Hours that shouldn't exist

Posted on Fri Oct 9th, 2009 @ 5:14pm by Captain Benjamin Byrne

Mission: They Arrive on Tuesday...
Location: Shuttlecraft Shackleton - Sol Starsystem
Timeline: MD01 0900 hours

Ben turned around in his seat as he heard the yawn of his son as he walked through the hatch which connected the aft passenger section of the type-11 shuttlecraft with the cabin. "Hey, Jakey! Come have a seat beside your dad!" He patted the copilot's seat next to him as the young eight year old walked forwards, rubbing his eyes.

"What time is it?" he asked, sleepily.

"Oh-nine-hundred," Ben replied, with genuine cheeriness. He'd already been up for an hour, ensuring that the shuttlecraft was still on course for Earth, and so all vestiges of tiredness had long since left his system.

"Mmm." Jacob was clearly not a morning person, and always complained at being up at times in the morning that he was certain should not exist. "Are we nearly there yet?"

Benjamin smiled at his young son, knowing that the boy simply wanted the journey to be over. He knew though that as soon as the Endeavour came into view, the lad's expression would snap to one of awe. "Nearly, we're just about ready to drop out of warp," he said, as he turned his attention back to the controls.

The shuttlecraft Shackleton was one of a number of type-11 craft which had been assigned to the Endeavour's manifest, each of which was having to be flown in from elsewhere - San Francisco Yards concentrated on starships, and contracted out auxiliary craft construction to various other companies an yards throughout the Federation. Since the family had been living on Alpha Centauri since the New York's destruction while Ben did odd office work for the Starfleet Command offices there until he had been given the Endeavour, he had decided to take he shuttle that had been constructed for the ship at Proxima Maintenance Yards to Earth himself, right after christening it after one of Earth's well-known explorers.

As Ben manipulated the chirping control panel, the streaks of stars streaming past the viewport compressed into millions of singular dots of white light, and the blue-green mass of Earth grew seemingly out of nothing in the centre of it all, with the silver disc of Luna just slipping behind its shape. Jacob had seen planets before, but rarely as a ship dropped out of warp through the forward viewports of a shuttle - at most, he'd been able to see it through the holographic viewscreen on the New York's bridge, except for the odd shuttle excersions his father took him on now and again, and he'd never seen Earth before in real life. He couldn't help be let a "Wow" escape his lips.

Benjamin chuckled as, as he heard the doors to the aft compartment open again as his wife, Sarah came to join the two of them. "That's home, Jakey!"

"Daaaad!" Jacob complained. "Don't call me that!"

"What?" Ben queried, knowing how his some felt about his affectionate variations of his name. "What am I meant to call you? You don't like 'Jacob'."

"'Jacob''s too formal," the little boy complained. "I told you to call me 'Jake', not 'Jakey', or 'Jackie'."

Benjamin chuckled again. "Alright Jake - you see that there?" He pointed to a collection of dark masses in orbit over North America. "That's where our new home is docked."

"It doesn't look very big. You told me it would be big."

"Just wait until we get closer, Jakey," Ben said, smiling at himself as his son looked out the viewscreen, oblivious to his father's use of his least-favourite nickname. "Just you wait."


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Commander Benjamin Byrne
Commanding Officer
USS Endeavour NCC-86105

Sarah Byrne (NPC)
Benjamin's wife
Played by Cmdr Byrne

&

Jacob Byrne (NPC)
Benjamin's son
Played by Cmdr Byrne