—- Starbase 86, Senior Officer’s Lounge —-

There was nothing ornate or overly fancy about the ring. Still with the crew of the USS Luna being relatively young and only having been brought together earlier that year, though many of them had served together on the USS Seattle, there were no other married (or engaged) members of the crew. Captain Adriana Cruz examined it and nodded, not quite sure why she was nodding, as she did not have to approve of the wedding. Her First Officer was a capable woman, and well able to make her own decisions.

”So will I be performing the ceremony?” Cruz asked taking a sip of her coffee.

Commander Olivia Carrillo shook her head, “We’ll get married back on Earth when we have leave next. I need to get my family involved. Lambert doesn’t have anyone, but he’s marrying into my family. There is however something you could do in the wedding, if you can get leave at the same time.”

Cruz nodded, they were likely to be sent on a year long excursion, though their next assignment had yet to come through, so getting time off would not be an issue once this tour of duty was complete.

”Maid of honor?” Carrillo said, having thought about it. While Captains and above could perform weddings, with no one else in her family (living anyway) in Starfleet this made sense to her. She liked her Captain and admired her like an older sister, but Cruz was not someone who she thought of as being right to officiate a ceremony like this.

Cruz nodded, “Of course, I’d be honored.”

Beyond the windows ships flew past. The Luna was docked, finishing up having work done on it before the next assignment. An Alita-class ship flew past and Cruz watched it go, wondering what the Luna had to offer for defense of Starfleet’s borders that a ship like an Alita-class wouldn’t be better off handling. Their last few assignments had been more suited to beefier ships with fighter support and more weapons. The Luna was for boldly going where nobody had ever been before, and yet with the Klingon and Cardassians both getting restless it seemed that most of their assignments was to simply fly a flag and act as a deterrence.

That and the frustration of her last assignment, trying to warn of a pending supernova to a planet who was not willing to listen, making first contact and discovering strange new worlds sounded better and better by the day.

”Staff are being allowed to move back into the Luna,” Cruz said, she added, “Do you want me to talk to Lieutenant Commander Tashai about moving Lambert into your quarters?”

Carrillo shook her head, “We’re not going to live together yet. We discussed it, and we both come from culturally Catholic backgrounds, it wouldn’t feel right. You know.”

Cruz who was not religious but had a similar moral grounding as a child nodded, “Okay, separate it is. We have a science team coming aboard, some new faces studying spatial anomalies. I’m not sure what our assignment is yet, but I figure they’ll be a key to it. I thought we could free up some space, if people started shaking up.”

Carrillo laughed, “Well I’m sorry about the lack of cabin space, but I’m certainly not looking to shack up just quite yet. Besides Lambert talks in his sleep, I discovered that back on Earth when we ’shacked up’. The less I need to deal with that the better.”

“Well congratulations Commander, at least one member of the crew has found happiness,” Cruz said raising her coffee mug in a salute.

”Two members, I hope,” Carrillo said.

—- Officer Lounge, Starbase 86 —-

While Commander Olivia Carrillo was drinking coffees with the Captain, Lieutenant Pierre Lambert was  drinking wine with a collection of officers from the USS Luna who were congratulating him. Pr’Nor, whose department the Lieutenant had been transferred to after a realization was made that his experience was more suited to piloting the Luna than acting as a Stellar Cartographer, was notably non-plussed

Or perhaps not so notably. Her and Chief Operations Officer Lieutenant Commander Tashai were the longest running couple on the ship, with the Vulcan and the El-Alurian having served on three ships together now. That Lambert and Carrillo had known each other for a much briefer time was putting into her mind about whether or not she should similarly ‘pop the question’.

Tashai, for her part, did not seem to have any reservations and was drinking to the new couple’s happiness already and likely would until the wedding was over and beyond. While Vulcans were long lived, Pr’Nor knew that they were but babies compared with an El-Alurian and most likely a life together would only be temporary, at least from Tashai’s point-of-view. 

“Lieutenant, given the human female having a longer life span than their male counterpart do you consider the possibility that Commander Carrillo will outlive you?” Pr’Nor asked, trying to frame a question that was on her mind as an observation about humanity.

Lambert for his part had not thought about Carrillo outliving him, he had mostly been worried first about whether she would say yet, and now about the mechanics of their wedding given that they were about to ship out on the USS Luna, for a year or more depending on the assignment. It was possibly for Luna-class ships to be away from Federation space for over a five year mission, and given that Carrillo wanted to be on Earth with her family for the wedding that might prove difficult.

”Don’t mind her,” said the Assistant Chief Navigation Officer Lieutenant Junior Grade Thomas Winfield, “she’s just working through her own stuff. It’s tough dating the oldest person in existence.”

”Lieutenant Commander Tashai is not the oldest person in existence,” Pr’Nor said. The woman seemed to see herself as a young member of her people, perhaps one of the last born before they were scattered to the four corners of the known (and unknown) universe by the Borg invasion. Still it was true that Tashai was several generations older than anyone else on the USS Luna, despite her seemingly youthful appearance.

”Didn’t Spock’s dad keep marrying humans?“ Winfield asked, “That was fine, I’m sure you don’t think Spock’s dad was illogical.”

Pr’Nor nodded, “Surak and yes, he married two human women in his life time, given the Vulcan life span’s length being significantly longer than humans. I am not in a position to either approve or disapprove of his life choices.”

Lieutenant Diya Acharya and Lieutenant Jacob Siegel approached, to offer their congratulations. Lambert did not know either of them that well, but he was thankful for a reason to abandon the conversation with his Vulcan superior officer. His wedding had enough weight placed on it without absorbing the emotional stakes of the romance between the Vulcan and her ageless girlfriend.

”A real Earth wedding,” Siegel said, as a historian he found that interesting, but then again he figured almost anything someone from over a century in the past did was interesting, including marrying a contemporary woman.

”Yes, well her family is in New York City,” Lambert explained.

Siegel nodded, wanting to explain the cultural reasons behind large Catholic families in New York (and other places) but deciding against it. Lambert himself being from the formerly Catholic France likely knew as much about the subject as the historian.

”I think that’s wonderful,” Acharya said. As the ship’s Chief Diplomatic Officer she had decided to intervene before Siegel could start an argument of some kind, which in her observation was what the historian usually did.

She gestured around, the lounge was full of the USS Luna’s crew, “And lots of people to celebrate.”

”Well this isn’t a celebration, my fiancé isn’t even here,” Lambert pointed out, “I just think people got a break and wanted to come together before we shipped out.”

“Well, I’m happy for you and Commander Carrillo,” Acharya smiled, wishing she could have convinced Lieutenant Commander Young that he did not need to supervise all the work being done on the warp engines and to leave it to the station crew and come out with her.

”To the future,” Siegel said raising a glass in a toast.

—- USS Luna, Bridge —-

“This is the captain speaking,” said Adriana Cruz into the open ship wide communication channel.

”We’ve been apart, and on leave for awhile now, so this is the first time we’ve gotten to work as a team for some time,” she said, then continued, “We’ve been asked to investigate a stellar phenomena that’s popped up, and have brought on a specialized science team to assist us. Depending on how that goes we will continue on to the Triangle, and exploring that more while showing the flag and wading off Klingons and pirates. This mission could take several weeks, maybe months, so it’s not quite the deep space exploration we know the USS Luna does best, but let’s make Starfleet proud, and do what we do best.”

Cutting off the speech she watched as Pr’Nor angled the ship out of dry dock and into open space. With Starbase 86 behind them they increased speed to half-impulse before finally hitting warp as they cleared the area around the station. All the socializing and visitations that had gone on for the last month was behind them, and so was the failed negotiations and other missions in their past.

This was a new future, and a new heading. This was yet unwritten, and none of them knew what to expect.

”Set course, warp factor seven,” Cruz said taking a seat next to her First Officer Commander Carrillo, as she added, “Engage.”

The ship increased speed, warping it’s way into the unknown.