Star Trek: Academy

Charlotte Magno

Chris left early this morning. A meeting at HQ. He left before I got up. A rare occurrence. He left a note and a plate filled with pancakes.

I think he kissed my forehead before he left. He usually does. Has since before he adopted me.

As I eat, I mentally go through my day. Orientation, advanced engineering, lunch and politics of general orders. Easy.

Do I go to orientation or skip it? I really want to skip it. It's nothing I haven't heard before. Besides I may or may not have snuck into one or two before I was a cadet or I'm my case admitted to the academy.

I scarf down one last pancake and shove the rest into the fridge. A good dinner if I don't make friends to grab dinner with or a snack for later.

Next up coffee. A caramel latte is on the menu I think.

I grab my book bag and head out. On every corner...well not every corner of campus but most corners have a coffee shop. Perks of Starfleet being run on coffee and caffeine addicts.

I gladly take my coffee and head to orientation. If I snag a seat in the back I can leave halfway through. And that is exactly what I do. Halfway through I sneak out. I don't even touch my coffee until I'm walking into the engineering building.

These halls are as familiar to me as the ones on the Enterprise. Perks of wandering the halls while Chris was at meetings. Made some friends with eager cadets. They helped me study and I helped them. Now their lieutenants. Like me.

"Here we go." I mutter under my breath. I walk through the door and into the engineering auditorium. Classroom E9. Engineering wing, floor three, classroom nine.

I quickly scan the room for an empty seat. A few seats are filled but I plan to make a friend. Ah. Midway up, left side. She seems nice. Rather looks nice.

I make my way up to the Asian woman and tap her shoulder. The woman looks up and smiles.

I gesture to the seat beside her. "Is this seat taken?"

"Nope,"

"Brilliant," I pull the seat out and plop into the plastic chair. The woman watches me grab my notepad and pen.

Old fashioned but worth having. I may be young but even my mind takes its time remembering things. Learned that on the Enterprise. Especially with everyone quizzing me on the material I've learned.

The woman holds out her hand. "I'm Charlotte Magno, you can call me Charlie,"

"Kristen Lee, Kris," I take Charlie's hand and shake.

Charlie squints at me. Ah, here we go. May as well nip it in the bud. "Mum was Scottish and dad's Chinese,"

"Mixed got it," Charlie nods. "I wasn't gonna ask but I guess you're used to it,"

"I sure am,"

"Commander Louvier, he's the best engineer in the fleet," Charlie nods to the commander setting up his desk.

I've known the Louvier since I was eight. He served on the Enterprise years ago as a Lieutenant. Now as a Commander, Chris is lobbying for him to join the Enterprise crew as a CME. Chris needs a new chief of engineering and we both know I need to graduate first. No matter how good I am at fixing the warp core.