The deck officer motioned with his light batons to the shuttlecraft making its way to the landing pad. Garek Loran, Chief Engineer stood beside him, watching the shuttle come to a landing. As it rotated, the name Winnipeg came clearly in to view, along with a few of the scorch marks, dings, and dents that gave the shuttle a certain character. As the glow of the warp nacelles faded, an access door on the side of the vessel lifted up and began to open. The large form of Lieutenant Commander Nevar Pol quickly filled it. Garek stepped slightly closer to the shuttle as Pol stepped down on to the warp nacelle, and then down to the deck. "Welcome back Commander," Garek said, extending his hand.
"Always good to be back Commander," Pol replied with a smirk.
" Winnipeg looks like it's been beat up. I can knock a few dings out of it if you want."
"That's alright." Pol walked towards the back of the shuttle to open the rear access hatch. "I wouldn't want to pull you away from the station, and the rust bucket we picked up." Pol looked through the invisible magnetic containment field to the docking port that the Arizona was docked to.
"I see you've noticed the Arizona," Garek commented. "Not exactly the most beautiful thing to look at right now, but when I'm done with it, you'll be sorry you said that."
"Hmph." Pol picked up a few duffel bags and slung them over his shoulders. Garek picked up the last one, and they made their way out of the docking bay, leaving the sounds of engines whining and welding torches to the somewhat distant, omnipresent hum of the station. "Anything interesting happen while I was away?"
"We sent a scouting party to check out planned sight of colonization. Apparently the Federation has good taste because of the large supplies of raw iron ore and dilithium present. Commander Jeffries is still missing, along with Jon Valdago."
"What about his store?"
"I've taken control of it for now, and contacted his family. I'm sure that's what he would've wanted."
Pol sighed. "That's what you get for putting a station in the middle of nowhere. You can't get an emergency message out quickly to anywhere."
"Well, not entirely true," Garek commented. "I'm working on another project."
"Do you ever stop?" Pol commented wryly.
"When you put it that way, I guess not." Garek grinned. "At any rate, I'm working on putting together a sensor/navigation/communications buoy network."
Pol raised an eyebrow at the sound of that. "That's going to be a pretty big network."
"That's why I need to get the Arizona up and running. I could take a few bouys with me in the Lambda Flier and have Runabouts begin deploying others as well, but it would still take longer then if I had the Arizona."
"The great Lambda Flier finally defeated eh?" Pol grinned. Garek gave him an evil look. "Just kidding Garek. The Lambda Flier could easily out preform any light craft in Starfleet."
"And don't you forget it." Garek laughed.
The two stepped in to one of the turbolifts that jetted them off to Deck 3. As they stepped out, Pol looked around noticing that the station had grown in both population and activity. Many different people were making their way through Section 3 to the other commerce pylons. "Who would've thought..." Pol made his way to the circular counter in the middle of "lobby", and picked up a Starfleet data chip that plugged in to almost any type or configuration of data PADD. As he plugged it in to his PADD that he pulled out of his pocket, he noticed that a number of new stores had opened.
"It's amazing what three months of leave will do." Pol looked over at Garek. "I sincerely hope that you and Wallace didn't sell my old quarters as office space."
Garek smiled. "Just yesterday. Someone made us an offer we couldn't refuse." Pol raised an eyebrow. Garek grinned. "It's just as you left it. So, if you don't mind, I'll leave you to walk around..." Garek called over a Yeoman and asked him to take Pol's other duffel. "...while I get back to work on retrofitting the Arizona. Commander Wallace wants it operational in another 3 weeks."
"Commander Wallace?" Pol asked, turning around.
"Yes," Garek replied. "Rich's been been promoted to commander of this place by Admiral McCaffee."
"Hmph." Pol waved, and turned around to address the PADD again. "Things sure do change when you're away."