Story:Star Trek: Lexington

Hedrikspool Province – Nature Preserve, Northern Coast
Allan Hood burst into his family’s tent, embracing his wife, Samantha-Josephine, with a hug and kissed her. The Hoods have been camping on the beach, in a makeshift home of Bajoran palm branches and bamboo poles, for the last three days ago. Their temporary home was surrounded by Bajoran lilacs, and other native flowers, on a bed of salam grass.
 * Stardate 58758.2; October 4, 2381, Time: 17:49:55

“It’s official,” Hood exclaimed, “we’re transferring to the USS Lexington.”

Sami-Jo laughed at the revealed excitement, hugged and kissed him back amidst the sound of Bajor’s green-tinted waves crashing in the distance.

“Finally, we’re getting away from Cardassia,” Hood pointed out, pouring himself a cup of sweetened Jumja tea, “I’ll get to do some real science, in the final frontier. No more scanning and cleansing antimatter radiation, no more hazardous conditions, and no more dodging degenerative health problems!”

Since December of 2375, after the Battle of Cardassia, Hood had been assigned to Cardassia Prime for humanitarian aid after planet’s massive devastation of infrastructure, death of eight hundred million civilians, and over seven million troops. His temporary duty assignment was to help cleanse excess antimatter radiation from the planet’s surface and the atmosphere, being extremely hazardous to humanoid life.

Hood decided to join Starfleet to be part of Starfleet’s effort of exploration of “strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations” in 2370, three years before the Dominion War began. Little did he know he would serve in the last two years of the Dominion War, and be part of the Restoration of Cardassia, for six years.

Finally, Hood’s reason for joining Starfleet was being realized. Though he majored in Astrophysics, with focus on Temporal, Quantum and Relativistic Mechanics, Warp Field Theory, Exoarchaeology and Radiobiology, Starfleet zeroed-in on his Radiobiology classes and experience, assigning him the Restoration project after the war.

“And, I’m officially promoted to Lieutenant, the Lexington's Chief Science Officer,” Hood reminded himself, telling his wife, through another wave of euphoria. Hood had wanted to be a CSO since joining the Academy.

Hood’s daughters came running up to see what the commotion was about.

“Daddy, you’re home!” squealed Gracie, Hood’s five-year-old, curly blonde, blue-eyed daughter, when she saw him. He didn’t know how many years left he had of her being excited to see him after work, but he intended to soak up every minute of the time he had left. Donna, Hood’s two-year-old, curly strawberry blonde, amber-eyed daughter, came running up on not-so-sure-footing, inspired by her big sister’s expression of delight.

While Hood hugged, kissed, and played with both girls, Sami-Jo reflected on their last six years living on Deep Space Nine while Allan was stationed on Cardassia. Sami-Jo had to wait for windows of permission and shore leave to see her newly wedded husband with their children. Now, she’ll get to live with him permanently while he’s stationed on the Lexington.

Hood explained that they need to pack everything from their quarters and move onto the Lexington; they’ll be leaving in three days, taking relief supplies to several Cardassian Colony worlds.

“After that,” Hood finished, “we’ll be heading out into the Alpha Quadrant, into uncharted space.”

Sami-Jo finally quit smiling and became pensive. When they decided to have children on the space station, it was relatively secure. They have been taking their proximity to Bajor for granted, camping on the surface, the Bajoran culture influencing their own. They always cherished that the substantial agricultural activities, flora and fauna, in the northern peninsula, reminded them of their home in Calusa, Florida on Earth.

Though there were risks involved being in Starfleet, the reality of the additional potential risks and dangers began to dawn. Hood must have come to the same conclusion; he slowly rose from his children, keeping eye contact with his wife, and walked over to her, grasping her hands.

“Starfleet’s been exploring uncharted territory for centuries,” Hood soothed, “this is the whole reason why we all came out here. We’ve made it this far. This is what we’ve been waiting for.”

“I’m worried about the babies, Allan,” Sami-Jo admitted while the wind blew gently through makeshift shelter, “it’s so dangerous.”

“I know,” Allan began, “I won’t be able to go that far away without you and the girls. I want you by my side; I need all of you in my life, through whatever happens, we’ll be together.”

Allan and Sami-Jo silently hugged as the girls played in the glow of the firelight.