A New Home, Part 1

Posted on Fri 5th Feb, 2021 @ 10:12am by Sergeant Paul Reilly & Kendra Lincoln
Edited on on Sun 7th Feb, 2021 @ 11:15am

1,260 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Business Not At All As Usual
Location: Luxury Transport, Ticonderoga
Timeline: About 8 weeks ago in route to SB 109

Reilly stowed his gear in his cabin aboard Ticonderoga. They would be departing Alpha Centauri soon, his home for all 34 years of his life. He had never been in space except for his passion, orbital diving.

This was different, Ticonderoga was in a much higher orbital and the view was spectacular.

After he had put his stuff in his cabin, he quickly rushed down the corridor to the observation lounge. He rounded a corner and ran right into a cute woman, knocking her completely off balance. Thanks to his reflexes, he was able to grab her and prevent her from falling. It was just that his hand placement on her was a bit awkward.

Color rose in Kendra's cheeks. She could feel the heat. She stepped back from the man who had all but run her down, and straightened her blouse, wishing she were in uniform. The embarrassment of having his hands on her ... just there all but took her words away. Though she felt he was at fault, she said, "Excuse me, I should have been prepared for flyers in the corridors of a transport ship like this."

She lowered her eyes to the floor and started to move around him. Kendra wanted nothing more than to get to her quarters and not come out until she reached the starbase where she would take up duties with a civilian police department keeping the shopping Promenade safe and honest.

"I apologize, it's my fault. I was just in a hurry to get to one of the observation lounges. I have never been off planet, and I wanted to see what Alpha Centauri looked like from high orbit before we go to dark. Allow me to buy you dinner for nearly killing you." The woman was attractive, but this wasn't a great way to meet someone, but Reilly thought, ~What the heck, why not?~

Kendra was startled by the invitation. "I ... well, I don't know. No harm done. I don't think -" Her stomach growled with embarrassing volume, and she blushed again. "Ah, well, perhaps, but nothing fancy."

Reilly let out a soft chuckle, "Would you like to join me in the Observation lounge? We can order right away since you are obviously in need of some food." He gave her a genuine smile and hoped that she would agree. He always enjoyed company and watching the departure from his home with someone would certainly be less depressing, especially when the idea of leaving his home sank in.

He didn't look like a criminal, a man to push his advantage, though he was obviously older than she was. Hesitantly, she decided to accept. "Alright. I'm not sure where it is, so lead the way ... maybe a little more slowly. You don't want to arrive with a whole entourage of women you have to feed." Her humor sneaked out finally.

Reilly chuckled uneasily and was a bit embarrassed by the comment. He felt bad for running into Kendra and only wanted to make it up to her by buying her dinner. "It just right over here." He said as he indicated to the Observation lounge. People were already gathering and the good tables and seats were being taken up quickly.

Lincoln turned and walked into the Observation area. "Um, sure. By the way, I'm Kendra Lincoln. I'm going to Starbase 109 to take a job as a policewoman." Maybe telling him that would cool his engines a little, if he had some nefarious plan ... or maybe it was more than she should have told a stranger. With a sigh, she thought, I never know the right thing to do, unless it's a police situation!

Reilly swallowed hard and stopped in his tracks before turning to her, "My name is Paul Reilly, and I am also going to Starbase 109 as a Prominade Police Officer." He extended his hand to her, "It's nice to meet you, are you going to be working down in the Brown Sector? I heard its pretty rough down there."

"No," she said, taking his hand. "I'll be on the Promenade. I haven't learned all the sections of the base, and I don't know anything except the shopping area I've studied. I'm surprised we're going to the same place, for the same purpose."

He began leading the way once more. "Then we'll be on the same Police Force." He thought that it might be pretty nice to actually know someone before he got there. If she decided that she wanted to be friends with him. So far, it was just a dinner to apologize for running her over and nothing more. Time would tell and they would have plenty of it.

They reached the Observation lounge and found a table for two near the window where they could get a very nice view of Alpha Centauri. "Wow, what a view. I have never seen anything like it."

Kendra nodded, "It's only my second planet to view. Although I guess my home world doesn't really qualify as a planet. It does have rings, though! So you're from here, but this is the first time you've been above the planet?"

"I've been in low orbit dozens of times and its a spectacular view. I love to orbital dive. At that level the planet takes up the entire view. Being here its an entirely different perspective." As Reilly spoke he never took his eyes off of the window.

"Huh. I'm not sure what orbital diving is, not something I've ever done, that's certain. I wonder how different this is from what we'll see of the starbase. I know it won't be round, of course. I looked it up. But it appears to be several thousand decks, and that has to be huge. Ships docked near it seemed awfully small," Lincoln told him, relaxing into her seat. "So you spent your whole life here?"

"If I'm not mistaken, the starbase is still round, it just super tall lengthwise. It's bigger than a lot of cities and also has issues that cities have. I guess that's one reason why we are going there. Being on the Promenade has its own dilemmas because of the environment. It will be crowded and busy 24/7." He began to go over some 'What If' scenarios in his head forgetting about the beauty of the planet from space for just a moment then shook his head.

"Do you know how large a department it is? I couldn't find anything about that in the information that was in the database available." Kendra said, curious about what she had gotten herself into. "It seems odd to work on an area of 100 decks instead of city blocks. I'm not sure how this is going to compare to a regular PD, but it sounded interesting. I know Starfleet has security and intelligence ... I'm just not sure where they stop and we'll take over ... or what kinds of crimes we'll be handling."

After a moment, she confessed, "It's a little scary trying something so different."

"I figure its pretty large and probably a precinct every few decks. The Promenade is a big city all by its self, hundreds of cops." Reilly began to imagine just how big the Promenade was.

"I guess I'll have to get used to thinking vertically instead of horizontally," Kendra commented, as the ship began to vibrate subtlety. Then she notice a change in perspective as if the planet were pulling away from them.

Watching, she realized the ship was leaving the planet and said, "I think we're underway."

 

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