Chapter Two

Six months later…

James walked onto the flight deck of the Majestic, the home ship for his fighter squadron: The Black Knights. Two crewmen stopped what they were doing as soon as he stepped through the double doors. I hadn't stepped foot on this deck since the day Amanda died in my arms.

"Carry on" I said.

"Aye, Major." They said; glad to see a familiar face again.

I looked around the cavernous space and saw his fighter being worked on by a mechanic. I walked over and waited for him to finish the spot weld.

"How's she doing?" I asked

"Major! When did you get back? I thought you were on leave." The crewman asked, obviously glad to see me.

"Technically I still am. I thought I would come back and see how everybody was. I was going to go and request the admiral that I'd be returned to duty later on."

"Admiral on deck!" someone announced.

"Looks like he's found me." I said in a lowered tone.

"What are you doing here James? You are still on leave." Admiral Robert Matthews said in a casual tone.

"Yeah, about that…" I said getting cut off in mid sentence.

"We'll deal with that later, now, I need to have a word with you in private, your office?"

I pointed to the squad briefing room and what passed for an office. Once inside the tiny room, which consisted of a small desk, a bookshelf and a small couch in the corner, Robert helped himself and walked over to the replicator.

"Two beers, bottled." He requested

"Sir? Aren't you on duty?" I asked, surprised at his choice in beverage, and grabbed the bottle that he was handing me.

"Being an Admiral has its perks, I get to set my own schedule, and besides, the ships still in dry-dock." He said with a wry smile on his face.

"Congratulations by the way, you're like what?" I said taking a drink of my beer. "The 5th youngest admiral in Starfleet?"

"4th, now, let's get to the point. You have no idea how many people have been knocking down my door looking to get their hands on you. You've turned down a lot of promotion offers. It's causing me a lot of headaches."

"Yeah, I know. I have my reasons." I said in response.

"Some of these posts are dream jobs," Robert said, producing a padd out of nowhere. "Teaching at the academy is a great honour, not many officers get to do that. And what about this one, a Captain Renolds is offering you first officer…" Robert said with that same wry smile on his face.

"That one's new. Lemme see that." I said taking the padd from his hand. The name Renolds rang a bell.

"What is it?" Robert asked.

"Remember the retreat from Chintocka?"

"How could I forget? That was a dark day. We lost a lot of good people. Your entire squadron was awarded the Silver Star if I remember correctly."

"Yeah, but we got that medal because we protected the USS Liberty. Captain Renolds was the first officer on that ship. We met briefly on Deep Space Nine afterwards."

"Really?" Robert said raising one eyebrow, which freaked James out a bit, because it made him look like a Vulcan when he did it. "You should take it."

"Sir, Is that an order?" I asked honestly.

"It can if you want it too; and you turning down these offers cause me a lot of paper work. And you know how much I hate paper work."

"You didn't have to accept the promotion." I said with a cocky smile on my face.

"Shut up, and that IS an order."

I sat there, giving the idea some serious thought. The move would be good for my career, and it would be a welcome change of pace. The idea of transferring to command had crossed my mind on several occasions. I took a long swig of my beer. "Alright, I'll take it." I said making up my mind.

"Good, because I thought I would have to order you. I've already accepted the offer on your behalf."

"You what!" I exclaimed, almost spitting out my beer. Robert just laughed.

"I told you, I hate paper work. Now, I know you're still on leave, and you're about to have it extended."

"Why's that?" I inquired.

"You are to ship out to your new posting on the USS Divination at the end of the week. Right now, the Divination is currently in the Risa system on shore leave, something about the crew needing it, but oddly enough it's also the Captain's wedding anniversary, go figure. Personally, I think he pulled some strings with the brass for that. Anyways, when you arrive, they're still going to be on leave. Have you ever been to Risa?"

"Twice, take a look at the photo on my desk." I said as Robert picked up the photo.

"I know that's you, Amanda and Matthew, but who's the other woman with Matthew?"

"That would be Amanda's sister, Erin. She was Matthew's fiancée. They were going to get married after the war. She's six months pregnant."

"That's wonderful news. Well, I got to get going; wife's going to have my head if I'm not back soon for dinner. I'll talk to you later." Robert said, walking out of the office at a brisk pace.

"Guess he wasn't kidding about his wife." I said, chuckling to myself. I leaned back in my chair and let out a breath of air. "Well, guess I got some studying to do. Computer, call up information of a ship for me, The USS Divination."

"Working, the Divination is an Akira-class vessel, Commanded by Captain Jonathan Renolds…"