Domino

Posted on Sun Sep 11th, 2022 @ 12:41pm by Commander Bear Jasper & Captain William Maddox & Captain Magnus "Hawk" Hawkins

1,636 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: The Icarus Files
Location: Starbase 14, Alpha Tucanne System
Timeline: One Year Before The Loss Of The USS Icarus

"To boldly go where no one has gone before," Maddox said as he poured the final measure from the bottle to the three glasses arrayed on his desk. "Simple words we all walked under when we were at the Academy, but very few in our profession get to use them as a mission statement."

He put the stopper back into the bottle and shook his head.

"Wish I could say I'm not jealous as hell you two get to be first out of the gate," he chuckled.

"It's been a long road," said Bear with a lopsided grin. "Getting from there to here." He shifted his gaze from Maddox's own to the trio of glasses and considered for a moment just how long that road had been. He was forty-five years old, an age he honestly hadn't even considered being able to reach when he'd first left Janlak 310 as a scrawny teen with his elder brother during the Dominion War. Then Bear looked to Magnus, 'Hawk' as he still occasionally refused to call him, and raised his eyebrows. Fourteen years. Hell, as Magnus had jokingly once stated, that was practically common law.

"Kinda feel like a kid leaving home for the first time," Bear admitted, and rubbed his neat beard with forefinger and thumb.

"Home is where we make it," Hawk quipped. "That's the secret to exploration. The place where we're born is often nothing than that. It's the choices made along the journey of life that gives us a sense of home. And that's what what we're doing." He held the glass Maddox had offered and nearly sipped before pausing. "I've been fighting my whole life. Winds so cold on the darkest days... but now the only winds I feel are the winds of change. Kicking out past the horizon into the unknown? Well, I'd be jealous of me, too." He grinned and finally sipped from the glass.

"It takes a certain strength," Maddox grinned and took a sip from his own glass. "And a bit of heart. But you two are on your way. This time tomorrow you'll be where no one has gone before, literally. You'll get to be the first, of many things. I am very proud of you boys."

Hawk set his drink down and traded it for a cigar. "Who knows?" he said as he bit off one end, spat it away, and lit the other end. "Maybe we'll put down roots for a new outpost and you can come out to the new frontier yourself."

Ignoring the cigar, but wrinkling his nose slightly in Magnus' direction, Bear sunk the whiskey with a slow, respectful draw on the amber nectar in that freely given glass. The Good Stuff. He could - but likely wouldn't - get used to this.

"Thanks, Captains," Bear noted, regarding each man for a lingering moment of deeper thought. "I guess if I was gonna head straight into the great unknown in a shiny new ship and risk life and limb, Magnus here would be my first choice to lead us all." He rested a solid, comradely hand on Hawk's shoulder, but looked, once again, to Maddox and those dark eyes gleamed with friendly humour. "Unless you're gonna change your mind and pull rank?" He gently teased the senior of their current trio.

"No," Maddox grumbled to his drink. "Someone responsible needs to stay behind, and make sure the Daedalus gets finished before some resource bean counter at Starfleet HQ decides that there are better things to make than an explorer. Maybe another of those Unity class heavy cruisers that seem to be everywhere these days."

He tipped his glass back and took a long, gracious pull of the fine liquor.

"Besides Icarus is a prototype, you'll have your hands full just keeping the hull plates on. I'll learn from your mistakes and take the glory in a year or two," Maddox grinned with a shrug. "Haven't even begun crew assignments for the Daedalus bar the engineer, and that's mostly because he came with the hull panels. XO, Chief of Science, need to make sure I get people who know how to do their jobs amidst the wonder of it all."

Hawk blew out smoke from his cigar and gave his chin a scratch. Tufts of silver began to show, but it was still a manly black goatee. "If you want recommendations, I can think of a few designated hitters guaranteed to get you a homerun."

"Either that or come charging in to rescue us from some terrible fate," Bear deadpanned. "Myths and legends and all, aren't we due a drowning?" He quirked a wry half-smile. "Though I think after the last few missions, Magnus and I are due some good old school exploration time." He took another mouthful of whiskey and frowned at no one in particular as some internal thought crossed his mind and faded back to here and now. "Imagine you'll have folks lining up to take on a place on the Daedalus? But engineer definitely a great place to start. Make a ship a home and keep her sweet."

"Myths also say your ship should fall apart the moment it gets close to a star. I'd like to think engineering has come a fair way from the days of wax wings," Maddox chuckled. "And I have a few names I want to look in on. I have time to pick a crew that will bring out the best in the Daedalus. But any names you want to throw into the ring I'll be more than happy to consider."

"Fair point, well made," noted Bear, allowing his mind to entertain an option he'd not considered before. "If we're staying away from wax wings, there is one name I'd like to chuck into the mix." His attention lingered on Hawk as the information he was about to impart was something he had found out only recently and not yet shared with his long-time friend and colleague. Bear hadn't even met the kid yet. "From the sound of it, he's rough and barely ready, but as a favour, I'd appreciate him being at least under your wing." It was a cheeky ask, but there was nothing to really lose. "Fox Jasper," Bear said, and he looked awkwardly from one Captain to the other. "My son."

Hawk nearly dropped his cigar in surprise. "Son?" His mouth curved in a smirk. "You old dog." Setting his cigar aside, he took back his glass and raised it to Bear. "To fatherhood!"

Bear laughed softly and with self-effacing humour wrapped about his words, raised his glass in response. "Apparently, yeah," he admitted. "Would you believe Dekker told me? I had no idea. Nobody tells me nothing."

"Definitely makes you think," Hawk said. "There's no telling what lies around the corner." After sipping, he said, "I don't have any kids, at least none anyone has told me about. But there is one capable officer that I can't recommend highly enough. Took her up from a green-as-grass rookie to a Tac-Sec genius, and from there she came into her own in half the time I did." He chuckled fondly at the admission. "Commander Ayanja Tusalo will serve you well no matter the position."

"I'll keep that name in mind given the high praise you've lavished," Maddox said with a smile. "In all honesty, I'd want to meet them first. The Icarus and Daedalus are long-range explorers, going far beyond the traditional mission scope. You remember the battery of psych tests you two got put through before getting the keys."

Hawk chuckled and shook his head. "Don't remind me. But that's why my nice list is short. Anyway, enough about your maiden voyage that might never be." Hawk grinned. "We've got history to make here and now."

"Sounds like a great idea on the interview," Bear agreed with Maddox, feeling that tiny pang of envy that the Captain had that option. "When you make your evaluation, could I possibly see the write-up? Or at least let me know. Kinda curious myself, but the praise is absent on account of I've got no firsthand evidence on which to base it." Their time on the Odyssey hadn't left much personal time or contact outside that bubble, and yes, Bear definitely had fresh memories of the tests and hoops he and Hawk had been made to jump through.

"I'll just do what I did with you two, look at a pile of files on my desk and take out the two at the bottom," Maddox grinned.

"That's how we do," Hawk replied with a return grin. "Knocking the bottom out of Starfleet's finest for the past 15 years." He held out a fist for Bear to bump. There was a time for propriety and protocol, but if the eve of a historic voyage into the unknown did not call for a convening of the Boys' Club, then nothing did.

"Like I said before, damn proud of you two. You'll redefine what it means to be Starfleet's finest," Maddox said and raised his glass. "To the USS Icarus and her crew: calm seas, and smooth skies."

Bear bumped that offered fist, dark skin to dark skin, and flashed a bright smile to his two superiors. "Fifteen years," he repeated. "Sure doesn't feel like that long." Then he looked from Hawk to Maddox and raised his own glass in a mirror gesture to the older man's. "Thank you, sir," Bear said, his voice coloured with respectful gratitude. "To the Icarus, to exploring the unexplored and very much," he added, "to living to tell our stories."

"To everything you just said and everything you left out," Hawk said. He raised his drink to Bear's toast. "Not to jinx it, but I have a good feeling about this one."

---------------

 

RSS Feed