Going Home

Logan and Bridie arrived at the transfer and headed straight for the shuttle that would take them out to Jupiter station where a vessel, the *USS Reliant* was preparing to leave for the New Canada system. Both were dressed in casual clothing, which made them stand-out a little amongst all the Starfleet uniforms. Logan checked that Bridie’s possessions had been loaded onto the shuttle, whilst Bridie carried the two small back-packs onto the shuttle and took a seat.

As soon as Logan was onboard, the shuttle doors closed and within minutes they were in space once more, leaving Earth again. There wasn’t much to see from the back of the shuttle, but it only took fifteen minutes at high-impulse for the shuttle to reach Jupiter station.

Apart from Logan and Bridie, the only other passenger on the shuttle was a Starfleet Lieutenant dressed in a Science\Medical uniform. She had dark eyes, which suggested to Logan that she was probably Betazoid, but the red hair made him think twice. She didn’t make much eye contact with her two fellow passengers during the journey and disappeared almost as soon as they landed.

Two hours after arriving on Jupiter Station, they were stood in one of the three dozen transporter rooms on the station, waiting for their turn to beam across to the *USS Reliant*. As they sat waiting, Logan noticed that there was a second cargo container, stood on top of the one containing Bridie’s possessions. Logan could not make out the baggage label, but obviously whoever it belonged to, they were also heading for the *Reliant*.

Finally two techs arrived and placed the cargo containers onto the transport platform. Moments later, they disappeared and the transporter officer signalled for Logan and Bridie to move up onto the platform.

As they re-appeared in the transporter room of the *Reliant*, they were quickly assigned to their quarters and then ushered into the mess area. The *Reliant* was a science variant of the Nova class starship, designed for planetary exploration and short-term, deep space missions. From what Logan had been able to gather, the vessel was going to be exploring what had been the DMZ between Mulluran and G’Kar space before the second Mulluran war.

As they stepped through the doors the first thing that hit Logan was the red hair on the Starfleet officer who had her back to them, it was obviously the woman from the shuttle.

Logan’s first instinct was to walk up to the table where she was sitting and introduce himself, but as the woman reacted to the opening of the doors, Logan saw something in those dark eyes that said stay away. Whilst the mess hall was not the largest he had seen, there were enough tables spare that they could leave her to her solitude. Bridie however had no such inhibitions, strolling in and immediately recognising the woman as well and without hesitation walked up to the table.

“Is anyone sitting here ?” Bridie asked.

At first the woman appeared a little shocked by the sight of a child being onboard and then recognised Bridie as the girl from the shuttle. The woman looked around and saw the man who had also travelled with them. He was obviously the girl’s father, although the feelings she was getting from both of her new travel companions were a little confusing. Putting it down to being out of practise, she said that the seats were not taken. Bridie ushered over Logan and the three sat down.

“Thank you.” Bridie said. “We saw you on the shuttle didn’t we ?”

“Yes.” The woman replied. “Sorry I haven’t introduced myself…..Alexandra Faal and you….”

“I’m Bridie…..” Bridie answered.

The way Bridie had stopped her sentence puzzled Alex who could sense a great deal of confusion from the girl, but didn’t push it.

“ Logan McQueen.” Logan added, holding out his hand. “So where are you heading ?”

“To my new posting in the New Canada system.” Alex stated. “Serenity to be exact.”

“Then we’ll be travelling together.” Logan laughed. “We’re heading for Serenity ourselves.”

“Do you live there ?” Alex asked, looking at Bridie.

“Never been.” Bridie replied. “This will be my first time on Serenity.”

Although Alex didn’t let it show, she was now a little confused. She could sense that there were strong emotions from Logan with regards to Bridie, but Bridie’s emotions towards Logan were not as strong. Alex decided to use her training to seek out the problem.

“What about you Logan ?” Alex asked.

“I’ve lived on Serenity for a couple of months now.” Logan replied, watching Alex study both of her travelling companions. From the way she was phrasing her questions, Logan was starting to make an educated guess as to what Alex’s profession was and where she might be stationed.

“So why did you come back to Earth ?” Alex asked. “Was it for the Christmas holidays ?”

“Unfortunately not.” Logan replied.

Suddenly Alex could sense a great deal of emotional pain coming from both of them, but it wasn’t until she heard Bridie start to cry, that her counselling instincts told her to back off.

“I’m sorry.” She apologised.

“It’s fine….you weren’t to know.” Logan stated. “It’s a little complex to explain, but Bridie’s parents were killed recently. Her mother’s wish was that should anything happen to her, Bridie should get a chance to meet her biological father, which is me.”

Now everything started to fit into place, the strong emotions Logan had towards Bridie were natural, as where the guarded response from Bridie. Her counselling instincts started to take over once more and they told her to back off gently.

“If there’s anything I can do to help, either whilst we’re on the ship or when we reach Serenity, please let me know.” Alex offered. “That’s what I trained for.”

“So you’re a counsellor !” Logan remarked, his suspicions confirmed.

“For my sins yes.” Alex confirmed. “I’ll leave you two alone for a while; let me know if there’s anything I can do.”

“Thank you.” Logan replied.

With that gesture, Alex rose from her seat, smiled at Bridie who was still sobbing and headed out of the door, tears starting to well up in her own eyes. She quickly wiped away the first tears and headed for her assigned quarters.