“What are her last known coordinates?” Jack asked.

“Jack, are you sure you want to...”

“The coordinates, please, Ambassador.”

Cyrus Wakernaggle, Earth's ambassador to the Federation Council, hesitated then touched the panel in front of him. “They are being transmitted to you.” He stared at Jack for several seconds. “If you're going into that region of space, I'd like you to stop by the Baku world. I'll work it out as a regular visit to show Federation might to insure the security of the Baku. You will meet someone who will have information you'll need before you go to the sector Doctor Lau was headed.”

“Thank you, Ambassador.”

“Consider me at your disposal, Jack.” He smiled wide, then resumed. “I do have one other matter to bring to your attention.”

Jack took a long breath. Here it comes. The real reason for this personal message.

“There is someone I need to speak to you about,” Wakernaggle said. “Someone standing on the edge of greatness.”

“A member of my crew?” Jack asked.

Wakernaggle leaned forward. “You, my boy.”

Jack recognized the beginning of the soft-sell.

“Admiral James is prepared to offer you a promotion to rear admiral.” Wakernaggle sat silently to let that sink in. “Your new assignment would be Starfleet Operations Kel-j'na Region under Admiral Simmons.”

Jack took a long breath, not certain what to think as he'd never considered moving into the admiralty, never thought it would happen.

“Of course, we understand your family situation,” Wakernaggle said. “We're also prepared to provide Melissa a promotion to the rank of captain, and offer her the position of Admiral Simmons's chief of staff on Kel-j'na. The two of you would be together.”

Despite the source, this was a unique opportunity, and one which would allow him and Melissa to be together. “Thank you, Ambassador. I very much appreciate this.”

“I understand that you might want some time to think this over, and talk to Melissa about it,” he said.

“Yes... thank you.”

“If we could have an answer within the next month, that should be fine,” Wakernaggle said.

***

“Kel-j'na?” Melissa asked, her eyes focused on nothing.

“Yes,” Jack said, seated across from her on the couch in their quarters. They were both dressed down for the evening. “He said we could have some time to think it over.”

Melissa stared at the floor. “I was hoping...”

“What?”

“That when I made captain it might be when I got a ship.”

“I know.” Jack tried to hide his disappointment. He so wanted them to be together, wanted the chance to start a family with her. But he understood her dream to command. It was a hard thing to shake. It offered what appeared to be the same thing Jack had found on his ranch. The difference was that commanding a starship put its captain under the thumb of far too many people like Wakernaggle, political operators with their own agendas, ones not necessarily in the best interests of the Federation.

“If you don't want to take it...”

“No,” Melissa jumped in. “It's just that... it's a surprise. I'd like to think about it.”

“I understand.”

“He just offered this to you out of the blue?” Melissa asked.

“Yeah,” Jack said. “But I suspect this has been something he's been planning for a while.”

Melissa leaned over toward him. “I don't want this to ruin the progress we've made over the last six months. We've gotten closer than I ever thought we would. Our marriage is...” She smiled. “It's finally working again.”

“I know.” He took her hand . “I want to make this decision together.”

“I agree,” she said with a nod. “How about we both think about it for a couple of days, and then come back and discuss it?”

Jack smiled. “Okay.”

“In the meantime...” She pressed her lips to his. “How about we go to bed?”

***

She often had the scent of cinnamon about her, even more so when they made love. As she snuggled up to him now his nostrils were filled with it. He'd have to research that, see if it was a typical reaction from humans when in close quarters with Vulcans. Or was it her combined Vulcan and human genetics?

He pulled her closer to him, her bare skin against his, the warmth of her body, always burning so bright, comforted him like the sun shinning on a Summer day.

Maybe I'm just an old man in her eyes.

Vulcans often lived two centuries. Her human DNA might carve off some of that, but she'd likely make it to a hundred and fifty, maybe more. She was thirty, only twenty percent of her life lived. He was forty five, fifty if you take into account his five years in the past, more than half of his life now gone.

And to what? he thought. Making starship captain was my father's dream. Where's my dream? When do I start living the life I want? Have I even figured out what that is? Have I reached all I'm going to reach? Is it time for me to pack it in and spend the rest of my days talking about the glory that was?

Jack stared at the ceiling, hoping his thoughts would clear out like so much smoke driven away by a strong wind. But they remained.

I go from solar system to solar system, something people couldn't conceive of five hundred years ago, but it all feels so empty to me. Fifty years from now will my existence have amounted to a net positive for the galaxy? Or am I just another collection of molecules, doing what it does, none of it mattering in the end?

“You okay?” Melissa whispered into his ear, resting against him.

“My mind was drifting.”

“I thought I was more enticing than those random thoughts in your head.”

“Sign of old age,” he said, forcing a smile.

“I didn't mean to...”

“It's not what you said,” Jack interrupted. “It's me.”

“Well... you were fantastic,” Melissa said, her arms tightening about his torso. “And you're not old.”

Jack watched her eyes close, and waited until he was certain she was drifting off into slumber.

He wanted Melissa to fulfill her dream of commanding a starship. Hers was untainted by the influence of her father, who had actually discouraged her from entering Starfleet until he was certain she was doing it for the right reasons. It was completely hers, and Jack envied her for that. But he was also so very happy for her.

He wanted to make a family with Melissa. The idea of them having children had begun to occupy his thoughts often in the last several months. Jack felt the clock ticking on that aspect of his life, but it was something he wanted beyond the biological imperative to reproduce.

A memory floated through his mind. A conversation about children from several years ago brought a smile to his face. They had just come aboard the Chamberlain, hadn't really settled in, but she had brought it up, apprehensive about his reaction.

Mei... I was so happy in that moment. Why did it have to end so badly?

Jack was determined not to let his marriage to Melissa end the same way, in a turmoil of missed opportunities, accusations, and cross-purposes.

He pushed the old memory out of his mind. Melissa was all that mattered to him now.

***

Four days later as the ship cruised into a standard orbit over the Baku homeworld, Commander Todd Nakano sat at the tactical station on the bridge directly across from the conn station where Zaylie Burton sat, monitoring the speed and course of the Chamberlain.

“Any word on why we came here?” Zaylie murmured over to Nakano.

“If you're asking if anything was said during our senior officer's conference this morning, no,” Nakano said.

“But do you know anything?”

“I know a lot of things. But not about this sudden course change.”

Zaylie frowned. “I guess I'll have to employ less subtle methods.”

“You can be less subtle?” Nakano asked with a grin.

Zaylie laughed.

Jack strolled onto the bridge, followed by Melissa.

“We are in standard orbit, Captain,” Kadan Loftus stated as she rose from the command chair.

“Excellent,” Jack said. “Inform the crew, shore leave will commence immediately, but will only be available for the next twenty-four hours. Standard rotation. After that, we should prepare for maximum warp.”

Loftus frowned a moment, then, “Aye, sir.”

“Something amiss, Commander?” Jack asked.

“Sir...” Loftus continued to frown. “Only twenty-four hours?”

“No rest for the wicked.”

Her frown deepened. “Shall I have the jolly roger raised atop the primary hull, Captain?”

“Only after we've claimed our treasure,” Jack said with a grin as he sat in his command chair. “We don't want our victims to have any warning.”

***

Jack stepped into the turbolift just outside his ready room, his mind on who he was about to meet, and what they'd be discussing. The lift stopped on deck one, just outside the Chamberlain's bridge. The door opened to a smiling Zaylie Burton.

“Captain,” she said as she stepped in, spun about one hundred and eighty, and stood as the turbolift resumed its motion.

“Lieutenant,” Jack replied absently, his mind still lost in thought.

“Just before I was relieved on the bridge, I noticed the Virginia had come into orbit,” Zaylie said, her eyes still forward.

“Yes,” Jack said.

“Am I to assume you are meeting Commodore Dameron?”

Jack's eyes narrowed and turned to a grinning Burton. “You're not to assume anything.”

“We were directed off our mission to come here to Baku, and then another starship arrives at about the same time,” Zaylie said. “That alone invites my curiosity.”

“You know what they say about curiosity and the cat.”

“I'm not a feline, sir,” Zaylie said. “Primates are known to achieve amazing things when we indulge our curiosity... space travel, advanced medicine, art, literature...”

“Just because you're a full lieutenant now, doesn't give you leave to stick your nose into matters that don't concern you,” Jack said.

Zaylie's smile faded. “Permission to speak freely, sir?”

Jack was taken aback at her request. Now he was intrigued. “Of course.”

“Commodore Dameron is an unprincipled megalomaniac. If he is here to send us on a mission, I would suggest we look for his ulterior motives before blindly following any of his orders.”

Jack took a step back and smiled. “Well... you've certainly got a strong opinion of the man.”

“Have you read my report concerning the incident on Echota Four?”

Jack nodded.

“In my opinion, he should not be allowed to wear the uniform, and most certainly should not be in command of a Sovereign class starship.”

“Starfleet Command disagrees,” Jack said. “They cleared him of any wrong doing on Echota Four.”

Zaylie frowned. “I'm sure there was no undue pressure placed on the review board in that case.”

“Rather cynical, aren't you? It usually takes someone ten years or more in Starfleet to develop that sort of sourness.”

“I know what he did, sir. And I know what would have happened to the indigenous species on that world if I and my friends hadn't been there.” She grinned. “An admiral I know once told me to never back down when I know I'm right.”

Jack turned to her. “I need a pilot to take me down to Baku. Want to volunteer?”

Zaylie smiled. “Why do you think I'm here?”

GO TO CHAPTER 3