Hoist The Colours

Posted on 18 Feb 2016 @ 11:02pm by Ensign Miraj Derani

1,019 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Episode 10 - Symposium
Location: Jupiter Station Promenade
Timeline: MD 89 1000

[ON]

Miraj Derani tightened her bright pink bunches, an unconscious gesture, as she looked in the store window. The antique telescope was a thing of beauty with shining brass fittings and a smooth wood casing that had been polished with the hands of its users. It looked like an early 19th century model straight from the Golden age of Nelson and his Royal Navy.

She sighed. It was lovely. But she hadn't amassed enough from her credits stipend for another treat so soon after her last, a set of pennants from Cort's own age of sail. The Boslics had been just as keen on sailing as the Humans had been and she felt the pull to the sea from both sides of her heritage.

In the shop window she caught her reflection; the pink hair, the lightly flared orbital arches, and the feint impression of the crease in her forehead marked her as not entirely human. Her bright blue eyes and the very slightness of those features marked her as not entirely Boslic.

"Penny for them?" A tall man in a long coat, dark hair tied back in a short tail, was grinning at her.

Miraj jumped, then looked round and grinned back. "Mal!" she squealed, jumping at him and throwing her arms around his neck and her legs around his hips, hugging him for all she was worth.

Her fully human brother staggered slightly as she hit him, and he hugged back before sitting her back down on the floor. "Hey, Kid. Thought I'd find you mooning over that."

"What are you doing here?"

The tall man put his hands in the pockets of his long coat, "Dad said you'd been assigned. Thought I'd come pick up the Queen Anne's Revenge, rather than let you leave it in storage."

The Queen Anne's Revenge was Miraj's own boat, named after the infamous pirate ship. Originally it was a salvaged Waverider that she'd begged, wheedled and annoyed her father, brother and almost all of their respective crews into helping her with the restoration and customization.

She'd made the trip from earth to Jupiter Station in it, enjoying the feel of being thrown around in a tiny craft as she'd tried every manoeuvre she knew from the boring to the stupid and loved every moment, feeling alive as the impulse engines and thrusters had throbbed and fired and burned and till she was giddy with exhileration and she could feel the excitement of Queen Anne like a drug. She was going to miss her favourite girl so much.

"Thank you!" She beamed, bouncing lightly on the balls of her feet. "She'll be much happier tucked up on the Stranger."

"So," Mal began turning his little sister away from the antiques and towards the nearest cafe. "I heard you got sent to a Nova. Sorry. I thought they would have sent you to something more...you."

Miraj shrugged. "Its not exactly a Dauntless," The Dauntless class was more of a myth than an actual ship, with a quantum slipstream engine. Ever since Admiral Janeway came back from the Gamma Quadrant with tales of one, the shipyards had been working hard to turn fiction into reality: reliable transwarp engines and speeds beyond comprehension. She'd give up a kidney to fly one.

"And," she continued, "Novas are really responsive in real space, and that's what counts. Flying in warp is boring. So what if they can't get beyond Warp Eight. Its a difference between being bored going fast, and being bored going slightly faster."

She paused, chewing on her lip again "Plus it has its own waverider; it won't be the Queen Anne, but nothing is. And the Galileo is staying the right side of the galaxy. All Along this side of the Federation. I'm not sailing five years away in the opposite direction to the Typhon Expanse."

"Ah," her brother said, steering her into a booth at the side of a small bar, themed like an old earth restaurant. "So that's why you're not upset." He ordered her a milk shake and a coffee for himself, giving the waitress a smile that would cause the ruin of saints and she simpered at him in return. "You're hoping for a trip to all the bad places."

"Just because no one's seen her, doesn't mean she didn't come out. And there's far easier pickings that close to the neutral zones. And Orion space isn't far. I could learn something, meet someone."

The waitress brought their order. Mal watched her walk away with great interest to where she and her colleague behind the counter sent him long, lust-filled looks, then turned away. When Miraj reached for her milkshake, he put his hand over her. "Don't do anything stupid. The people your mother came from are bad people. And don't get your hopes up. Its been seven years. That's a long time to disappear for."

"She's my mother," Miraj insisted.

"I know. But you're my sister, and I don't want you to get hurt."

She slurped her milkshake. "I'm a big girl. I'll be alright. And how much trouble can I get in? Its a science ship, not a patrol boat. Lots of planetary surveys and astrometric analysis. We're not going to be taking on the Syndicate. The most excitement I'm going to get is likely getting to try an Icarus in something with decent shields."

Mal snorted. "Yeah, well. Get too cocky and you'll lose half the ship. again. And this time it will have people in it."

She looked crestfallen and Mal laughed. "Miraj," She raised her eyes to him. "You are amazing at a conn. If anyone can moon a sun and get away without scorching the nacelles, its you. But you can't fly in and out of history-"

"Technically-" Miraj broke in.

Mal cut her off "You know what I mean. No extracurricular shit. Just take care of yourself. Okay?"

She nodded. "Okay."

"Now." He drained his coffee. "Can I walk you to your ship?"

[OFF]

Ensign Miraj Derani
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Galileo

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