Winds of Fortune

Ensign Alexandra Dalton came downstairs and ambled sleepily into the common kitchen area of the large apartment shared by the members of Banshee Squadron. The sliding glass door to the small, enclosed backyard was open, letting in the sun's warm morning rays, as well as the sounds of chirping birds, the breeze rustling in the bushes, the hubbub of pedestrian traffic, and the ever-present rumble of the nearby spaceport -- a typical urban symphony. Alex took a deep breath and smiled to herself. She liked this part of the day, when the world was just waking up.

Alex's wing commander, Lee Carter, was in the kitchen, but her disposition seemed anything but sunny. Despite the early morning hour, she was already haggard and frayed. She looked at the clock on the wall, then turned a sour face to Alex.

"Do you know what time it is?" she demanded.

Alex paused a moment from getting her morning cup of coffee and looked at the clock on the wall.

"7:45," she said helpfully, and resumed pouring her cup.

"I *know* what time it is!" exclaimed Carter. "I mean you're late! I just got off the comm with Captain Cross getting my butt chewed out because we're not at the hangar yet. We have a mission today, remember?"

"We do?" Alex sat down at the kitchen counter sipping her coffee and thumbed on the FNN newsfeed on her PADD. 

"Yes, we do," replied Carter, trying very hard not to lose patience with the youngest member of her team. "We're escorting that convoy of robot cargo ships out to Polon II."

Alex made a face. "Oh yeah. How could I forget that?" She took a long sip from her coffee and continued reading the news, giving no indication that she had any intention of getting herself ready for the mission.

Carter was floored. Clearly her squadron's extended leave had been *too* extended -- discipline had gone completely out the window and was in imminent danger of degenerating into outright insubordination! Something had to be done, and quick! But before she could give Ensign Dalton a stiff dressing-down, Lieutenant Josephine Schmidt staggered into the kitchen and headed straight for the coffee. She took her cup and plunked herself down next to Alex and yawned expansively before turning her attention to the morning newsfeed Alex was reading.

"Do you know what time it is?" demanded Carter of her still-groggy science specialist.

Jo craned her neck and peered at the clock on the kitchen wall behind her.

"7:47," she replied.

Carter threw up her hands and gave up. "Fine! Have it your way, you clowns. Maybe a brisk court-martial will shape you up."

Jo turned to Alex. "What's with her?"

Alex shrugged. "We've got a mission today. Escorting some robot ships or something. Guess Cross has been on her case this morning about it."

Jo made a face. "Oh yeah, that. How could I forget such an important mission like that?"

"I just don't understand you two," said Carter, genuinely perplexed. "The colonization of Polon II is the first big outward push in this sector since the end of the war. And the fact that it's a joint venture between the Federation and the G'kra makes it even more important. You two should be honored that we're involved, not kvetching around the house like a couple of old housewives!"

Jo set down her coffee cup. "Oh come on, Lee, give us a break will you? The colony on Polon II is already pretty well established. All we're supposed to do is baby-sit a couple of automated hundred-year-old Sherman-class barges while they drag a few megatons of cryo-suspended bio-mass across a few lightyears from here to the G'kra border at the breakneck pace of warp 3."

"Thanks for the plot exposition," said Carter sarcastically, but before she could continue, the sound of the front door of their apartment slamming open and shut reached their ears, and a few seconds later, Lieutenant Commander Maxine Vasser came barreling around the corner into the kitchen.

Carter breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank God at least someone is up and ready to go-- Hey, why aren't you in uniform, Max?"

"Because I quit."

At the kitchen counter, Jo and Alex spit out their coffee in a double-barreled spray of brown liquid, while Carter just stood staring open-mouthed at her second-in-command.

Max impatiently waited out the shock, and finally Carter recovered enough to speak. "You've always had a real strange sense of humor, Max, but there better be one helluva punch-line to this joke."

It was the response Max had expected. "If I was joking I would've said 'A duck walks into a bar'."

From her spot at the kitchen counter, Alex chortled, but quickly choked it back at a dirty look from Carter.

"I resigned from Starfleet this morning. I've sent official notice to Commodore Hunter, Captain Cross, and now I'm telling you," said Max.

Carter still didn't know what to say. She was surprised, angry, and hurt all at the same time and it was overwhelming. To buy her spinning brain time to assimilate, she stalled. "What the hell are you talking about, Max? You can't leave; you're my XO. You've been with this wing since the beginning--"

But then a new thought struck Carter. "Does this have anything to do with that month you spent inside that quantum pocket universe? Does this have anything to do with your father?"

"No, of course not," replied Max, but she didn't sound entirely convinced, even to her own ears.

"You sure?" asked Carter, concern tinting her words. "You've been through a helluva lot in the last year, Max. A lot more than the rest of us. You found your old best friend Jazz Phoenix alive on a prison planet after thinking she'd been killed during the Dominion War. But then she really was killed a few weeks later defending our lives against the Jelly Brain on Rostella. Then you thought for a while you had lost your esper ability and your usefulness to the team when we went up against the evil Vince Kelly and the Jelly Brain that stole Sam's mind. And to top it all off, a month ago you found your father after twenty years of thinking he was dead only to have him taken away from you again in a quantum universe implosion! It's enough to make anyone crack! Maybe you just need some more time off..."

"No." This time Max was resolute. "I've thought about it a lot. What happened inside the quantum wormhole made me question a lot of things -- the direction my life was going." Max broke into one of her rare smiles. It was meant to reassure her friends. "This is the right decision for me, trust me."

"Well... But still...," hemmed Carter. "This is way short notice, Max. I mean, we have a mission today. What am I supposed to do without my XO? With just these two clowns flying my wing?"

"I'm sorry, Lee," replied Max. Her voice had taken on a genuinely sympathetic tone and she took a small step closer to Carter. "I meant to break it to you guys a lot differently than this. I hope there's no bad feelings here -- it's nothing personal. The last thirteen years have been the best of my life and you all have been the best friends a girl could want. It's just that I only found out an hour ago that I have to leave *now*. West and me are gonna--"

"Whoa!" exclaimed Carter, convinced she couldn't possibly have heard Max right. "What did you say? *West* and you? I thought you hated West!"

"I *do!* I mean... I *did...* I mean -- oh hell. The guy kinda grows on you, y'know?"

Carter knew. She and West had had their own little adventure several months before, and she knew she'd never forget it, or him. She put her hand on Max's shoulder and said, "If this is what you think is the right thing to do right now, then you should do it. But we'll miss you around here."

From their spot on the sideline, Jo and Alex nodded vigorously. But then they were off their stools and crowding around Max. Hugs were given all around and well-wishes were expressed, until Max finally managed to extricate herself from the others.

"Knock it off, you guys. This isn't goodbye forever. You'll be seeing plenty of me around the system. And who knows... I'll probably wind up killing West, and then I'll be back bucking for my old job again."

"Things won't be the same without you, Max," said Alex.

Max smiled warmly at the rookie pilot. Not too many months ago, Alex had been a green recruit straight out of the Academy, but the war had changed her -- as wars tend to do -- and she had grown up into a full-fledged member of the team.

But now she had just one last duty to perform. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her closed fist and held it out to her former wing commander. When Carter held her palm under Max's fist, Max placed something in her hand.

"See you around, Commander," she said.

"Goodbye, Max," replied Carter.

Max turned on her heel and walked out of the kitchen without looking back. Three seconds later, Carter, Jo and Alex heard the front door close.

"Guess she needed some R&R after all," said Jo.

"She said she didn't want any more rest and relaxation," replied Alex.

"Resign and relocation."

"Oh."

Jo turned to her wing commander. "What are we going to do now, Lee?"

Carter opened her hand and looked at what Max had given her. In her palm rested two gold rank pips and one black one. Carter realized then that Max was never coming back.

"We go on with our mission," she said.