Chapter 05

"Are you sure this is what you want?" Angel asked.

"No." Buffy answered, her heart breaking, "But it's for the best."

She turned her back, her break up with Angel complete, and walked away. She knew now, after watching the holo-drama all the way through, that if they stayed together, he'd loose his soul, causing Angelus to re-emerge, and she could never let that happen.

Angel watched Buffy walk away, unsure of what to do. She turned the corner, then there was a high pitched whine. He ignored that, and decided to go after her, to make her change her mind, but when he turned the corner, she was gone.

Buffy stepped off the transporter pad, and headed for her quarters, she needed ice cream, and to mope for a while. After that, maybe a fight with a holographic Klingon to get her frustrations out.

The next day, Xander stood on the island that was the future site of Starfleet Academy, having just disembarked from the small boat that brought him from the marina. The construction on the Academy building was coming along nicely, and they already had a list of students to recruit, but there was one that stood out to Xander. The next slayer, which would hopefully not ever become one, as he planned to keep Kendra from dying, Faith Lehane. Mrs. Summers was beaming to Boston tomorrow to find her, and bring her back to Sunnydale. Data was currently digging up information on her, like her school, and living arrangement. According to what he'd found so far it wasn't looking good. Her parents were killed when she was young, and she had bounced through the foster system for years, in and out of homes.

Xander pushed the thoughts of the rogue slayer aside for now, and approached the construction crew, who were hard at work pouring the cement walls. It would have been faster to fabricate the materials for the building using the industrial replicators on board the ship, but there weren't enough crew members yet to dedicate time to the construction.

The thing was, that even after the building was completed, there was more work to be done, they needed to bring it up to twenty-fifth century technology. The plans involved having the building fully holographically enabled, so the students could be taught by holograms, until they could get trained teachers.

He spoke to the head architect, before taking a tour of the building. It was coming along nicely. Unfortunately, he was unfocused. His mind wandered to Willow, who'd had a bad reaction to the holo-drama series they had watched. She was shocked by the idea that she could be gay, but even more shocked, almost to the point of physical illness by the idea that she could go evil, and she had sworn off magic altogether. She and Oz had spent the last few days in the holodeck, being trained by a holographic Geordi Laforge on the advanced technologies of the Phoenix.

They weren't the only ones, as Joyce Summers was spending most of her time training on the advanced medical technologies, that come from the twenty-fifth century.

The one place his mind wouldn't go was to what happened to Warren Mears. It had been three months since the accident that took the boy's life, and Xander was finally starting to deal with the fact that he'd killed a human being. Buffy had been a great help: she'd been there for him and supported him, while he dealt with the guilt. Willow, Oz, and the others were sympathetic, but it was Buffy who really went above and beyond.

It turned out that Warren Mears was an orphan, who lived in a state sponsored home, so there really was no one to mourn him, aside from Xander himself.

"Are you alright, Mister Harris?" The architect asked.

Xander looked up, startled out of his thoughts. "Yes, yes I'm fine. Thank you for the tour."

He left soon after, returning to the boat, which he took back to the marina. Once there, he found an empty alley, and called for beam out.

"You ready, Commander?" Xander asked, the next day.

"Ready when you are, Captain." Joyce Summers answered.

Xander was often her protection outside of Sunnydale. He was equipped with holy water, and two type-1 phasers. Joyce was in a nice pant suit and carrying a briefcase, while Xander was wearing a suit of his own.

Xander looked to the holographic crewman working the transporter console. "Energize."

They re-materialized in an alley across the street from a run-down looking house. As they crossed the street and got closer, it looked even worse, with missing shutters, and numbers that appeared to have fallen off the address sign ages ago.

"It doesn't look like the most pleasant of places." Joyce commented.

"All the more reason to get her out of here." Xander replied.

Joyce knocked on the door, and they heard shouting before the door was opened by an overweight woman with a bit of a mustache.

"Yeah?" She asked, rudely.

Joyce plastered on a fake smile. "Hello, I'm Joyce Summers. I'm here looking for Faith Lehane."

"Whatcha' want her fer?" The woman asked through a thick Boston accent.

"We're here to change her life." Joyce answered.

"Yeah?" It was obvious they weren't going to see Faith without explaining to this woman.

"We're here on behalf of the Enterprise Space Aeronautics Academy."

"We can't afford no fancy school."

"Madam, this is an opportunity for Faith." Joyce was getting frustrated, "Could we please see her?"

The woman led them to a dining room with mismatched chairs, before shouting, "Faith, get down here!" then leaving the room. Joyce and Xander sat down. A minute later, Faith entered, looking confused.

"Yeah?"

"As we told that other woman-"

"Who never introduced herself." Xander interrupted.

"We're here to change your life. We represent the Enterprise Space Aeronautics Academy."

Faith sighed, sitting across from them, then spoke. "I can't afford it."

"That's not a problem, everything is taken care of."

"Seriously?" Faith asked. "How?"

"Technology." Xander answered, grinning, and just confusing Faith more.

"Faith, this is your chance for a better life, away from run down foster homes, and schools with metal detectors. What do you think?"

"When something seems too good to be true," She said, "It usually is."

"I understand why you'd feel that way, but if you are going to attend the ESAA, you're going to have to learn to trust your classmates. Usually, there is an entry exam, but you are receiving a special exemption. There's just some legal paperwork to go over with you, and then we can gather your belongings and get out of here."

Faith mumbled something that sounded like 'what have I got to loose' before agreeing. Joyce picked up her brief case, which she had earlier set by her chair, and placed it on the table. She opened it, and removed a folder, filled with paperwork.

She set the folder in front of Faith. "This is a very specialized non-disclosure agreement. We take our privacy very seriously."

Faith took her time reading the paperwork. Xander didn't know if she understood it all, but they had worked to make it as non 'legalese' as possible.

"Seriously?" Faith asked at one point, "I give you permission to erase my memory if I choose not to attend your school?"

"Yes," Joyce said, "Erasing memory engrams is surprisingly not as difficult as you'd expect."

Faith looked amazed.

"We're the most technologically advance academy in the world."

Faith just nodded at that, before continuing to read. Finally she looked up. "Fine, where do I sign?"

Joyce led her through all the locations that she needed to sign and initial. After she was done, Joyce put the paperwork in her briefcase, and Faith went upstairs to pack her belongings. She came down with two small bags. It seemed she didn't have that many items. Joyce and Xander led her outside, and across the street.

"So where's this school?" Faith asked.

"California." Joyce answered. "Unfortunately, the building is still under construction, so we set up other arrangements for you."

"So we flying?"

"In a manner of speaking." Xander said, pulling out his com-badge. He pressed down on it, and it beeped. "Phoenix, three to beam up."

Faith laughed, "Beam up? What are you talk-"

She was cut off as she vanished in a stream of sparkling motes.

"What?! What the hell was that?" Faith demanded after reappearing on the teleport pad.

"That was the transporter." Xander answered. "If you come with us, all your questions will be answered." He led as Faith and Joyce followed him to the hypertrain, which took them to the nose of the ship. After exiting, the doors to The Hub opened, and Xander led Faith to the windows, where they could see the Earth far below. "Did you by chance wonder why the school is called the Enterprise academy? The Enterprise is our inspiration. Welcome to the the Starship Phoenix."

"But... but..." She pointed out the window. "That's the Earth."

"Yes it is. We're basking in the Earth light. And after completing the four year training program at the ESAA Academy, you'll be qualified to live and work on board the ship."

"This... this is a real space ship?" She asked.

"I prefer the term Star ship."

Faith's eyes rolled back into her head, and she collapsed, Xander leaping forward to catch her. "Huh. After what we saw on the holodeck I'd have thought she was tougher."

Joyce moved forward quickly, her Starfleet medical training taking over, she checked over the girl. She opened her briefcase, removing a medical tricorder, which she used to scan Faith.

"She'll be fine, she's just in shock." Joyce observed, "I'll wake her up, and get her something to drink."

Before she could move, Faith groaned, and her eyes fluttered opened. "I had the oddest dream."

She looked around then her eyes opened wide. "Okay, not a dream."

She climbed back to her feet, and moved closer to the window, looking out into space. "Oh my god, this is real."

"Yup, one hundred percent." Xander answered. "Come on, we'll show you to your quarters, and then take you on a tour."

They returned to the hypertrain, and headed to the rear of the ship.

"The ship has fifty-seven decks." Xander explained.

After exiting the train, Faith spoke for the first time, since seeing the windows.

"Why is the ship so empty?"

"You noticed that, huh?" Xander asked. "We only have about twenty crewmen right now. This ship is mostly run by holograms. That's why we started a school, to train more people to work on board."

"Ensign Levinson to Captain Harris." Came the voice from his com-badge.

"Excuse me, I need to take this." Xander said, "Joyce, can you take her on the tour, please?"

"Of course, Captain."

"He's the Captain?" Xander heard Faith asking, as he walked away. He tapped his com-badge.

"Go ahead Ensign."

"I have a transporter lock, sir." Johnathan said.

"Good, I'll be right there." Xander took the turbolift to deck three, then walked to transporter room one, where Ensign Levinson was working on a special project for him.

"Brief me." Xander said, upon entering the transporter room.

"I have a transporter lock, and a clear image on the scanners. The Mayor of Sunnydale is alone in his office."

"Good, beam him into the pattern buffers, and let his signal degrade."

"Are you sure, sir?" Johnathan asked.

"Yes, Ensign, he's an evil mage, planning to ascend to a greater demon. This is our chance to stop him painlessly."

"Aye sir, transporting." He ran his fingers up the activation bar. The console lit up, and the transporter hummed. They waited for a moment, then the console beeped. Johnathan's fingers flew across the buttons. "Sir, the console won't let me leave him in the pattern buffers without your override. It's going to attempt to re-materialize him here."

Xander moved Johnathan aside, and entered his override code onto the console, allowing the mayor's pattern to begin to degrade.

Xander took a breath, before speaking. "Purge the buffers."

Johnathan stared at Xander for a moment, before nodding. "Aye sir."

His fingers flew across the buttons, and then the console chirped. "Buffers purged. He's dead."

"Good. Damn fine job, Ensign."