Where no one has gone before (private, co-operative story)

[mommyspanksotk]

(OOC: This is a "private", co-operative story between myself and deusexkristina. Please do not "jump in", or join in any way )

Belinda entered the lounge of Starbase Alpha, and couldn't help but be awestruck at the sight that met her. Not only that of the Earth in all its splendor, standing seemingly right outside the windows of the station, but also, and more urgently this time, the sight of hundreds of people gathered for the ceremony. She quickly found her seat in the first row, next to Admiral Othan and Cdr. Jenkins from the Utopia Planitia-yards, who had been in command of her new ship during its Construction.
She glanced around to see if she could spot Kristina anywhere, before realizing that she was sitting to the left of Cdr. Jenkins, next to another girl around her own age, and that they were whispering and giggling about something. She smiled, and then sighed to herself, having a pretty good idea about how hard it’d be on Kristina to be gone for so long. Sure, they’d return in five years, but when you’re 13, five years feels like an eternity. She tried to put it out of her mind for now, as she needed to focus on the ceremony at hand. She could talk to Kristina afterwards.
The Admiral rose from her chair, went to the rostrum and cleared her voice:
“Commander Larsen, please step forward”. Belinda rose, and, slowly, dignified, ascended the stairs too, standing before the Admiral, who continued.
“In recognition of your dedicated service to the Federation, your unparalleled bravery in the fight against the enemy, your nonpareil leadership abilities, and your diplomatic finesse, it is with great pleasure that I can announce your promotion to the rank of Captain, with all of the privileges and responsibilities of that rank.”, she finished, pinning the extra fourth pip to the collar of Belinda’s dress uniform and took a step back allowing for applause from the crowd.
When the applause had quieted down, the Admiral continued:
“And you are hereby requested, and required, to assume command of the USS Leif Eriksson, as of this date and time, per these orders”, she announced, handing Belinda the paperwork, documenting the transfer of the ship to her command. Cdr. Jenkins approached her, and she stretched out her hand in the ancient ritual for command transference:
“I relieve you, sir”, she said to Jenkins.
“I stand relieved”, was his reply as he shook her hand. He gave the admiral a respectful nod, and took his place again.
“Your first mission”, the Admiral announced as she handed Belinda the PADDs with the official writings, “will be to travel at maximum warp to the Andromeda wormhole, and go through it. You will be unable to return until the next time the wormhole appears in our galaxy, so you will be on your own for the next five years.”
Belinda nodded. Of course, this was not the first she heard of this mission. It had, in fact, been one of the factors she’d been considering heavily when she decided whether or not to accept this command.
“You are to spend the time between arrival in the Andromeda galaxy, and the re-appearance of the wormhole in our galaxy, by surveying as much of the area you arrive in as possible. Find possible colony sites, make first contacts, and advance the course of our knowledge.
You will be the representative of the Federation in the Andromeda, and you have the authority to negotiate treaties on the Federation’s behalf. It is our hope and expectation that you realize the gravity and enormous responsibility placed upon you, but know, that you have the full confidence of Command. “, the Admiral ended, once again taking a step back and leading the crowd in applause.
Belinda smiled and thanked the Admiral, before she cleared her throat as the applause died down, motioning to speak:
“It is indeed a great day for the Federation”, she proclaimed in a clear, confident voice. “The eyes of all of our Union is upon us today”, she continued, noticing the cameras from the news services all over the lounge. “From New Romulus to Cardassia. From Earth to Tellar, From Copenhagen to ShiKahr, the eyes of our fellow citizens watch us take a step into the utterly unknown, unlike anything that has been done for countless centuries. Like the first naval explorers of my native Earth more than a millennium ago, we are about to go out on a limb, cut ourself off from support from home for several years, and venture into completely alien territory. We take this step”, she continued, her voice becoming clearer and more pronounced, more rousing, “not because it is the easy way. Not because it is the comfortable way”, she continued, while trying discreetly to make eye contact with Kristina, “but because this is at the core of Starfleet’s mission. Today is, according to the Terran calander, August 3rd, 2492. Exactly 1000 years to the day, when Christopher Columbus set sail from Sevilla in Spain on Earth, determined to go west and find India. As we all know, he did not, and in the same way, we may not find what, "we expect when we go through that wormhole”, she said.
She let that hang a moment, before she finished up:
“And no one can forget that there is a war going on. A terrible, senseless war with the Klingons that we did not seek nor provoke, but which we are prepared to see through to whatever end may come. No one can forget this.”, she said, only barely managing to conceal the lump in her throat as she thought about her husband, Kristina’s father, currently serving as First Officer under Adm. Thornton on the Enterprise, on the front lines of the counter-offensive.
“But neither must we forget, that Starfleet’s ships are not designed to start wars, but to end them. We attack only as a last resort. Our first, and dearest, activity is expanding the frontiers of knowledge, and to seek out new life and civilizations. And that is why it is with distinct pride and an enormous sense of history and responsibility, that I accept this command”, she said, looking at the Admiral and nodded, “and hereby do swear to represent our great Union to the peoples of the Andromeda, as best as I possibly can. Thank you.”, she finished, and packed away the manuscript for her speech, as a thundering applause rolled up against her like the waves up against the beach.
There were some few other speeches, but she knew that this was the “important part”. She sat through the rest and nodded in the right places, without really paying much attention. Her mind was completely focused on the coming tour of her new ship, and, most importantly, on getting herself and Kristina settled into their new home.

[deusexkristina]

Elsewhere on the station, the real Kristina Larsen was sitting nervously at a small table in Club ioN, the holo-arcade next to the theater. The 'girl' at the ceremony was, in actuality, a hologram being controlled by the other giggling girl, Ashlika James, who Kristina had blackmailed into helping her. 'Blackmailed' might be a bit strong; she had threatened to tell certain people that Asklika's 'boyfriend on Earth' was nothing more than a holodeck program she had written. Lika was going to be at the stupid ceremony anyways, and its not like she had asked her to do anything illegal. At least, that's what Kristina told herself as she sat at the table, waiting.
Kristina was understandably nervous. This was partly because she wasn't very experienced with this kind of sneaky activity. She thought of herself as a good girl and she was mostly right. Not only had she tricked her mother and sneaked away from the ceremony but she had gone across the station by herself, something she knew she wasn't supposed to do. But some things were worth the risk. Some things, Kristina thought, are more important than stuffy old ceremonies. Her mom dragged her to them all the time and they were always SO boring. The thing, in this case, was also the main reason Kristina was nervous; she had come to the theater to meet her secret admirer.
Kristina wasn't really interested in boys, at least she didn't think so, but she was the only girl in her class that hadn't had a boyfriend yet—a fact the other girls didn't let her forget as they endlessly speculated on the reasons behind it. Most of these reasons boiled down to “you're flat” or some other juvenile insult that Kristina was able to ignore, more or less. But with an admirer... then she would have a comeback. Then, maybe, Hangelene Cospic and her cronies would finally leave Kristina alone.
Besides, she was curious. It was a completely novel experience for Kristina. When she had gotten the message saying to meet here, at this exact table, in five minutes time—and to tell no one she was going—could she really refuse? Obviously she could have, but she would have regretted it, Kristina thought, for the rest of her life.
Thus, she had set up her devious plan which, as of this moment, seemed to have gone off perfectly. As long as her admirer was on time, she would be able to be back at the ceremony hall before it got done and no one would be the wiser. Kristina's heart beat with maddening excitement as the clock slowly approached and then struck the allotted time. Kristina opened her eyes (not realizing she had closed them) but found no one sitting opposite her. That was fine, she couldn't expect her admirer to be exactly on time.
But as time continued to roll by, no one continued to show up. As ten minutes past the hour approached Kristina began to get worried. If she stayed too long she might not make it back to her mother's ceremony on time. But if she left early she would miss her admirer and have to admit to Hangelene that she had been stood up.
As she debated the choice in her head time continued to tick by...

[mommyspanksotk]

After the ceremony, Belinda shook hands as needed, going through all the formalities, and then headed over to Kristina. The other girl's attention was elsewhere as she approached, and so she didn't see Belinda coming until it was too late.

"Come on Kristina. Time to go", Belinda said, reaching out to take Kristina's hand and help her up.....only to find her hand passing right through her. She stood and stared for a second, as Ashlika realized she was busted.

"Uhm....", she started, and stood up trying to leave.

"Just a minute young lady.", Belinda said calmly but with an authority that made the girl stop immediately, "That was a pretty neat trick. But why, and where is Kristina?"

The girl looked at the floor and mumbled something. Belinda recognized this girl; Admiral James' daughter.

"Look", she said, "if you don't tell me where Kristina is right now, I'll be forced to tell your father about this. Do you want that?"

Ashlika's hands instinctively flew to the seat of her pants, and she paled slightly. Belinda expected this reaction, as she still remembered that night she was at the Admiral’s house in New York for a private briefing about the upcoming voyage, and how, after catching Lika breaking her curfew for the 9th time that month, Adm. James and Lika had had a “conversation” right there in the living room, of the kind that involves a hairbrush and standing in a corner afterwards.
To drive the point home, Belinda finished: “I’d hate to see a re-run of what happened last time I was at your father’s place, wouldn’t you?”

Lika turned from paled, to blushed, and she nodded “Uhm…yeah…she’s…she’s at Club ioN.”

Belinda raised an eyebrow: “What’s she doing there?”

“W…waiting for someone”, Lika answered, clearly eager to get away from this conversation sooner rather than later.

Belinda nodded. “Alright….get out of here.”

Lika removed herself from the room as quickly as she could, and Belinda sighed.
Kristina was a good girl most of the time. She didn’t, yet, at least, have this rebellious thing going on, and she usually did what she was told. Belinda certainly didn’t think that she’d disobey her this openly: Not only did she skip the ceremony, something she was disappointed of, since it was a great moment and she would have liked her daughter to share it with, but she had ignored her instructions to not wander the station alone!
Enemy agents could be everywhere on the station, and would be thrilled to throw Starfleet’s upcoming prestige mission to the Andromeda down the drain, by delaying departure until the wormhole had closed, by kidnapping the daughter of the CO of the ship that was supposed to make the journey.

As she made her way across the station towards the club, these thoughts bored into her skull more and more, and she found herself getting more and more angry at Kristina for not thinking straight. She took a moment in the turbolift to take a deep breath….Kristina probably hadn’t done this just to annoy her. Maybe because of a boy, or something, but she wasn’t the type to do something like this “just because”. And, besides: How much rational thinking can you expect from a 13-year old? It just then occurred to her, that she would have to have “the talk” about boys with Kristina soon.

As she reached the club, she immediately saw Kristina sitting at a table, obviously scouting the crowd for someone. Belinda walked over briskly, and cleared her throat.
“Ahem….excuse me young lady”, she began, looking at her sternly. “That was some trick you performed there. Would you mind telling me what on Earth possessed you to not only skip one of the most important ceremonies in our lives yet, but also to completely ignore what I told you about wandering the station alone? Do you have any idea how dangerous that was?”

[deusexkristina]

“Ahem….excuse me young lady”

Kristina's head snapped up at the sound of her mother's voice. Her eyes went first to her mother's face, then to the clock, then to the empty seat, then repeat the the cycle a few more times as she tried to understand what was going on.

“...any idea how dangerous that was?”

“Hunh...?”

Kristina saw a flash of some emotion in her mother's eye. She knew she had better say something, and fast. But, before she could, something else caught her eye: a flash of blonde hair across the theater. There was a girl there, about Kristina's age, casually sipping something through a straw and doing a poor job of pretending not to be watching what was going on outside the arcade. Hangelene Cospic. She and her cronies had set her up. Realization began to dawn on her; there was no secret admirer, the entire thing had been a sham, concocted to humiliate her. Well, Kristina wasn't going to let her win. She wasn't going to humiliate herself by begging and apologizing.

“Calm down, mother. It's not like I went to a bar.”

The words just, sort of tumbled out of Kristina's mouth without passing through her brain first. As soon as they had left her mouth she regretted them, but there was no going back now.

“I'm thirteen, mother. I'm not a little girl; I can go where I want. I don't need you babying me.” She paused before adding, “I just didn't want to go to another of your dumb ceremonies. They're so boring.”

[mommyspanksotk]

Belidna was obviously oblivious to what was going on; all she knew was that she was being backtalked in public, and that she couldn't let it slip.

"Excuse me?!", she exclaimed, and quickly calmed herself down enough to not start a shouting match. She did, however, not intend to let the attitude she'd just been given, stand.

"One: Yes, you're thirteen, and that means you're still very much too young to be able to stand up for yourself if something were to happen. And on the most important base in the Federation, during times of war, something might well!", she said, her eyes displaying not so much anger, as horror of what had not happened, about what she pictured in her mind's eye happening to Kristina walking around the station by herself.

"Two", she continued, "You are still a child, and not always able to figure out the consequences of your actions. Do I need to remind you what happened that time when you thought disengaging the safeties on the ski-program in the Holosuites was a good idea?", she said, trying to drive her point home.

"Third", she said, "there are some things you may find boring now, but that you would have wished you had been there for, when you're older. This was one of them."

"And finally", she finished, her voice very much sterner now, "I will not have you take that tone with me, young lady. I'm still your mother and I will not have you speak to me like that. Maybe I've been too lenient with you in the past, but that can change. Maybe I should have a chat with Adm. James about how to deal with young ladies who think they're bigger than they are, before we leave, huh?", she finishes, knowing that Kristina knew about the "incident" at Adm. James' house, because she walked by her room when Lika told her, and her exclamation
("He SPANKED you??") could be heard all over the house.

Belinda waited for a couple of moments to let that message sink in, before she sighed.

"Well, luckily, the ceremony was recorded. But we're leaving in...", she began, checking the chronometer, "about an hour.", she finished, standing Kristina up, and swatted her butt once, saying: "Let's get to the ship"