Orders

The U.S.S. Enterprise had only six months left on her second mission under Admiral James T. Kirk. They were making their way back to Earth in a long, slow arch. The entire crew was on edge, wondering what the future held for each of them.

The Communication panel beeped. It was the incoming data packet from Star Fleet Headquarters in San Francisco. When she opened it Lt. Nyota Uhura gasped softly; The Permanent Change of Station orders had arrived. She could tell by the subject title and by the addressee. Drat, they were encoded so she couldn’t even peek. There was nothing she could do but download the large file onto a data disk and send it to the Yeoman’s Office. She called Yeoman Tonia Barrows over and told her to hand carry this disk to her Chief ASAP.

Barrows took the disk and headed for the turbo lift. Adm. Kirk said to her. “Yeoman, how soon until we get our orders in our hands?”

She stopped abruptly; “How did you know, sir? It supposed to be, well, a secret.”

“Honey,” he said looking at her with his hazel eyes dancing; “This ain’t my first rodeo. The orders always arrive about this time on a mission. Besides the HQ packet alarmed our Communications Officer, if it had been bad news she would have alerted me, ergo; you are holding our individual orders.” He smiled pleased with himself. “How soon until we get them?”

Tonia hated to speak for Chief Garcia but she hazarded a guess; “The staff should have theirs by 1600. The rest will be released between then and 0800 tomorrow, sir.”

“I see.” He replied. “Where did you put in for?”

“The J. F.X. McIntyre; I’m interested in medicine.” She cast a glance at Doctor McCoy who was lingering on the Bridge, by Mr. Spock’s station. The Admiral dismissed her with a nod and she departed.

Kirk turned to his friends. “Gentlemen, senior staff meeting in conference room A at 1600. Ms. Uhura, will you inform Mr. Scott and be sure to be there yourself.”

“Aye, aye, Admiral.”

Conference room A was ready when they stepped in. There was fresh coffee and tea along with light refreshments on the credenza. A few moments after Kirk and his friends were seated, Chief Yeoman Geri Garcia brought in the change of station orders. She handed each person one folded paper copy and a data disk.

When she was done, she stood at attention and began to speak; “Don’t…”

“Don’t loose the disk; it contains our futures, aye, aye, ma’am.” Kirk, Scott, Uhura and McCoy chorused. Personnel specialist had been giving the same speech since the advent of the order’s disk.

McCoy added; “Thank you, Chief, you and your people did a great job setting this spread up in a hurry.” He smiled at her. She blushed and said you’re welcome on her way out the door.

Spock cast his eyes up to his ancestors. Len raised his eyebrow and gave him a quick half smile.

Jim laughed. “I seemed to be loosing my touch. Bones, what charm do you have over our yeomen? Bones just shrugged. Kirk clapped his hands together. “All right, down to business. I guess I’ll go first.” He fished his glasses out of an inner jacket pocket and opened his orders with a flourish. “Star Fleet Academy, I‘ll be head of the Tactics and Strategies department. Well, at least it’s not a desk job at HQ this time and Lonny promised me there will be some time off planet. Mr. Spock, you go next.”

“Star Fleet Academy - Tactics Instructor. It seems, Admiral we shall still be working together.”

McCoy went next. “Piper Memorial, also in San Fran. Guess I’m destined to follow that guy from one end of the universe to the other.” he grumbled, but none of his friends bought it.

“Dr. Piper was a great man; you could do worse than follow him.” Lt. Uhura chided. She stroked her cheek where Piper had repaired a nasty gash. Scotty reached up and took her hand. He leaned over and kissed her now unblemished cheek.

“Aye,” He said. “Ol’ Piper did fine work. Lass, it’s your turn.”

She reluctantly drew her hand from his. “The Academy - Communications and Linguistics. I’ve already been talking with Captain Brown. I’ll be mostly working as a Comm. Officer with occasional instructor duties.”

Scotty opened his envelope. “Not San Francisco. Jupiter Station, the great space dock. I’ll be supervising the upgrades to my wee bairnes and passing on what I learned out here to the dirt-siders and stay-at-homes.”

Kirk said, “I’m sure you’ll be home on the weekends.”

“If I don’t get caught up in a problem and loose track of time.” Scotty replied.

“Don’t worry, honey. I’ll make sure you come home to Momma.” Her smile was velvet over steel. “Besides, Jim, if Monty isn’t there I will have you to keep me company.”

Jim felt flush; “A-a- are you sure?” He looked at Scotty. “Are you both, sure?” His eyes were large daring to hope. Scott nodded and gave him a big warm grin. Nyota took his hand.

Sulu cleared his throat. “Ahem, I’m going to be a flight instructor at the Academy. After five years, I’m going to be in the same solar system as my wife. Janice is a transporter chief on Jupiter Station. She’ll make sure Mr. Scott makes it home in one piece and on schedule.”

“Yes, but who will ride herd on Jim? I’ve got other duties to attend to, not better, just other.” Ny asked.

“Kevin Riley…” Sulu answered.

“Riley!” Kirk interjected.

Sulu chucked; “Kev and I have kept in contact. There’s an Enterprise Survivors’ Group, ya know. He’s going to be your personnel aide, Admiral. He’s so proud, he’s about to bust.”

“My god, little Kevin Riley will be responsible for me.” Kirk shook his head. How different from when they met on that refugee ship and Riley was the small boy who clung to Jimmy Kirk. “I wonder -- why didn’t I get another female yeoman?” He looked pointedly at Ny and Scotty.

Sulu spoke up; “Janice may have mentioned to some friends at the HQ Personnel Office, that women could be a distraction for, ah, ah, Alpha males, such as yourself and besides…”

“Besides it’s hard to run a department, when I’m busy beating off willing women with a stick. Poor Kevin will just have to run interference for me.” He smiled and glanced over that Nyota and Scotty. This ‘Alpha’ male had his pride.

“If you’ll excuse me, sir?” Sulu asked.

“Sure, dismissed.” The remaining friends broke into two groups. Jim, Monty and Nyota sat at one end of the table with Spock and Len sitting at the other.

“T’hy’la,” Spock took his lover’s hand. “I sense that you are not completely happy with our coming assignments. Could it be that you do not wish to share accommodations with me once we arrive back to Earth?”

“Naw, shug. In fact, pretty much the opposite. I had been planning us to live on my family farm out in Georgia.” McCoy paused.

“I remember.” The Vulcan prompted.

“Well, my cousins have been living there ever since I left Earth umpteen years ago….

“Fourteen years, four months and twenty-seven days.” Spock interjected.

“Any way, my cousins don’t want to move, seeing as they’ve lived in the house fourteen years, four months and twenty-seven days, it feels like home to them.” He shrugged. “I wanted to show it to you. Walk through the fields, pick peaches, set down by the lake and look at the stars, like we did when we were kids.” He sighed and waited for Spock to say something. Len peered up at his lover’s face. “You don’t seem as upset, as I reckoned you’d be.”

Spock stroked Len’s hand to soothe and distract him. “I would not be upset, just because our plan has been upset. I am, after all, Vulcan.” McCoy scowled. “I do understand and I admire you for not casting you family out in to the proverbial snow. As it happens, I, too, have cousins on Earth.” He looked a bit smug. //Forgot that, didn’t you, beloved. // “I wrote to my mother’s niece, Rebecca Grayson. I expressed concern that after spending most of my adult life, all of my possessions, fit into an officer’s stateroom. Rebecca reminded me that she is a real estate agent. She said there was a perfect little house on Lombart Street in Old San Francisco, completely furnished. She thought I could be happy there.”

McCoy’s eyes narrowed; “You, you were planning to buy a house without me!”

“On the contrary, I am planning to buy a house for you, for us. I did remember you caretaker cousins. You make mention of Janet every Christmas when she sends her famous Spice Peaches in the ‘Care’ package. I speculated that perhaps she and her family would not want to leave the farm; however, I told my cousin that I could not definitely decide on the house until we saw it together.” Spock inclined his head in supplication.

McCoy ran his thumb slowly over the back of the Vulcan’s hand; “I reckon San Francisco ain’t all bad. The view is nice, the food is good. I won’t have to use the Bird-forsaken transporter to get to work and, of course, you’ll be there.”

“Yes,” Spock whispered, “I will.” He held up two fingers.

“Then that’s where I want to be, too.” Leonard crossed fingers with his T’hy’la’ and sealed the deal with a Vulcan kiss.

FIN