The Utopia: a Starfleet Novel

Chapter 2: Zaiden Calion

Lieutenant Zaiden Calion took his place in engineering. Though he was not head engineer, he was still glad to be on the Utopia. Zaiden had sandy blonde hair kissed with the sun, with striking  green eyes that sparkled like emeralds. He was part of the engineering crew and enjoyed his work profusely. Zaiden had never been in love. He was always just too focused. Zaiden once thought a girl was cute and had a large crush on her. But she wouldn't give him the time of day. His heart just kind-of gave up on him. After all, he did have a crush on her since before the academy.

Zaiden tapped his combadge. "Captain, we are ready to go with the warp drive."

"Alright, then. Start her up." replied the Captain. Zaiden and a bunch of other engineers worked to start the warp drive. They got it on line and got ready to go to warp.

Zaiden felt the jump in the pit of his stomach. He pulled out his lightpad to see the statistics on the warp core. Zaiden pulled up that part of the ship and found the warp core. Everything was within normal parameters. He realized that he was finally off duty. Zaiden also realized that he was famished.

He headed to the mess hall. Besides all of the fantastic equipment, the Utopia had a gourmet kitchen where anyone could cook, as long as they cleaned up their mess. Zaiden felt like he wanted a BLT, with hand cooked bacon.

He walked into the mess hall to find it nearly packed. So much for the BLT Zaiden thought. Just then he saw his friend and partner in crime (such as pranking Professor Jarricson at the academy), Blaine. Blaine was very sweet and was in-fact Aenar. Aenar's are another ethnicity of Andorians that live on the polar region of Andor. They have pale blue skin, are blind, and have powerful telepathic abilities. "Sup, Blaine!" Zaiden said, sitting down on a silver, metal chair across from him.

"I find that phrase very derogatory and I am fine, thank you." Blaine replied. Blaine worked as ship's counselor, as well as in security sometimes.

Right then, someone clapped Zaiden on his shoulder. "Hey, I haven't seen you in a while." said a wavy haired, dirty blonde trill who was very lengthy and thin, but still muscular. "Knox! How are you? Still striking out with the ladies?" Zaiden asked the wiry man.

"Actually, that is my date over there." Knox bragged, pointing over to a slender woman with tan skin and deep brown hair. The woman smiled shyly over at the group of dashing bachelors. "Have fun," Zaiden told him. Knox was famous for being a ladies man and they were pretty sure that he had set the dating record for the academy. He had had  at least sixteen girlfriends.

Zaiden started walking towards the door, but accidentally smacked into someone! A scone smothered in honey butter slid down his chest and iced tea splattered his face and neck. "Sorry!" he apologized profusely, sputtering. A female ferengi officer glowered back. "What where your going! I made both of those." she stalked way muttering to herself, angrily.

I didn't know there were any female ferengi in Starfleet Zaiden thought.