Where No Witch Has Gone Before

Chapter One

Ensign Astrid Llewellyn sat in the officer's lounge at the Utopia Planitia Shipyards on Mars, her emerald-green suitcase on the deck next to her, and sipped her chocolate milk as she watched the display boards. She had already checked in with the duty clerk and was on the waiting list for the next available transport shuttle. A glance at her wristwatch told her that three and a half minutes had passed since the last time she had checked, and seventeen since she sat down.

"You're waiting, too?" A Tellarite, also dressed in operations red, sat heavily in the chair across from her.

Llewellyn grinned. "Yep. Waiting for a shuttle to the Excalibur. You?"

The Tellarite grunted. "I, too, am waiting for the shuttle. And I thought I was done with you after the Academy, Llewellyn."

"You hoped you were done with me, Vashi. With me on board, you're never going to be better than the second best engineer."

"You still believe you're a better engineer than me?"

"Well, I did graduate higher than you."

Vashi scoffed. "So you know to take tests. That doesn't mean you know a spanner from a hammer."

The two spent the next several minutes vigorously discussing their comparative qualifications until the computer terminal at their table chimed and announced that they should report to Shuttlebay 3 within fifteen minutes.

Vashi and Llewellyn drained their glasses and stood up, as Llewellyn picked up her suitcase.

Vashi looked at it with an amused grunt. "Not having your things shipped up?"

"Not everything, no."

"Don't you trust the porters with your luggage?"

"Not this one."

"It must have some very delicate things."

"It's rather important to me," Llewellyn said as they arrived at the shuttlebay. She didn't say anything more as she presented her ID to the shuttle pilot.

Llewellyn darted ahead to claim a seat by the window, sliding her suitcase into the storage bin. She beamed as she rested her head against the blast window.

"Why so happy, Llewellyn?" Vashi made himself comfortable in the seat next to her.

"We. Are stationed. On a Constitution-class starship! What's not to be happy about?"

"The fact that we're stationed on the Excalibur."

"What's wrong with the Excalibur?"

"It was destroyed by Daystrom's computer last year."

"But the M-5 program was shut down after that."

"The Excalibur won't forget. And she won't forgive. We will have to work very hard to regain her trust."

Llewellyn didn't reply. She knew some objects with incredibly long memories, and wondered briefly if the Excalibur could be enchanted in some way. She didn't see how, but it wasn't impossible.

The last of the passengers boarded and were in their seats. Llewellyn was surprised to see that there were twice as many officers in the red shirts signifying Operations division as there were the blue of Science and Medical and the gold of Command combined.

"If everyone's ready," the Aleriel 's pilot said over his shoulder as he flipped the last of the switches for the preflight sequence, "let's get you guys home."

There was a slight shudder as the Aleriel took off, but after that, Llewellyn could barely feel the engines' vibrations. Before long, the shuttle banked gently to the left and the pilot lowered the blast screens to give everyone a good view.