===== Promenade deck, SB Bragg ===== Shane walked slowly along the long promenade deck. Bragg was a Mir class station, the same class as SB 742 is, and its huge size determined the immense lenght of the promenade deck. Rangi returned to the Chimera half an hour ago, so see some 'things'. Shane knew her good enough to guess that she was going to pay a visit in the sickbay and possibly have a chat with the 'girls' there. Shane doesnt wanted to return to the Chimera, so they arranged to meet on the Promenade in an establishmant called 'Dancing Zorba', which was an old-earth-style-greek restaurant, in some 2 hours. Shane had little reasons to go back to the Chimera and he was sure that the crew enjoyed that the ACO was not on board. He knew that feeling from his own experience ... how 'easy' the overall mood was when his former CO on SB 742 was not present. Like an old earth saying say: "When the cat is not @ home, the mouses have a party". The last mission was a difficult one and Shane was ready to grant the crew the 'free time' with no Commander on board. Walking along the various shops Shane pondered a bit about SSF Comm. Tomorrow there was the apointment he had with SSF Ops. He was not told what exactly is the reason for the apointment, but he had a slight feeling that it wont be a promotion. He tried to hide it, but true was that he was never too happy about SSF and its methods. A typical way for SSF was to confiscate all data gathered by Chimera's officers about the Kzenti technology and calling the whole mission as a secret one. Shane was particulary unhappy Oriana's cause, because she seemed to find quite an interest in the Chameleon technology. Shane continued walking and looked at the others inhabitants of the SSF HQ. There was the usual mix of races that served in the Starfleet, but unlike other SF stations, on Bragg there was quite a bigger number of uniformed SF officers then peoples clothed casual. Even the bars, restaurants and shops were present in a smaller number then Shane would expect on a base of this class. Comparing to SB 742, Bragg was as busy as a village at 12 am on sunday. For a while he wondered that SSF allowed even the few business-man(creatures) to set up their shops/restaurants on the base. Well, even the trip to SB Bragg is surely not an easy one. Every ship entering the Omega system was immediately acompanied by an SSF vessel and only after clearance from SSF Com it could continue its way into the system. There were hardly civilian ships allowed to dock on the station and surely no non-federation ones. Anyway, there was a lot of peoples working for SSF and those needed entertainment, food and a way how to spend their credits. The latest was Shane's target the same. There were little chances to spend then on a ship like Chimera ... always on a mission, preferably a dangerous one and far, far away ... Luckily there was a little 'media' shop on Bragg led by an old man from Mars that had items for sale like data crystals, PADDs and even paper books with the content of historic vulcan, betazed and human literature. The last time Shane was on Bragg he promised himself to explore the little 'book' shop and see if there is any chance to find a book from an old earth author dealing with the adventures of an fantasy world wizard called Ricewind. Shane was quite keen about the fellow, in some way he remainded him on himself and what was the most important ... his books made him laugh. Aye, Commander Guzman KNEW how to laugh. This was a feature the Bridge crew would never belive in. In the two years on board the Chimera, occasions when Shane was seen laughing in the public could be counted by fingers ... one one hand. ===== End of log ===== Cmdr. Shane Guzman XO USS Chimera