Two blows on the whistle, and that was it; the match had ended. Everyone on the pitch stopped playing, and the referee took the soccer ball away. Players on both teams went up to each other and shook hands or high-fived one another. On the sidelines, the watching crowd cheered and clapped for everyone that had played.

Stepping forward, still clapping, Captain McCallister approached his three sons and their other teammates. “That was a respectable game; well done to you all!”

“Dad, they thrashed us at our game that we taught them only six weeks ago!” Henri complained as he took a swipe out of a water bottle.

“Yeah, no offence, dad, but they thrashed us massively!” Theo added as he wiped his brow with the soccer jersey he had just pulled off. 

“Come on, guys, it wasn’t that bad!” McCallister said, trying to encourage them.

Raising her hands as she got her breath back, Beatrice Grant waved to her captain, “I’m sorry to disagree with a superior officer, sir, but your son is right. The Brenari knew our every move.”

“You’re not suggesting they read our minds? Are you Beatrice?” Alfie asked as he slumped his arm around Jordan, trying to catch his breath. 

Jordan chuckled, “Surely they wouldn’t?” He checked, sounding quite naive about the prospect of their so-called friends cheating. “How can we prove it?” He took the water bottle off Henri and drank from it too. 

“You can’t, Jord,” Alfie commented as he pulled the bottle out of Jordan’s hands and took a large gulp from it. “Or it may call a diplomatic incident for our dads.”

“So are we supposed to just give up then?” William, who was crouching on the floor nearby, asked. 

McCallister was about to say something when he was interrupted by the arrival of Chief Mayor Adale. “Captain, I just wanted to come and thank your youngsters for playing such a great game today.”

Turning to the Brenari leader, McCallister smirked at his team before turning back to Adale. “It was a good match. It’s great to see your youngsters pick up the rules of soccer so quickly and play such an intense game.”

Adale chuckled, “Between us, I’m sure some of them were cheating,” She whispered.

“I knew Beatrice was right!” Henri called out.

Reframing from responding, McCallister just shook his head and gestured to the arrival of his first officer and several other crew. He wanted them to take over what he had just started with their team while he continued chatting with Adale. “I think it was a great way to end our time here,” He remarked before leaning in. “Can we go somewhere private?” He asked in hushed tones.

She nodded and motioned for him to walk with her away from the large field they had converted into a soccer field and away from all of the commotion that it brought. Walking up a small hill under the beautiful sunshine, James followed Adale up before they got near a small boulder they both could sit on. Looking down, they could see the large crowds starting to dissipate from the field. 

“So I suppose this is it?” She asked him as she took his hand into hers. 

He nodded glumly, as they held hands. “These past few weeks have been-”

“Memorable?” She finished, turning to him.

“They certainly have,” James replied, smiling. “Are you sure I can’t change your mind?”

“As much as I would love to, James, I just can’t leave my people now,” Adale looked back down at the crowd. “You brought us a wonderful gift in saving many of our brothers and sisters, but their arrival also brings great peril for us. If we’re not careful, the Devore may come hunting for us. We’ve built so much here on New Brenarius that I can’t turn my back on it. If we survive the next six months, then maybe then, but there’s too much for me to risk.”

Sighing slightly, he understood her dilemma. Their short romance was just that. Short, sweet, and snappy. “I do understand.” He assured her.

“Then I suppose this is goodbye?” Adale looked at him.

Both their eyes met one another, and within a few seconds, they slowly leaned in and kissed each other goodbye. It was a long and gentle kiss. After a few moments, they said their final farewell and McCallister made his way down the hill towards where everyone else was.

Covered in mud and grass stains from head to toe, Alfie had pulled his shirt off, and like his brother, was using it to wipe his sweaty face and chest. Noticing his father coming down, he paced over to him and gave him a smirk. He knew what had just happened and he felt for his dad. For the first time since they had lost their mother, he had seen him happy and content to be with someone else. Though it was weird at first to see his father with another person, Alfie (just like Theo and Henri) had come to terms with it quickly. They liked Adale a lot. She was smart, clever, beautiful and classy. Just like their mother.  “You okay, dad?” Alfie asked quietly as he approached his father. 

James nodded in silence at first to his son; before placing his arm around him. “I will be, and thanks for asking, Alf,” 

Placing his arm around his dad, the teenager showed his dad that he was there for him. Returning to the group, everyone had collected their belongings and showed they were ready to move. 

“Ready to go, captain?” Commander Duncan asked his superior.

“Make it so, Number One,” McCallister replied before turning around and looking up at the hill where Adale sat.

She waved one more time to him before Duncan called the ship and everyone beamed away.

USS Odyssey NCC-80000, Gradin Belt, Delta Quadrant

Stardate: 77977.5

Warping along at a steady speed, the USS Odyssey was finally making its way out of the treacherous and hazardous region it had spent the last two months in. Between Chaotic Space and the Devore Imperium, the entire area was filled with subspace anomalies that made long-range scans almost impossible and caused interference with subspace communication. Several hours had passed since leaving the patch of space that the Brenari refugees had called the Gaharey Sanctum. No more false vacuum fluctuations, metaphasic radiation, or radiation from supernova remnants. Dense zones of subspace vacuoles or subspace tears were now behind them. More importantly, there was no sign of any Devore patrols or baby telepathic pitcher plants. The latter was the one thing that caused the most pain for the ship and its crew. 

Sitting quietly in his ready room, Captain McCallister was catching up on several department head reports while slowly sipping on a mug of tea. The lights were dimly lit, while in the background he had slow, soft jazz music over the ship’s speakers. Behind him, the effect of the ship’s warp field could be seen as the stars streaked past in a bright white and blue blur. 

With his left elbow leaning on his arm’s chair and his chin resting in the palm of his hand, McCallister held his mug in his right hand as he read from the holographic display. The door chime went off. He sighed. Somehow he knew that he would not get a quiet day just to remain in the confines of his ready room to get some work done. 

“Come,” He answered.

The door to the bridge opened, and Duncan walked in with a PADD in his hand. He wasn’t alone. Following in his shadow were his husband, Master Chief Court and Commander Banfield. Seeing Duncan arrive with his entourage out of the corner of his eyes, McCallister placed his PADD down and sat up straight.

“It doesn’t take three of you to deliver a PADD,” McCallister remarked to them before gesturing for them to take up seats in front of his desk.

Duncan agreed with his superior before handing the device over to him. “Normally, it would be me, but Starfleet has sent us a datastream instead of a regular call. A good number of the crew have received messages in them.”

“There’s one marked for your immediate attention, sir, I think you should see it.” Banfield insisted as she sat down.

“You all look as if you’ve just found out that someone has died,” McCallister stated as he took the PADD. 

“It’s not as bad as that,” Court said after sitting down in the chair beside Duncan. “Well, we’re assuming your message isn’t, but what others have received has caused some raised glances and whispers.”

Perplexed by that odd statement from his senior-most enlisted officer, McCallister tapped his access codes into the PADD and saw the message for him was marked as being from Vice Admiral Zack Marshall-Bennet, “hmm, looks like someone got a promotion,” He muttered before he downloaded the message and played it through the holographic display.

The holo-emitters came to life and created the form of the Director of Operations for the Fourth Fleet. “Greetings James,” Bennet said in his usual calm, cool and charming manner, “we received your update and for security purposes, we won’t say anymore besides well done on a difficult task. I hope everyone on the Odyssey is able to recover. We’re sending you and your crew your next assignment orders now.” He nodded to something off-screen, and beside him, a floating display appeared with text on it. Not focussing on it, McCallister concentrated on what the admiral had to share. “It’s with my greatest pleasure that I hereby grant you a promotion to Fleet Captain. Congratulations!” 

The other three all turned to McCallister with huge grins on their faces. 

The admiral continued. “Don’t worry, James, the extra silver bar under your pips does not mean we are moving you off the Odyssey. Instead, I am giving you command of a squadron of ships that will assist you with your new set of orders, and their captains are all people I believe you know very well.”

The admiral’s message continued for a bit longer before it ended with him wishing them all the best and “godspeed” in their new orders. Once it had finished, the holographic form of Vice Admiral Bennet disappeared, and McCallister turned to his first officer. “What?” He said deadpanned.

Concealing a slight chuckle with his hand, Duncan attempted to compose himself. “Let me be the first to say congratulations, sir, on your promotion.”

“Here, here,” Court added.

“Indeed,” Banfield said. “And the admiral’s message does clear up what others have received.”

Turning to her, McCallister still showed his lack of amusement over what they had just heard. “Do clarify, Corella.”

“The admiral mentioned that the U-S-S Themis will be joining us,” She started. “Well, I know who her captain is and why some of our crew have been contacted.” Leaning forward, the second officer passed another PADD, a smaller one, to her captain. “To quote the admiral, you know them very well.”

Peeking at the details on the PADD, McCallister sighed. “You’ve got to be kidding me?” He dropped the PADD on his desk. 

“The Themis needs to be crewed, and her new captain obviously wants the best,” Duncan remarked.

“She certainly does,” McCallister shook his head and turned his chair around to face the large window behind him. “This won’t help with crew morale.”

“It’s why the three of us came together,” Court stated. “You may be right, sir,”

“Or maybe wrong,” Duncan stated in a bold move. 

That comment caught McCallister’s attention; so much so that he spun his chair back around. “How comes?”

“Louwanna and I both agree that what happened with the incident with Princess and the Blood Diliithum has affected many. Our extra time helping the Brenari as a team, in my opinion, hasn’t done what we desired it to do,” Duncan answered. “We are a strong knit close community, sir, rarely do we have others transfer in as our crew turnover is almost at zero. I think we need to entertain the admiral’s idea and grant the captain of the Themis her request.”

Giving out another loud sigh, McCallister rubbed his temple. “Fine, but no one is to respond until I have spoken to her.”

The three officers nodded in agreement. 

“We might be able to set up a hyper-subspace channel for you to speak with her in about an hour, sir,” Banfield shared.

“Good, once the call has gone through, I’d like to have a chat with Captain Cambil and ask her why the hell she is trying to steal my crew!” McCallister insisted before picking up his mug of tea and gulping it down his throat.