42. Chapter 42 (1/2)

— chapter 42 —

the day of trip's departure from the columbia for his new assignment had come all too quickly, and yet even as trip packed the last of his sparse collection of personal items, a chime sounded, announcing a visitor at his door.

"come in," said trip.

a moment later erika stepped into the cabin and trip cast a swift glance towards his bunk. t'fel had spent the night, and though she'd left his cabin hours earlier, trip instinctively checked to see that nothing of her garments were left behind. blessedly, he was in the clear: erika would not have been angry, but she would have busted his chops mercilessly, and that was something he'd avoid, given the chance.

"morning, trip."

"captain," said trip. "nice of you to come and say goodbye."

"i didn't want to take the chance you'd sneak out without saying goodbye," said erika. "i'm glad you were promoted, but i wish i didn't have to lose you. we make a good team."

trip smiled, and said, "yeah, we do. i'll miss you."

"likewise, trip," said erika, glancing around and taking a seat on trip's bunk after moving his pillow aside. "i'm glad we had this time together. you were always jon's friend, by and large, but i've really enjoyed getting to know you. now you're my friend too."

trip nodded, and said, "i feel the same. for what it's worth i wouldn't have left the columbia, even for a promotion, if what i was heading towards wasn't worth doing. this has been a good place for me, erika."

"i'm glad," said erika, now hugging the pillow she'd previously pushed aside, and yet almost immediately frowning, then smiling.

"what's wrong?" said trip.

"i never realized you favored a floral cologne," said erika. "it's quite subtle, i can barely smell it... and it's surprisingly feminine."

"oh, yeah," said trip. "present from my sister."

"mmmm, hmmm," said erika, her nose ostentatiously taking scent of the pillow once more, before she looked up at trip, and smiled. "funny... it smells like t'fel's scent."

still too stubborn to ever concede a point, trip said, "maybe she and elizabeth shop at the same outlets."

"that must be it," said erika, with a rueful shake of her head. "you know, half the crew loves you, the other half hates you, trip. you banged a lot of skulls getting this ship out of spacedock, and then you kept banging heads to make proper crewmen out of the rookies."

"that was my job as an xo," said trip. "the haters will get over it, or they won't. i don't give a shit."

"and i appreciate that attitude, else i know we'd still be in spacedock," said erika. "anyway, the vulcan diplomatic runner has just docked with our access hatch, but the pilot's content to wait until you say your goodbyes."

"i've already said my goodbyes," said trip.

just then, the pa system sounded: "captain to the

idge."

"duty calls, it seems," said erika, smiling as she stood to give trip a big hug, and a kiss on the cheek. "i'm gonna miss you, trip."

erika squealed as trip hugged her back, lifting her off her feet, and giving her a kiss on the cheek in the process.

"put me down, you fool," said erika, and trip obeyed orders, looking fondly at erika.

"you stay sharp out there, captain," said trip.

erika nodded, gave trip a last smile and with that the captain made her departure.

minutes later trip headed for the turbo-lift, for he'd already said his warmest personal goodbyes to t'fel, yet to his delight he saw the vulcan waiting at the turbo-lift bay, leaning casually against the wall, arms pinned between the wall and her torso. she saw him, and then t'fel stepped up to the turbo-lift and pressed the button which served to summon the lift, while trip stepped next to t'fel, looking straight ahead at the lit panel which indicated the tube's progress through the shaft.

"lovely day, t'fel," said trip.

t'fel turned her head for the first time, glancing at trip, and said, "i do not particularly care for it, captain tucker, but then i'm losing someone i care about today."

"we'll meet again, t'fel," said trip, turning his head to look at the vulcan now. "when this assignment is over, you'll probably go back to one of your ships, and i'm sure they'll visit vulcan on a regular basis."

"i suppose," said t'fel, looking at the ground despondently now.

just then, the lift reached their deck, and the door slid aside. trip gestured with his head, and t'fel stepped within: the moment the door closed and they had privacy, t'fel flew into trip's arms even as the lift began moving. normally the ride to d deck would have only take a few seconds, but trip paused the elevator, which gave them the better part of ten minutes to make out like bandits, before the inter-comm sounded.

"this is engineering. we'll have you out of there in a bit."

"don't bother, elkins," said trip. "i purposely halted the lift. i thought i heard something odd, but it turned out to be nothing. i'll be moving on soon."

"ah... you know we have cameras in the elevators, xo," said elkins. "does the rest of engineering get to give you the same type of send off? because if that's the case i need to gargle and rinse first."

trip laughed and said, "elkins, you fuck. turn off the cameras and walk away."

"you got it, xo," said elkins. "good luck on your new command, you bastard."

trip laughed at elkins' farewell, then spent a few minutes longer on another round of fevered kisses, and then finally got the lift moving once more, while he got himself together: for her part, t'fel looked remarkably unruffled with just a few adjustments, no matter how hot her kisses had been. another five minutes, and trip and t'fel stood before the access hatch.

"you know elkins has already shot his mouth off about our kiss," said trip. "you'll have half the crew lining up for their own kiss, before the hour's over."

"i doubt it," said t'fel. "i am a vulcan and so they will believe that elkins is lying."

"probably right," said trip with a smile.

"you will be deeply missed," said t'fel.

"as will you, t'fel. long life and contentment," said trip, giving t'fel the ta'al.

"success in your new venture, captain," said t'fel, returning the ta'al, and with that, and a last stolen kiss, trip left the columbia.

later that day, once her duty shift was over, t'fel composed a transfer request to a very particular duty assignment upon the conclusion of her tour with the columbia, and that request took its place in the outgoing messages queue… during the columbia's next transmission, that transfer request would make its way to the proper offices within the high command, to be approved, or denied.

three days later, the high speed diplomatic runner ferrying trip to vulcan made orbit around that planet, and shortly afterwards, trip made his way to earth's embassy on vulcan, as admiral ryan had cleared some room on his schedule for trip.

"morning, captain," said ryan, looking up from his work as his secretary showed trip inside. "it's good to see you again."

"likewise, sir," said trip.

"some coffee?" said ryan, gesturing that trip should take a seat on one of the two couches at the east end of his office.

"please," said trip, and ryan's secretary left for coffee, while ryan joined trip, sitting across the coffee table from trip.

"how was the flight here?" said ryan.

"pleasantly uneventful, admiral," said trip.

the admiral's secretary returned with their coffees and then left the room, at which point ryan slid a padd towards trip.

"your new commission, captain," said ryan. "a shipyard named the uzh palik. means 'a new beginning' or 'a new dawn', i forget which."

"it means 'a new beginning', sir," said trip, before taking a sip of coffee.

"well now that i know that much, i can sleep tonight," said ryan. "everything you need to know is on that padd unit."

"may i see her now, sir?"

"no, the vulcans are towing her in a proper orbit, two days from now," said ryan. "they had her warehoused in a polar orbit, but they don't want an active shipyard in that location. let them to do their thing, and then she's all yours."

"yes, sir," said trip.

"in any case," said ryan, "you've got a party to attend tonight."

"a party?" said trip.

"yeah," said ryan. "at soval's house. he's asked that you and i attend, and he'll introduce you to some of the high command's officers, with whom you'll be dealing with in getting that station up to snuff."

"yes, sir," said trip, knowing that such introductions made for smoother transitions.

just then, ryan's secretary let a young ensign in the room.

"ah," said ryan. "captain tucker, ensign rowa, who'll take you to your hotel room, and

ing you back here at 1900 hours. we'll go to soval's from here."

"yes, admiral," said trip, taking that for the polite dismissal it was.

the human colony on alpha centauri was relatively new, only some thirty years old, yet it was thriving here, with a large capital city and a half dozen subsidiary cities spread out across the face of the planet. it had begun as a mining colony, producing raw materials, though in the past decade it had made a major push to become a tech producer as well, and had made impressive strides in that direction in a very short time. another hundred years at this pace and this place would rival mars, which was saying something, but even as it was, it was the crown jewel in earthgov's portfolio, a pioneering success story, and accordingly, it was defended by twenty-four delus class ships, and there was even talk of sending the 3rd nx ship here as a flagship for this little fleet, when that ship made it out of spacedock. there was no hurry though, for the delus ships had done a good job keeping law and order in the system, so far as starfleet was concerned... until now.

this day, three romulan warbirds, accompanied by a dozen birds-of-prey warped in-system and closed in on alpha centauri. they came uncloaked, since starfleet sensors would have revealed their general presence anyway, but they also came uncloaked as a sign of contempt. for their part and to their credit, the delus squadron guarding alpha centauri closed distance with the romulans fearlessly, though the size discrepancy between a delus ship and the romulan warbirds was daunting… and with that, the battle for alpha centauri began.

misha volkov led the battle for the humans from the

idge of his ship, the trebia, and it was his call to assign a delus to each bird-of-prey, and assign four delus to each warbird. it was a good call, but the humans were badly outclassed.