Bon Voyage

Posted on Sat Aug 14, 2021 @ 6:44pm by Lieutenant Jaro Antos

Mission: Mission 1R - Vigilance Be Our Shield
Location: Vulcan System - 40 Eridani A Starfleet Construction Yards
Timeline: Several Days Before M1D1

With Earth behind them, and with it his year-long soul searching (formally known as a leave of absence) over, Antos was once again in a Starfleet uniform – two solid gold pips pinned to his collar. It was strange how comfortable he felt for someone who had not worn a Starfleet uniform in over a year and had tried not to spare the organization any considerable thought over that period.

The Prophets were right, he thought. He was too much of a Starfleet officer to be anything else.

His gaze caught that of Aiko who was walking beside him carrying some of their personal effects although he was carrying the bulk of it.

Too much of a Starfleet officer to be anything else for now, he corrected.

He loved this woman. He was going to marry her, be a proper husband to her one day, and father their children together. Even the Prophets in all their power could not get in the way of that. It was a blasphemous thought, but that was how deadly serious Antos was about his love for Aiko.

“Almost there dear,” Antos stated smiling at the wordplay just as they reached the open clearing of the giant hangar bay. There were several vessels of various designs parked on the various docking pads lining the bay. Antos made his way through the rows of ships until he reached a type-11 shuttle that was docked, the words Eos inscribed on her hull in several places.

“This is us,” he said as he gestured to the shuttle and helped guide Aiko and her belongings towards the rear of the shuttle. As they approached, he went to the keypad that was concealed in the bulkhead and punched in his access code.

The hatch parted way as the interior lights flickered on.

“Brains before beauty,” he said gesturing for Aiko to walk in.

Aiko laughed with a shake of her head as she stepped into the rear section of the shuttle with Antos following closely behind. Antos proceeded to stow away their belongings in the cargo section of the rear compartment of the shuttle. Most of the suitcases they carried belonged to Aiko. Antos could not blame her for packing so much. After all, they were joining that military life where there was no telling when they would ever be able to go back to Bajor.

When he was finished stowing the cargo, he closed the rear hatch and walked through the rest of the sectioned interior of the personnel shuttle, all the way to the cockpit. He quickly took the helm seat, instantly feeling at home. A touch to the panel brought the shuttle’s computer system out of its 'sleep mode' and his console display came to life. He entered his command codes as prompted and full control of the shuttle’s systems were transferred to him.

It was fortuitous that the Hornet needed one of its shuttles picked up from 40 Eridani A Starfleet Construction Yards and that he just happened to be relatively close by having finished his leave of absence on Earth. Antos had jumped at the chance to deliver the shuttle personally, after all he was going to be serving on the Hornet, and this shuttle and several like it would be under his direct supervision.

The journey to Cestus III would be a long one – days out at high warp from Vulcan. But at least, Antos and his betrothed would have privacy and not have to deal with transports or the multiple layovers, which was the only available alternative to getting to the Hornet.

“Can I get you something?” Aiko asked from the middle compartment of the shuttle.

“Raktajino, black,” he responded.

“Oh…” came Aiko’s response. “That kind of day huh?”

Antos smiled. “That kind of day,” he repeated in response.

“One black raktajino coming up!”

Antos once again turned his attention to the console and started the preflight checks.

He first checked for the shuttle’s fuel levels. She was brand new and had undoubtedly been fuelled up, but it never hurt to double check. Besides, Antos personally knew of a handful of incidents where pilots had forgotten to check their fuel levels only to end up stuck in space out of gas. He would not be making that kind of rookie mistake.

Glancing at the levels, he was pleased to see that both the antimatter and deuterium levels were at maximum as expected. Satisfied he had enough fuel, Antos brought the shuttle’s engines online. He inputted the command to bring the fusion reactor online. The Eos came alive with a near silent hum as the reactor became active.

Antos ran a quick diagnostic on the impulse engines. The computer's report stated that all was well, so he proceeded to bring her matter/antimatter reactors online. The warp engines roared to life with a louder but negligible hum. Again, he ran another quick diagnostic, although this time on the warp engines. As anticipated, the computer again indicated that the warp engine was working within normal parameters.

Now that he had power to play with from the engines, he began diverting powers to the systems he would need. He brought both the long range and short-range sensor pallets online giving them full power. He allocated power to Eos’ tactical systems, transporters, structural integrity field, tractor beam and fed the left over into the emergency battery.

With power allocation out of the way, he rotated the frequencies of the shuttle’s shields, weapons, transporters and sensors. It was unnecessary since they were going to be traversing mostly friendly space, but Antos would rather not take a chance.

He ran a quick diagnostic on all systems and subsystems and nodded satisfactorily as the computer had no problem to report but mostly minor calibration that the computer could make on its own. Antos authorized the calibrations, satisfied overall that the shuttle was in fine working order and ready for the long journey ahead.

Just then Aiko emerged from the back compartment with a mug of hot raktajino. He took it, taking in the aroma and smiled. He took a sip, feeling it burn his lip before he set it down. He patted the seat next to him, which Aiko promptly sat in.

“Pretty lady, welcome aboard the Type-11 shuttle, Eos, fresh out of the industrial replicators of the 40 Eridani A Starfleet Construction Yards, with direct flight service from the Vulcan system to Cestus III. We will be getting in the que for departure soon, so as the handsome Captain of this ship, I ask that you please fasten your seatbelts at this time.”

He paused and grinned mischievously. “It is strongly encouraged that you give the Captain a kiss before departure.”

“Oh, is that right?” Aiko asked smiling. “What kind of spaceline asks passengers to kiss their Captain?”

“Well this is Jaro Spaceline…we do things differently.”

“Well, what the Captain wants, the Captain gets,” Aiko said with a smirk as she pressed her soft lips against his, kissing him deeply, and just as he was going to pull her in closer, she pulled away smiling mischievously. “I believe I fulfilled my obligation…Captain.”

“Err…” Antos said with a cough. “That’s right.” He turned to his console, "Flight," he said opening her comms to the Flight Ops tower, "this is shuttle Eos, pre-flight is complete. Request permission to depart."

"Shuttle Eos," came a response, "you are clear for launch. Releasing landing pad lock now."

"Acknowledged," Antos replied. "Eos out."

His instrument panel indicated that the landing pad lock was disengaged. He powered up the shuttle’s antigrav lifting the shuttle a good three feet off the pad and checked his proximity alert to make sure nothing or anyone was in the immediate vicinity of the shuttle.

He deftly maneuvered the shuttle out of her docking pad into the taxi runway of sorts. He continued onwards until the runway brought him to a giant open door leading outside of the facility. He could see the black of space dotted with various shades of silver representing stars.

He fired the thrusters of the shuttle heading out of the facility and into space. Once clear of the shipyard, he engaged his impulse at one-quarter, heading further out of the Vulcan system. He maintained his course until he had cleared the navigational beacon that demarcated the end of the warp free zone before he laid in a course for the Cestus system and engaged the shuttle’s warp engines at maximum warp.

Putting the shuttle on autopilot, he turned to Aiko, “This is your Captain speaking we are currently cruising at warp 5.5 towards Cestus III. According to the forecasts and with a good tailwind on our side, we will reach Cestus III in...oh...a little over seven days, give or take a few hours. In the meantime, enjoy our in-flight entertainment.”

“Oh…and pray what tell is playing?”

Antos leaned closer to her, kissing the bridge of her nose before kissing her lips. “I think you are about to find out…”