A New Calling?

Posted on 01 Nov 2017 @ 1:57am by Lieutenant Amaranai Franklin

475 words; about a 2 minute read

Amaranai was sitting in her apartment staring at a screen. She had been sent a message from Commander Aren - the man who had taken command of the remnants of the Galileo and other Starfleet crews that had been on Kreanus. The message itself was a standard message, but that wasn't the reason she was staring at it. Looking it over again, Amaranai read the important bits out loud.

"Invited to advise cadets on a short mission . . ."

She was silent.

"You will have several cadets under your command . . ."

Silence again.

"Training them on standard hands-on tactical and security methods . . ."

It wasn't that Amaranai was going to disobey an order - she couldn't unless she was going to simply walk away from Starfleet. Was she going to walk away? She had talked to Lirha about leaving Starfleet to be together but Amaranai was still unsure. She wanted to stay in Starfleet but with Lirha there as well. And now this opportunity. Her brain was starting to consider a change in career to teaching.

She thought for a moment and wondered how that would work. Could she just stop being a Tactical Officer and not be on a starship? At least she would be on Earth, which would give her an opportunity to see Lirha more often until she was released. Would that be enough?

Amaranai had already sent her confirmation to the commander about participating in the cadet mission and started to check on her old duty rosters to see if any of her former officers might be available to join her. It had only taken a couple of moments to realize that the commander would have invited the proper number of officers.

Standing up, Amaranai stretched her body and felt old for the first time. She knew she needed to get back to working out in order to get back into shape. Moving to the replicator, Amaranai made herself breakfast and started to eat.

Charlotte came from her own room and made her own breakfast and made some coffee and sat down with her sister. The younger girl was still groggy and was simply going through the motions until she was fully awake.

"I'll be going on a temporary mission," Amaranai said to her sister. "Just about a week."

The girl suddenly woke at the news.

"What about me?"

"You won't be able to come with me," she said. "You're not a cadet. And even if you were, this is for fourth years."

Charlotte grumbled.

"I've been on my own a lot lately," Charlotte offered.

"I know," Amaranai answered. "When I get back, we'll have some time for just us." She paused. "You're all I have now."

The other girl said nothing and drank her coffee.

"I promise," Amaranai said and got up from the table to get ready for the day ahead.

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