Alexander Wright stepped out of the turbolift and did his best to wipe the scowl off his face.  His journey to Starbase Bravo had been relatively hassle-free, aside from a minor incident with the transport’s engines after leaving Earth Spacedock.  Once he arrived at the station, he started to make his way down to the berth that held the USS Opharus. 

He was doing his best not to wear an unpleasant look on his face as he passed by everyone else. It wasn’t their fault that he had been stuck on this dead-end assignment instead of on a real starship that would undertake real missions. He knew that he should have just been happy to have been chosen as a member of the command staff, even if it was on a corvette. 

He would preserve through this and get assigned to an actual command. He didn’t know much about the CO, other than the man was only a few years older than himself. It probably made him a bad XO but he really just wanted to get through this assignment and move to the next. He must have gotten turned around while thinking because when he next glanced down the corridor, he realized that he was totally lost. He swore and walked over to the nearby wall display.

“Computer, I need directions to the USS Opharus.”

“Continue down the corridor another 150 meters and then take the turbolift down one deck.”

Alexander stepped away from the wall and continued down the corridor. As he walked he pulled out his PADD and looked up the command manifest for the Opharus and then stopped in his tracks, causing several people behind him to have to veer abruptly around him. He shook his head and read the screen again, just to make sure that he wasn’t seeing things.

There was no way this was happening. There was no way that the universe was this cruel. Did he piss off Q or something? His new commanding officer, the man that he would be stuck with for the foreseeable future, was the same man that had stood him up three times in high school. 

He looked different for sure but he still wore that same old cocky grin in his personnel file that he wore all around high school. Now, Alexander really wanted to hit something. He took a deep breath and then asked the computer to locate Lt. Fox. 

“Lt. Fox is onboard the USS Opharus.”

“Let’s get this over with.”