'Hey, save me a seat!'

'Where can I store my carry-on?'

'Will we have connectivity while we're on route to our personal devices?'

Joanna grinned foolishly at the jostling conversations around them as she Naya and Kovac boarded the shuttle, found their assigned seats. They'd been issued their spots grouped by schools so they wouldn't be surrounded by strangers on the ride out, it seemed, which made Joanna internally sigh in relief. She had yet to overhear any other female student say they were in the Engineering program like her, and she'd only seen another two year-threes out of the twenty-odd students on the shuttle.

'Man, this is going to be so cool.' Joanna smiled, held up her comm-link. 'Think my dad will have a panic attack if I sit by the window and grab a vid or snap of take-off?'

'To what end?' Kovac inquired, fastening his safety belt and saying a mental prayer for a safe journey. 'Is it human custom to frighten a parent upon reunion after extended time apart?'

'No, Kovac, but Joanna thinks she's cute by teasing her dad about his fear of flying,' Naya explained, which only made the line of confusion between Kovac's eyebrows deepen.

'How exactly does Doctor McCoy enjoy serving in Star Fleet if the very concept of not being on solid ground causes him distress?'

'Dad says the ship is big enough that it's easy to think of it being like a small city-sized hotel.'

'Hey, think we'll get to use the holo-deck? I've heard that it's so realistic you can even order food and stuff.'

'It is, Dad says it's like the crew's hangout off shift spot.'

'Ooo, like Central Perk in that old screen show?'

'Yeah, I guess?' Joanna replied in a questioning tone, wondering what was a Central Perk. 'I've never seen How I Met Your Mother.'

'Pfft.' Naya pretended to spit like she'd got a mouthful of sour mustard. 'Central Perk is the coffee shop on Friends. Different screen-show and far superior.'

'I must respectfully disagree with your statement, Naya,' Kovac declared, 'as my host family have screened both series for me to familiarize myself with Terran classics and I have come to the conclusion that the hero journey of Ted Mosby is the vastly more compelling.'

'How far into the series are you?' Naya inquired.

'I will begin the ninth anthology upon returning after our program concludes.'

'Come and talk to me once you're watched the final chapter of the ninth series, then we'll talk.'

Joanna tuned out the playful banter, instead looking out the window and trying to glance up, wondering how long it would take them to get to the Enterprise. She wasn't just itching to get to try out all the toys in Engineering, or show off to Mister Scott what she'd done for the tech-expo; she couldn't wait to see her dad and Christine. Vid-chats filled the gap in the day to day void but nothing replaced a hug, smelling that dad-smell of him and the fresh-lemon tang she'd come to associate with Christine. She'd never admit it out loud but a week after the last time they'd been home - just in time for her birthday in mid-August — Joanna had gone to her favourite bakery on her walk home from school, bought half a dozen lemon coconut bars and cried herself dry before digging in to the whole box for her dinner when her grandparents had been out with friends for the night.

Part of her wondered if she would look like a spoiled little princess or a needy insecure child if he was there to greet her when they were done doing their check-in procedures and she raced into his arms. Another part of her felt guilty she'd be relieved that Bones wouldn't be there, but on shift and he'd send Christine in his place which would also be exciting because there was something about Christine's energy that made Joanna feel safe and welcome. She really was a perfect fit for her dad - Joanna had never seen Bones so lighthearted as he'd been since he'd been with Christine - and it was always an adventure with her. Christine had a way of making ordinary mundane tasks fun, like the time they'd gone just the two of them to a screen-show at the cinemas and Christine had taken her to Snack Barn where they'd had to decide on one salty and one sweet treat each. What fun munchies are the appropriate accompaniment to watching the cartoon adventures of Japanese inter-dimensional she-roes?

Movie night was a must while she was on board, Joanna decided, and an ice cream night too; maybe they could make it a Women in Star Fleet Q&A night. Christine would definitely go for something like that, she was a woman of science herself.

There was a vibration from beneath the floor, making everyone let out a little gasp; Joanna felt Naya's fingernails dig in deep through the sleeve of her jacket. 'Here we go!'

Liftoff was so smooth that Joanna had barely any time to get her comm-link out of her jacket pocket and up to the window before the view outside went a hazy smoke-white and then total blackness. It made her think of one of the lines that Kirk had said Bones had said to him upon their first meeting - space is disease and danger wrapped in darkness and silence. It made her laugh nervously now, as she suddenly had renewed appreciation for why her father was such a ninny about space travel.

'Attention students, this is your pilot speaking,' a buttery-smooth voice intoned over the shuttle's intercom system that made Joanna squint in concentration, 'welcome to Air Enterprise. We shall be docking at our destination in approximately eight minutes time. Please refrain from consumption of liquids or nutrition inside the shuttle or you will find yourself on Maintenance detail in the near future. Should you feel the need please avail yourselves of the motion-illness sacks located in the seat-back sleeves in front of you. Thank you for flying Air Enterprise and enjoy your trip.'

Joanna snickered half to herself; she recognized the voice now and muttered, 'man we're getting five star treatment today, friends.'

'What's that?' Naya, not as familiar with off-planet travel as Joanna, felt her stomach try to rise several atmosphere levels out of place and was glad for a distraction.

'I'm pretty sure that our shuttle pilot is Mister Sulu, who is also the chief pilot of the whole dang starship.'

'Perhaps it is to ensure that we arrived in one piece, as the Earth maxim goes,' Kovac suggested, 'they want to entrust our care to only the best.'

'Especially considering that one of those passengers is the only child of the senior officers on board,' Naya added.

Only child so far, Joanna thought with a little grin; she was hoping that she'd be able to work that line into conversation with her father, Christine or both if she could time it right. It would probably bug them to no end but that was her role as the teenage daughter, to bug and poke and tease.

'Or maybe he needed to get out of the office so to say,' she offered instead, 'Dad said the poor guy had an appendectomy about a month and a half ago, so maybe he is doing this as a way to get back on his feet?'

'I don't think it takes that long to heal from such a routine surgery.' Naya pretended to sneer at her friend. 'Thought you were a scientist.'

'Dang it, I'm an engineer not a doctor,' Joanna retorted, aping her father's classic protestation about what he was or wasn't.

The two girls dissolved into giggles, rolled their eyes at the comment of an older boy muttering under his breath about air-heads wasting their time on a starship. 'Wait until he gets a load of the female officers on board if that's his attitude,' Naya hissed, which made Joanna snort derisively.

'Can you imagine someone telling Uhura or Doctor Marcus or Christine they shouldn't be serving in Star Fleet on the Enterprise?'

'They'd be lucky to finish the sentence out loud before getting their asses handed to them.'

'Don't swear.'

'Jo, your nana is nowhere near us.'

Joanna made a silly face, then glanced out the window, batted at Naya's arm. 'Hey, hey look, there it is!'

They craned their necks and saw out the window the great ship moored in what Bones had told Joanna the Starfleet engineers called the garage. The dish was dotted with windows here and there that were lit up, as was what she thought of as the 'stem' where many of the various operational stations and levels existed. A ripple of impressed noise passed through the student group, followed by the pilot's sardonic tour-guide voice came on the speakers once more.

'We are currently waiting for docking clearance, while doing so feel free to take pictures for sending home to your families.'

Joanna, Naya and Kovac traded their comm-links around so they could take various selfies and portraits, uploading them into the shared folder they used for their photos, vids and holo-shots of their exploits in the robotics club. They were so wrapped up in the conversation they didn't notice the shift of the shuttle into its docking port until the gentle background hum of electricity vanished and the interior of the shuttle went very quiet.

'Please ensure you have gathered your belongings and exit the shuttle in an orderly fashion. Welcome to the starship Enterprise.'