The Ride Home "
By: Ian Hunter, Commanding Officer, [PC]
Teilani Dane, Chief Medical Officer, [PC]

Stardate: 58207.25 0600

By the time Dane awoke, Hunter was standing at the helm wheel, navigating the Bajoran solar sail vessel in a wide arc around the system's sun.

"Good morning," said Hunter noticing Dane was awake.

"Good morning Captain." she said perky. She looked outside, "it's going to be a beautiful morning."

Hunter arched his brow, "I reckon it is the same here every morning," he said with smirk. "Or perhaps you were referring to the pot of coffee I have brewing, its a Jamaican blend."

Teilani smiled. "Captain your a man to my heart," she said and turned towards the kitchenette where indeed a fresh pot of coffee stood waiting for her. Taking a full mug of the brew she closed her eyes and smelled the coffee scent.

"Can you imagine Sir that someone tried to convince me to give this up?"

"You? give up coffee?" chuckled Hunter.

She nodded. "Yes Counselor Patia and myself had a massage on QT and the masseur told me that I had to drink more water and leave the coffee."

"Probably a good idea, but..."

"Impossible, I thrive on the stuff. So where are we now?" she said as she stepped closeer to Hunter, sipping the mug of coffee.

"We're coming around the sun, soon to be on a heading back toward Bajor," said Hunter.

"I thought I would navigate the star's gravity well and let you sail back," he added.

"Sure I would love to..." Teilani responded as she looked out of the viewport.

Through the view port Dane could see the ship change heading, the sun was now behind them as they sailed back into the black of space.

"Here you go," said Hunter.

Finishing her coffee Teilani stepped into Hunter's place. Making a small adjustment to the sails, she checked the little gadget with the chart. "Looks like we will be making good time Sir,"

Hunter looked over from the galley, "excellent."

"Captain, what's that," Teilani said pointing out at one of the sails. "Looks like some sort of a reflection."

Hunter looked out the small view port, "I'm not sure."

"Same on the other side!"

Hunter hurried to the other portal and looked out.

"Sir!!" Teilani said turning towards Hunter, "if I am not mistaken it has all the characteristics of a solar flare!."

"Hang on!" said Hunter as the ship rocked violently.

Electronic devices popped and crackled as the solar flare engulfed the craft.

Smoke began to fill the compartment as Hunter stood up, "Doesn't anything ever go right?" he said sarcastically.

Teilani coughed and steadied herself against the wall. "Hey what can you expect Captain, we're Zion crew, trouble is our middle name right?"

After a quick assessment that everything would be fine, Hunter nodded, "Yeah, I guess so."

"I noticed a fire extinguisher in the cabinet over there Sir," she said pointing. "We have to get out of the way of the flare, we can not take another hit."

Hunter put out several small fires. "The com unit is gone," he announced tapping his combadge next. "We're out of communication range for the combadges too."

Then he pulled out a tricorder and scanned. "It appears the worse is over, there are several small flares coming but nothing serious. Funny the alarms didn't go off."

"I'm going to reduce the sails till only half their size, we can still use the wind and perhaps another push of the flare give us some sort of speed!" Teilani said.

"Good idea," said Hunter, "You're getting the hang of this aren't you?"

Teilani smiled brightly. "I think I do Captain. "Can you check if we are still on course some how Sir?"

Hunter pulled the small device from the floor. "Its smashed," he said.

Turning the wheels and locking them into place, Teilani turned around. In the meantime the sails were folding themselves to only half the size, and despite of that the vessel still sailed with considerable speed.

"Ok let's think, when we got here that star was on our left," Teilani said pointing at a big one. Only I can't remember for how long, now we are turned and so it must be on our right."

"How long did we take to get her from QT Sir?"

Hunter was impressed with Dane's response to the situation. Not unlike a Doctor in a trauma center. "About 8 hours," he said approaching the navigation table with the big map, "but we were tacking into the solar wind, now it will be a straight course.

"Tacking Sir?" Teilani asked.

"Uhm, yes," Hunter, "see, we had to zig-zag back and forth if you want to travel into the direction of the solar wind, now the wind is to our aft."

"Zig-Zag." Teilani asked questionably as she looked at the sail. "I see Sir."

"You know, I'm going to see if I can get the impulse engines back online just in case."

"That might be a good idea Captain," she replied as she manipulated the little wheels and could feel the ship rocking back and forth.

Hunter located the tool cache and removed several hatches on the floor. He lowered himself into the access pit.

Dane continued to continued to steer the vessel in the direction she believed would bring them nearer to Qul Tuq.

"How is it coming Captain?"

Not good, said Hunter who was standing waste deep inside the deck pulling out conduits and couplers. Tools and burned out devices were strewn about the access hole he was standing in.

Teilani arched an eyebrow as she saw the conduits and other technical equipment laying on the floor. In order to lighten the tension she said, "Now I know why chief Silvio doesn't let you alone in Engineering."

Hunter looked up and smirked, "yeah, well, Silvio was always a by-the-book kind of guy."

Teilani nodded. "Yup but he is darn good in his job. No pun intended Sir."

He smiled and continued to work. Several of the retro-fitted LCARs screens started to flicker to life. Pleased with his work, Hunter pulled himself out of the access pit and checked the display. "Perfect," said Hunter, "Okay Doctor, change course to zero-point-zero-six-six-five."

"Aye Sir," changing to zero-point-zero-six-six-five.

Hunter kicked the tools into the access pit and replaced the deck hatches. "How are you doing there?"

"Not to bad Captain." Teilani said as she stepped to the side, showing Hunter the progress they had made.

He smiled at her, "should be smooth sailing home, care for some wine?"

Teilani shook her head. "No thank you sir, never when I am at work and she pointed towards the helm.

Hunter smiled and and shook his head as he walked over to the helm. He nodded and gestured for Dane to take a step back. Hunter turned a small wheel beneath the helm wheel, locking it into position. "Autopilot" said Hunter, "..not work."

Teilani chuckled." You could have told me that before Captain."

Hunter took the bottle of wine and a pair of stemmed glasses from a small picnic basket. With an oldfashioned corkscrew he removed the cork from the glass bottle. "I found a supplier who makes authentic wine," said Hunter.

"Hmm then I would love to have a glass of wine." she replied. "Oh and it would be a shame to let these go to waste." and she pointed to the box of marsian delights.

Hunter sat down next to Dane who was already seated on the long circular seating area in front of the main view window. Several large planets in the Bajoran system could be seen looming against the backdrop of stars.

Hunter poured the wine into the doctor's cup, "To early space explorers," he said.

"Cheers," she responded and took a sip.

After a long pause, Hunter spoke up, "So what do you think about our mission returning to Earth?"

Teilani set her cup down and looked at Hunter, "It's dangerous but I think it will prove a challenge."

Hunter laughed lightly at her response, "a challenge?"

She nodded. "Yes sure, Earth is still under martial law, heavily occupied with Federation troops and you think it will be easy then for us to sneak in and out" She chuckled, some how the wine did not become her and she could feel it go to her head a little.

Hunter held up his glass, "Here's to stating the obvious!" he said laughing after taking another sip.

"Reminds me of an old earth song, it had some lyrics going like.... is it a plane, is it a car....... nooooooo its the Zion.. Teilani laughed again. It had been a long time since she had felt so relaxed and she truly enjoyed the little trip with Hunter, who as she studied him was still a cute guy to see.

"That's not any song, I've ever heard," he replied in a blurt. He took another sip and said, "now I have a song, a real sailing song from old earth..."

Hunter cleared his throat and made a pose like an opera singer, "What shall we do with a drunken sailor, oh what shall we do..."

Dane blushed and took another drink of her wine. "Its pretty potent stuff Captain," she responded.

Hunter stopped singing and picked up the stemmed glass and regarded it, "aye! lass,it is at that."

Teilani grinned, you are good at impersonating different voices are you Captain? What is that accent, scotish??"

Hunter laughed, "very good. I met a scottish man once, I think he became the XO of the Atlanta. Jack I think his name was. He wear a dress..no, no... a 'kilt' and then tells everyone that 'e we'ren't wear'n a thing under it," Hunter tapped his glass against Dane's and bottomed it up.

"Oh my goodness, you mean.... no underwear?" Teilani whispered and sipped from her wine. "Must have been chilly."

"Aye," said Hunter, then rubbing his chin thoughtfully, "say, have you met that computer specialist we have, uhm.. Tappert, yes, Maxine Tappert? She has an accent, I wonder where she is from."

"Yeah I only met her during her medical exam, I have no idea where she is from, but I did notice she seems to swallow some of the letters of the works. She is a nice person though, really good at her work. I believe that she and Silvio were the ones who got us out of the holodeck."

Hunter nodded, "yes, after I read everyone's report, I can only imagine how dangerous it could have been. I mean, last time that happened Commander Wright lost his hand."

Teilani rolled her eyes as Hunter spoke about Wright. That was one crewmember she just couldn't get along with. "Yeah the Commander was lucky this time."

"You were all lucky," added Hunter.

"Indeed we were." she replied and finished her drink. Somehow mentioning Wright did spoil the good mood she was in.

Dane seemed less comfortable all of a sudden, "Is something wrong?" asked Hunter.

"Oh no, its just that.... well.. can I be honest?

Hunter shrugged, "sure, speak freely."

"It seems that Commander Wright has gotten it in for me. He keeps on commenting everything I do. I never seem to be able to do anything right."

Hunter rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "as a commanding officer, he is supposed to provide feed back. In all his reports about you he has been fair and objective..." Hunter paused thoughtfully, "what makes you think he has it 'in' for you?"

"Well he never says it with so many words but I think he doubts my abilities as a doctor or even as a member of the crew. I can see it in his eyes.

Hunter sipped his glass of wine, "I think you are being paranoid Doctor."

He always seems to push me over the edge, now whether that is to annoy me or he wants to take over I don't know.

"Take over?" asked Hunter, "you mean the ship?"

"No no I mean sickbay. I know it sounds silly but frankly he makes me nervous." Teilani said softly. "I tried to get to know him a bit better but he refuses to let anybody get close."

Hunter poured more wine in their glasses, "well, some people are like that, you have to respect that."

"Oh but I do only it makes it difficult to understand. "I am not saying that Captain, its just that we clash everytime we meet, whether it is something I say or do, I don't know, we simple can not get along. And you know I am not really used to it. I mean its not that we need to be friends or so but I would like to know if I do something wrong. Heck even with the shuttle training I managed to rub him the wrong way." Teilani said, downing the wine in one go.

Hunter smiled, "It's okay, Commander Wright is a professional, I've never known him to take things personally."

Teilani chuckled, "Well you know what Captain, next time you mention my name, watch him closely and you will see that he will squeeze his eyes and he gets this look on his face as if I am a fly which needs to be swatted."

"Okay," said Hunter laughing, "I will see..." he said with skeptical sarcasm in his voice.

"You know this is good wine, " she replied. "Are you sure it has synthehol in it?"

"It certainly doesn't," said Hunter pouring the last drop between two glasses, "but it is gone."

"Darn," Teilani responded, she pulled up her long legs and wrapped her arms around them. "Captain...... can I ask you something?"

"Sure," he said taking a sip.

"You know last time..... she hesitated,.. back in your shuttle did we... I mean........ you know .... ehrm.. did we have .Teilani dreaded the next word... well did we have sex then??"

Hunter's jaw dropped, he was about to answer her truthfully when suddenly his combadge beeped:

"Unidentified bajoran vessel, warning, please respond immediately." Hunter quickly searched for his combadge which had fallen under the bunk during the solar flare. "This is Captain Ian Hunter," he replied.

"Sir, we've been attempting to hail you, and finally got you on all frequency hail. Is everything okay?"

"Not really, we had a run in with a solar flare. All our systems are burned out."

Would you like an escort back to Qul Tuq?

"That would be very good," said Hunter.

He closed the comlink and looked over at Dane who was getting up. "Well that is what they call saved by the bell right Captain?" she said. She raised her hand stopping Hunter in saying something. "You know Sir, I think its better if I didn't know."

Hunter smiled broadly at Dane with a devilish look.

Teilani turned the wheel which folded the sails and braced her self a little as the tractor beam hit the little sail ship.

She could see the reflection of Hunter in the viewscreen as he stood behind her. "You know Sir," she said. "I really had a great time."

Hunter came and stood behind her, "I did too."

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