Horatio smiled. “I’m sure we will all find common ground and understanding in time. That is what Starfleet is all about, after all.”

Neither Vekal nor Portia seemed mollified by his diplomatic efforts. Deciding there was no point in further confrontation, Kayros sighed and grabbed Benedick’s arm. “Come on, kid. Let’s go review those physics notes.”

“Gladly!” Benedick deftly snatched up his data slate while allowing himself to be led away from the table. “I’ve been following up on the discussion we had in class about the vacuum flares. I’m still confused about how quantum fluctuations work. I’d love to hear more from someone who witnessed the very first documented flare.”

Oh, boy. Kayros wondered what she’d let herself in for. “Witnessed” was an overly mild word for that harrowing experience. She’d be perfectly happy if she never had to think about a vacuum flare again.

Midoren City, Denobula

Iota Boötis system

Daibak-oortann-daruum had always been fond of offworlders. His mother, Vaneel, and his first-tier grandfather, Phlox, had raised him with an appreciation of diversity and a fascination for exotic cultures and points of view. Daibak had not inherited their wanderlust—the desire to leave the homeworld was a rare trait among Denobulans—but luckily, he had lived most of his hundred and two years in a time when Denobula had been a member of the Federation and a welcoming port for travelers from dozens of different species.

Most of those species were unlike Denobulans in that they needed to sleep during the night. Which meant they needed a regular place to stay while on-planet. Hotels for offworlders, equipped with the beds, hammocks, nests, or other sleeping facilities that they required on a regular basis, had been a lucrative industry even before Federation membership, and xenophiles like Daibak were a natural fit for it. The mature, pale-haired, round-bodied Denobulan had been one of the more successful hoteliers in Midoren City for several decades, and he had generally found it an enjoyable, educational profession.

Part of the charm, though, was that most visitors stayed only a few days or weeks at a time, long enough that the novelty of their company didn’t wear off, and that they stayed by choice, as interested in what Denobula had to offer as Daibak was in the stories they had to tell. These past two days, things had been different. Starfleet had somehow managed to predict that Denobula was the next probable target for the space storms they were calling vacuum flares, and so the planetary government had imposed a no-fly order, grounding all nonessential space travel within the system. Not only had the hotel’s guests been forced to prolong their stays, but a number of other itinerant travelers had found themselves unexpectedly in need of rooms, filling the hotel nearly to capacity and putting an unexpected demand on its staff and resources.