Solaris looked over the sparsely populated dining hall after acquiring a large mug of plain black tea from the kitchen staff.

Graham Murray, 33, ruddy skin and brown hair, with all other features similarly not worthy of note, held a plate of water crackers and slices of cheese as he followed Dr Joan Fortuna, 29, average height and round in the face, to a two person table.

Solaris overheard Dr Fortuna asking, "Why doesn't the Captain like me?" In the shuttle Fortuna had made the suggestion in a confrontational tone of voice; in the dining hall her tone of voice was annoyingly plaintive. Murray replied, "Nah, she probably thinks you're great. Captain Li has achieved her new rank less than a month ago. I bet she's just stressed about things."

Then he turned to look in Solaris's direction and gave an exaggerated wink. Solaris had no interest in giving him a reaction. Nonetheless, the acknowledgement that he remembered she could hear them clearly from that far away could be construed as a positive indicator of how their future working relationship might go.

Behind Solaris stood Richards, finally less pale now that he'd discovered the sun lamps and green house on the health and recreation level. He shuffled closer to her.

"Have you seen how big the sleeping quarters are, sir? Instead of bunks everyone has their own sleeping capsule with a shelf and a cupboard, so now I won't have to worry about Johnson nicking stuff." Solaris turned to see Richards lower his eyes to the floor. "Though I guess I wouldn't have to worry about that anyway."

"Shoulders up, Mr Richards."

With a jerk of his body Richards straightened his posture, slightly too arched. "Sorry, sir."

"You will accompany me to view the facilities in the labs," Solaris said, and walked out, expecting Richards to follow and finding her expectations to be entirely reasonable.

*

The laboratory had unnecessary colourful decoration – bright squares and triangles and dark dots pressed onto the doors and one wall – but was otherwise satisfactory. Solaris looked over the inbuilt security precautions (including biometric locks that left Richards stranded in one of the lab's outer circles) with an approving eye and a nod.

She made her way through the doors back to where Richards waited.

"What is your opinion on Graham Murray?" Solaris asked.

"He's good in a crisis, sir. He stayed with me and the Nectarens in the hotel at the station until you and the Captain were done and made sure all the medical staff knew what's what."

"While that is useful, I was able to ascertain that information through my own observation of his behaviour in that crisis. What are your other opinions of him?"

"My feelings?" Richards asked, looking up with big eyes.

Solaris cleared her throat. "I do not need you to tell me if you have an excessively emotional reaction. I merely wish to know any other observations you have about his nature. I am given to understand that camaraderie is important to most officers in the space force."

"Oh! Well, he did try to talk to me about women, sir, but he was barking up the wrong tree, if you know what I mean. But we did have a good talk about cricket. Do you like cricket?"

Solaris remembered the many tedious hours her father had spent watching cricket matches, talking about the details of a sport that seemed to offer no reasonable benefit to either its players or observers. "Not especially."

*

When they got close to the asteroid Dr Ramamurthy had been stationed on, he radioed in to tell them to let him come to them and refused to let them come down to him. Solaris had expected something different, someone more reluctant to leave their long-term experiments.

"I do not want to be stuck on this rock for a moment longer!" Dr Ramamurthy said, loud through the speakers. "You would only attempt to be a tourist and waste more time. Trust me, there is nothing to see!"

Captain Li looked around the room upon hearing this, smiling slightly through a mild turn up of the sides of the mouth and a wrinkling of the eyes, and said, "Very well then. I'll inform the shuttle bay staff to wait for you to come aboard."

*

Dr Ramamurthy when he came aboard was thin, twitchy. His skin had an unfortunate grey tone that accentuated the sharpness of his face.

"I'm sure you're dying to talk about what you learned on your research trip," the captain said, as Dr Ramamurthy alighted from his small craft and waved away any attempts to help him with his baggage.

"No, not at all. Nothing to talk about on that rock, nothing to see. I would like to manage a lab with other human beings in it, please, thank you," he said.

"Well, I imagine that is immensely reassuring to Commander Solaris," the Captain said.

She looked up at Solaris with an eyebrow raised. Solaris nodded down to her.

"Your ability to respect the demands of confidentiality will be useful for your position," Solaris said.

"Can't breach confidentiality when there's nothing interesting to say," Dr Ramamurthy said. "Is there real food here? I would like to gain a lot of weight and make use of sun lamps. UV, now that's exciting."

"Excellent," Captain Li said. "I appreciate your dedication to speedy on-boarding. We won't be delayed attending to our new mission. Commander Solaris, I'll see you and Lt. Richards in 30."

*

Richards looked nervous as he sat at the table with his superiors, and even more so when Murray patted him on the shoulder. Undoubtedly, that was an issue that Dr Fortuna would soon be required to deal with. However, Dr Fortuna looked straight at Captain Li with the severe and direct expression she had affected earlier in her brief shuttle journey from Acquatica to The First Breath of Spring. Dr Pill looked at his hands.

Captain Li, however, looked at each of them once, then nodded.

"We first received a distress call from Rommys and immediately after that an order from Vice-Marshal McIntyre about the Rommys situation. The situation is thus: the time-space anomaly on Rommys no longer poses an acceptable level of risk to the local population. Members of the Bureau of Time Investigation will arrive within the week to seal off the area. Until such time, we are to evacuate the settlement and make sure as much of the research and as many of the important artefacts as possible are removed from the area."

Richards swallowed and looked at his hands.

"I will require a coordinated team effort to conduct this evacuation as efficiently as possible. Dr Fortuna, you will naturally be called upon to liaise with the psychiatric research team and organise—"

"I'm a psychologist," Fortuna said.

"Yes, I'm aware," said Captain Li. "As I was saying, you will liaise with people who are aware of the local issues and organise any therapeutic response that the evacuees require. Dr Pill, I will need you up here in the event of an emergency. Commander Solaris, you and Murray will assist me on Rommys with assessing the situation and organising our crew to respond."

The captain pinned Solaris with her gaze until Solaris nodded in response. Finally, the captain looked away. Murray attempted to pat Richards on the shoulder again.

Richards fidgeted in his seat. "Sir, I..." Then rubbed a hand across the back of his neck.

Captain Li leaned back in her seat and waited for Richards to look up. "I understand those of you who previously served on the Moving Along Silently had an unfortunate incident with a time-space anomaly that over time resulted in the loss of several crew members and the ultimate destruction of a fine, old ship. While I will not require you to go down to Rommys, Lieutenant, I felt it wise to do you the courtesy of warning you of what we'll be facing. I cannot guarantee the effects of the anomaly won't reach people aboard ship. Dr Fortuna, if you'd like to..."

The captain swivelled in her chair but Richards shot up straight, caught the attention of everyone at the table. "No, I'd like to go down to see the anomaly, sir! If I could be allowed to face my fears and help the people down there I would very much like it."

"This won't require acts of courage and glory, Lieutenant, merely organisation. Checklists and the like, you understand?" Captain Li said.

"Yes, sir. I want to prove my usefulness to the space force."

The captain's face softened into a smile. "Well, then. I'm glad to have an enthusiastic volunteer."