There was naught but the sound of a few nearby chirping birds coming through the open bedroom window of Akiyama’s suburban Tokyo home. The mid-morning sun was attempting to break through the part between the teal coloured drapes. Aki layed there staring at the ceiling. She was on vacation and chose to take the opportunity to try and sleep in, but her internal clock was telling her it was time to get up and out of bed.

As her stomach began to growl, she contemplated the consequences of defying what her body was telling her and realized it would be futile to resist. She rolled onto her side. Mark, her husband, was still sound asleep. She began to run her fingers through his hair and kissed him on the cheek. As he slowly began to wake up, she whispered with a smile, “Good morning babe. Are you hungry?”

Mark nodded slightly, not fully comprehending the question in his present state.

Aki loved to cook. She especially loved to cook for Mark, but didn’t get to do it often so far from home. With his response she wasted no time and scurried off to the kitchen, asked the computer to play some upbeat Japanese music and grabbed some eggs, ham and cheese from the refrigerator.

It was a mere moments later, she was casually bopping along to the music and had only just managed to finish dicing the ham for omelettes, when Mark came out from the bedroom, “Commodore Bradley is on the comms wanting to speak with you. It sounds urgent.”

She’d not heard the comm come in over the sound of the music, but set the knife she was holding down on the cutting board and wiped her hands with a nearby cloth. “Could you grate the cheese for me while I see what he wants?” she asked.

She walked back to the bedroom. Not only was it the room where the call was received, but it was the closest room with a display where she could take it. “Commodore Bradley! To what do I owe the pleasure?” she said as she positioned herself into view.

Bradley knew he was disturbing her on her personal time, and tried to apologize for his intrusions, “I’m sorry to disturb you on your vacation Commander, but under the circumstances I had no choice. What do you know of Commander Tajir Derohl?”

She looked at the commodore with a puzzled look on her face, “Not much I’m afraid. A Trill, serving on the Vesta as the Executive Officer to Captain Adams as far as I can recall. Why do you ask?”

“Not any longer. He’s just been promoted to Captain and been given command of the USS Aquarius, which brings me to the reason why I’ve had to contact you with such urgency. The Aquarius is scheduled to ship out to the former Romulan neutral zone from the Devron Fleet Yards in a few weeks. Captain Derohl has selected you to be his first officer. We’ve scheduled the USS Lexington to take you to rendezvous with the Aquarius. Unfortunately they depart from McKinley Station first thing in the morning. I hope you don’t mind us cutting your vacation short.”

“I’m sure Mark will understand.”

“I’m sending you Captain Derohl’s personnel file for you to familiarize yourself with your new captain before the two of you get acquainted. Best of luck Commander.”

“Thank you Commodore.” Aki replied before the screen went black.

Aki stood there for a moment to reflect on the Commodore’s words. It seemed unusual to her to reassign an officer in such a lateral move, but on the other hand Starfleet had a newly promoted captain, for which they would want someone with a little more experience to serve as their first officer. It just so happened that this particular captain had requested her personally.

After her brief reflection she remembered that Mark was still in the kitchen fixing breakfast. She headed back out to join him, and instinctively walked up behind him and wrapped her arms around his towering torso and rested her head on his back.

Mark set down the large bowl and whisk he’d be holding to scramble the eggs and manoeuvred himself to face Aki returning the embrace as he looked down into her eyes, “I take it vacation is being cut short.” he said to her, trying not to sound disappointed.

“I’m being reassigned to the Aquarius to head out for the Neutral Zone. The Lexington leaves in the morning. I’m expected to be on her to take me to Devron.” She replied starting to tear up knowing that she’d be separated from her husband for the immediate future.

He wiped the tear from her cheek and then hugged her tightly, “Hey, I knew what came with job when I proposed to you six years ago. Maybe you can talk to the captain and when your mission is over, I can join you like I did on the Columbia.”

“Are you sure you won’t feel cramped? The Aquarius is a smaller ship compared to the Columbia.”

“I don’t need anything fancy. We could be in shared quarters with some junior officers. As long as I’m with you I’ll be fine.”

Aki’s eyes began to widen and her tears of sorrow slowly turned to tears of joy. “This is why I married you.” She said resting her head onto his chest.

Aki spent the remainder of the day going over her new captain’s personnel file and packing the immediate essentials she would need to last her until she reached the Aquarius. She knew she could replicate most of her toiletries and other small items, but things like her photos of Mark and the irreplaceable first edition of her favourite book The Tale of Genji were a one of a kind.

“You look fabulous!” Mark’s voice echoed from the bedroom door.

“Thanks. You’re sure you’ll be okay without me?”

“Don’t make me second guess myself. I told you already, I’ll be fine. Do what you need to do. I’ll call you in the morning before you ship out okay?”

“Alright. I love you.” She said as she stood up on her toes to give him a kiss.

“I love you too.”

Aki took her bag and tossed it over he shoulder and then tapped her combadge, “Commander Makoto to USS Lexington. One to beam up.”

Two weeks later

Captain Tajir Derohl, Trill. Husband to wife Sari, Adjutant to Azras Dex of Task Force 93, Devron Fleet Yards. Served with Captain Makayla Adams on both the USS Relentless and the USS Vesta prior to taking command of the USS Aquarius. Aki repeated the words of her captain’s dossier to herself endlessly as she stood looking out the viewport at the Resolute-class vessel watching the worker bees and cargo pods prepare the ship for departure.

It certainly was smaller than the Galaxy-class, she thought, but to her it was her new home.

She could have watched the ships all day from where she was standing, but it was time for her to report in. She didn’t want to keep the captain waiting. She spent the next ten minutes locating the catwalk that would take her across to the ship. She probably would have located it sooner, but there seemed to be an abnormal amount of pedestrian traffic aboard the station. A Bajoran female stood at a podium at the end of the catwalk just before the docking hatch, checking the paperwork of each person boarding the vessel.

“Paperwork Sir.’ The Bajoran female said to Aki, catching her off-guard.

Snapping to the realization that she had not been paying attention to the movement of the line, she reached into her bag and pulled out the PADD containing her orders and handed it to the crewman.

“Ah! Commander Makoto. The Captain has been expecting you.” She continued, flagging down the next available Security escort “Would you escort the Commander to see the Captain?”

The Bajoran handed the PADD back to Aki and gestured for her to follow her escort, “Welcome aboard Commander.” She said.