USS Sword of Damocles
Orbit of Galileo-23546f, Galileo-23546 Star System
0300 Hours, August 24th, 2381
For Commander William Foulke, there were few moments where he felt truly in his element. These environments were often involved in the operation of some vehicle or system, and in this particular instance, the captain’s chair aboard a Defiant-class starship was his area of comfort. It took a lot to remove that gnawing feeling of despair and loneliness that seemed to increase the further he wandered from home. But the concept of home seemed all the more distant to him these days. Where exactly was home? Was it somewhere in the reaches of the Barrier Nebula of the Sirius Sector, nestled in some officer’s quarters aboard a sleek warship of transhumanist intention? Or in a quiet back alley, smushed in between two collapsing housing projects on the eastern banks of New Boston’s massive harbor? Perhaps it instead lay in this new galaxy full of faces he struggled to recall, even if he never knew them, in some misguided effort to place a personal history or heritage in this emotional and social purgatory. The answer wasn’t an easy one to come to. It rarely ever was with his questions.
He sat in the quietly authoritative chair of command amid the rest of the bridge, sipping on that jolting cocktail of caffeinated Klingon delight known as a raktajino. It was certainly one perk of being stranded in this brave new world.
Something was different this time, however. The planet on the viewscreen wasn’t some godforsaken barren wasteland, nor was it a gaseous monster that loomed over everything below a star in size. It was blue and green and beautiful, resplendent in the azure and white light of the stars it orbited. Two moons, one white and pockmarked like Luna and another red-orange with Martianesque rust, adorned its vicinity. Paradise beckoned in front of the Sword of Damocles.
Will wasted little time.
“Begin probing and surveying of this planet and other significant celestial bodies in the system at once. Inform the Admiralty of our findings immediately. Provide a live feed of our findings, if you can,” he ordered with a look of stern command that barely hid his childlike joy at the prospect of finding a new home. Even his embittered veteran of a heart, with all its lifetime of wounds and pain, could not defend itself against the primal ecstasy for exploration that resided in the nomadic soul of every human being.