis and Dr. Pike sitting together, deep in conversation.  Walking towards them, she said good morning, sat down and began sipping her coffee, listening to the other three as they discussed the narrow escape with the alien vessels, and Dr. Heath’s leadership in particular.  They all seemed quite positive about it, and there wasn’t so much a hint of concern or fear.  Then Dr. Rahimi shared details of what happened in the communications lab, and Katherine’s interest piqued.  The idea that a simple stone could allow the consciousness of two people to exchange bodies while light years apart was endlessly fascinating to her, and blew the commonly accepted psychological theories about the biological nature of the human psyche right out of the water.  She made a mental note to ask Dr. Heath for a full account of her experience, and request the opportunity to participate during the next meeting so she could study the phenomenon first hand.  Since Dr. Rahimi didn’t know the details of what transpired back at the Pentagon, she’d have to get that information from Dr. Heath as well, but there would be time for that later.  Right now, she was curious about what had troubled the Aerospace Engineer yesterday while he watched Dr. Heath speak to Captain Hunter.<br/><br/>Keeping her expression casual, she turned to him and asked, “I couldn’t help but notice you seemed troubled by something yesterday in the control room, was it something Dr. Heath said?”<br/><br/>Dr. Rahimi shifted in his seat so that he faced her and said, “Well…actually it was what she didn’t say.”  He then explained the weapons testing that took place while Katherine and the others were off ship, and his concerns about the risk should anything malfunction or drain the power reserves, putting the lives of the away team in jeopardy.  “My take on it was that she didn’t care about you and the others as much as satisfying her own curiosity.  She also didn’t tell the Captain about it, and I kinda felt like that was information he would have wanted to know.” He added.<br/><br/>The other two at the table began nodding; murmuring their agreement and Katherine frowned. “The tests were successful I assume?  Nothing happened that I should know about?” She asked seriously.<br/><br/>He shook his head. “No, no…everything went as planned and we are confident now about what our limits are should, God forbid, we ever end up in a battle.” He looked down at the table.<br/><br/>Katherine tilted her head. “None of us want a battle Dr. Rahimi, but you know the odds are against us not finding ourselves in one, and it’s good we are prepared, especially in light of what happened yesterday.” She said soberly.  “I can’t believe Dr. Heath would have put anyone’s life at risk.”  She smiled and shook her head. “No, I refuse to believe that.  From day one, the crew has been a priority for her, and in fact, that’s more or less, why I’m here, to see to everyone’s well-being at her insistence.  I will mention it to Captain Hunter though if it makes you feel better.” She said soothingly.  “In fact, why don’t you prepare a report for him?  I’m sure he’ll appreciate knowing the ship’s capabilities and limitations.”<br/><br/>“Sure Dr. Randall, no problem.”<br/><br/>Katherine smiled and looked at her fellow scientists.  “Listen, since we’re going to be working together for the foreseeable future, why don’t we dispense with the formalities and drop the pretentious titles.  Please call me Katherine.”<br/><br/>All three smiled back and nodded. “Sounds good to me Katherine.  It was beginning to sound like a faculty meeting around here.” Carole Davis chuckled.<br/><br/>“Perfect.” Hassan Rahimi smiled.<br/><br/>“Agreed.” David Pike grinned.<br/><br/>Deciding it was time to get to work, but realizing she hadn’t eaten yet Katherine grabbed her coffee and breakfast, excused herself and returned to the lab.  Sitting down at her desk, she began eating absently while leafing through some files, the earlier conversation with her colleagues playing through her mind.  She hoped she had successfully quelled the budding tide of discontent, and though it was normal for people to question authority at some point, she hadn’t expected it to come so soon.  It would be one more thing to discuss with Dr. Heath as soon as she had a chance.<br/><br/>Shifting her attention to work, Katherine opened a sealed envelope that held the scope of her first research project, a study on Circadian Rhythms during long Space flights.  NASA had pioneered study in this field, in preparation for a future manned space flight to Mars.  Little did they know a team of non-astronauts would travel across the galaxy before the Mars mission craft had even been engineered, and so NASA wanted data they could only get from Discovery’s mission, which meant every member of the crew was expected to wear a monitoring device, called an Actillume bracelet.  It was the size of a watch and designed to track sleep and wake cycles.  Since the daylight cycles in space are nonexistent thus disrupting the neurobiological mechanisms of sleep, the hypothesis was that every crew member would slowly gravitate towards a 23 hour cycle and experience significant sleep disruptions, causing poor performance and irritability, unless properly managed. She should have administered the monitors on day one to get accurate baseline readings, but there hadn’t been time.  Thankfully, it took more than a few days for the human body’s natural clock to shift, so the small delay shouldn’t skew the data at all.<br/><br/>The sound of footsteps caused her to look up as Dr. Heath entered the lab. “Good morning Kat, how is everything?”  She smiled.<br/><br/>Katherine smiled back briefly, and then invited the doctor to sit down.  “Oh, I can’t complain, at least there is coffee now.”  Turning more serious she said, “So, what happened with Colonel Miller last night?”  Leaning in closer with a look of curiosity, she added. “More importantly, how did it<em>feel</em>?”<br/><br/>Dr. Heath chuckled and gave a detailed perspective of what it felt like to switch bodies with someone else, and then before Katherine could ask any questions, she gave her overview of the meeting, elaborating on the growing contention between the IOA and Military as each struggled to wrest power from the other. Katherine let out a disgusted breath. “Typical.  Petty politics once again, or should I say petty egos…as if we don’t have enough to deal with.  If they put half as much effort into finding solutions to their differences as they do bickering like children, imagine what they could accomplish.”<br/><br/>The older woman smiled. “Too true, however, there isn’t anything to worry about.  I have some powerful allies at the IOA, and even the Colonel can’t interfere.  Besides, I managed to convince his superiors that I was the best qualified to lead this mission, and thanks to our alien friends, I’ve been able to prove them correct.  Even Captain Hunter backed me up which seemed to hold much weight with our friend the Colonel.”<br/><br/>The odd way she phrased that point astonished Katherine, and her gaze narrowed on the woman seated across from her.  “I’m not sure ‘thanks’ is appropriate under the circumstances.  You do realize we were severely outgunned and Dr. Ning was seriously hurt as were others?  Not to mention the invasion and attack on human lives stranded on the planet below?”  She said heatedly.<br/><br/>Dr. Heath clucked her tongue. “Of course not, you should know that’s not what I meant.” Her hands waived dismissively.  “Anyway, it matters little now, since I am here and they are light years away.  It’s not like they can replace me.”<br/><br/>Katherine frowned. “No I suppose not.  However, it would be a good idea for you to spend more time one on one with the others; build a rapport with the team.”  She thought about explaining Hassan’s concerns but changed her mind at the last minute.  Something in the older woman’s demeanour made her hold back, and though she couldn’t say exactly what, the last thing she wanted was to have Dr. Heath feel threatened by one of their crew.  No, for now everything was fine, so she decided to leave it alone.<br/><br/>“Team building? Honestly Kat, that’s your job.”  She said impatiently before standing up and walking to the door. “Why else do you think you’re here?”<br/><br/>That stung somewhat, but Katherine tried to brush it off and looked at Dr. Heath solemnly.  “Of course, we won’t discuss it again then,” she said.<br/><br/>Dr. Heath smiled. “Oh before I forget, Dr. Davis is busy analyzing that soil sample you collected and asked if you could find someone to help her in the garden since Dr. Ning isn’t up to it.  I told her I would take care of it.”  On that note, she said goodbye and waltzed back into the hallway.<br/><br/>Katherine sat back in her chair, wondering what the hell just happened, and what could account for the aloofness in Dr. Heath’s behaviour.<em>Probably just having difficulty adjusting to it all as I am, either that, or I’m being too sensitive.</em>Sighing, she got up from the desk, and went to help the biologist, lamenting the fact that she never seemed to find a moment’s peace.<br/><br/>On her way, she saw Lt. Peters and Sgt. Walters walking towards her looking conveniently unoccupied.  Grinning, she waived them over and quickly asked them to report to Dr. Davis, and help her in any way that they could.  Both soldiers looked at each other, and Walters tried to protest, but Katherine held up her hands. “Unless you have specific orders to be somewhere else, then I expect you to do as I ask.”  She said firmly and looked at the frowning Sgt. “Well, do you have orders?” She waited for a reply but Walters just shook his head. “Perfect, then I can count on you to get your hands ‘dirty’.”  Smiling, she turned around and went back to the lab.<br/>