The Long Road Home

Posted on Fri Jun 2nd, 2023 @ 2:49am by Captain Daniel Rye

463 words; about a 2 minute read

Mission: Broken Mirror
Location: The Transport Ship Leander

The journey from Earth to his new home had been a long and as it turned out, rather strange one. Hold ups, oddly tall Ferengi and a layover on a transit depot with what will be remembered as some of the worst food he'd ever encountered had meant that by the time Danny had boarded the T.S. Leander - a rather dingy, dirty and generally unpleasant looking vessel - the Marine was just happy to be on the final leg of his journey.

Settling in by one of the few windows in what really amounted to a converted cargo bay that the ship's operator had thrown a few temporary dividing walls into and put down a few beds in order to accommodate the few dozen Starfleet officers and crewmen they had been chartered to ferry about the quadrant, Rye remained determined to keep to himself and besides, he had plenty to read up on.

Whilst he didn't particularly feel like interacting yet with anybody who had also found themselves on the transport, it wasn't particularly difficult to identify those aboard to whom the entire experience was new and boy were there a lot of them. Tens of young, fresh-faced officers with just a single pip to their collar almost exclusively rushing about the place trying to seem busy being followed by their equally fresh-faced enlisted colleagues – all trying to make a positive impression whilst simultaneously drawing the ire of the fewer more senior officers aboard.

It was all something that Danny had been quite certain he could watch for hours to entertain himself but knowing the busy times he faced ahead, he had chosen to use his time to educate himself on the ship that was to become his new home between sleeps.

As the hours ticked by, even the younger passengers finally managed to relax as they began making stops to drop people at their newest assignments and their shared space began to empty out a little bit. It was only with the reduced numbers that Danny had decided to leave his little anti-social bubble and interact a little bit. Most aboard the transport were destined for various posts around the sector but there was a reasonable number who would be making the same stop as the Marine. Scientists, pilots, engineers and a couple who were destined for the Calypso medical staff all of whom were equally excited to have the opportunity to serve aboard such a brilliant marvel of engineering as a Galaxy class starship.

It wasn’t until late on the second day off drop offs that their hosts finally made the announcement that Rye had been patiently waiting for, for what has started to feel like an eternity.

“Next stop, USS Calypso”

 

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