Artful Arrival

Posted on Thu Jul 4th, 2019 @ 10:22pm by Lieutenant Commander Nicholas Kincaid
Edited on on Thu Aug 1st, 2019 @ 5:44pm

388 words; about a 2 minute read

Mission: Mission 0 - Pre-Sigma Iotia II
Location: Inbound Shuttlepod
Timeline: 2167/07/10 0910

Lieutenant Commander Nick Kincaid sat in the aft compartment of the Shuttlepod as it flew from the spaceport on Mars towards the USS Horizon. Though trained to fly this sort of vessel if he needed to, he much preferred to sit quietly and sketch.

The pencil in his hand made lines and curves on the small notepad that he kept in his uniform pocket at all times. At the moment, he was drawing a figure from memory, the face of a woman he'd seen at the officer's lounge the night before. Pretty, with a hint of sadness in her eyes. He hadn't spoken to her, but he remembered her eyes.

As they approached the ship, however, his attention focussed to the forward observation port. "Pilot," he said as he moved forward in the cabin, "do me a favour? Reduce speed. Thrusters only. Let's come in slowly."

The Petty Officer in the pilot seat nodded her ascent and slowed the shuttle down. It would take them a good thirty minutes to get there now. Plenty of time for Nick to work. He changed pages in his notebook and and began to draw the beautiful Daedalus-class ship before him. "How often do you get such a good view of the ship you're serving on?" he offered the pilot as an explanation. "If you're on a schedule, we can speed back up, but I'd rather take some time with this."

"Take all the time you need, sir," the pilot replied with a smile. She was content to cruise slowly toward the ship. It was a prettier design than so many of the older United Earth ships that got transferred into Starfleet.

The XO saw the ship in his peripheral vision as his eyes stayed on the page. The beautiful ship materialized on the page, its spherical primary hull in front, the cylindrical secondary hull with his precious engines therein behind, less visible, but in his heart no less important.

“Shuttlepod, what’s the delay?” came a voice on the comm system. Air traffic control apparently didn’t appreciate art.

Nick reached to the comm panel and activated the system. “Apologies, Control. Resuming course.” He gave the pilot a nod, who reactivated the impulse engines and resumed their course, towards the USS Horizon. Nick’s new assignment, new home, and new muse.

 

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