The Journey is the Worthier Part - 21104.01

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By Jonathan Cooper

"How did I let you bring me here again?" Jonathan asked, unsure how it happened. Sure, Melanie was back in his life now, and he'd needed some serious R&R time after the debacle in the Eisn system, but out drinking had never been his idea of a good way to enjoy himself.

Not that he was complaining about the company, at least.

She smiled at him like she always did. "Surely it's not so bad. At least it's just a bar, not a club or something." He had to admit, she did pick a good spot. The music wasn't bad, the drinks weren't either, and it had this intimate appeal that he was rather enjoying, if he had to admit it. So he nodded and took another sip of his drink.

"So, I have to ask: why'd you join the fleet?" she asked. "I mean, you never really struck me as the kind to go out exploring the vast nothingness out there."

Jonathan smiled at her, set his drink down. "I may be more the lab scientist, but that doesn't mean I'm not adventurous. Just takes me some time."

  • * * * * *

Back home I had this friend, Shawn Koltis. We grew up together like boys do, getting into trouble and generally having a good time. There was this one time we were wandering the back alleys of our home district and got lost. I said I'd been following him, and he just said he was following me! We thought it was hilarious at the time, at least until Dad got into me. But that's a different story.

This time, we were in high school. It was summer, not that that meant much to us in the hab dome, but it meant a few weeks out of school. Of course, I had my head too far into a book for that to mean a lot. Just meant I had the quiet of my room to read in rather than having the droning of a teacher.

One day, I'm having lunch with Shawn. We didn't have many classes together at this point; he really wanted nothing more than to go down into the mines with his dad, while I wasn't so sure. I'd read too many books about the other worlds of the Federation to be satisfied grubbing in the dirt. "What else are you going to do?" he asked me.

Anything else was the answer, of course, but I couldn't tell him that. So I fell back on my standard response: "I don't know."

This, of course, failed to satisfy him. "You'd just get lost out there, much space as there is." He let out a hearty laugh. "You couldn't even find your way home from the next district half the time."

Now, this was a challenge. I may have been a bookish kid - okay, so I still am, mostly - but that wasn't something I could ignore. "Yes, I could. You were the one that kept getting lost." A few minutes more of hyperbole back and forth, of course, and we wind up at the kicker. "I bet you I can get to the top of the dome and back."

Shawn just smiled. Evidently, he'd planned on something like this, and I'd walked right into it. "Really?" he said, that smug look on his face. I could feel my own face falling as I realized just what I'd done. Several words went through my head and my mouth, most of which my mother would've beat me for if she heard them. There was nothing for it, though. The race was on.

I don't know if you've ever been in a hab dome of that size, and especially of that age. There were so many maintenance shafts that, strung end to end, they'd easily encircle a world or two, with mileage to spare. The main hallways were more like streets, each level and district a city in their own right, and none of it having access to the outside world.

We were from the working class, the ones that worked the mines themselves rather than the bureaucrats that ran the things. So, accordingly, we lived in the lower levels of the dome, far from the gilt and glamour of the inner hab. To say I'd be unwelcome there would be an understatement. And the inner sections weren't so densely populated that I'd be unnoticed.

Well, I say I. I mean 'we', because there was no way on earth I was doing this without Shawn following me. He helped me into this mess, he can help me out of it.

So we set off. First little while was easy enough; 'terrain' similar enough to what we were used to, and people we at least somewhat recognized. We stuck mostly to the streets and ramps, because time was important. You never met my mom, but while she's one of the sweetest people I know, she had a core of iron. No, really; she had the iron core of an old pickaxe, and she'd threaten me with it if I got too far out of line.

It wasn't until we got towards the upper-class districts that I had problems. After all, for a long time I didn't need anything more than a vague 'up-and-center' direction. Eventually, though, we started to get more conspicuous, and had to make our way through the maintenance areas. We ran through a couple of different tram tunnels before getting high enough that those were left behind. If I'd known how close we came to some incredibly dangerous things that day - remember, this thing was built around the time of the Federation's founding, and upgrades were slow, if they came at all - I probably wouldn't have gone at all. But I didn't know, and ignorance, as they say, is bliss.

We finally made it, landing ourselves at the pinnacle of the dome, one of the few places where they'd actually put transparent panels so you could see out, and the only one that actually had some form of view.

We'd both 'seen' the surface of the planet, but only in pictures and vids. It was even worse than I'd believed, the barren landscape wracked by storms. I knew why they built this place, but still, it made me sad to see it. Shawn, though, just had this dumbfounded look on his face. He'd probably never thought about the world beyond the dome and the mine. It just didn't matter to him. I made a decision that moment: I may have had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, but I was never going to let my life be that limited. There was too much out there for me to stay here and just read about it.

I didn't really decide to join Starfleet for a couple more years, but that day was the most important part of the decision, and I still thank Shawn for that resolve. I'm happy he's found his calling there in the mines, even if I never could've done the same.

Anyway, long story short, we got lost on the way back, winding up in a district at least thirty degrees clockwise of our own, and we had to make a long trek back to our own area. I lost the bet as a result, though I pointed out to Shawn that he never had me actually make a wager. I had a smug smile of my own on as I made the observation.

Needless to say, mom was waiting for me at the door when we got there. She punished me, though it was fair. I knew I shouldn't have gone off like I did, so I can't argue with that. It's what came after that bothered me.

A few days later, I talked with dad about the experience, how I thought I wanted to go off learn more out here among the stars. He wouldn't hear it. When I was adamant that I didn't want to go to the mines, he grabbed me and said that I was going, and that there would be no discussion on the matter. Not exactly one of the happiest conversations I'd ever had with my father, though at least we talked back then. Our relationship's just gone straight downhill since.

Mom was more understanding. She knew I wasn't going to be happy down there, and encouraged me to do what it was I felt I should. Need to go and send her a letter once we're done here, actually.

  • * * * * *

"Wow," Melanie said. "Don't think I've ever heard you open up like that before." She took one of his hands in hers.

He smiled weakly. "That's because I haven't, not in a long time." He took a drink with his free hand, waved at the barkeep after he finished it. "Maybe it's not the best story in the world, definitely not the most exciting. Not like those Dirk Gently holostories you go through."

She smiled at him. "Maybe not, but it's better anyway."

After getting fresh drinks, he asked "So, you've heard my story. Why'd you join up? Surely a beautiful, smart girl like you could do better than the military life."

"Yeah, well, I've always had a thing for a uniform," she laughed. Jonathan just kept smiling at her through his drink until she nodded. "Well, if you absolutely must know, when I was growing up on Alpha Centauri, we had a school trip to tour the visiting USS Valkyrie..."