A New Chapter

Posted on Sat Feb 25th, 2023 @ 6:06pm by Lieutenant Commander Athon Scordato

Mission: 02-The Line Widens
Location: SS Huenteao

Personal Log, Athon Scordato: It’s been six weeks since I found out I was leaving the Oberon, a good portion of which has been spent just making the trip out. But now it’s almost over. Captain says we should be arriving at Station K-17 before lunch. I can only hope it’s more than what it’s been made out to be.

News of his change in posting had come as quite a surprise to Scordato when he’d first heard it. After all, he had only been aboard the Oberon a little over two years at that point. The standard rotation on a ship like that was three years minimum, perhaps more, depending on the mission. And yet, despite having not given any indication (to his mind, at least), Starfleet had handed down orders for him to report elsewhere.

Unfortunately for him, elsewhere was quite a distance away from where Oberon had been, which meant a lot of time spent doing his least favorite thing - riding various transport with strangers. It wasn’t that he didn’t like people. It was just…he had never been the best at striking up those random conversations with folks.

Which is how he’d ended up finding the spot he was currently tucked away in. He’d have preferred something with a viewport, but in this situation, beggars couldn’t be choosers.

To pass the time, Scordato had decided to take advantage of the opportunity to catch up on some reading. In the current leg of the trip alone, he had managed to finish off two studies on effects of gravimetric wavefronts on celestial navigation, a report on itinerant pulsars, and a novel suggested to him by a friend. He was more than halfway through reading a book that’d been given to him as a going away present on the Oberon when he felt the familiar shift in vibrations that indicated they were dropping out of warp.

A moment later, the combadge on his chest began to vibrate. He reached up with one hand and tapped it. “Scordato here,” he said.

“Good morning, commander,” the voice of the captain called back through the channel, “Thought you might like to know we’re entering the system and should be arriving at Station K-17 within the hour. Sounds like they aren’t set up for us to be docking, so you’ll have to beam over.”

“Understood, captain,” the younger man replied, “Thanks for the heads up. Scordato out.”

The badge vibrated once more to indicate the channel had closed and Scordato let out a sigh. In less than an hour, his long journey would be over. That meant it was time to get ready. Placing a marker where he’d stopped reading, Scordato closed his book and rose to his feet. He took one look around to make sure he wasn’t leaving anything, then turned and started back toward the bunk room.

A new chapter would be starting…soon.