Prologue: Let that be your last battlefield

What occurs the day before your life as you know it ends? Who hears your final conversations; who accompanies you on your last meal; what are the duties of your working day? How are the hours, minutes and seconds of your penultimate day spent?

As it turns out, they are spent just like any other day.

"Well?" Charlene looked at Uhura over her mess room breakfast, eyebrows raised in query.

"What?"

"You're a space cadet this morning-what's going on?"

"I am a space cadet actually."

"Huh?"

Uhura's eyes darted to the side before speaking, "I'm commanding a shuttle mission, tomorrow. Just me and Kyle; we're testing the computing systems on the new Magellan."

"Wow, that's a nice little boat. I saw it was due for a systems test run tomorrow. I assumed it would be Kyle and Mister Spock."

"Mister Spock leaves early tomorrow, but he's on a two-month mission planet-side. He told me he could think of no one better equipped, so I'm in charge of a test run for the first time."

"That's fantastic girl! I bet you can't wait, it's about time you got to command a mission. The First Officer probably realised we were almost at the end of our five years and you still hadn't got to command something. I heard he was going away on some science mission. Seems weird, doesn't it? Who'll be our First Officer?

Uhura shrugged, "An Ilyrian woman, she used to be Pike's First Officer. I've not met her."

"What's her name?"

"I don't know, 'till now the Captain's only called her Number One."

"Huh, must be top secret. Don't you think it's strange that the Captain is not giving one of the bridge staff a temporary field promotion?"

Uhura was familiar with Charlene's question; it was one she had asked Captain Kirk herself. "He wants us to experience working with a different dynamic. He knows we might not all be together on the next mission."

Sensing her friend's dejection, Charlene reached across the table and squeezed Uhura's hand. They cleared their trays away and made to head off in separate directions, Uhura to the Bridge and Charlene to Engineering. Just before they parted, Charlene asked, "Want to come to the Rec Room tonight, play some cards? Fleece a few rookies for replicator credits?"

"Very tempting, but I can't, I have a Lyre lesson with Mister Spock, last one for two months. Can we meet up to play tomorrow, after my mission?"

"Sure, sounds great, and good luck if I don't see you."

"Thanks." Uhura beamed a grin that could be seen from Terra.

Settling in at her station, Uhura placed her earpiece into her ear and began her final day as Chief Communications Officer on board the Enterprise. It was uneventful; there was a report of a minor ion storm far in the distance and embarkation details for the peculiarly-named Number One. Some last-minute communications regarding Mister Spock's temporary assignment on the Science Mission made way for a quiet couple of hours when Captain Kirk kindly allowed her to go over the specs for the Magellan's computing systems. She had, of course, read them many times over but didn't want to have to resort to a manual in the event of a crisis.

After a pleasant dinner with Kyle and Scotty talking about the new shuttle design she went to Mister Spock's quarters for her last lyre lesson. Once the lesson was over they talked longer than they had ever done; about each other's missions, the ending in a few months of their five-year stint on the Enterprise, future plans, and of course, their all-consuming passion: Starfleet. At the end of the evening, the Commander escorted her back to her quarters for the first and only time. As her door swished open, she faced him, arranged in his customary parade rest, "Well, good luck on your mission, sir. I'll see you in two months time, and thank you again for allowing me this opportunity to command my own."

"Lieutenant, you will perform admirably as always, but I return your initial sentiment; good luck. I regret I will not be on the Bridge to oversee your first mission command as I had hoped."

"That's all right, sir-your voice in my earpiece will be up here." She tapped her skull with two fingers.

"An illogical statement, but I believe I understand." With a brief bow of his head, he took his leave and Uhura walked into her quarters, suddenly conscious of a clench in her gut. She dismissed it as trepidation about the future. The Commander was her safe pair of hands, the only person to know more than she did about the ship's computing systems. Not only was she commanding her first mission in the morning, but for the first time in the Enterprise's five-year mission, Uhura was solely in charge of its computing infrastructure. She felt scared, but she hoped it would be a positive, motivating anxiety.

– End prologue –