Where No One Has Gone Before, Pt. 02

Image by A Owen from Pixabay

The end of “Where No One Has Gone Before, Pt. 01”

“Warp status,” Leesa said about an hour later.

“Bubble forming, Captain. All systems nominal.” I looked and the Armstrong had fallen back quite a bit by this time. Then I heard Alan’s voice over the comm.

“Looking good, Enterprise,” Alan said. “Armstrong at zero-point. Will monitor from here. Fair winds and following seas, Enterprise.” I knew from our briefings that zero-point was where Armstrong would quit shadowing the Enterprise as it was no longer able to keep up with us.

“Thank you, Armstrong,” Leesa said. “We’ll see you on the flip side.”

“Roger that, Enterprise,” Alan said. Leesa punched a button on her console to address the entire crew.

“All hands, stand by for Q-point,” she said. That was the final warning — there was nothing that could stop us from this point forward.

“Warp bubble formed and stable, Captain. Light speed at your command,” the engineer said.

“Q-point in 10 seconds,” the helm said. I saw a countdown timer show on my monitor. This was it. Showtime.

9…8…7…6…

“Standby, helm,” Leesa said.

3…2…1…

“Engage…”

…

And now, “Where No One Has Gone Before, Pt. 02”

…

When the FTL engines engaged, I initially felt g-forces similar to those I felt on the rocket that carried me up to the Armstrong some two years earlier. Looking out the front port, I saw flashes of light and rainbows rushing past us. It was quite an impressive show.

The ship shuddered a bit, then settled down. I looked around and saw others doing the same. Apparently, we survived the initial engagement of the FTL engines. I looked on my board and saw everything looked good.

“Inertial dampers engaged, Captain,” the engineer said. “Warp bubble stable. All systems nominal. We have reached cruising speed.” That would be roughly twice the speed of light.

“Thank you, Engineer,” Leesa said. “Helm, steady as she goes.”

“Steady as she goes, aye aye, Captain,” the pilot said. There it is, I thought. We’re officially beyond the light barrier, traveling faster than anyone had ever traveled before. But there were still dangers ahead — many dangers.

“Forward sensors,” Leesa announced. I looked at my console. The forward sensors were designed to look ahead and spot any potential danger far ahead of us. The system would then compensate, making course corrections as necessary to avoid collision. It was designed to cover a 180-degree arc from port to starboard along the ship’s X and Y axis and would extend to the front edge of the bubble. At the speed we were traveling, even the impact of a small rock could cause significant damage, despite the protection afforded by the armored hull and the warp bubble itself.

“Sensors report all clear,” I said.

“Navigator,” Leesa said.

“ETA to outer edge of Kuiper Belt 3.5 hours, Captain,” he said. At our current speed, it would take another six hours to reach the heliopause, an area filled with torrents of charged solar particles traveling at about a million miles per hour. Beyond that was interstellar space, but even then, our troubles would be far from over.

The next obstacle after that was the Oort Cloud, a spherical “bubble” believed to be filled with icy, comet-like objects and bits of leftover planetary residue called planetesimals. At our current speed, it would take five to 14 days before we reached the inner edge of that cloud. If the scientists were right, we could be dodging rocks in the cloud for up to eight months.

Fortunately, the scientists and engineers considered this when designing the warp bubble. The front edge of the bubble was neither blunt nor static. Instead, it extended beyond the craft, following our programmed course and could extend as far as half an astronomical unit. One astronomical unit, or AU, is roughly 93 million miles — the distance between the Earth and the Sun.

On top of that, the invisible bubble was designed to be quite dense, and in theory could deflect smaller objects much like a cowcatcher on an old steam locomotive. Despite all the tech, however, it still required eyes on hand to make the right decisions at the right time.

Let me put it this way. Forget all that crap you may have seen in the movies or on those old television programs. Interstellar travel is a bitch, and there’s nothing easy about it. Imagine what would happen if a spacecraft traveling twice the speed of light slams into a floating mountain the size of Mt. Everest. The ship would be instantly pulverized and everyone on board would be dead almost instantly.

Even if anyone survived the incident, they would be left alone waiting months, or years, for any kind of rescue. No pressure there, right? And you can’t just turn it off when your shift is over. It’s always floating around in the back of your mind.

Of course, Hollywood doesn’t ever tell you any of that. If you watched some of those old shows, you’d think the bridge crew sat around in plush deck chairs all day shooting the breeze as the ship plows forward.

The truth is, there’s a million things that can go wrong at any given time. As I was about ready to discover two hours after breaking the light barrier.

“Commander Jones,” I said when my wrist communicator beeped.

“Commander Jones, this is Chief Horowitz in sick bay. We need you down here as soon as possible, sir,” she said. Sick bay? What for? I looked at Leesa, who heard the communication. She nodded her head.

“Go ahead, Bill,” she said. Axel immediately came to my station, so I logged out and turned it over to him before leaving the bridge. I got to sick bay in record time. Dr. Pine looked up as I came in and motioned for me to join him in his office.

“What’s going on, Doc?” I asked.

“Your companion, Dr. Williams, went into afib when the ship went into light speed,” he said. “Fortunately, we were monitoring all the trackers when we saw her vitals go through the roof. We got her here as fast as we could. She damn near had a stroke.”

“What happened?” I asked him.

“Her blood work doesn’t look good,” he said. “Potassium and magnesium levels are way down, everything is way down. It looks like she hasn’t been following her proscribed diet.”

“She’s a very light eater,” I told him.

“That may be, but those diets are designed for a purpose,” he said. “Chief Horowitz is working up a new diet for her and she needs to double up on her supplements. She’s assigned to you, so that makes you responsible, Commander. Got it?”

“Yes, I understand. What about the next time we jump into light speed?” According to our flight plan, we were set to jump out of light speed about halfway to Alpha Centauri to stock up at a depot that had been sent ahead of us. “Maybe she should report here before we make the jump so you can keep an eye on her.”

“Dammit, Commander, I’m a doctor, not a babysitter,” he said. “But I think under the circumstances we can accommodate you. Just to be on the safe side.”

“Thank you. Can we go see her now?”

“Sure, come with me. By the way, I’m keeping her here for the next 24 to 48 hours to make sure she’s stabilized.” We walked into a small room with a bed. Kyra was on the bed with tubes going into her arm. Monitors beeped as they recorded her vital statistics. I could see her heart beat was still over 125 beats per minute and her blood pressure was a bit lower than normal. She looked at me with tears in her eyes.

“How are you feeling?” I asked.

“Horrible,” she said. “When the ship jumped into light speed, I thought my heart was going to come right out of my chest. I’ve never felt that bad in my life.”

“Doc says it’s because you’ve been a bad girl and didn’t eat your veggies,” I said with a smile.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “Are you mad at me?”

“Furious,” I said with a smile. “Doc says you’re staying here for the next day or so. Who’s going to make my hot chocolate, tuck me in bed and tell me a bedtime story while you’re in here?”

“I’ll be alright,” she said weakly. Dr. Pine shook his head.

“I’ll be the judge of that, young lady,” he said. “I swear, doctors make the worst patients.”

“So, can Bill come by with his guitar after he gets off shift?” she asked the doctor. He looked at me for a moment.

“I enjoyed your music at the party. You don’t play that electro-splooge crap do you?” he asked. “My daughters love that shit. I hate it, though. It’s nothing but porn set to noise if you ask me.”

“No, I don’t like it either, and I don’t play it,” I said.

“Good,” he said. “I suppose you can come by after your shift for a while. But I want her to get some rest and let her recover. No fooling around. You hear me?”

“I got it,” I said. He smiled and left the room. I sat down next to Kyra and held her hand. I felt a tear start to form in my eye and wiped my face.

“Don’t ever do that again,” I told her. “I just found you and I don’t think I could handle losing you.” She smiled weakly as she put a hand on my cheek.

“Don’t worry, you’re stuck with me,” she said.

“Better be,” I said.

“You’d better get back to the bridge,” she said.

“Are you sure? I can stay here with you if need be.”

“No, that’s alright,” she said. “Besides, I’m feeling a bit sleepy. They gave me something shortly before you came in.”

“Alright. I’ll come back after my shift,” I told her.

“You’d better,” she said. I leaned forward and gave her a kiss.

“I love you,” I told her.

“I love you more,” she said. I could see she was about to fall asleep, so I stood and covered her up before leaving. I made my way back to the bridge and resumed my work after Axel logged out.

“Everything alright?” he asked.

“Yeah, it will be,” I said. “Doc is keeping Kyra for the next 48 hours. She had afib when the ship made the jump into light speed.”

“Damn,” he said. “She’s in good hands. Don’t worry.”

“Thanks, I’m going to see her after my shift.” Shortly after that, we entered the heliopause and were treated to quite a light show as charged solar particles hit the warp bubble. From inside the ship, it looked like sparklers at a July 4th barbecue.

Shortly after that, the sparkle effect ended and I knew we were out of the heliopause. At this point, we were technically in interstellar space, but we all knew the worst was yet to come. After my shift, I went to my quarters and grabbed my guitar, then headed for sickbay.

When I got there, Kyra was awake and sitting up, eating a bowl of chicken soup. She was still a bit tired and I could see her vitals had improved somewhat, but were still outside what Dr. Pine wanted to see.

“How are you feeling?” I asked.

“Better, but still a bit out of it,” she said.

“You missed one helluva light show,” I told her. “We made it through the heliopause and we’re now officially in interstellar space.”

“So what’s next?” she asked.

“The Oort Cloud,” I told her. “We should hit the inside of that in a few days. No telling how long we’ll be in that, since no one really knows how thick or how dense it really is.”

“Terrific,” she said sarcastically.

“Could be worse,” I said jokingly. “We could have locusts.” That got a chuckle out of her.

“So, what are you gonna play?” she asked. I opened my guitar case, pulled out my instrument and tuned it up.

“Well, there’s one song I ran across while I was in school and started messing around with it. You ever hear of a group called Jethro Tull?” I asked.

“Sounds familiar, but I don’t know what they did,” she said.

“They did a lot of stuff over the years,” I told her. “Let me see if I can get this right.” I began strumming my instrument as I went over the tune in my head. After a while I finally figured out what I needed to do, so I stopped for a second.

“This is a little acoustic tune called ‘One Brown Mouse,’ and it has a part for a flute. Maybe when we get back you can try playing it with me,” I said as I began to play the opening.

“That’s a cute little song,” she said when I finished playing. “I’d love to do that with you. What else you got?” I played an old Lobo tune, “Me and You and a Dog Named Boo,” for her and enjoyed seeing her sway to my music. Then I played a John Denver classic, “Take Me Home Country Roads.” I played a couple more for her and saw she was getting tired, so I stopped.

“Are you alright?” I asked.

“I’m perfect, now that you’re here with me,” she said. “I love hearing you play for me.”

“I love playing for you,” I said. “It really makes a difference when I’m playing for someone who appreciates it.”

“Didn’t your ex-wife like hearing you play?” she asked.

“Tabby? No, she barely tolerated it,” I said. “She thought the stuff I did was old-fashioned and childish.”

“Oh that’s right, she liked that electro-splooge stuff,” Kyra said. “Well, I suppose I can see her point. Given a choice between the beautiful music you play and the Kentucky-Fried Mutha Fugga’s timeless classic, ‘I’m Gonna Cum in Yo Ass,’ there’s simply no comparison,” she added sarcastically. I couldn’t help but bust out laughing. She laughed with me.

“I can tell you’re feeling better,” I said. “You’re getting your sense of humor back.” She smiled at that.

“Listen to me, Bill Jones,” she said. “I’m serious about this. Don’t ever stop playing for me. I love hearing you play and sing. I could spend the rest of my life listening to you play.”

“Careful what you wish for,” I told her. “You just might get it.”

“I hope so,” she said quietly. I looked at her as I kissed the back of her hand. It was official. I was in love with this woman. “By the way, you’d better get over to the galley and eat dinner. Otherwise, you’ll be in here with me.”

“That wouldn’t be so bad, would it?” I joked. She laughed nervously.

“Don’t tell anyone, but that doctor’s bedside manner leaves a lot to be desired,” she said quietly. “And don’t even get me started on the chief.” Chief Horowitz had a well-deserved reputation as someone who took no guff off of anyone.

“I won’t say anything,” I told her as I put my guitar away. “I’ll swing by tomorrow morning and see how you’re doing. Sleep tight, okay?”

“I will,” she said, giving me a kiss. “Sweet dreams. I’ll see you in the morning. I love you.”

“I love you, too,” I said. I went to the galley, ate dinner, then went back to my quarters. After I got there, Axel and Leesa both stopped by to check up on me and ask about Kyra. They told me they had been by sick bay earlier but she was already asleep.

“She’s doing better, thanks for asking. I think the doctor will let her go tomorrow,” I said.

“Good,” Axel said. “You keep an eye on her, make sure she follows her diet, okay?”

“I will,” I said. After they left, I laid down in the bed and drifted off to sleep.

…

I was in a small room. In front of me was an observation port that let me see into the corridor on the other side. Two people stood there, arm-in-arm, looking at me. They were both smiling. I recognized them right off. One was my ex-wife, Tabitha. The other was Commander Travers — Bull. How was this possible, I wondered. He’s dead. And she’s in federal prison serving a ten-year sentence.

I wondered what I was doing in the small room and tried to find the hatch release. I saw Bull shake his head and reach forward. Then I heard the sudden hiss of air and knew I was in an airlock. All of the air was rushing out into open space. I tried to scream and shake my head but I couldn’t. I looked down and saw I was…naked. Why would I be naked in an airlock, I asked myself.

I looked back up and saw both of them wave at me. I heard them through the intercom.

“Bye now, cuck,” they said. “Bye bye. Enjoy Hell.” What? The next thing I knew, I was shot out into open space as the two of them laughed and extended their middle fingers. I instantly felt the cold space and knew I would die very soon.

I tried to hold my breath but it was difficult. I even tried using my knowledge of Grav Tac to get back to the airlock, but my muscles were frozen in place. I felt the pressure build up in my chest and knew that in seconds, my lungs would explode.

“Why are they doing this to me?” I asked myself. But it was too late. As I drifted further from the ship, I saw the two of them kiss. Then I saw Bull pull out the biggest cock I had ever seen on a man and offer it to Tabby, who knelt down to take it in her mouth. Then my lungs began to explode…

…

I bolted upright in the bed, gasping for air. I could feel beads of sweat on my forehead. I hadn’t had the nightmare since shortly before coming aboard the Enterprise. But this nightmare seemed different, somehow. For starters, this was the first time I was naked in the dream. And this was the first time I had seen the two of them engage in a sex act while I was being shot into space.

But why now, after all this time, I wondered. Surely, there was a reason for it. I looked at the other half of the bed and realized this was the first night since reporting aboard that Kyra hadn’t slept with me. Was that the reason, I asked myself. I knew I would have to talk to her about this. I looked at the clock and saw it was 4:45, so I wiped the sleep from my eyes and got up.

I showered, shaved and dressed, then headed for sick bay to check in on Kyra. When I got there, I was met by the night corpsman on duty. She pulled me into her duty hut before I could see Kyra.

“Are you alright, sir?” she asked. “I got an alarm from your sleep monitor not long ago. Were you having a nightmare?”

“Yes, I was,” I told her. “It’s alright, I’ve had this nightmare before.”

“We have white noise generators if you need one, sir,” she said. “If you like I can set one aside for you.”

“I don’t think that’ll be necessary, but thanks anyway,” I said. “Is Dr. Williams awake?”

“Yes, sir, she is. The other duty corpsman is getting her breakfast now. She should be back soon. If you like, you can go see Dr. Williams now,” the corpsman said.

“Thank you,” I said. I went into Kyra’s room and saw she was already awake and sitting up in bed.

“Good morning, sunshine,” I told her. She smiled and looked at me.

“Good morning yourself,” she said. “You’re up early.”

“I couldn’t sleep,” I told her.

“Nightmare?”

“Yeah, how do you know?” I asked.

“I can see it on your face, and I heard you talking to the corpsman. Bad?” I nodded my head.

“Worse than normal,” I said quietly.

“We need to talk about it, you know,” she told me. We had talked about it before, but not in any great depth. “So, what was different about last night?”

“You,” I said after a few moments.

“Me?” she asked. “What did I do?”

“You weren’t there,” I said. “Last night was the first night we hadn’t slept together since I came on board.”

“Well, we’ll definitely have to talk about this when I get out of here,” she said. Just then, the other duty corpsman came in, pushing a cart with Kyra’s breakfast. She put the tray on the bed stand so Kyra could eat.

“Oh my God, I can’t eat all this,” Kyra said as she looked at the breakfast, which consisted of a large omelet, bacon, toast, cream of wheat, juice, milk and coffee. “I’ll get big as a house.”

“I guess we’ll just have to work it off of you,” I said with a smile. She looked at me and smiled.

“Is that a promise?” she asked.

“You got it,” I said.

“I’m going to hold you to that, you know,” she said. The young corpsman smiled as she listened to our banter.

“The doctor said to make sure you eat everything, Dr. Williams,” she said. “He even told me to feed you myself if necessary.” Kyra looked up at her.

“That won’t be necessary, corpsman, I assure you. I can feed myself,” she said. The corpsman smiled back at her.

“I hope so, Dr. Williams,” she said. “Dr. Pine won’t be very happy if you don’t follow your diet. And you don’t want to see him unhappy, believe me.”

“I believe you,” Kyra said. “Don’t worry, I’ll be a good girl and eat all my food. Even if it makes me fat as an elephant.”

“That won’t happen, Dr. Williams,” the corpsman said. “Your diet was designed specifically for your needs. Well, if we’re under control here, I have other things to do.” I nodded my head and the corpsman left. Kyra took a few bites and started to push the tray away.

“Not so fast, dear,” I said. “You need to eat everything.” She looked up at me and pouted. “Sorry, that’s not gonna work.”

“Alright, alright,” she said. “I’ll eat everything. But I never want to hear you complain when I can’t get through the door.”

“Never,” I said, giving her a kiss. “I’d better go grab my breakfast and get to work. Think they’ll let you out of here tonight?”

“God, I hope so,” she said.

“Me too,” I said. “I’ll swing by after my shift. Love you.”

“Even if I get fat and ugly?” she asked.

“I’ll always love you,” I told her. “And you’ll never be fat and ugly.”

“Good answer, spaceman. I love you too,” she said, giving me a kiss in return. I left sick bay and ate some breakfast, then went to the bridge.

“How’s Kyra this morning?” Axel asked when I reported to my station.

“Better, thanks for asking,” I said.

“Good,” he responded. “You sleep okay last night? You look a bit tired.”

“Had a bad dream, nothing I can’t deal with.”

“Let me know if you need to take a break,” he said. “I need everyone at 100 percent. Graveyard shift already reported encountering some small objects. We may be entering the Oort Cloud sooner than we thought.”

“Terrific,” I said. After our morning briefing, I resumed my post and continued working. Over the next eight hours, we encountered a few small objects, but the ship’s crew and systems performed perfectly. After my shift, I went to see Kyra and found that Dr. Pine was releasing her from sick bay.

“Her vitals are perfect and she seems stable,” he said. “But you need to make sure she follows her diet and exercise plan. That’s right, doctor, I said exercise,” he added, looking at her. Kyra nodded her head in resignation.

“So not only are you gonna make me fat, but now you want to torture me,” she said. “Terrific.”

“It’s not that bad, Dr. Williams,” he said with a smile. “I understand the Commander here has a belt in Grav Tac. Perhaps he can help with your exercise regimen.”

“I think we can manage that, Doc,” I said with a smile.

“Wonderful,” Kyra said. “You’re gonna pay for this, you know that?”

“I’ll take my chances,” I said.

“I want to see you in seven days for a follow-up,” Dr. Pine told her. “And don’t think you can skate on your diet and exercise plan. I have eyes all over this ship, you know.”

After dinner, we walked back to my cabin, where Kyra changed into something more “comfortable.” She came back out with a couple cups of her hot chocolate and we sat on the couch.

“I missed you last night,” I told her.

“I missed you too,” she said. “Tell me about the dream you had last night.” She listened quietly as I recalled it. She didn’t say anything for a few minutes when I finished.

“Well, doc,” I said. “What’s your prognosis?”

“You say this is the first time you’ve been naked in that dream?” she asked. I nodded my head.

“Interesting. Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung believed our dreams represent unfulfilled wishes, and I can understand that hypothesis. I tend to believe, however, that some of our dreams are the mind’s way of processing our thoughts and feelings. Generally speaking, being naked in a dream could indicate some level of vulnerability, or it could mean that you feel some aspect of you could be exposed to ridicule or disgrace. Tell me, do you feel any guilt at all about what you did on the Armstrong?”

“At this point, no, none,” I said, shaking my head.

“So, you feel no guilt whatsoever about ejecting your former first officer out of an airlock at all?” she asked. I shook my head.

“None whatsoever. I even wished my ex was with him when it happened,” I said. “At the time, I knew it was either him or me. For some time, I wondered if there was some other way it could’ve been resolved. I began to wonder if maybe I should’ve called security. But I knew they would arrive too late. You didn’t see the look of hatred on his face, Kyra. He was determined to murder me. What made it worse was him telling me it was Tabitha’s idea.”

“And her reaction to what happened?” Kyra asked.

“She turned on me like a feral cat,” I said. “Said she hated me. When I talked to her in the brig later, she claimed to love me but loved fucking him at the same time. She claimed she knew he was going to murder me, but didn’t know how. Worse yet, she never told anyone. How can you love someone you want murdered?”

“Do you believe it was her idea to have you killed?” Kyra asked.

“Deep down in my gut, yes, I do. I could see it in her face. But it could never be proven beyond a reasonable doubt in her court-martial.”

“How did you feel about that?” she asked.

“Like I had been betrayed twice. Actually, three times. First by her, then by my own superior, then by the system.”

“But she’s in prison, Bull is dead, and you’re here, third in command of humanity’s first real starship, going where no one has ever been before. Surely you can get a measure of vindication from that,” she said.

“I suppose you’re right,” I said.

“But there’s more, isn’t there?”

“Yeah. After the incident I swore never to get that deeply involved with another woman ever again. I never took a vow of celibacy, I just decided I would never let myself fall in love with someone like I did with her. I couldn’t go through that level of betrayal and pain again,” I said.

“And then you met me,” she said.

“And then, I met you,” I repeated quietly.

“I can see several potential possibilities here, Bill,” she said. “I think we need to explore this a bit deeper. I want to help you, Bill. I CAN help you. Do you trust me?” I looked at her.

“Yes, I do,” I said.

“Good,” she said. “Do you remember me telling you about the work done by Larry Wilder?”

“Yes,” I told her.

“Well, the tests I helped create were largely based on his research. I think I told you that. But what I didn’t tell you was that Tabitha’s name was no where on your compatibility list,” she said.

“So we were never genetically compatible?” I asked.

“That’s right. In fact, I would say that your relationship with her was doomed from the very beginning.”

“I guess we never really had a chance, did we?” I asked.

“No, I don’t think so,” she said.

“Maybe this test of yours should be a requirement for anyone who wants to get married,” I told her. She chuckled.

“That may not be such a bad idea given the extremely high divorce rate both in and out of the service,” she said. “I will tell you this, Bill.”

“What?”

“I’m here for you. I’ll always be here for you. Your pain is my pain. Understand?”

“Yeah, I think so,” I said.

“Good. I’m glad we talked about this. I would like for you to keep a log of your dreams. Good, bad, indifferent, it doesn’t matter. Make your log entries the second you get up so you can remember as much as possible. We can take some time out and discuss them later, alright?”

“Okay,” I said.

“And if you have that nightmare again, you let me know right away. Promise?”

“I promise.” She leaned in and gave me a kiss.

“I’ll hold you to that,” she said. “Now, why don’t you take me to bed so we can make up for last night?”

“Your wish is my command,” I said as I scooped her up in my arms.

The next twenty five days were hectic. We officially entered the Oort Cloud and everyone on board was on pins and needles the whole time. Fortunately, the ship and crew performed perfectly, thanks to the many drills Leesa had put us through while we were at Galileo.

Yes, we encountered quite a few objects — mostly small rocks and chunks of ice. The largest object we logged was about the size of the Empire State Building, and the system easily dodged it by more than 10,000 kilometers.

In the meantime, Kyra was cleared by Dr. Pine, but he still kept her on her diet and exercise regimen.

We finally cleared the cloud and found ourselves in the expanse of interstellar space. Our next objective was known as Checkpoint One, an unmanned vessel that included a subspace relay and several storage containers launched about a year or so ahead of us.

The communications officer sent the signal that would activate the ship’s automated beacon. If all went well, we would start receiving pings within the next month or so.

Now that things had settled down to a steady roar, I decided to start the Grav Tac classes Leesa suggested at our introductory dinner. Kyra joined, as did a few members of the crew. It was a good way to unwind from the day and get in some much-needed exercise. As time went on, the class grew from five to seven, and then to ten. I decided to cap it off at that due to the limited space in the gym.

I also spent time exercising with Kyra on the treadmills and the stationary bikes. At first, she found the exercise a bit difficult, but as time went on, she built up a great deal of strength and endurance. Of course, that helped her in the Grav Tac classes. I also noticed a difference when we made love.

She had also begun working with Dr. Pine, counseling crew members as necessary. When she wasn’t working out or counseling, she worked on her second doctorate.

As Kyra suggested, I began keeping a log of my dreams on the computer in my cabin. I never had the nightmare again, but I did have a couple dreams about Tabby that were rather odd. In both of them, she was in the cockpit of a small spacecraft and her appearance had changed. Her hair, which used to be long and thick, had been cut severely short. Now, she sported a crew-cut, much like what Bull used to wear.

Her face had also changed, and was hard, with sharply defined features. Her eyes were dark, almost black, and she had pins sticking through her cheeks. There was nothing attractive about her at all. She didn’t say anything, and I don’t remember what she was doing, but I remember experiencing a bit of dread seeing her. It was almost as if she was intent on finishing the job her and Bull started.

Kyra and I talked about it at the time, and she suggested that maybe my subconscious mind had created an image of her that matched my feelings toward her. Nothing else really made any sense, so I agreed.

Finally, after little more than a year, we reached Checkpoint One and dropped out of light speed. The unmanned vehicle had drifted off course by about 150,000 kilometers so we had to change course to meet it. The engineers started the vehicle’s systems remotely and it was fully powered by the time we reached it.

Enterprise extended its grappling arms and captured the drone, then put all thrusters at what we called “station-keeping,” to keep both vessels stable and in the same basic location. We would be here for about three or four weeks while the engineers inspected both craft for damage.

Meanwhile, other crew members set about transferring supplies from the drone to the Enterprise, where it would be inspected and placed in the appropriate holds. The communications crew also set about downloading all the information that had been forwarded by Houston — letters to the crew along with the news of the past year or so.

A couple days after arriving, Kyra and I sat in the galley eating lunch. I was reading a letter from my father when Kyra suddenly started laughing. I looked up at her, wondering what was so funny.

“You gotta see this,” she said with a laugh as she handed me her tablet. I looked at what she was showing me and saw a headline from XNN Interplanetary that read, “Singer Loses Penis After Concert.”

According to the article, Dick Bigman, the lead singer of the Kentucky-Fried Mutha Fuggas (whose real name, the article said, was Sylvester Little), lost part of his penis after a concert in the town of Hard Rock, Texas.

The article said he and other members of the band had sex with several women on stage during the concert. After the performance, the husband of one of those women attacked Bigman with a replica Bowie knife, slicing off about six inches of the singer’s penis.

Bigman was immediately taken to the Hard Rock General Hospital, where doctors worked to reattach his penis. A hospital spokesperson said it was unclear if Bigman would ever regain full function of the body part.

The unnamed husband was taken into custody, but later released on his own recognizance. The man says he intends to divorce his cheating slut wife, the article said, while suing Bigman for damages. Bigman’s attorney told the paper, “Fuck him. The cuck deserved to get publicly humiliated by the singer,” and the woman said it was “only sex.”

“I still love my husband, but let’s face it, how many 12-inch dicks are out there? I just had to have it,” she said. “Sure, it was on stage in front of the whole town, but so what? That’s no reason for divorce,” she added. The article included a picture of Bigman, a scraggly-looking white man with wild bloodshot eyes and long multi-colored hair tied in various knots. A tattoo of a spread-open vagina adorned one of his arms.

“The band says it intends to complete its tour promoting its latest music disc titled, ‘Creampie Gangbang.’ The group’s sexually-explicit music is considered to be the driving force behind the latest music genre, known as ‘Electro-Splooge.’ Supporters gathered at the hospital with signs demanding doctors save Bigman’s penis,” the article said. One picture showed a woman carrying a sign that read, “Save Dick’s Dick.” I noticed the article had a video attached and showed it to Kyra.

“Have you looked at the video?” I asked.

“No, I didn’t,” she said. I set the tablet up and started the video so we could both watch it.

“Dick Bigman, the lead singer of the Kentucky Fried Mutha Fuggas, is undergoing surgery in this hospital after an enraged husband cut off part of his penis with a knife very much like this one,” the reporter said, holding up a large Bowie knife. “The suspect in the incident was taken to the local jail but later released on his own recognizance after a trial date was set.”

The scene changed, and we saw a man wearing a straw hat being led out of the jail. He was still very upset.

“That goddamn Yankee oughta consider himself lucky I didn’t cram his dick down his throat and gut him like a fish,” he bellowed.

“The woman and Bigman were also cited with indecent exposure and lewd and lascivious behavior. XNN Interplanetary spoke to Sheriff John Carmichael.” The scene shifted again, this time to an office where a large, barrel chested man in a gray Stetson sat in front of a portrait of a similarly-dressed man with a beard and an eye patch. The plate on the portrait read, “Sheriff Ryan Caldwell.”

“Tell me sheriff, do you think it’s appropriate to charge Bigman given his injury?” the reporter asked.

“This here’s West Texas, young man. It ain’t New York City where people can get nekkid and have sex in the streets. Mr. Bigman will get his day in court, just like everyone else,” the sheriff said. The scene shifted back to the hospital.

“Residents in this community are split,” he said. “Some say this incident tarnishes the reputation of a town built on the idea of old-time western values and justice. Others, like these in front of the hospital, say it’s time Hard Rock, Texas joins the 22nd century. This is Duncan Wyoming, reporting for XNN Interplanetary.”

I chuckled and handed the tablet back to Kyra after the video ended.

“Takes all kinds, I guess,” I told her.

“So, how are your parents?” she asked.

“They’re doing well, thanks for asking. Dad said he and some buddies of his went fishing out on Lake Pend O’Reille. Caught a whole bunch of fish and brought ’em home for Mom to cook,” I said. Kyra laughed.

“So, your Dad goes fishing and your Mom cleans and cooks. Is that the way it is in your family?” she asked with a smile.

“Well, not all the time,” I said.

“I hope not. They like it up there in north Idaho?” she asked.

“Yeah,” I said. “They love it. And so do I, frankly. Fresh air, mountains, trees, lakes. Great place to retire.”

“Your dad was in the service, wasn’t he?” she asked.

“Yes, he was a Chief Engineer. Retired shortly before I started high school and moved up to Idaho.” They had bought the old place from the family who held it in trust for the man who lived there with his wife until they died. From what I heard, he had been some kind of high-ranking government official who served with a special task force for more than 30 years.

According to Dad, the man had been through hell and back more than once and was cited multiple times by the president for bravery. He even wrote a set of memoirs that was, well, interesting to say the least. Warren was the man’s name — Oscar Warren.

Finally, our work at Checkpoint One was done. The transfer had been made and both vessels were thoroughly inspected. Some minor damage and scoring was found on the drone and repaired. The Enterprise was in top form and ready to resume its mission, the engineers reported.

We disconnected from the drone and retracted the arms, then moved away from the drone. The navigator recalculated our course, laid it in and we were off. This time, Kyra reported to sick bay in case she had another bout of afib when the ship transitioned to light speed. I was relieved to hear from Dr. Pine that she did not have a recurrence and was declared fit for duty.

As the Enterprise zipped towards its destination, George Herman, Leesa’s companion, spent much of his time in the astrophysics department, observing and learning all he could about the Centauri system before we arrived.

While our primary destination was Alpha Centauri, there are actually three stars in the system — Alpha Centauri A, Alpha Centauri B, and Proxima Centauri. Of the three, Proxima Centauri is slightly closer to the Sun than Alpha Centauri, but is considerably smaller.

According to scientists, it’s a red dwarf slightly larger than Jupiter, but has an Earth-sized planet that lies in the star’s habitable zone. Part of our mission was to investigate and catalog the planet. There is also a “super-Earth” around Proxima Centauri, but it lies outside the habitable zone.

Our mission also called for us to investigate the presence of a planet inside Alpha Centauri A’s habitable zone. Currently, we’re set to spend about six months within the three-star system before heading back to our own solar system.

George also observed that we might very well encounter something similar to an Oort Cloud around the Centauri system, but he speculated there could actually be three such clouds, each interacting with the others. The bottom line for us was to be extra careful when approaching the system.

For the next year or so, life on the ship was fairly routine. I got up, worked my shift, came back, ate dinner with Kyra, then worked out a bit before going to bed. Axel was concerned that things might become too routine for the crew, so he organized events in the ship’s clubs and competitions like three on three basketball tournaments to help keep everyone’s morale up. There’s nothing worse than getting bored on a long trip like this.

That helped considerably, and the two of us had fun participating in some of the events he set up. He also asked me to play my guitar in the Officer’s Club one or two nights a week, which I was more than happy to do. The Grav Tac classes I gave also helped, and the students who worked with me had progressed considerably. Kyra impressed me a great deal and had done well enough to earn a black belt by the time we reached Alpha Centauri.

Then there were the holidays, primarily Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s and Easter. Early on, Axel suggested the senior officers and department heads serve the holiday meals to the crew, since we couldn’t take those days off. His thinking was that it would help boost the crew’s morale and give them something to look forward to.

Leesa agreed, so it became something of a tradition on the ship. And Axel was right — the crew did appreciate it, and those of us behind the line served the holiday meals with a smile and wishes for a happy holiday.

My relationship with Kyra progressed to the point that I knew without a doubt that we were destined to be together for life. My love for her grew with each passing day. And I believe she felt the same way. It had gotten to the point that she was basically living in my cabin, using hers only to store some of her clothes and personal items.

We had talked about the possibility of using her cabin as a bedroom, and mine as a living and dining area. The only problem with that was that all of the furniture was bolted to the deck, so we couldn’t move anything around the way we wanted. I made a mental note to discuss it with Leesa when we returned home.

During the two-year voyage to Alpha Centauri, I noticed some changes in Kyra. No longer the borderline submissive I first met at Galileo Station, she seemed stronger, more confident and sure of herself. Perhaps it was a combination of the diet, exercise and Grav Tac, I thought. Even with the changes, which I liked, by the way, she was still the same soft-spoken, sweet and unassuming person I first met.

And there had been some changes in me as well. The anger and mistrust I had upon coming aboard was gone. Thanks to some techniques Kyra had taught me, I was also able to take control of my dreams. I only had the nightmare once since Kyra recovered from her bout with afib. But never again. It happened the night before we officially entered the Centauri system.

…

I was in a small room. In front of me was an observation port that let me see into the corridor on the other side. Two people stood there, arm-in-arm, looking at me. They were both smiling. I recognized them right off. One was my ex-wife, Tabitha. The other was Commander Travers — Bull. How was this possible, I wondered. He’s dead. And she’s in federal prison serving a ten-year sentence.

I wondered what I was doing in the small room and tried to find the hatch release. I saw Bull shake his head and reach forward. Then I heard the sudden hiss of air and knew I was in an airlock. All of the air was rushing out into open space.

But this time, it was different. I knew this was a dream and nothing they did could hurt me. I stood there and laughed as the air vented into open space. They looked at me, shocked.

“You’re supposed to be in open space, Jones,” Bull shouted, his face turning red. “Why are you standing there?”

“Fuck you,” I shouted back. “This is just a dream. It’s not real. And you’re DEAD!” His eyes grew wide and as I watched, his body dissolved into a pile of ash on the deck. Tabby looked at the pile of ash, her eyes wide. Then she looked at me.

“You son of a bitch. You killed him!”

“That’s right, I did, bitch,” I said. “I tossed his ass out of this airlock for real a long time ago when the two of you tried to murder me.”

“I’ll kill you for this,” she screamed.

“No you won’t, bitch,” I yelled back. “You tried once, but you failed. Besides, you’re not real. You’re in prison.” She morphed in front of my eyes as I watched. Her hair was suddenly very short and resembled the crew cut Bull wore. Her uniform dissolved and turned gray, with stenciled lettering that read “Federal Penitentiary.” Her face lost its soft features and became hard and angular.

Her eyes, once beautiful and shining, became dark and tattoos appeared on her arms and neck. Her body lost its once-alluring curves and she looked more masculine than feminine. Even her voice changed and became deeper.

“Noooooo,” she exclaimed.

“Goodbye, bitch,” I said. “I’m outta this dream. And I ain’t coming back.” For a moment, I felt like singing a version of the old Ray Charles tune, “Hit the Road, Jack.”

…

The next thing I knew, I was awake. I laid in bed for a moment and thought about what just happened. Then I started laughing, which woke Kyra up.

“Are you okay, sweetheart?” she asked.

“I did it,” I told her. “Thanks to you, I was finally able to conquer that dream.”

“What? You had the nightmare again? It’s been so long.”

“That’s right, but thanks to what you taught me, I was able to take control.”

“Tell me what happened,” she said. She listened quietly as I told her about the dream. When I finished, she smiled and wrapped her arms around me. “That’s so wonderful,” she said. “I’m so proud of you. I knew you could do it. Now let’s celebrate. Make mad passionate love to me right now.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said, kissing her hard. We made love for the next hour and fell asleep in each other’s arms, happy and content.

…

“Well, you look chipper this morning, Number Two,” Leesa said as I entered the bridge and took my station. “Get a good night’s sleep last night?”

“Yes ma’am, I did. The best,” I said.

“Good,” she said. “We’re officially entering the Centauri system today, so I need you at your best. Keep a sharp eye out.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said. Leesa passed the word during the morning’s briefing, and it didn’t take long for the news to get around. I knew we were getting closer when I saw the sparkle effect indicating we were in Proxima Centauri’s heliopause. When the sparkle effect ended, I knew we were no longer in interstellar space.

After consulting with the astrophysics department, Leesa gave the order and we dropped out of light speed, but kept moving forward using the plasma-ion engines. The navigator consulted his charts and worked up a course to Proxima B, the earth-like planet in Proxima Centauri’s habitable zone.

“ETA to Proxima B 175 hours, Captain,” he announced after plugging the course in. “Course laid in and locked. The road is clear.”

“Thank you, navigator,” she said in response. She punched a button on her console and addressed the ship. “All hands, this is the Captain. We are in the Centauri system. ETA to Proxima B 175 hours. Good job, everyone.” I could hear cheers reverberate throughout the ship. “Comm, open a subspace channel to Houston,” she directed.

“Aye aye Captain,” the comm officer said. “Subspace channel open and ready for your use,” she announced a few moments later. Leesa pressed another button on her console and looked into the small camera on her comm unit.

“Houston, this is Enterprise. We have reached the Centauri system. ETA to Proxima B 175 hours. Ship and crew in good shape. Out,” she said, ending the call. We listened to the speaker for the next several minutes, waiting for a response. It finally came about 15 minutes later.

“Enterprise, this is Houston. Message received. You have entered the Centauri system, ETA to Proxima B 175 hours. Congratulations, Enterprise. We’ve waited a long time to hear that,” a voice said from the overhead speaker.

As the ship’s course changed, we could see the small red star through the front port. I knew that over the next few days, it would get a lot bigger as we approached the planet in its habitable zone.

The celebration on board was short-lived as the crew set about preparing for planetfall. Other departments, like the astro section, would be very busy scanning the system, cataloging every scrap of information available while mapping as much of the system as possible. We were quite literally in uncharted territory here, and no one knew what dangers lie ahead.

My shift over, I ate dinner and caught up with Kyra, who just finished a healthy portion of Jonathan’s award-winning chicken cordon bleu. She looked up as I approached her table.

“Care to join me, sir?” she asked with an impish grin.

“I’d love to, little lady,” I said.

“Please, have a seat,” she said. I sat down and looked at her plate.

“Were you a good girl?” I asked.

“Yes, I was a very good girl and ate all my veggies,” she said with a smile. “Does that mean I get dessert tonight?”

“I think we can manage that, my dear,” I said with a wink.

“So, we finally made it to the Centauri system,” she said.

“Yes, we did,” I told her. “Now the real work begins. We have a lot to do here. There’s an awful lot of space out there that needs to be scanned and mapped. We’ll be at Proxima B in about a week. How was your day, by the way?”

“It was actually pretty good,” she said. “I had a couple counseling appointments and then worked on my thesis. I hope to have it all completed so I can send it out the next time we stop at Checkpoint One.”

“Excellent,” I told her.

“So, when we get to the planet, are we going to send anyone down?” she asked. I shook my head.

“No, not this trip. We don’t even know what it’s like down there. This time around, we’ll be charting it, taking high-def photos and video. We’ll do the same when we go to Alpha Cen. The cartographers and astro sections are gonna be very busy on the return trip, that’s for sure.”

We finished dinner and headed for the gym, where we worked out a bit and practiced a two-person Grav Tac kata I had started putting together for us. After an hour of working out, we went back to the cabin where we showered and got ready for bed. We fell asleep in each other’s arms after experiencing our mutual orgasms.

The rest of the week went pretty much the same. Then came the day we went into orbit over Proxima B. As we settled into our orbit, Leesa made a report to Houston.

“Houston, this is Enterprise. Now entering orbit over Proxima B. Stand by for photos and video. This is one helluva view,” she said.

“Roger that, Enterprise,” the reply came back 15 minutes later. “Standing by for photos and video.”

From here, it was up to the astro section and the cartographers to document every square inch of the rocky planet below. Drones were sent to take samples of the upper atmosphere and measure the radiation from Proxima Centauri.

When my shift was over, I shared dinner with Kyra and the two of us went to the observation platform in the ship’s common area. We were in awe as we looked at the planet below us. It seemed primitive, yet pristine at the same time. We had just crossed the terminator and were over the dark side of the planet, which was covered with ice and snow.

“Wonder what it’d be like to so skiing down there?” I asked.

“You like to ski?” she asked.

“Yeah. Dad used to take us to Schweitzer and Mt. Spokane when I was a kid. Been a long time since I’ve gone skiing. You ever do any skiing?”

“No, I’ve never had the chance, but I’d love to learn,” she said. “It sounds like fun.”

“It is,” I told her. “But I bet it’d be colder than the dickens down there,” I added, nodding at the planet below us.

“Doesn’t look very friendly, does it?” she asked. I shook my head.

“Not really.”

“How long are we gonna be here?”

“About 30 days, then we’re heading to Alpha Centauri,” I said. We stood at the thick window, watching the planet below for a while. Then Kyra put an arm around me and laid her head on my shoulder. I put an arm around her and enjoyed her warmth.

“I wonder what it’d be like to make love here in front of the planet down there?” she asked quietly.

“Seriously?” I asked.

“Yeah,” she said with a wicked smile.

“Well, someone could walk in on us, you know.”

“Yeah, they could, couldn’t they?” I looked at her, surprised.

“You’re serious?”

“I’m very serious,” she said, giving me a deep tongue kiss that went all the way to my toes. “We can use that couch and if we’re careful, no one could see us.”

“You’re gonna get me in trouble, you know that?”

“Isn’t that what I do best?” she asked. We moved to the couch and sat down. She unzipped my flight suit and worked my cock out. She looked around to make sure no one else was in the area, then went down on me.

“Oh God,” I moaned as she sucked. As she worked on me, I kept looking around to make sure no one else was in the area. I felt the familiar urge to ejaculate and warned her. “I’m getting ready to cum,” I told her. She worked harder and faster as I kept a lookout. Then it happened. I filled her mouth and she swallowed as much as she could.

Then I heard footsteps coming from the opposite end of the area. Not wanting to get caught, I let Kyra know that someone was coming into the room. She quickly wiped her mouth, put my cock back into my boxers and zipped my flight suit back up. Two crew members, a man and a woman, walked into the room just as she sat back up.

“Oh, I’m sorry, Commander,” the female crew member said. “I hope we didn’t interrupt anything.”

“Not at all,” I said, taking note of the woman’s name tag — Elise Blackstone, from the engineering department. “We were just getting ready to leave.”

“You know, sir, this is one of the most popular places for couples on the whole ship,” the male crew member said. I looked at his name tag — Alan Smith, also from engineering.

“No, Mr. Smith, I didn’t know that,” I said, taking a glance at Kyra. “But thank you for letting me know. Are you two…”

“Yes, sir, we are,” Elise said. “We have to get back to our shift in an hour, so we thought we’d come here and spend some time looking at the planet together.”

“I don’t blame you. We were doing the same, but we’re about done, so please, have a seat and enjoy your break,” I said, standing up.

“Thank you, sir,” Smith said. “Oh, by the way, sir, we really enjoy your music.”

“Thank you, Mr. Smith,” I said. “That’s kind of you to say. Please, carry on.” We left the observation deck and hoped they didn’t notice anything off about us. I could hear them whispering and laughing softly as we left and when I looked back at them, they were deep into their own embrace. What the hell, I thought. They’re adults and they’re only doing what Kyra and I almost did.

“You think they know what we did?” Kyra asked quietly as we made our way back to the cabin.

“I’m pretty certain they knew,” I said. “They’re both engineers and they’re not stupid.”

“Oops,” she said. “Will you get in trouble?” I chuckled.

“I don’t think so, but I’m sure there will be some scuttlebutt.”

“Scuttlebutt?” she asked.

“Rumors. But that’s okay, we can finish what we started in the cabin,” I told her. And we did. I heard nothing more about the encounter with the two crew members in the observation area, so I didn’t give it any more thought.

After 30 days, the astro section completed their work and we received a briefing from George and Lt. Cmdr. Hamilton, the astro section chief. We learned the planet could conceivably support human life, but it wouldn’t be very comfortable. Part of the reason for that was the planet is tidally locked and in synchronous rotation with its star. We knew what that meant.

The rotation of the planet matched its orbit around Proxima Centauri, which was just over 11 days. Because of that, the same side always faced the sun. George said he recorded temps as high as 145 degrees Fahrenheit on that side of the planet, while the dark side saw temps as low as -80 degrees F.

“Not a very comfortable existence to be sure,” he said. But there was more. Being a red dwarf, Proxima Centauri was prone to rather large solar flares. One giant flare recorded back in 2017 scorched the surface of the planet and threatened its atmosphere, which he said was already slightly thinner than Earth’s, despite the planet being somewhat larger than our own.

“Any signs of life down there?” Leesa asked.

“We found none, but there could be life in the oceans or underground,” George said. “At any rate, we have more than enough information to put together a comprehensive map of the planet.”

“Excellent,” Leesa said. She turned to the chief engineer. “What’s your progress?”

“We’ve completed the modifications Houston sent to us. Everything seems to be in order. We’ve run extensive testing and simulation, and everything works as advertised. According to the engineers at command, these modifications will improve the efficiency and strength of the warp bubble and allow us to cruise at speeds approaching 2.5 times the speed of light,” the engineer said.

“Outstanding,” Leesa said. “Alright, let’s wrap it up. We depart for Alpha Centauri first thing in the morning.” The meeting over, we went our separate ways. The next day, we broke out of orbit and made our way to the next Q-point, where we transitioned to light speed and made our way to Alpha Centauri.

Originally, this part of the trip was scheduled to last a week, but with the improvements and increased speed, we were able to make it in five days and dropped out of “warp” close to the star’s habitable zone. We spent nearly a month cataloging five planets before finally reaching the Earth-like planet, which had been discovered early in the 21st century by the Southern European Observatory.

We were quite surprised when we approached the planet, as it reminded us all of Earth with blue oceans , large green and brown continents and icy polar caps. We could clearly make out the clouds in the planet’s atmosphere and wondered if there could be intelligent life there.

After reporting to Houston, we settled into an orbit around the planet and began our work. As before, every inch of the planet was recorded for the cartographers and all of us speculated on the possibility that some form of intelligent life might be discovered there.

We spent a good month orbiting the planet, taking photos and video while sending drones into the upper atmosphere. We looked hard, but found no evidence of anything that might be intelligent. It looked too good to be true, and more than one of us expressed a desire to go down there and set foot on the alien landscape.

Then Leesa got word that Houston wanted us to cut our mission short and come home. She didn’t give any reason for the move, but we figured she would let us know when the time was right. So we broke orbit and headed for home.

I won’t bore you with the details of our flight back, since it was basically a reverse of our trip to the Centauri system. The main difference, of course, was that it only took about 20 months or so to make the trip at the increased speed. As before, we stopped at Checkpoint One to replenish our stocks, get the latest news and mail downloads and perform a system check.

There were two items in the news I found interesting. One article said the Military Judicial Review Board would examine all convictions over the last ten years due to overpopulation in the federal prisons. Tabitha was sentenced about five years ago and she still had five years left to serve.

The other article grabbed my attention when I saw the headline suggest “space pirates” were operating in the Solar System. Terrific, I thought. According to the article, the “pirates” were using old discarded Corps shuttles and had allegedly targeted two unarmed civilian cargo vessels between Earth and Jupiter.

No one knew where the pirates were based and no one knew how they managed to obtain the ships they used. Homeland Security and the Corps had put together a joint task force to investigate the matter. What’s next, I wondered to myself.

From there, we began the last leg of our voyage. Those last months of the trip were somewhat bittersweet for most of us. We were all eager to get home, but a part of us wanted this voyage to never end.

We left Earth some four years earlier, 250 individual souls inside the most advanced craft built by human hands. But we were no longer just 250 individuals. We were a family. And the credit went to the two at the top, in my opinion.

The more I worked around Leesa and Axel, the more I learned, and the more I respected both of them. Axel had a way of being able to read the crew like a book. He knew when to use a firm hand and when to let things slide. Leesa knew and trusted her officers and let them do their jobs without interference.

I had also changed over the last few years. I left Earth bitter, angry and distrustful. But thanks to Kyra, I was able to put the anger aside. And I had learned to conquer my own fears and nightmares. I was also concerned that once this trip was over I might never see Kyra again. And that disturbed me more than anything else. She was truly my better half, my soul mate. I loved her more than life itself. And the thought of being without her hurt me deeply.

“Penny for your thoughts, spaceman,” she asked, breaking me out of my reverie. I looked at her nude form and smiled. Since the trip began, she had filled out quite nicely, due to her diet and exercise regimen, and due to our Grav Tac workouts. I had to remind myself to breathe. Then I turned to her and took her face in my hands.

“I don’t know if I’ve told you lately, Kyra, but the truth is, I’m madly in love with you,” I said.

“Well, I’m madly in love with you too, Bill. What brought all this on?”

“The mission will be ending before long.”

“And you’re afraid we may go our separate ways and not see each other again,” she said, finishing my thought. She had been doing that for a while now. I nodded my head.

“Yeah, something like that,” I said.

“I’ve been concerned about that a bit myself,” she said. “So, what do you propose we do about that?” I got on one knee in front of her and held her hand. I saw her eyes go wide as I looked up at her pretty face.

“Propose,” I said. “I don’t ever want to be away from you. I… need you in my life. Will you marry me, Kyra?” She smiled as she got on her knees in front of me. She kissed me softly and wrapped her arms around me.

“Yes, Bill, I’ll marry you,” she said. “I thought you’d never ask.” We kissed each other for several minutes before standing back up.

“I need to talk to Leesa,” I told her.

“Why?”

“Well, when I first came on board, she said the rules didn’t allow for married couples on board ship,” I said. “I would also like for her to perform the ceremony, if that’s okay with you.”

“Of course it’s okay,” she said. “It’s better than okay. It’s perfect. But I’m concerned. Are you saying you’d be willing to give up your career in space to be with me?”

“Well, you gave up your career to spend five years on this ship with me,” I said. “It’s only fair I return the favor.”

“You’re so sweet,” she said. “But you see, I like the idea of being married to a spaceman. Making you happy IS my career. And it’s my choice to make.”

“It won’t be easy,” I said.

“I know,” she said. “But the rewards will be more than worth it.”

“I think we’d better talk to the Captain. Together,” I said.

“I think that would be very wise,” she said. I activated my wrist communicator and made a call to Leesa.

“Captain Hawkins here,” she said.

“Captain, if you have some free time, Kyra and I would like to speak with you for a few minutes,” I said.

“Sure, Commander,” she said after a few moments. “I’m available now if you want to come to my quarters.”

“We’ll be there in a few minutes, Captain,” I said. “Thank you.” I ended the communication and we got dressed. About 20 minutes later, I rang the chime on her hatch. It slid back and Leesa motioned us inside. George stood up in front of the couch where he had been sitting.

“Commander, Doctor Williams. Good to see you,” he said with a smile.

“Good to see you, George,” I said as we shook hands.

“George, would you mind if I have a few minutes alone with Bill and Kyra?” Leesa asked him.

“Not at all,” he said. “I’ll just go into my cabin. I’ll see you guys later.”

“See you, George,” I said as he walked off. Leesa invited us to sit on her couch, which we did.

“Would you care for some cold tea?” she asked us.

“That would be wonderful, please,” Kyra said. I agreed. A couple of minutes later, Leesa returned with a tray holding three glasses of iced tea. She set the tray down and took one glass as we took our glasses.

“So, what brings you guys here this evening?” she said as she sat down in a chair across from us. I looked at Kyra nervously for a moment, then faced Leesa.

“I’ve asked Kyra to marry me, and she’s agreed,” I said. Leesa smiled before responding.

“Well, it’s about damn time,” she said, causing us all to laugh. “I mean, we’re only on the last leg of our mission. Congratulations, both of you.”

“Thank you,” Kyra said.

“So, we’d appreciate it if you would perform the ceremony,” I said.

“I’d be honored to, Bill,” she said. “But I suspect there’s something else on your mind.”

“Yes, ma’am, there is,” I said. “When I first came on board, you told me the rules didn’t allow for married couples to serve together.”

“That’s right,” Leesa told us. “But I also told you those rules were in flux. I was going to talk to the two of you in a few days anyway, but I guess this is as good a time as any to fill you in. There have been quite a few changes since we left the Solar system. About a year and a half after we left, the Corps launched a second starship, the USS Constitution.

“A third will be launched a couple of months or so after we return, the USS Independence. Commander Hurbi has been tapped to lead that ship, which means a promotion. With him being promoted to Captain and reassigned, that leaves me with an empty slot to fill. He and I discussed it and we agree that you would be the logical choice, Bill. Command also agrees, so if you want the job, it’s yours. Of course, that means a promotion to Commander.

“That brings me to you, Kyra. Whether you know it or not, I’ve been evaluating your performance throughout this trip. When this project began, there were a lot of detractors and naysayers who said no crew could survive a trip of this duration cooped up inside a ship like this. They all said the crew would go stir-crazy and would be at each other’s throats within two years. I disagreed, of course. Fortunately, they were all proven wrong. And you were a big reason for that.

“You see, Kyra, the crew likes you. Better yet, they trust you. They like having someone they can open up to about whatever may be bothering them. And they appreciate that you’re not in their chain of command. You’ve done an excellent job with them, and you’ve earned their respect. In fact, I owe you more than I’ll ever be able to pay.

“As a result, I suggested to Command that all interstellar missions have someone like you on board as a ship’s counselor. Command agreed, so if you’re open to it, I’d like you to stay on board as the ship’s counselor. If you agree, you’ll get a field commission to Lt. Commander and be paid commensurate with your rank and experience. I know it won’t compare to what you could earn in the civilian world, but I think the rewards of serving with your husband while exploring the universe might offset that. What do you think?”

“Where my husband goes, I go,” Kyra said. “So the answer is, yes, I accept your offer, Leesa.” Leesa and I both smiled at that.

“Good,” Leesa said. “Consider it done. I’ll forward the paperwork, and it’ll be finalized by the time we reach Galileo. By the way, how do you guys feel about a double wedding?”

“A double wedding?” I asked.

“Yes, Commander Hurbi and Myra are getting married as well,” Leesa said. “We could make it an event for the whole crew.” I looked at Kyra and saw her smiling widely as she nodded her head.

“Why not? Sounds like it’d be a lot of fun,” I said.

“Then it’s settled,” Leesa said. “And after the ceremony, you two can take some leave and enjoy your honeymoon.”

“How long will we be at Galileo?” I asked.

“We’ll be there for just over six months. Command Engineering wants to do a full stress test on the entire hull. They want to see how it held up after traveling faster than light for four to five years. We’re also getting a major refit, which includes new engines and an upgraded comm and computer system.”

“Wow,” I said.

“So I’ll let you take five months of leave. You’ve earned it. Enjoy yourselves. It could be a long time before you get back to Earth,” Leesa said. We toasted the idea with our tea and called it a night. Kyra and I went back to the cabin, where we made love and fell asleep as we held each other.

The last part of the voyage went pretty fast, at least for me. Leesa, Kyra, and Myra spent a lot of off-duty time planning the double wedding. Axel and I spent some time in the Officer’s Club toasting each other’s good fortune.

Leesa also signed me up for the online version of the Introductory Command Course, a requirement for taking over as First Officer. Fortunately, I had two role models I could draw on — Axel and Bull. While Axel taught me how to read and handle a crew, my experience with Bull showed me how NOT to treat the officers and crew under me. Fortunately, the vast majority of the senior officers I had worked with were more like Axel, Leesa, and Alan, my commanding officer on the Armstrong.

Kyra and I finally completed and perfected our two-person zero-g Grav Tac kata and demonstrated it for my class. Axel took a video of it and gave me a copy.

“That was amazing, Bill,” he said when he gave me the video. “For a moment, I wondered if the two of you would get it on up there.”

“For a moment, I was tempted,” I said, causing him to laugh. Afterward, Kyra fucked me senseless in our cabin. Apparently, she was tempted as well.

Kyra and I also made plans for our honeymoon. We both decided that Hawaii would be nice, so we would go there first, followed by a trip to north Idaho to see my folks. From there, we would go to southern California to visit her family. I also wanted to see my old sensei at the Academy. From there, we would come back to Mars.

I was surprised to learn that at least two civilian companies now offered what they called “fast” and “regular” shuttle services between Earth and Mars. They weren’t quite as expensive as I thought, and Corps officers got a discount, so I bought two first-class open-ended round-trip tickets for us. I had about five years of back pay sitting in my account, so I could easily afford it.

I also made reservations at a nice hotel in Hawaii and pre-booked our flights to Idaho, California, and Florida, where the Academy was located.

We made it through the Oort Cloud without incident and soon made our way to Galileo Station. As we entered the large, enclosed facility, we saw a huge banner that read, “Welcome Home, Enterprise.” We had done it.

After nearly five years, we had become the first to travel to another star and safely return. We had traveled farther and faster than any person before us. Sure, there would be those who would travel farther and faster than us, but we were the only ones who could say we were the first. When the ship finally stopped in the station, we could see many people in the observation areas applauding and saluting.

“Houston, this is Enterprise,” Leesa said in her comm. “We have returned with all personnel present and accounted for. Ship and crew secured.”

“Roger that, Enterprise,” Houston said in response. “Welcome home. Congratulations.”

After securing all our stations, Leesa turned us loose for some much-needed R&R but told everyone to be at the Huygens venue the next day at 1200 hours for a double wedding. Taking our leave, Axel and I went to the Mars base to buy rings for our brides. Leesa instructed us to stay away from our women until the wedding.

We both knew they would get fitted for their wedding dresses. We just hoped there would be enough time. What I didn’t know was that Leesa had already been in communication with the venue and a dress shop on the base. It turned out the women had used the shop’s online dress-fitting app while we were in transit, and the gowns were already being prepared at the shop.

We purchased the rings and headed back to the ship, where we began packing and preparing our dress uniforms for the wedding. We didn’t see the women at all during this time and wondered what they were doing. Later, Jonathan came by our cabins and said we were needed in the Officer’s Club — immediately.

Curious and concerned, we went to the club, and when we got there, found a number of our male shipmates had organized a surprise dual bachelor party for us. After the initial shock wore off, we settled down and had a good time. That’s when we learned that Leesa and the female crew members had a similar gathering with Kyra and Myra.

“Don’t worry, they’re in good hands,” Jonathan assured us.

The next day, I got up and ensured our stuff was packed and ready to go. A steward hired by the shuttle company came by and took our bags, telling me they would be taken to the terminal for our flight to Earth.

“Remember, sir, the flight is scheduled to leave Huygens at 1700 hours. But the captain won’t leave until we know you’re on board,” he said.

“Thank you,” I said. Talk about concierge service, I thought.

I made sure the clothing Kyra and I would wear on the shuttle was in another garment bag. That one would go with me to Huygens, since we planned to change there before taking the flight back to Earth.

“Are you ready for this, Bill?” Axel asked when I caught up with him.

“I think so. How about you?”

“As ready as I’ll ever get. Were you this nervous when you got married the first time?”

“I was a basket case,” I told him.

“Then I don’t feel so bad,” he said. We made it to the Huygens Base venue and were greeted with applause. The whole crew was there, and they were rooting for us. I was surprised to see Alan, and I was even more surprised to see he had been promoted to Commodore.

“Congratulations, you two,” he said.

“Thank you, Commodore,” I said. “And congratulations on your promotion.”

“Thanks, Bill,” he said. “Personally, I’d rather stay a Captain, but that’s not how it works.”

“So, who’s commanding the Armstrong?” I asked.

“Captain Brewster,” he said. “She wanted to be here, but she’s stuck out by Jupiter and couldn’t make it. Said to give you her best wishes. She also wanted me to give you a hug.” I looked at him, surprised. “Don’t worry, I won’t, and I won’t say anything. What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her.”

“Thank you for that, sir,” I said, causing him to chuckle.

“You know, that’s one helluva ship you have there,” Alan said. “And the Independence is a very impressive vessel, Captain,” he added.

“Thank you, sir,” Axel said. “But I’m not a Captain yet.”

“Oh, you will be very soon,” Alan said. “Your First Officer is also one very impressive young man as well.”

“Jason Kirk?” Axel asked. “He served with you for a while, didn’t he?”

“Yes, he did. He was my Operations Officer on the Armstrong after Bill left,” Alan said. Just then, Leesa came over to us, also wearing her dress uniform.

“Good morning, Commodore,” she said, shaking his hand. “Good to see you, sir.”

“Good to see you again, Captain,” he said.

“Keeping an eye on these two?” she asked.

“I am, indeed,” he said.

“The girls are just about ready, so I think we’ll be getting started,” she said.

“Your show, Captain,” Alan said. Leesa took her place at the front of the venue, motioning for us to follow. We took our places as she motioned for everyone to take their seats. The doors opened in the back and the music started playing. Axel and I turned around and for a moment, I couldn’t breathe.

The two brides, accompanied by two male officers, walked down the improvised aisle to us. Looking at Kyra, I felt the same way I did the first day I met her. She was even more beautiful now than she was when I first met her. When they got to us, the officers shook our hands and Leesa started the ceremony.

We each exchanged our vows — Axel and Myra went first, followed by Kyra and myself. I was so taken by Kyra’s beauty that I almost didn’t hear Leesa’s cue for the rings. I took Kyra’s rings from Jonathan, who acted as my best man, and placed them on her finger as I recited the phrase, “with this ring, I thee wed.” Kyra did the same with my ring, smiling as she placed it on my finger.

“By the authority vested in me as the Captain of the Enterprise, I pronounce you husbands and wives,” Leesa said with a smile. “Well, get to it, gentlemen. Kiss your brides for crying out loud.” Everyone chuckled at that, but Axel and I had other things on our minds as we kissed our brides.

Everyone applauded, and then Alan stood and came to the front.

“We’re not finished, folks,” he said. An aide came up and handed him a sheet of paper. Alan read the promotion order making Axel a Captain. Then he pulled out two badges of rank and handed one to Myra. He pinned one on Axel’s uniform as she pinned the other. They shook hands, then Alan turned to me.

“This promotion ceremony is very special to me,” Alan told the group. “Commander Jones served with me aboard the Armstrong and the Shepard. He’s earned my undying respect, and I can’t think of a more deserving individual,” he said before reading the promotion order. He then pulled out two badges of rank and handed one to Kyra.

I thought I saw a tear in one eye as he pinned the insignia on my shoulder. Kyra seemed proud as she pinned the other on me. When they were finished, Alan shook my hand.

“Those used to be mine,” he whispered. “Wear them well.”

“Yes sir, I will,” I told him.

After the ceremony, we celebrated with a short reception that included all the usual things — dancing, drinking toasts and a wedding cake Jonathan had made in the galley. I wondered how he got it down to Huygens without damaging it.

Finally, the festivities ended and the two of us changed into our flight clothing for the trip to Earth. We said our goodbyes and made it to the taxi that would ferry us to the spaceport. We managed to get aboard about a half-hour before the flight was scheduled to leave.

We sat in the seats in our small cabin and looked out the window as the shuttlecraft lifted off the red planet and began its flight to Earth. I turned to my bride.

“Well, Mrs. Jones, are you ready for the adventure of your life?” I asked.

“I most certainly am, my husband,” she said, giving me a sloppy kiss.

“By the way, when did you get the ring?” I asked.

“Leesa took us down to Huygens while you and Axel were gone,” she said. “Do you like it?”

“I love it,” I said. “Do you like your rings?” She gazed at the diamond ring and smiled at me.

“I love them,” she said. “But I love you more.”

“I love you more,” I said as I kissed her.

And the adventure continued…

…

More to come. Stay tuned…

Notes:

Hard Rock, Texas, is not a real place. I made it up when I wrote “A Father’s Justice.” Ryan Caldwell was the main character in that story. Oscar Warren was the main character in my first story here, “Revenge In Advance — A Sequel.” He has also appeared in several stories. His memoirs are what make up my series, “The Warren Files.”