Last Holiday on Terra

35

Very quickly, it was back to business as usual for the crew of the Tiburón. I spent my time healing, courting Kia and spending a lot of time in the onboard training simulators and in engineering; there was still so much I hadn't learned about the ship since it's refit. My calling as a cosmic aviator was sorely missed and I was chewing at the bit to get behind the wheel as it were.

I walked onto the bridge to find my brother assisting an ensign with a particularly difficult aviation-skill of masking the engine signature...this was really cloak and dagger stuff and I recognized the move instantly; Cee was standing over the new flyboy, instructing him on the pitch of the ship to the planet. He mentioned the ship's cloak while rendering this vessel invisible, it was still plottable if you knew what to look for. I was floored...that was completely new to me and I suddenly felt like a relic.

When the ensign wasn't able to master the exact the numerical corresponding coordinates that Cee wanted, he mentioned that it was something that I could do in my sleep...that I could tell if anything was out of alignment by ear and make console corrections on the fly. But I didn't know this ship anymore. He went on to say that he should spend more time with the engineering team and learn everything he could about the engines...that his chief engineer was an excellent pilot because of those skills. The chief engineer was a codgy old man now...I remembered him as a teenager! And when I entered engineering again for the first time, he looked up from his console at me with a warm smile. He knew that it was going to be his turn to teach me...

I remained quietly stationed against the wall, in awe of my brother...his patience with this kid, he didn't seem to have a lot of patience with a lot of things, but with someone trying to be the very best they could be, he was there to back them up one-hundred percent.

"It's my goal to be the best pilot in our fleet, Captain," he said to Cee and it made me smile as I casually leaned against the wall.

Finally, I spoke up: "you wanna be the best pilot, Ensign? Then follow your Captain's advice and spend every waking hour learning about your ship—maybe someday soon, we can take a couple of shuttles out—"

Cee turned abruptly as I approached their position. He thumbed toward me..."now this guy—your Grace, would you demonstrate how the maneuver works—"

"Captain, I haven't sat behind a console in a hundred years, I suspect—I'm happy to work in the simulators for now."

"You run the simulators Sir! But your skill is legendary!"

"I've about a hundred years of catching up to do Son," I said quietly.

"Aww come on Ro, give it a go," he said quietly to me. There was excitement in his eyes.

"Alright—twist my tentacles why don't ya," I chuckled.

The ensign quickly gave up the chair for me and I sat down and stared at the con for a moment and touched a few controls and the engines roared into Mach-speed, gaining us a little bit of distance from the planet. The chief engineer hollered over the communication speakers. "What the hell are you all doing up there! Are we in a fight or something! There's absolutely nothing on the scanners!"

"Sorry Chief," I said quietly.

"Oh! Your Grace! You're at the helm?"

"Just for a minute—needed to get some distance from the planet—gonna play a little hide and seek—"

"Oh. Well then carry on—just give me a little warning next time—I'm an old man now you know—"

"Will do, Chief—my apologies."

I guided the ship over the poles of the planet after explaining how to find those coordinates. I was looking at the young man at my side the entire time, when an alert showed on the console. "Your Grace!" He pointed to the con and my eyes felt like they were going to pop out of their sockets.