Disclaimer: This is a fan written work. The copyrights and trademarks of Star Trek are owned by Paramount Pictures, CBS Corporation and there licensee, Pocket Books. The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed are fictitious. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places, buildings, and products is intended or should be inferred.

Intro

The search for a U.S. Naval Officer missing off the coast of Sand Island has been called off. Junior Grade Lieutenant Alaine Elyse Gouveia, assigned to VR-85 of Sand Island Naval Air Base was taking a welcome flight with another naval pilot on July 12 in a F-18. Halfway through the hour flight, the aircraft had a malfunction and both crew members were ejected from the plane. The pilot was found 20 miles offshore from Sand Island three hours later. LTJG Gouveia was announced Missing In Action after a week long search. LTJG Gouveia would have been 28 years old today. Alaine Elyse Gouveia is sorely missed by her parents, brother and his wife, and sister. Date July 20 2016.

This is her story.

Chapter 1

Lieutenant Junior Grade Alaine Gouveia walked to VR-85 command at Sand Island Naval Airbase from the unit parking lot with her backpack of extra clothes. VR-85 would be her home for the next two weeks. Away from work as a sporadic archaeologist, trying to come up with a solution to an age old question of who has ownership or the right to choose how the land should be used. LTJG felt more at home in her blue digital uniform with a clear purpose of right and wrong with only one way to do things, than a laborer for the next project hiring.

Gouveia was still a little tired from the eventful flight yesterday evening. Turbulence was becoming more and more of a problem on all over land flights across the globe during the year. After getting to the hotel, Gouveia called VR-85 to check what time to be at the squadron headquarters. After the pleasantries were over, the desk clerk gave Gouveia something to look forward to; more than the normal grind of Annual Training.

"The command has a certain tradition ma'am. If you're up for it, Lieutenant Dill has volunteered to take you up in one of the F-18's here at the squad."

'How could anyone pass something like this up?!' Gouveia thought, "Yes! I would be honored to fly with Lieutenant Dill. What time should I be there?" Almost yelling into the mouthpiece of the hotel phone.

And here she was, getting her orders stamped and signed on the quarterdeck at 0515, fifteen minutes before she was to meet with Lieutenant Dill. A bright sounding voice from behind Gouveia, caught the attention of the young officer.

"Welcome aboard to the Sea Scars." The voice belonged to a woman of slight stature in a olive green flight suit. Stepping forward, the lady held out her right hand, "I'm Lieutenant Dill, I'll be your tour guide and pilot this morning. Follow me and we'll get you some flight gear," Gouveia shook her hand and Dill did an about face, walking deeper into the squadron, " I'm not going to bother you with where things are and who everyone is quite yet. There are too many people which change depending on the day. As for the work centers," Dill paused as they came to a door with Supply labeled on the right side of the door frame, "There will be plenty of time once we get back." The flight officer stepped through the door and chatted with the supply personal for a minute before she introduced Gouveia, "This is Lieutenant Junior Grade Gouveia, she will be with us for a couple weeks while she is on orders. After our flight, she'll be coming in here and helping out while your LPO is gone for the week."

"Good to meet you Lieutenant." The male sailor behind the desk said, "I'm LS1 Clent. What size flight suit can I get you?"

"It's good to meet you as well." Gouveia smiled, "I'm a 32 regular. And I'm looking forward to working with you."

LS1 gave her a slight smile, seeing how nervous the JG was. Stepping away from the desk, LS1 went to the back and retrieved the flight and G - suit. With a smile of triumph he placed the two suits on the desk, "Here we are. The LT will take you through the process of how the suits are to be fitted. Sign here and these will be yours, on loan, until the flight debrief."

Gouveia smiled back, "Thank you. I'll take good care of them."

Papers signed, suits in hand, Gouveia followed Dill to the female head. As she was getting her flight suit on, with the help of Dill, Gouveia took the time to study the older woman. Even though Dill had a petite frame there was strength underneath her pale skin. Her dirty blonde hair was set in a French twist, and laugh lines around her mouth. Her stormy blue eyes held a guarded look with every glance.

Dill interrupted Gouveia's musings, "Where you from JG?" Gouveia looked up to the LT as Dill came up to test the flight suit straps Gouveia was busy trying to fix.

"I don't really know how to answer that question." Gouveia paused fiddling with the squad patch velcroed to the front right pocket as she thought for a second, "Most recently I come from a small town of Big Sky, MT."

"Montana, huh?" The smile Dill had on gave Gouveia a shudder of uncertainty looking up as she grabbed her boots. "Are you ready for the big city for a couple weeks?"

Gouveia's smile was less than enthusiastic, "I've been in a few big cities. And I find that they don't really suit me." Finishing putting on the boots, Gouveia stood up, "So the command allows all the new officers coming into the unit to have a ride of a lifetime?"

"Only the very bright and promising upstarts." Dill winked, "Come on."

The two naval officers were walking across the flightline to the F-18 after the briefing with the Plane Captain and the two crew members ready for the first flight of the day.

Dill went to the aircraft and started to do the preflight walkaround, "Have you ever been up in a F-18?" She looked over to the younger officer.

"No. I haven't ma'am." Gouveia put her shoulders back and stood a little straighter. "The biggest I have ever been and the tightest G's I ever felt was on Big Al during a Blue Angels air show four years ago ma'am."

"Out on the flight line, call me Dill." Completing the check, Dill climbed up the ladder calling down to Gouveia, "And I'll call you Gouveia."

Alaine got close to the ladder, but dare not touch anything until told, "Very well ma'..Dill."

"Well get ready for some real tight turns and a great view." When Dill was set and about to buckle in the cockpit she looked down at Gouveia, "Well, what are you waiting for? Climb up here so we can get off the ground."

"Aye. Aye. Ma' - Dill." She jump on the ladder and settled in to the co-pilot seat behind Dill.

The Plane Captain came up to assist Gouveia, "My name is AM2 Carl and will be giving you a short explanation of things in this cockpit which will save your life, LT..."

"Gouveia"

"Gou-veia, hum, is it French?"

"Portuguese."

"Cool. Well on with the tour. I see you figured out the seat restraints. This lever here is the ejection release. Do not pull this unless it is absolutely the last option."

"Last Option. Got it."

"Here and here are also do not touch zones," Carl pointed to the dash and the various buttons, "Or anywhere on the portside of the cockpit."

"Is there anything I can touch?" Gouveia muttered.

Carl pretended not to hear, "You got all that Gouveia?"

"Yes." Gouveia answered breathlessly, "Yes. I got it." 'I think.'

Carl gave an encouraging smile, "You'll be alright, Gouveia. There is no one better than old battleax Dill. She hasn't had one crash or even a near-miss in her whole career." He leaned in closer with a mischievous grin on his handsome young face, "And it's a loong career."

"I Heard That AM2." The disapproving voice of the LT came from the front, causing Carl to almost fall off the aircraft. Dill continued, "Now if you would be so kind as to GET OFF my plane, the JG and I will be on our way."

Carl smiled, "As you wish." And with a half wave, half salute Carl was off the aircraft and heading to his position at the nose of the aircraft to start signaling the engine fire up.

While the first engine was warming, Dill made conversation, "Carl's a good sailor. Though if he keeps toeing the line like he has been, he'll be in a world of hurt."

Gouveia could hear the smile in Dill's voice, "How long have you two known each other?"

"I've known AM2 his whole life," Dill maliciously said over the second engine firing up, "Breath a word about this, you won't see the end of the day." Gouveia knew she had overstepped some line between LT Dill and AM2 Carl. Carl gave the thumbs up to let Dill know the engines were good to go.

"Hold on." Dill told Gouveia. Carl started signaling for the aircraft to start moving forward. There was a small jolt as the F-18 rolled to the flightline, Carl gave a last salute and Dill maneuvered the plane without any further guidance from VR-85.

The initial take off pushed Gouveia's spine to the back of the ejection seat. As they neared the end of the runway, Dill positioned the aircraft to fly straight up into the air, the G-suit the only thing keeping Gouveia conscious. The day was bright and sunny, perfect for a leisure flight. Too bad for Gouveia, Dill didn't think of leisure in flight. Once they hit 10,000 feet, Dill went straight into a vertical figure 8. Turning into a dive of 5,000ft and rolling the aircraft so the cockpit was facing the ground, going into a vertical turn of 7G force pull. The cockpit was once more facing the sky, going into another vertical turn of a 6G force to have Gouveia facing the ground. Throughout this whole ordeal, Gouveia was concentrating on not losing her cookies and enjoy the best thrill ride of her life. Dill took the aircraft into a few loopy-d-loops and a corkscrew. All of this took about 30 minutes, a little more than halfway through the flight.

"How are you liking your first ride in a F-18 Gouveia?"

"It's amaz…" the aircraft jerked to the left, "What was that?!" Gouveia yelled.

Dill tried to pass it off, "Oh, uh, just a little turbulence." As she was frantically trying to find out what happened. There was a sound of shorn metal.

"With all due respect Dill, that was not a little turb...Ahhh!" This time the shaking did not stop and was getting progressively worse.

"I'm going to eject us as soon as we hit 18,000ft. We should have a nice long float down to the water. Are you ready?" Dill yelled to Gouveia as the starboard wing of the aircraft was shorn off. Casting the aircraft into a spin. Gouveia barely remembered what Carl said about ejecting from the aircraft, though he did not go into much detail as no one was expecting the aircraft to fall from the sky on a friendly mission. The aircraft was falling at an exponential rate. The port wing ripped away. The plane started to spin faster. "Get ready!"

The voice of Dill got Gouveia out of her shock of the situation. "Ready as I'll…"

Dill pulled the ejection cord.

The shoulder harness tightened. Taking the sailors' breath away. The pilot's seat ejected first with the co-pilot seat after in less than a second later, Gouveia went from in the cockpit, to flying above it. The leg restraints were tightened. The droge shoot jerked, pulling the seat away from the dropping aircraft and Dill. The seat discontented, plummeting, disappearing below. Hearing the parachute rustle, feeling the seat survival kit around her waist, Gouveia looked around, trying to locate Dill. Not seeing either the officer or the plane, land was the next thing to look for and make a plan about where to land. There wasn't much to call land. Being 15,000ft in the air gave a pretty good indication of what was around. Not a land mass in view. 'So much for landing.' Gouveia thought, 'Maybe when I get closer I will be able to see an island or something.' After floating in the air for what seemed like 30 minutes, she saw a little speck of land to her left. Too late to maneuver enough to land and being too far from the island; too close to the water. She deployed the survival kit, the life raft inflated when it hit the water. 'Thank goodness Mom made us swim as kids.' The water was coming up fast. Placing her feet together, she went hard into the water. The SEAWARS detached the parachute within two seconds of hitting the water. 'At least I know that it's salt water.' The flight suit was instantly soaked through, making her way to the life raft all the more difficult, 'Alright, here I am in the middle of nowhere, with no food, no other clothes, and no way to stay warm on the ocean.' Gouveia found getting into the raft was a huge task unto itself. After dragging herself from the water, Gouveia laid down, breathing hard. 'I'll just sleep for a few minutes.' Was the last conscious thought as she fell into a deep sleep.

Gouveia woke to a night sky. 'I didn't sleep that long.' Sitting up, she looked down at her watch, 1432. 'It should still be light out.' Her gaze turned back to the dark evening and the stars above, 'Even if we did somehow manage to get over to the middle of the Pacific Ocean, there should still be light. At least there is a full moon, but I can't even find the Big Dipper.' Before Gouveia could panic much more, the raft came to a sliding halt. 'Oh, I hope it's land and not a giant sea creature who wants me for dessert.' Tentatively Gouviea reached her hand into the water. After a few centimeters, there was sand. She pushed her hand down further to make sure it was not her overactive imagination. Gouveia got out of the raft and pulled it to shore. The raft was weighed down with water and survival gear, the bottom creating grooves in the sand. Gouveia shrugged the life preserver and G-suit off, flinging both into the raft. Placing the compass, knife, and line in a separate pile from the raft, she took stock kneeling down next to the raft, making a map of what she remembered of the shore in the sand. 'I can't find a good defensible position until there is more light. And who knows when that will be.' Standing, placed the knife in her left leg pocket, the line in the right, and compass in hand. 'But I can start looking around as long as can to find if there is some fuel to burn.' The night was becoming cooler, as her skin and clothes which had yet to dry. 'I'll start off in a NE direction going inland.' Taking a breath, she started walking.