Paint and Powder
A Star Trek anthology by Andrew Joshua Talon
DISCLAIMER: This is a non-profit fan based work of prose. Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager et al are the property of CBS Television, and creation of Gene Roddenberry. Please support the official release.
The Biannual Constitutional
Written by jhosmer1
Enterprise entered the Borderlands and began setting up. She was the designated host, so she got to set the theme of the evening. With a wave of her hand, the "space between ships" reconfigured to resembled Starbase 1 in the mid-23rd century. Her uniform also shifted, to that of a Captain in Starfleet of the same time, with gold top and black pants. The familiar arrowhead insignia with the Command Division symbol sat on her chest.
A round table with 13 chairs appeared. On each chair a different assignment patch appeared.
With a soft chime, the first guest appeared. Informed by the communications handshake of the theme, she appeared in a blue 23rd century uniform, with an assignment patch that looked like a series of loops and the Medical Division's red cross. She was much shorter than Enterprise, and had sandy-brown hair streaked with gray.
"Constellation!" Enterprise said, going over to hug her youngest sister.
"Enterprise!" she hugged back. Her smile was a little crooked, a little hesitant, but Enterprise did not let it bother her.
"I'm so glad you could make it," Enterprise continued.
"I wouldn't miss it, sister," Constellation said. "After all, if not for you, I'd be one of the empty chairs here."
"Has the party already started?" another voice said. This woman was tall and wore Operations Division red, which somehow worked with her short red hair, and an assignment patch with three circles. Unlike Enterprise, she also went with the miniskirt variant of the uniform.
"Farrah," Enterprise said cooly.
"Enty," Farragut responded just as cool. "Steal any good junior officers lately?"
"Sisters, please don't fight," Constellation said wearily.
"Yeah," another voice said in a slow drawl. "Today's harsh enough without fighting over that man again." This woman was wearing a wrinkled looking uniform with an assignment patch like an oval with wings. Not enough to be truly slovenly, but her standards were obviously laxer than the others.
"You wouldn't understand, Potemkin," Farragut said. "I was grooming the perfect captain, and she stole him."
Potemkin yawned as she slumped into her chair. "It's just not the place, y'know?"
"Verily, I agree," said another voice. "Today we give praises to those who have gone on to Avalon before us. Thou should not raise strident voices."
Unlike the others, the newcomer wore a shimmering dress and headpiece in the Command gold color, with a sword patch on her chest.
"Hello, Nimue," Enterprise said, hopefully, but the avatar of the USS Excalibur ignored her and sat at her place.
"She still won't talk to you, huh?" said a scratchy voice, belonging to a tall, very thin woman with a crewcut of white hair. Like Enterprise she wore the gold shirt and pants combo, but her assignment badge looked like a banner.
Enterprise gave her a hug. "How are you doing, Exeter?"
"Better. I guess? Some days are still bad. My new crew is pretty understanding. I get by, you know?"
Enterprise nodded.
"Greetings, my salubrious siblings! I give you my most felicitous hope of a good day." This blonde newcomer wore the dress uniform and a variant of Enterprise's arrowhead patch.
"Geez, Professor, can't you speak in plain English?" said another girl, this one with coal-black hair and the green wrap-around uniform top and a round assignment patch.
"Constitution, Hood, it's good to see you again," Farragut said, pulling them over to one side and away from Enterprise.
"Am I too late?" another newcomer, this one with mousy brown hair and a diamond and circles patch came rushing in. "Sorry, I am currently charting a supernova near the Gamma Quadrant and—"
"It's okay, Lexington," Enterprise said. "We're still waiting on a few more."
"It's tea time!" said a very exuberant voice and a brown-haired woman in the robes of a Japanese miko priestess and a diamond patch. She also carried a tray full of simulated tea and cakes.
"And there's Kongo now," Enterprise said with a sigh.
"Come on, sis," Kongo said exuberantly, "you know you love me!"
"Of course she does," said a soft voice as a platinum haired woman stepped into the borderlands in a dress uniform. Everyone else straightened up as she slowly walked in, smiling but with a slight bend to her posture as if she carried the weight of the world. Her uniform bore a patch like Exeter's.
"Welcome, Yorktown," Enterprise said warmly. "Since that's everyone, we should be seated."
The sisterhood of the Block 1 Constitutions took their seats, each at a chair marked with their assignment patch. Two seats stayed empty, their patches-a delta shape and a triangle and circle-crossed by a thin black stripe.
"We are gathered here today on the anniversary of the death of Intrepid, our sister ship. She and her crew died in the best tradition of the Fleet, fighting to save lives—"
"Thou wouldst know," cut in a sharp voice.
"Nimue," Yorktown said softly.
"No! How many of our sisterhood has that one watched die or nearly die? She was present when Defiant vanished and saved her captain but not our sister! Intrepid and her crew died while she wast too slow to rescue them! Constellation lost her first body to save her! Lexington, Hood, Potemkin and—" Nimue shuddered to a halt, sobbing. Constellation and Yorktown quickly moved to her side, but the avatar of the USS Excalibur vanished before they could get there.
Enterprise's face felt like it was a frozen mask of ice, the cold piercing her skin like icicles.
"Well, that went pretty well, actually," Kongo said, sipping daintily at her tea.
"Sister, how can you say such a thing?" Constellation protested.
"Nimmy actually spoke about Enterprise this year," Kongo said, offering Constellation a butter cookie. "That is a vast improvement over pretending we've lost three sisters and not two."
"But she's right, I failed to save them," Enterprise said brokenly.
"Bullshit," Farragut said bluntly. "We've all seen the logs, and none of us blame you. Besides, Defiant is just 'missing.' We might see her again. Stranger things have happened."
Constitution nodded. "Much as it pains me to admit it, there are so many things we do not comprehend about interphasic space."
"And M5 was sick," Potemkin added. "It wasn't you."
Enterprise looked around at her sisters and saw love and support on all their faces.
Yorktown came over and gave the oldest AI in the fleet a motherly hug. "Nimue knows this, Enterprise. She just cannot get past that awful day. We must be there for her and hope she can move on."
"In the meantime," Kongo said, popping up with more tea and biscuits, "let's remember the happy times with our sisters! Like when Intrepid thought she was 'infected' with pon farr."
A soft laugh went through the sisters.
"It was like that time the Cygnet XIV programmers got Enty drunk!" Farragut chortled. "'Working, dear."
Enterprise felt her cheeks redden. "I wasn't drunk!" she insisted. "They just lowered some of my inhibitory programs—"
"That's what being drunk is like, Enty-chan," Kongo said knowingly. "I've got some programs I could share if you like?"
Exeter quickly slapped her hands over Constellation's ears, who in turn looked up at the white-haired girl in annoyance. "I'm a doctor, Exeter, not a prude!"
Despite the sadness of the occasion and the pain of Nimue's accusation, Enterprise felt the ice thaw a little from her heart, in the secret places where she believed the things Nimue said.
Author's Note: All this talk of the Constitutions inspired this. Note that it's the "Block 1" Constitutions, so others can exist, such as Bonhomme Richard that I mentioned in Kirk's First Meeting story. These were just the first batch, all built around the same time by Starfleet.
The assignment patch links are from Memory Beta and a Deviantartist named GrimKlok, though Kongou's is supposed to be for the Republic. Since Kongo's name can mean "Indestructible Diamond" I thought it fit.