One Last Look

Posted on Wed Jan 20th, 2021 @ 4:34pm by Vincent Anjes MD

Mission: Mission 12 - Railway
Location: Earth, Passenger Shuttle
Timeline: Backpost
425 words - 0.9 OF Standard Post Measure

Vinny looked over his shoulder one last time at his favorite vacation destination on Earth and smiled as the shuttle he was on lifted off and made it's rapid ascent, upward.

Vincent wasn't one for sentimental moments, usually, but he found it odd that he was having one now. The ranch that was owned and worked by one of his closest friends and his family. Vinny and Victor had been friends for years, forming an instant friendship while both serving on a Federation ship, years ago. Vincent a Starfleet Medical Officer, Victor, a Starlfeet Marine NCO. Through the years, the two held each other up during family tragedies, both adopting each other's family as their own. Victor was Vinny's best man at his wedding, and to this day the surgeon's favorite vacation spot to take leave was still that ranch in little Lubbock, Texas.

It had been almost three years since Vincent was on a ship, and he was excited...no, eager, to get back on one. While he didn't miss the rules and regulations of Starfleet, he did miss the sense of freedom that he only found on a starship, racing through space. Sure, he could have stayed on Betazed with his cushy job at the hospital, or even here on Earth, but it wasn't satisfying his need to be needed and helpful. He wanted to share his knowledge with the next generation of physicians and practitioners of medicine. You can only learn so much from a datapad, and his experiences were vast and maybe even a little unconventional.

The shuttle broke out of the atmosphere and the first thing that caught his eye was the enormous Starbase Earth, hovering over the planet with a stream of infinite shuttles and ships, coming and going. It looked like the micro arterial mapping of a species body, constantly in motion. He wondered how archaic the sickbay would be on the Mary Rose. It wasn't going to be the state of art facility that he had grown accustomed to in Starfleet and the hospital back on Betazed. It brought a smile to Vincent's face and the thought of having to go back to some of the more basic medical practices of his profession.

Vincent looked back at Earth as the shuttle made a final banking maneuver before going to warp, allowing one last look at the North American continent and just as he saw the outline of Texas and gave a nod, the shuttle leaped into warp and left the lone physician a last look at Earth.