Home, home on the range

Posted on Sun May 10th, 2020 @ 11:24am by Lieutenant Commander William Gunnison & Cole Gunnison

The morning after many of the crew had been at the captain's party planetside Will and Cole headed into the transporter room.

"Good morning, Sir," the transporter operator said. "Almost didn't think anyone would be up and about this early, after the party last night."

"Yeah, a couple last-minute things kept me up here," Will replied, providing the beam-down coordinates to where he and Cole were headed. "I could have dumped them onto one of the junior officers in Ops, but figured I'd be nice and handle them myself."

"Missed out on a smashing party. Lt. Cmdr. Rogers put on quite the performance at the piano."

"So I heard," Will said. When he had spoken with Tamarack a short while ago, the rather puzzled Vulcan had quizzed him on the lyrics to the song Rogers had played. Moving up to the transporter pad next to Cole, Will said, "Energize."

Moments later the two found themselves on a pathway on Earth. Nearby was a house, and just beyond that a wooded area. Will took a deep breath. It had been a while since he'd been home, even when he was on Earth in the time after Kelly's death, before taking up the posting on the Astraea.

"Ready to see everyone again?" he asked Cole.

"Oh, yeah," Cole said with a grin. Will knew that while he had certainly missed seeing everyone, it had been harder on Cole in some ways. Will had gotten used to being away after joining Starfleet, but for Cole it wasn't as easy, after spending practically all of his life here on Earth, to be uprooted from here and transplanted to the Astraea.

They headed towards the house, and soon found that their arrival hadn't gone unnoticed. The front door opened, and Will's dad stepped outside and headed over. Will and his father gave each other a quick embrace.

"Good to see you back, son," Andrew Gunnison said.

"Good to be back, Dad," Will replied.

"And who is this big fellow you've got with you?" Andrew asked.

"Hey, Grandpa," Cole said, giving his grandfather a hug.

"Whoa, easy there," Andrew said. "I'm not as young as I used to be."

"You're not that old, Grandpa," Cole told him.

"Old enough," his grandfather replied. "You two are just in time for breakfast. When we heard you were coming by for a while, I managed to corral the family together to be here this morning."

As if on cue, what almost seemed like a stampeding group of wild animals came charging around the corner of the house as Cole's Gunnison cousins headed their way. With shouts of "Cole!" they practically grabbed him and all but carried him off, peppering him with all sorts of questions, such as about what life was like on a starship and if he'd seen any "weird freaky alien creatures." Will and his dad watched the group head off towards the back of the house, where picnic tables had been put many years before.

"Come on," Andrew said when the group was out of sight. "Your mother's been anxiously awaiting you, and you know better than to keep her waiting."

The two headed into the house, where Will greeted his mother and his brothers and sisters-in-law. "You're just in time," his mother said after the obligatory hugs. "The cinnamon roles are ready. Better grab one before they're gone." Will nodded at the wisdom of the statement, and snagged one as he helped his parents take the prepared breakfast outside, where Cole and his cousins descended on it like a swarm of locusts (though Cole did stop long enough to greet his grandmother with a hug and his uncles with a high five).

"So, you're planning on staying here while you're on shorleave?" Andrew asked.

"For the most part," Will replied. "We'll probably go to see Kelly's family while we're here, so Cole can see that side of the family, though at least I would probably be returning here at nights. I think some of his Drake cousins were talking sleepover with him while he's here."

Andrew chuckled a bit. "Yeah, his cousins here have been talking about the same thing. I think they've already got stuff set up for sleeping outside under the stars."

"Seem to remember something about doing that ourselves at that age," Will's older brother Hunter said.

"Still could, if you old geezers feel up to it," Will's younger brother Jason commented to the two of them.

"Who you callin' old?" Hunter asked. "You're not that much younger than we are."

The two continued to banter as Andrew leaned over to Will and said, "Your old room's still available, if you're interested."

"Probably," Will said. "Besides, I get the feeling the kids will have a lot more fun without their dads hovering over them."

Later, after Will had put his stuff in his old room, he checked in briefly with the Astraea. "Just a couple of things to note," reported the ensign who was covering Ops at the moment. "The new StratOps chief said she'd like to meet with you at your earliest convenience. I did let her know you were on vacation at the moment with your family for a few days."

"If it's time sensetive, though, let her know that I can certainly meet with her before my normally scheduled return date," Will said. "I'll have my comm badge with me at all times, and she can contact me that way. I can meet with her on board, though she's also welcome to come down here as well, depending on what she wishes. I'll leave it to her discretion."

"Also, the work as tentatively started on installing holoemitters into the ship's lounge," the ensign said, and Will recalled the recent work request that had been filed by Ashe on that, which had quickly been approved by the captain. "From the latest report, Ashe wishes to shut down the lounge and get the whole job done in one fell swoop while most of the crew is out of the way and we haven't got anything more pressing to do. Lt. Tamarack has seen to putting the furniture into storage, and says that if you have no objections he'll help out with handling any of the programming needs for the project."

"That's all right by me," Will said. "Let him know that he gets extra shoreleave time the next time we're in the neighborhood of Vulcan. Anything else?"

"Well, there is one thing," the ensign said, sounding a bit sheepish. "Our new intel chief just ran a mock bomb scare a little while ago. Scared more than a few people."

"Well, as long as it was only a mock bomb scare," Will said. What was it with the Astraea getting unusual intel chiefs, anyway? ""Anyway, if there's nothing else, I'll see you in a few."

"Have a nice shoreleave, Sir. Astraea out."