Chapter 06

Chapter 6

The bed in the brig was even harder than Brett had imagined. He thrashed around, trying in vain to find a comfortable position. Finally he gave up and sat up.

This wasn’t the first time he’d been held in a Federation cell. The first time happened his sophomore year at the Academy when the campus police found him sleeping on a bench completely nude and reeking of liquor. When the police woke him, Brett couldn’t remember how he’d ended up on the bench, where his clothes had gone, or where he’d gotten the liquor.

“Maybe this will jog your memory,” one of the guards said, shoving him into the cell. He tossed a red prisoner’s jumpsuit into the cell after Brett.

After putting on the jumpsuit, Brett collapsed onto the bed of the cell and went back to sleeping off his hangover. In the morning he would have to explain himself and he would need to be well-rested. Since this was the third similar incident they might even recommend booting him from the Academy. That would come as no surprise to anyone back home. They didn’t think he’d get this far to start with.

“You’ll never amount to anything. Just like your father,” Grandpa Boutwell had said the day Brett left for San Francisco.

So far Brett hadn’t done anything to prove them wrong. Two arrests for drunk and disorderly conduct and another for sexual congress with a minor—how could Brett know the legal age for Grundar females was twenty-five instead of eighteen? Washing out after this latest incident would only prove Grandpa Boutwell’s lack of faith in him.

Afterwards, he supposed he could always go back to Wisconsin to work on the farm with his grandparents. He could milk cows the rest of his life. That thought sobered him up more than twelve hours of sleep could have.

Someone tapped on the doorframe of the cell. He looked up to a willowy girl with deathly pale skin and brown hair braided to her waist standing there. “Are you my lawyer?” he asked.

“No,” she said, her voice hardly a whisper. “I came by to check on you after what happened.”

“What did happen? You’ll have to fill me in on the details. I’ve had a little much to drink.”

In her timid voice, the girl explained Brett and some friends had been visiting her roommates. Liquor was passed around, Brett drinking more than anyone. The party ended with him tearing off his clothes and promising to run all the way across campus naked. He only got halfway there before passing out on the bench.

“I was worried you might freeze,” the girl said.

“The boys in blue made sure I didn’t,” Brett said. “So, did we have a good time at the party?”

The girl’s face turned a violent red. “I didn’t do anything. I was trying to sleep when you and your friends came in. I guess I should leave now.”

“Hold on a second—” He tried to think of her name but couldn’t remember seeing her around before.

“Robyn Monroe.”

“Oh, of course. Thank you for coming by, Robyn. Maybe we could see each other again under happier circumstances.”

“Maybe,” she said before leaving.

They didn’t boot him from the Academy. He received a stern lecture and a year’s probation. One more incident and he would end up on the first shuttle back to Wisconsin to milk the cows. This thought more than anything prompted him to change his ways. No more drinking or partying. From now on he would study and behave himself. He’d get through the Academy, if for no other reason to show up at Grandpa Boutwell’s house in his Starfleet uniform and prove he wasn’t a no-account like his father.

As part of his turning over a new leaf, he paid a visit to Robyn Monroe. She answered the door in sweats, her hair unbound to cover her back. At the sight of him, a small cry escaped her throat.

“Sorry to show up so late. I just wanted to thank you for coming by the other night.”

“Oh, it was nothing,” she said.

“I thought maybe we could get some coffee. If you’re not too busy studying or anything.”

“Coffee? That would be fine. Let me get dressed first.” She closed the door on him, leaving him to wonder if she was calling the campus police to get him. But she opened the door a few minutes later, wearing a loose-fitting green dress that matched her eyes. “I’m ready.”

On the way to an old-style coffeehouse frequented by the cadets, Brett did most of the talking. He described growing up in Wisconsin with his grandparents after Mom died and his father disappeared. “It was a lot of hard, smelly work,” he said.

“Sounds awful,” she said.

“It could have been worse.” He opened the door for her and led her to a table in the corner. “What about you?”

She came from a proud Starfleet tradition, tracing her roots back to Captain Archer of the original starship Enterprise. Her mother worked at Starfleet Medical while her father commanded a starbase in the Rigel system. Robyn had been preparing for her entry to the Academy since her sixth birthday, when her father took her on a tour of his ship, the Saratoga.

“Didn’t you ever consider doing anything else?” Brett asked, sipping from his mug of coffee.

“Why?”

“I don’t know. Just because your parents are in Starfleet doesn’t mean you have to be.”

“That’s not why I’m here,” she said. Her face took on a faraway look as she explained, “I’ve always dreamed of seeing what’s out there, to explore all those strange new worlds.”

“So are you hoping for a research ship then?”

“If that’s what they give me. I just want to do my part, no matter what kind of ship it is.”

“I’d like one of those new Galaxy-class ships myself. The firepower on those is amazing.”

Robyn reeled back as if he’d slapped her at this. “Starfleet isn’t about firepower and war. It’s about bringing peace and hope to everyone. Force is only a last resort.”

“Sometimes you have to bring the sword along with the olive branch. Didn’t your daddy teach you that?”

“How dare you!” Robyn slammed her mug onto the table and shot to her feet. For a moment she hovered by the chair as if considering whether or not to slap Brett or throw hot coffee in his face. True to her pacifist leanings, she stomped away without doing either.

Brett sat there in shock for a moment, everyone in the coffeehouse looking at him. Then he got up and raced after her, catching her at the entrance to her dormitory. “Robyn, I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to say that.”

“I should have known you were no good from the way you acted at the party.”

“Look, Robyn—”

“No, you look,” she said, her voice rising and face flushing red with anger. “You’re the type of person we don’t need around here. You probably read too many holonovels about Jim Kirk as a kid and dreamed about blasting Klingons and having sex with women everywhere you went. That’s not what Starfleet is about. It’s about doing good, not fulfilling your own selfish delusions of grandeur.”

As she stood there quivering with fury, he did the only sensible thing: he surrendered. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for it to come out like that. Doing good for others is why I’m here too. I want to do something meaningful with my life, not end up like my father.”

The kiss took him completely by surprise. Before he could even register her lips touching his, she was already pulling away and running into her dormitory. The door slammed shut, leaving him standing alone in the night.