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| - I gazed through the glass window of the shuttlecraft. Ahead of me, I could see the Reliability-Class Starship, USS Infinity. Under normal circumstances we would’ve just beamed aboard, but Commander Edward Chekov--the ship’s Commanding Officer--had insisted we travel by shuttle, and now I saw why. Despite its small size, the Infinity was an absolutely beautiful ship. Its exterior was a light blue color that shone almost silver in the light, and its nacelles glowed neon blue as antimatter flowed through them, offset by the red impulse engines at the back of the saucer. Our two shuttles flew around to the front of the ship and the shuttlebay door opened. Our shuttle cruised in and landed on the ground lightly. I stepped out of the rear shuttlebay hatch along with my other classmates. There were 24 of us in all: twelve girls and twelve guys; we had been chosen out of our entire section to go on a two-week training program aboard the Infinity. Seven officers stepped through the doors into the shuttlebay, and the one at the front--who wore a red and black command division uniform--stepped forward. “Welcome to the USS Infinity, I am Commander Edward Chekov, and this is my First Officer, Lieutenant Commander Dawn Forrester.” He indicated towards a confident-looking blond woman who was wearing a green sciences skant. “And my Chief Tactical Officer and Chief Helsman, Lieutenant Ghee P’Trell and Lieutenant Tabora.” He nodded towards a tall Andorian, who wore a security gold uniform; he stood tall and straight, and seemed very proud about his position, and a Trill woman with dark blue hair. “As well as our Chief Engineer and Chief Medical Officer, Lieutenants L’Nel and Fiona Layn.” He gestured towards an older, wiser-looking Vulcan with slightly graying hair, who wore an operations orange uniform, and a middle-aged red-haired woman who wore a medical blue skant. “And last, but certainly not least, our Chief of Operations, cook, and tutor, Chief Petty Officer Alyssa Todd.” He pointed towards the last member of the group, a young woman who couldn’t have been much older than me that had dark brown shoulder-length hair and wore an operations orange skant. The commander continued, “Chief Todd will show you all where your quarters are, and give you a tour of the ship. After that we’ll be meeting in the cadets’ mess hall for lunch, as well as an informative meeting about your lessons.” Chief Todd turned to us as the rest of the officers left the room. “Alright, if you’ll all follow me, I’ll show you were everything is.” She lead us down the hall, and pointed out the various areas of the ship, including sickbay, the science lab, transporters, and so forth. We rode the turbolifts down to deck 4, the lowest area of the ship. “Junior officers’ quarters are here, and cadets’ quarters are here, women’s on the left, men’s on the right. Restrooms and showers are at the end of each hallway. If you would like to leave your things in your room, you may.” I stepped into the last of the women’s rooms on the left, and set down my bag on one of the lower bunks. Another girl stepped and saw me. “Hi!” I smiled and replied, “Hello.” The girl--who had light brown caramel-colored hair and wore a gray and green science cadet skant--said, “Looks like we’ll be roommates for the next two weeks, I’m Nicole by the way, Nicole Crusher.” My eyes widened. “Crusher? As in, Captain Wesley Crusher, of the Enterprise-G?” She rolled her eyes and replied, “Yeah, he’s my dad.” She quickly added, “But enough of that, what’s your name?” We stepped back into the hallway and I said, “Destiny, Destiny Carver.” Nicole smiled. “Nice to meet you Destiny; we’ll have to talk more later.” I nodded, and we followed Chief Todd to the turbolift. We stepped out of the lift and onto the bridge. Lt. Cmdr. Forrester turned to us. “Welcome to the bridge, cadets.” I stared around in awe; while it was much smaller than the holoimages I had seen of other ships, the bridge of the Infinity was still amazing. Two chairs were at the front: one for the helm, and one for operations. At the back of the room, there was a tactical station, and two additional stations for science and engineering. And finally, at the center of room it stood--commanding a view of the rest of the bridge--the captain’s chair. To some, it may’ve looked like just any other old chair, but I knew better, that chair spoke of many stories. ‘Would I ever sit in one?’ I wondered. Commander Chekov stepped through the sliding doors to the left. Chief Todd stood at attention. “Captain on the bridge!” We all stood up straight, and the commander chuckled. “At ease.” Chief Todd turned to the commander. “We were just about to head down to the mess hall.” Chekov smiled. “Commander Forrester and I will join you then.” We all got onto the turbolifts, and Chekov added, “You have the bridge Lieutenant P’Trell.” The tall Andorian nodded as the doors closed. The doors opened again as we reached deck 2, and we all stepped out. Chief Todd led us to the cadets’ mess, and we all sat down. The commander and First Officer went to the front of the room, and Chekov said, “Once again, welcome to the Infinity, I trust Chief Todd gave you all a wonderful tour.” He paused for a moment, and then continued, “You all have been selected from the best in your section for these special on-ship classes. Your training will begin tomorrow morning at 0800. If you are majoring in security, you’ll be meeting in Holodeck 2 with Lieutenant P’Trell. If you’re in sciences, you’ll be meeting in the science lab with Commander Forrester. If you’re in Medical, you’ll be in sickbay with Doctor Layn, and if you’re majoring in engineering, you’ll be meeting in Main Engineering with Lieutenant L’Nel. Lastly, if you’re majoring in Command or Piloting, you’ll be meeting with me and Lieutenant Tabora on the bridge at 0600.” ‘That’s me,’ I thought, ‘looks like I get to be the early bird.’ Chekov finished, “If you have any questions, please ask Chief Todd or any of the other officers, they’ll be happy to help.” I walked over to one of the replicators, wondering what I should eat. I remembered my mother telling me about a kind of earth food, one that was very popular in the 20th all the way through the 22nd Century. ‘What was it called again? It had a ‘z’ in it. ‘Peet-Zah,’ that was it.’ I spoke to the replicator, “One…Peet-Zah…please.” The machine replied in a computerized female voice, “Please specify toppings.” I thought for a moment; another thing I had heard a lot about was an earth food called ‘chocolate,’ so I figured that would do. I answered the replicator, “Chocolate, please.” The replicator hummed, and a plate materialized with the earth food on it. I looked at it; it was an almost perfect triangle, except that one side--the shortest one--was slightly rounded. I took the plate over to the table where Nicole and some other students were sitting, and sat down next to them. I stared at the ‘Peet-Zah’ for a moment, and then grabbed it by one end and tried to put it in my mouth. It flopped around irritatingly; the one end was too heavy to stay up. Nicole giggled. “No silly, like this.” She took the piece and held it by the curved end, balancing the rest of the weight on her thumb, and then pretended to take a bite. I repeated what she had done, and managed to succeed this time. I smiled and said quizzically, “What an interesting texture.” Nicole made a strange face. “Why is there chocolate on your…nevermind.” Nicole and I continued to talk as we ate. I learned that she was a third year student in the sciences division, and that she was an only child. Along with her esteemed father, her mother was Dorian Crusher, the Counselor aboard the Enterprise-G. Nicole had apparently inherited her father’s love for science, and decided to go down the path her father had originally planned on, mastering in a doctor’s degree in science. I also told her about my heritage, how my father had taken advantage of my mother, who was an Orion, resulting in me being half human, and how my mother had tried to raise me in the Orion culture. I had never quite fit in, and since I had had no experience with humans, I had decided to join Starfleet, where diversity was normal. We headed back to our room, and found two other cadets inside; one was a younger girl, who looked to be in her first year. She had long blond hair that was tied back in a ponytail, and she wore a blue cadet’s medical skant. The second was a species I didn’t recognize. She wore a security gold skant. She had strange ridges all over her face, kind of like a Klingon, but she didn’t have the dark skin or sharp teeth that Klingons usually had. Nicole walked up to her and smiled. “Hi! I’m Nicole; what’s your name?” The girl, if that’s what you could call her, glared up at Nicole and replied, “Denarchia; what’s it to you?” Nicole looked surprised, but not discouraged. “I was just curious, what species are you from?” Denarchia replied, sounding irritated, “I am a Xindi Primate.” I thought to myself, ‘Xindi,’ it sounded familiar. I remembered hearing something about them in our 22nd century history class; the Xindi had been involved in an attack on earth, in Florida, if I remembered correctly. I figured it’d be best if I didn’t mention that, and instead just smiled as Nicole introduced me. I turned towards the last student--the girl who was wearing a blue medical skant--and said “Hi there.” Suddenly, she shouted, “Are you kidding me Brad, how could you do that to her?!” I was taken aback, ‘Who was Brad?’ Then I noticed she was watching something on her datapad, it looked kind of like an old-earth soap opera. Suddenly, she noticed me. “Oh hi, what’s up?” I replied, “Um, I’m Destiny, and I just wanted to say hi.” The girl glanced back at me. “I can see why they call you tiny; you can’t be taller than a meter and a half.” My face flushed, certainly an odd sight for someone who’s skin was naturally green, ‘I’m 1.6 meters,’ I thought. I awkwardly replied, “No, I said, my name is Destiny, and I just wanted to-” Before I could finish, she cut in, “Can you wait a bit, the episode’s almost over.” I nodded, slightly flustered. Nicole turned to me. “You wanna go check out the ship again? I kinda wanted to get another look at the science lab before lessons star tomorrow.” I nodded, and we left through the automatic doors. When we got back, I learned that the girl who had been watching the soap opera was named Phoebe, and that she was a first year medical student. After that we went to the mess for dinner, and then came back to our room to get some sleep. As I closed my eyes, I wondered what the next two weeks would bring, and with that, I fell asleep…
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