Kathryn Janeway had never wanted to own a briefcase now she owned two. The first was the steel case which she used daily to dutifully transport the progress reports, memos, position papers and grant proposals that were endemic to her duties at the Office for Technology Assessment. The second briefcase, the larger of the two, had been a birthday gift three years ago from her husband. Daniel had never been sanguine about the amount of travel her job required--one night in four according to Accounting, although their tally included only those nights where an actual charge for billeting materialized. It most assuredly did not include the dozens of nights she spend dozing fitful and upright aboard some transport or in the uncomfortable waiting area of a nameless space station while in transit, or those nights she simply dossed down on the couch in her office, too tired to bother going home only to have to return in a few hours to begin her day all over again. Daniel's gift, just large enough to accommodate her paperwork plus a change of clothes and a few necessary toiletries, had been his way of saying that he'd accepted her job as part of who she was. They had married not long afterwards.

The smaller attaché now ticktocked in Janeway's right hand as she strode purposefully down the hallway on the 14th floor of Starfleet's HQ Annex. TAnnex occupied a lot about three blocks from the heroic glass and metal architecture of Starfleet Headquarters and commanded a spectacular view of San Francisco Bay. If Janeway had ever slowed down enough to look out the windows of the hallway, she would have been able to see the Golden Gate Bridge, now fully restored to it previous glory after its destruction in the waning days of the Dominion War, but she never did.

She moved purposefully past several identical doors before stopping in front of one, distinguishable from the others only by the tidy, standard Starfleet plaque beside it, bearing the legend:

Admiral Kathryn Janeway
OTA/ED

Janeway moved through the door into the outer office. The room was dominated by a huge polished burlwood desk and the diminutive, brightly--one might even say, gaudily--dressed figure that sat behind it.

"Morning, Jayen," Janeway greeted her secretary.

"Morning, Boss, " the P'Tweet chirped back. "You're late."

Janeway stopped and set her briefcase down beside the desk. "I was on time, but Nick Holanyak buttonholed me in the lift and tried to worm an opinion, official or otherwise, out of me about Project Bright Night and Tuesak and Hjarlmarson's preliminary results. Took me 20 minutes to escape."

"So, no opinion, Boss?"

"No *official* opinion, "Janeway corrected, picking up the nearest of the three padds that Jayen scooted across the desk toward her. "And no unofficial opinion just yet either. At least not until I get independent confirmation of their results. Remember that when Jorge shows up this morning in the break room with seedcakes and fruit juice to woo his way into your confidences."

Jayen shrilled a ear piercing whistle, her species's equivalent of laughter.

Janeway winced as her ears rang with the sound. Jayen's laugh could set dogs baying in the street. It, along with the P'Tweet's chronic inability--though Janeway suspected unwillingness was the more likely explanation-- to use appropriate ranks and titles, and the near constant supply of pinfeathers which clung to Janeway's pant's hems at the end of the day, were among her assistant's least endearing qualities.

Janeway waggled the padd in her hand. "Comm logs?"

"Yep," the P'Tweet confirmed. "Organized just like you like 'em. By urgency, relevance and origination." A scaly hand touched the second padd. "This is a complete set of pre-prints for next week's Gee-triple E symposia. And this..." A finger touched the third padd. "...is a preliminary report from Kerlinsky at MERL.....Does that mean we will behaving an 'unofficial' opinion on Bright Night later today?"

Janeway scooped the padd out from under Jayen's hand and eagerly thumbed it on. Scanning the contents, she grinned, "Maybe...just maybe," and headed toward her office.

"Hey Boss!" Jayen called toward Janeway's retreating back. "Forgot to tell you. Judge Daniel called. He says to call him back. At home. Double red alert urgent."

Janeway waved a vague hand to indicate she'd heard and wondered why she could never get her secretary to call her Admiral when she never failed to mention Daniel's title.

***

Damn! She had just about worked her way through the equations when the comm signal on her terminal buzzed ruining her concentration. Now she was going to have to start over.

Janeway slapped the contact button. "What?" she snapped, irritated.

Jayen's angular avian face winked into being. "Judge Daniel is waiting on channel three," the P'Tweet announced.

Shit. She'd forgotten she was supposed to return his comm and it was.... She glanced at the chronometer on her terminal screen. It was after 0930. Janeway cut her secretary off without a word and punched up Daniel's call.

The scene changed to reveal the inside of her bedroom at home. A mote of dusty sunlight sliced across the subdued blue and cream decor, but Daniel was most assuredly not waiting on channel three. In fact, Daniel was nowhere to be seen. Janeway was momentarily annoyed until she noticed the disarray in her normally tidy bedroom. Clothing was strewn all over the bed and a travelcase laid open on its foot. Someone was packing. Several seconds later, a male figure entered the picture pick-up and stooped to open a dresser drawer at the far end of the room. Janeway allowed herself a moment to appreciate the sight of her husband's backside. Unlike many middle aged men, Daniel had never allowed himself to 'go to seed.' He weighed only 15 pounds more than he had as a collegiate middleweight boxing champion, as he proudly liked to remind his clerks and fellow judges, and could still go six rounds with the best of his age peers without looking like a fool. A couple of his clerks had interpreted that as a subtle threat, but Janeway knew that Daniel had never meant it that way. He was simply a man proud of his accomplishments.

Deciding she had indulged herself quite long enough, Janeway called out her husband's name.

"Kathryn," Daniel said warmly, turning and seating himself at the comm screen. "I'm glad you called. The transport will be here in about five minutes to pick me up. I was afraid I was going to have record a message for you."

Janeway paused mid-thought. What transport? She didn't remember...but Daniel was already explaining. "Last minute call, sweetheart. The Chief of the Senate Judicial Committee asked me if I
could act as his unofficial observer at the Bagen trial on Deslean. Stokol is fairly certain that the proceedings will eventually be kicked over to the Federation High Court for decision and wants to get a feel for how the hearing is being conducted first hand so when the issue comes up before the Senate....I'm rattling on, aren't I? Too much detail. Sorry. Sorry. I'll jump to the summation: I'm leaving for Deslean...right now." Janeway could hear the door chime buzzing downstairs in the background. "I'll be back in about 3 weeks. Sorry about the short notice. Love you. Miss you. I'll comm you as soon as I get settled."

Janeway touched her hand to the viewsreen. "Be careful. I'll miss you too." The screen went dark as Daniel cut the connection.

Janeway sat quiet for a moment, frankly stunned. Daniel hated to travel and usually avoided it as much as he could, but he sounded positively giddy about this trip, kind of like she had been before her first trip to Mars when she was 12. She smiled fondly as she remembered that seminal visit and silently hoped that Daniel's trip fulfilled his expectations. Then she keyed her secretary and asked her to come to her office. She hadn't called Daniel and he hadn't called her....which could only mean that Jayen had taken it upon herself to intervene. The P'Tweet had always teetered precariously on the thin edge of propriety and had overstepped the bounds a time or two, but never quite so flagrantly. Janeway didn't look forward to reprimanding her.

***

"Based upon the confirming results obtained by Kerlinsky et alia, mark opening parenthesis, see appendix four for the full text of this experiment, including a description of the experimental set up, raw and interpreted data and an analysis of the outcomes with an eye to future applicability, mark closing parenthesis, it becomes clear that..."

Janeway had reached the wall of her office. She turned neatly and resumed her pacing and dictation. Her path took her past her desk and she snagged her coffee cup as she passed by. She was already swallowing when she realized that the coffee in the cup had been cold for a long time. Altering her trajectory, she slid the half-filled cup into the recycler.

"Cof..." Was this her fourth or her fifth cup since lunch? She couldn't remember. The bitter liquid swirled uneasily in her stomach and she rethought her decision to order another. "Cancel that."

She sighed. Her eyes felt like her sockets and lids were lined with 12 grit sandpaper. She put the backs of her hands over her eyes in an attempt to hold off the urge to rub at them. She fumbled through the right top drawer of her desk for the eye drops that Voyager's holodoctor has given her years ago when he first became aware of her predilection for all night paperwork marathons and the resultant eye
irritation. The drops soothed some, and she allowed herself a long, thorough eye massage despite the fact she knew that that was the worst thing she could do.

Sighing again and leaning down, she checked her desktop chrono. It was after 8. More than late enough to call it day. She rolled her head from side to side, trying to work lose the worst of the muscle tension in her neck.

"Computer, file report under Bright Night, preliminary findings, and today's stardate. Use standard security and flag it as unfinished."

Janeway slid a hip on her desk. She could go home, she supposed, but the idea of a solitary replicated meal in an empty house didn't seem appealing in the least. Maybe that was why Daniel hated it so much
she traveled, Janeway thought with a twinge of sudden empathy. A solo meal at one of the local restaurants sounded equally unappealing. The Officer's Club on the top floor of HQ Main? There was bound to be someone she knew there and the food was always good. But first, she decided as a muscle in her neck pinched painfully, she'd go to the gym and take a run.
 

The woman's locker room at the HQ gym was never totally deserted no matter what the hour was, but as Janeway looked around she saw no one she recognized. Slamming her locker closed, she headed for the exercise floor, hoping to find an unoccupied holosuite. She could always use a treadmill, but she preferred to take her runs with scenery.

She was in luck suite six was unoccupied. Janeway entered her identification code and slipped a program chip into the slot. The door rumbled open and she stepped out into the Tuscany countryside. She stood for a moment, enjoying the golden sunlight before beginning a series of warm-up stretches.

"Mind some company?"

Janeway whipped around to see the head of Maggie Thompson's salt and peppered head poking through the door. She knew Maggie somewhat better than casually, though she couldn't quite label her as a close friend. Maggie was a litigator with Starfleet's Judge Advocate
office and had been two years ahead of her at the Academy.

"No problem." Janeway motioned for the woman to enter. "You're up late."

Maggie grinned ruefully and began her own stretching regime. "Early actually. I'm scheduled to take a deposition at 10 am.....in Singapore. That's about 2 hours from now. I tried to negotiate moving the hearing to San Francisco, but the witness refused and the judge declined to hear my petition to relocate." Maggie shrugged. "Can't win them all.... but don't tell Admiral Priddy I said that. He'd have my ears."

Janeway began a slow jog and waited for Maggie to fall in beside her before stepping up the pace. They ran steadily for a few moments, wending their way through a grove of ancient olive trees at the foot of
stony hilside.

"I told you my excuse for being here at this benighted hour. What's yours?" Maggie puffed out when her breathing caught up with her exertion.

Janeway lifted her wrist and swiped away a film of sweat that threatened to drop into her eyes. "The usual, " she explained. "I was trying to finish up a report. It got late...and well, you can guess the
rest. Besides, Daniel isn't home so I thought I get some physical conditioning in."

Maggie frowned as she processed the information. "But the Court isn't in session. Don't tell me someone has managed to pry him out of his library for a lecture tour."

A laugh sputtered out of Janeway's mouth. "No. Something even more amazing. He's gone outsystem---to Deslean. He left this morning."

Janeway swung to the right past the last tree in the grove and headed for a half tumbled stone fence that marked the first ascent. She glanced left to make sure that Maggie had seen the turn and noticed her companion had stopped and was standing, hands on hips, and staring dumbfounded at her.

"Deslean? Are you sure?"

"That's what he told me, " Janeway answered mildly as she walked back to where her running partner stopped.

Maggie shook her head in mild surprise. "Then the rumors *are* true."

Janeway's forehead puckered with her lack of understanding. "What rumors?"

Maggie chuckled richly with a cognoscenti's superiority. "Kathryn, you're a bright woman. I'm sure you can recite fractal probabilities in your sleep, but you don't know a thing about legal politics...."

With a conspirator's sly grin, Maggie wrapped an arm around Janeway's shoulder and proceeded to explain to her that Janeway's husband was on the short list for nomination as a Justice of the Federation High Court, a list that had suddenly become much shorter given that Daniel has been sent to observe what was sure to become the High Court next major case.