===== Shane's quarters, Deck 2, USS Chimera ===== The door on Shane's quarters slowly closed with a silent hiss and Shane looked at his quarters. Some of his clothes and other belongins were scattered on the floor, sofa and two chairs and a small plate half full of some vegetable meal was 'ruling' the table. An replicated paper book with strange cover pictures was keeping the plate on the table company ... all together ... Shane's usual mess. It was very well visible that there is a single man living in this quarters, not only cause the mess all around but even for the lack of plants or art artifacts. The few things that were not clothes/food/padds were several pictures on the walls. Of course, that were Shane's 'famous' pictures inpirated by an VERY old Earth book saga ... 'Disc world' written by Terry Prattchet. Shane liked them all but especially the one with the 'almost' wizard Ricewind running almost with warp speed (what was his common daily business) away from some multi-tentacled creature with his 'pet' luggage - a hundred legged wooden pirate chest on his side. Shane smiled a bit: {What a luck Rangi liked this picture as well} he thought. Well, Rangi was a common guest in Shane's quarters and even helped him to clean his rooms from time to time, but obviously she had the opinion that a man should be able to do it by himself ... what sometimes caused his room to look like ... well ... as it looked like ... Shane sat himself in one of his two chairs and sighed. Rangi was missing ... she dissapeared from the ship with no trace what happened to her. That bothered Shane, it bothered him much ... and the fact that the ODA had still no evidence of what happened to her bothered him even more. If he could ... he would search the ship for Rangi by himself. Inch per inch ... every single corner ... every room and jeffreis tube ... look at every sensor log in the queried time ... BUT ... he could not. Since the Colonel left the ship with the away team, he was in charge of the ship. In charge and alone ... there was noone on board he could share the burden of command with. Besides the Colonel there was only a single other person he trusted enough to entrust her the command in a situation like this ... Rangi, Rangi Summers, ship's CMO/2XO and his beloved. But ... Shane sighed again, Rangi was missing. Shane asked the ship's ODA Commander every several hours about any evidence of Rangi's disappearance, but till now, he got always a negative reply. If it would be not the ship and its crew relying on him, Shane would go most probably crazy ... And well, there was again only one other person on board close enough to him to talk with her about it ... and it was Athena, Athena Wellington - ship's counselor. He knew her for some time now, even from the old good days on SB 742 and back on that days ... for a very short time, Athena and he were a bit closer then friends ... that all made her the only person he could talk to about his fears ... It was a strange fate that he spend the last couple of hours in Athena's quarters ... on the sofa. Yes, i agree ... spending hours alone with your 'amost-ex' in her quarters was QUITE an situation. Athena helped him to play a little theater for the two marines that were standing watch in front of Athena's quarters, but Shane was almost sure that now will rumours about Athena and him spread all over the ship like worms in an old sweet cake ... Shane leaned back in the chair and thought about the latest events. There was no question ... he loves Rangi. She is the woman he wants above all .. the only one he wants to share his life with. But what about Athena? Shane would be a liar if he would say that there are no feelings for her in his heart ... but it was no love ... {wasnt it?} She was an old friend a good friend ... someone Shane trusted. Both knew a lot about the other and that made them somewhat close to each other. Shane would do anything possible to help Athena out of any trouble and he was sure she would do the same for him. She was then like the best friend ... {besides the fact that she was a woman ...} he thought. There was an another point certain. Athena was very attractive and in certain ways ... VERY seductive. It was never easy to guess if she did that intentionally or not, but most of the time she was making the man around her crazy ... An atractive woman is a man's best friend? An VERY, VERY dangerous combination ... ===== End of log ===== LtCmdr. Shane Guzman XO USS Chimera