Author's Note:

WOW! Here I am again, so soon! Several things to thank for that: Ranger-Nova, a new fan whose review encouraged me to do more; getting into Star Trek; and needing a break from online college. What was really getting to me on Chapter 10 was whether to go into Erin's first summer in the 31st century like I did with the old version, Watermark, or to skip it completely and go straight to Milky Way Academy. You'll see in a minute which spacelane I chose. Enjoy!

To my reviewers:

Historian1912: Okay, no moaning, mister—you know, you never did say in your review what you actually thought of Chapter 9. *expectant look* Anyway, I still can't promise anything approaching regular updates, but I'll try to give you chapters more often than once in a blue moon. ;D

Kgirl1: Thank you very much! I have to admit that I don't read many OC stories myself, but such fics do tend to be poorer quality. I hope to raise the bar with my own fic and show people just how good OC!fic can get. Buzz/Mira fan? High-five!

Ranger-Nova: Like I said, you were part of my inspiration to continue, so thank you for that! Your review was flattering and very encouraging! I must admit, I'm relieved and encouraged by what you said about Zurg, and, like you, I'm willing to accept pretty much any "version" of his character as long as it's well-written. Now, I have had problems in the past with trying to capture his unique blend of lethalness and campiness, but I'm working on it. When I gather enough confidence to try to write a canonical-sounding Zurg, he'll reappear in Breakaway (I don't consider Chapter 8 as counting). I'd like to continue and finish Penumbra someday, if I can work out a good, cohesive plot for it—I'm glad you enjoyed it! God bless!

Disclaimer: BLoSC is the property of Disney. Star Trek is the property of Paramount. Sherlock Holmes, thank goodness, resides in the public domain and thus belongs to the world. Erin Frame, Ricki Sunflare, Ice Ellemore, and Windy Terrik are © Aleine Skyfire 2010. All rights reserved.

==Chapter 10==

The Next Generation

"I look around at the new cadets now and can't help thinking... has it really been so long? Wasn't it only yesterday we stepped onto the Enterprise as boys? That I had to prove to the crew I deserved command... and their respect?"

—James T. Kirk

It was the best of summers; it was the worst of summers.

For Erin, it was both. For Mira, it was the latter. For Buzz, well… one would rarely ever be able to tell how life was affecting him or not affecting him. For all his many and varied emotional displays, he seemed never to change.

Captain Lightyear put his new sister through a grueling training regime. Erin's legs and back had never been strong, and the increase in height after her spinal surgery required further strengthening. There were times when she was ready to swear, ready to shout at Buzz, ready to quit. She would say, "What am I doing here? I'm not a hero—I'm an artist. So why am I doing this to myself?"

Buzz's answer was always the same. "Because this is where your heart is." He found himself having to "be there" a lot for both his sister and his copilot.

Mira went through a lot that summer, not the least of which was being forced into marriage and then rescued from it. There was also sunburn on Mahambas VI and the Matter Transport Ray. Her teammates were seeing a slightly quieter, slightly more serious Ranger Nova by fall.

Milky Way Academy was magnificent, shining in the morning sun as if it was composed entirely of steel and glass. As Buzz drove nearer, Erin found that that impression was not far from the truth. "Wow," she breathed.

"Impressive, isn't it?"

"Impressive, mi hermano, does not go far enough."

Buzz chuckled as he pulled into the parking lot. "This place is probably more what you'd expect from the future, considering that your time period was the golden age of science fiction."

"Yeah… Yeah, this is, and it was." Those little twinges that accompanied thoughts about her own time were less frequent and less painful, but they still hurt. "It's sad. Science fiction is such a different genre nowadays, all alternate history and space opera and stories that are as much fantasy as they are sci-fi."

Buzz did not immediately reply. Instead, he got out of the car and walked around to the passenger side, opening the door. "After you, señorita."

"Muchas gracias."

"Are you nervous?"

"You couldn't tell?"

"I think you're succeeding in that impassivity thing."

"Oh, good. Would you be happy to know that my heart's in my throat and my knees are weak?"

"Nope. Buck up, kiddo, 'cause a lot's going to be happening to you in the next couple of years."

"That sounded sufficiently ominous."

Buzz rubbed his neck. "Yeeeah."

Erin had long since been registered to start training in the Academy in the new school year. Buzz's presence today was twofold—get her to the place since she didn't have a car yet, and act as moral support. "Just relax, will you? I trained you well; you'll do just fine."

She stopped, and he halted to face her. "I'm going to miss you," she said quietly.

"You're… not going to get mushy on me… are you?"

Erin meant to laugh, but the sound came out more as a hitched sob. "Tryin' not to, sorry."

Buzz wrapped his arm around her—far more comfortable with the gesture by now—and squeezed her gently. "You'll get leave every now and then, not to mention the occasional visit from Star Command's Finest to give lectures to the cadets."

Erin grinned past the tears forming in her eyes. "Ooo, something to look forward to."

"Don't get snarky on me, either, kid."

"Yessir."

The first day at Milky Way was very basic. The first-year cadets each received a bodysuit, a training uniform, and a dress uniform. They were assigned to four-person dorms. They were given a crash course on navigating the campus, followed by an hour-long description of what their classes entailed. The day was wrapped up by a brief pep talk by Commander Nebula and Captain Lightyear.

When the cadets were dismissed, it was only three o'clock in the afternoon.

Erin felt lost in a sea of people her age that included many different races. Her initial impression of Star Command's Rangers had been that they were a fairly small body, certainly no larger than a thousand beings. She didn't know how many beings joined the Academy each year, but the number of cadets this year was surely out of the ordinary. There had to be at least a hundred young adults here in their first year, not to mention the fifty or so that were in their second. That was over ten percent of Star Command's existing force!

She was still taking in her surroundings with undisguised awe when a voice called her name. "Erin Frame?"

She whirled around to see an alien girl—Derriyan, she thought, if that was the race with the big eyes and the large, pointed ears—approaching her. The girl's skin was a lovely mint green, her hair was a near-black teal, and her large eyes were violet. Everything about her radiated purposefulness, intelligence, and charm.

Then Erin recognized her from the roster. "Rikaena Sunflare?"

"Guilty as charged," the other girl smiled, reaching Erin and shaking her hand. "Is this exciting or what?"

"Oh, sure. So exciting that I might have a heart-attack from the stress," Erin said dryly, grinning. "So, I guess we're dorm-mates."

"Guess so! Shall we go check out our dorm?"

"Absolutely."

As they walked towards the residential area, they found themselves joined by other cadets. "So," said Rikaena, "how did you decide to join Star Command?"

"Mostly 'cause of my brother, I guess," Erin shrugged. "Well, adoptive brother."

"Oh? One of the Rangers?"

"Oh, no," Erin moaned. "I didn't say that. Rikaena, you did not hear me say that!"

"Okay, okay, relax, relax. And, hey, call me Ricki—I hate my real name." The Derriyan grinned, and Erin had to grin back.

Potential disaster narrowly averted. And… she liked this girl already. A lot. "All rightie, then, Ricki."

XXX

"I'm an astrophysicist," Ricki explained as they walked. "At least, that was what I got my Masters degree in."

Erin's jaw dropped. "You have a Masters? How old are you?"

"Nineteen."

Erin's eyebrows hit her hairline. "Holy cow, I'm talking to a prodigy! And you want to be a Space Ranger… why?"

Ricki laughed and blushed, her skin turning a darker green. "I wanted to be a Space Ranger long before I entered college—"

"Which was when?" Erin interrupted.

"Ah, five years ago."

"Holy cow."

Ricki laughed self-consciously again. "Someday, I'll pick those studies back up and get my doctorate, but I really want to be a Space Ranger in the meantime. I want to be one of the best and earn a promotion to Star Command Detective. That's a pretty rare title, you know, but I know I can do it. I want to be like Sherlock Holmes, only actually in the official police force."

Erin's head was swimming with surprise after surprise. "You're a Sherlockian?"

The alien girl's ears pricked up. "You are?"

"Yes!"

Ricki punched the air. "Hot rockets!"

Erin laughed. "It's just amazing how Sherlock Holmes has not only survived eleven centuries but also spread across the galaxy! Talk about enduring fame!"

"The truths he gave us, the truths Watson presented, are universal. They're just as applicable now in the thirty-first century galaxy-at-large as they were in nineteenth-century London."

Erin cocked her head in curiosity. "Actually, that reminds me of something."

"Mm?"

"The galaxy measures years—and time, for that matter—by an Earthling measurement rather than some measurement developed somewhere else. Why?"

Ricki stared at her. "Didn't you learn in—wait."

Erin froze. Ricki was a genius… and a Sherlockian. That question was probably the stupidest slip Erin had ever made.

"You use the phrase 'holy cow'; that's an old Earthling expression that died out sometime in the twenty-third century."

"Oh, Ricki, please not a Sherlock Scan."

"When you talked about Sherlock Holmes's survival just now, you sounded like you couldn't believe it, like it was new to you." The alien violet eyes bored into Erin's very human brown ones. "And you don't know why the galaxy-at-large uses the Earthling measurements for time and years."

Erin could scarcely breathe. "What does that tell you?"

Ricki took a step back. "My imagination has an explanation," she said slowly, "but I'm not sure my brain wants to listen."

"Maybe you should give your imagination a little credit," Erin murmured.

Ricki shook her head. "But it's so wild! I mean, time-travel…"

Erin said nothing, merely met Ricki's gaze with equal strength.

"Sweet mother of Venus."

"It's true, Ricki," Erin said quietly. "It's true, I swear—I even have proof, witnesses…"

"Okay, okay." Ricki held up a hand, breathing slightly quicker than normal. "Okay. Wow…"

"Yeah."

Ricki shook her head. "So… you're from—what, several centuries ago?—a time when mankind was closer to its roots, and you can't figure out the answer?"

Erin shook her head.

"Erin." Ricki managed a small smile. "This is the thirty-first century of Anno Domini. The Year of Our Lord. Our Lord, Erin, the same Adonai Who created not just The Earth, but the Secondary Earths as well. What other way could we measure time but by honoring the only birth of our Creator in fleshly form?"

The first week seemed to alternate between crawling at a snail's pace to flying out the window—Erin's words to Ricki later. Their other two dorm-mates were Isadore Ellemore, an honest-to-goodness Tangean Royal, and Windy Terrik, an American Southerner. Isadore, who insisted on being called by her nickname "Ice," was eighteen and had idolized Princess Mira all her life—her parents were none too happy that Ice was following in Mira's footsteps. At 5'5", Windy was the smallest of the four, but an absolute powerhouse. She intended to take extra classes to become one of the rare Rangers who could perform battle surgery, and no one doubted for a moment that she could handle both the stress of the extra classes and real-life operations.

"We could almost be the original crew of the Enterprise," Erin joked. It was Thursday night, and they were unwinding before lights out. "Windy'd make a perfect Bones, and Ricki could be Spock."

"The Enterprise?" Ice asked, confused.

"You mean you don't know the most famous ship in science fiction?" Windy demanded.

Ice shook her head. "My family is very strictly Tangean Isolationist—that means they avoid Off-Worlder stuff like the plague."

"Craters, girl, we're gonna have to sit you down for some serious sci-fi marathons," said Ricki. "Anyway, Erin, you never said who you and Ice would be."

"I couldn't come up with a match for Ice—I mean, you and Windy were pretty obvious, but…"

"Maybe it's too soon to tell. She could be a Sulu or a Chekhov or a Uhura—"

"If anybody were to be Uhura," Erin interjected, "it'd be you."

"I thought I was Spock."

"You can be both."

"Well, you'd definitely be a Kirk."

Erin blushed, and Ricki and Windy burst out laughing. "What's so funny?" Ice frowned, and the other two laughed even harder.

"Captain Kirk," Windy gasped out at last, wiping at her eyes. "He's kinda a larger-than-life hero. He's the kinda guy who gets himself and his friends into all these crazy situations and manages to get them back out again by brains or good ole kick—"

"His philosophy is basically to take life by the horns," Ricki overrode Windy, "and never say die. He doesn't believe in no-win scenarios."

"Sounds like Buzz Lightyear," was Ice's innocent comment.

That set Ricki and Windy off again. "Yeah, it does," Erin agreed, feeling her skin flush again. She glared at Ricki. "I can't believe that you think I could—"

Ricki sobered and met Erin's gaze evenly… and Erin was struck once more by the utter alien quality of her eyes. Shivering, she felt as if every nerve in her body had come alive. "Call it… your first, best destiny."

The two hundred cadets of the Universe Protection Program piled into the indoor Neil Armstrong Stadium on Friday afternoon. Standing before, rather than behind, the lectern in the center was Captain Lightyear, looking especially grave. Erin frowned as she took her seat with her dorm-mates, wondering if something terrible had happened.

"Your attention, please!" Buzz called out. Without the aid of a microphone, his voice still reached everyone in the cavernous room that could house one million beings and held only two hundred today. The murmuring and twittering of the crowd instantly died out. "Thank you.

"Cadets of Star Command, I have an important announcement to make. As of next week, your training will change drastically. You will keep some of the old, time-honored classes, but new ones are being added. Star Command is stepping up its training regime."

He paused, and appeared to be listening to someone in the audience. Erin couldn't hear the cadet. Buzz straightened and said, "What I am about to tell you, what you are about to engage in, must be kept an absolute secret for your own safety as much as anyone else's. So raise your right hand or corresponding appendage, and repeat after me: I (say your name)…"

A chorus of names rose.

"…do solemnly swear… to keep a secret… everything I am about to hear… for my own safety… for the safety of my classmates… and for the good of Star Command. All right, thank you."

Erin and Ricki exchanged wary glances.

Buzz sighed and clasped his hands together behind him. "Look, I really wish there was some other way we could do this without having to be secretive about it, but our hand has been forced. Some of you may be aware that Commander Nebula and I have petitioned to the Galactic Senate several times in the past to make a decisive military strike against the Evil Emperor Zurg. These proposals were always voted down. However…" Buzz's voice did not lower so much as it darkened, and he leaned forward, his sharp blue eyes flitting over the crowd as if to look each cadet in the eye.

Erin had never seen her brother like this before, had never known he had such speaking skills. A chill skittered down her spine.

"However, the galaxy has steadily progressed into a more dangerous place in the past few years. Zurg is stepping up his bid for galactic power, and he is not the only villain intensifying his efforts. The stage is being set for another galactic war, but the Senate will not allow a new interplanetary army to be formed.

"Commander Nebula and I have therefore decided… to create a small, covert military force out of our new influx of cadets."

The stadium came alive with nearly two hundred voices. Erin fell back against her seat, stunned.

Buzz let the commotion go for a minute, then held up his hand. "Quiet! Quiet. All right. It's a shock, I know. But we can't afford to continue to go about our daily lives as if nothing is happening, as if the galaxy isn't slowly falling apart. It is, and it'll be Star Command's responsibility to pick up the pieces."

Ricki stood and cupped her hands around her mouth. "Sir!" she shouted. "What would make us different from a tyrannical secret police or secret military force? Capital Planet's history is replete with examples of such things going wrong!"

"Very true, Cadet!" Buzz nodded, apparently impressed. "Our force will be based on the articles in the Alliance Constitution that provide for the formation and operation of an army. The only article that we will be subverting is Article 36, which states that an interplanetary military force must be approved by the Senate. The loophole here is that our little 'sleeper force,' if you will, exists within an already-approved paramilitary force, Star Command."

"Nice," Ricki murmured.

"I realize that over fifty cadets here are in their second year," Buzz continued. "Normally, you would be graduating next spring. This new program, however, means that you will be continuing your training for one more year to receive the full benefits that the first-years will."

The stadium was hushed, every being in the room hanging on Captain Lightyear's words.

"You cannot be a full army in your own right. For most races and ethnicities, you're too small even to be a regiment, let alone a corps! But you will be trained to be the best small, specialized force you can be. You will be trained as commandoes, and you will succeed."

The crowd burst out in applause. Standing and clapping with the rest of them, Erin and Ricki exchanged another glance—already, they were developing a chemistry to the point of being able to read each other. Ricki was as conflicted as Erin: excited, but concerned. They would monitor together the development of their little force, Erin knew. And the moment either saw something they knew was wrong, Erin would contact her brother. She was not opposed to a military force, but she was definitely concerned as to the legality of its formation and the ways in which it might be used in the future.

Buzz raised a salutary fist as his voice rose. "You are the future of Star Command! You will be our secret weapon against Zurg and his colleagues, our best defense against anyone who threaten our lives and our liberty! Citizens will look to us for safety, for preservation of our basic rights as sentient beings, and you will lead the way! God bless the Next Generation of Star Command!"

Author's Note:

After three years, we finally reach THE ACADEMY! I know, this chapter is very different from its predecessors—the only canonical character we see in-person is Buzz. We're also introduced to three more OCs, and we know there's about two hundred more with whom Erin will be interacting in the future.

From here, the story will be different. We've transitioned from Act I, the setup of the series, to Act II, where things really start happening. We'll be seeing a lot of Erin's dorm-mates, as well as the other cadets; and, on the other side of the law, I hope to show you a decent amount of Warp and Zomega, starting next chapter… and there will be a next chapter.

From now on, this is a different fic. This isn't just about the canonical characters anymore—this is about a new generation rising up to challenge the (albeit shifting) status quo. This is still about Erin and the impact that she makes as an extra person in Team Lightyear's orbit, but this is also about the impact she and her dorm/teammates make in their generation of cadets. ("The Next Generation" is a deliberate reference to Star Trek—while TNG may or may not have a marked influence on Breakaway, Star Trek itself does.)

The observant reader might recall that Erin was originally not going to be staying at the Academy and that she was only 5'3" after her surgery. Both items are hereby recalled and will be edited. Erin's new post-surgery height is 5'9", and all mention of Erin staying with Mira during the school year will be edited.

Until next time, God bless.

Please review.