“No, sir,” Will told him.

“That’s good, because if I did, I’d get you booted off this ship so fast your head would spin.”

“What’s your position again, Marc?” Will asked.

“You don’t know because I didn’t tell you, Ensign Baby-face. I’m a tactical officer.”

“So you couldn’t actually boot me off the ship yourself.”

“But I know the captain much better than you do,” Marc pointed out. “So watch your step.”

“Yes, sir,” Will said with a chuckle.

“Now, an Oberth-class ship has a pretty unique construction,” Marc continued, as if he hadn’t interrupted his own lecture for a gag. Will took what he said to be the truth, for the most part, since it agreed with what he knew about Oberths.But he tried to stay alert for any lies. “The saucer section, which contains the bridge, is connected to the port and starboard warp nacelles. The warp nacelles are connected to the long engineering hull. But the saucer itself is not connected to the engineering hull, except via the nacelles.” He drew a diagram in the air to illustrate his point. The long, narrow engineering hull ran horizontally underneath the saucer section, and the large spar that stuck out behind the saucer, with the warp nacelles out to the sides holding the whole thing together.

“But you can beam between the saucer and engineering,” Will speculated.

“Of course, if you need to get there in a hurry. We don’t, right now, so we’re walking. You can also get there by turbolift, although because the lifts need to be shunted off to the nacelles before going down to the engineering hull, there is a momentary delay. It’s not long but it might seem long compared to turbolift operation on other ships.”

They reached a narrow, steep passageway where they had to descend on ladders. “We’re inside the struts now,” Marc said. “There’s not much functionality here, except for connecting the various parts of the ship. It’s an interesting design, but you can see why it didn’t really catch on for other classes of ships.”

He led Will through the engineering section, which looked much like every other engineering section Will had ever seen, and introduced Will to an assortment of engineering staff whose names he knew he wouldn’t remember until he’d met them all again a few times. That didn’t take long, and then they were climbing up, instead of traveling via turbolift, the port strut to the port warp nacelle. The ship, as far as Will could tell, was in excellent shape. If she’d had any problems or damage at any point, it had been thoroughly repaired and patched. When they finally made their way back to the saucer section, Marc showed Will the crew quarters, including his own berth. As a junior officer, Will had a single room, with a bed that tucked into the wall until a control panel was pressed and a washbasin hidden away beneath a shelf. The walls themselves were a soft pastel off-white, with blue-gray trim and accessories here and there. The replicator was built into the wall opposite the bed, and there was a tiny, curved worktable in one corner. Compared to his Academy quarters it was a little cramped, but it would serve his needs. A crew member had already dropped off his belongings, he saw.

“Home sweet home,” he said as he looked at the room.

“Until you get promoted, anyway,” Marc told him. “Then you get a place big enough to turn around in.”

“Good incentive.”

“You can personalize it to your heart’s content, though,” Marc assured him.

“I don’t own much,” Will said, pointing to the duffel he had brought on board. “A couple of books, some uniforms, that’s about it.”

“That’s good,” Marc said with a grin. “If you had any more, you’d have to borrow space from someone else who owned even less than you. And frankly, that person would just be pathetic.”

Leaving his quarters behind, Will followed Marc around the saucer section. He saw the holodeck, the shuttlebay, the transporter rooms, the observation lounge, and perhaps most importantly, he thought, suddenly realizing that it had been many hours since breakfast, the mess hall and lounge. In this area he also saw quite a few civilians walking around. As Marc had suggested, families were common on the ship, and he guessed that some of the people out of uniform were the spouses and children of the crew.

“When are you supposed to be on duty?” Marc asked him as they watched the parade of humanity pass by.

“Not until tomorrow morning,” Will said. “I was to report to the ship today, but my first shift is tomorrow.”

“That’ll give you some time to get acclimated,” Marc said.

“That’s what I was thinking too. When do we push off?” He had boarded the ship at Starbase 10, after shuttling there from San Francisco the day before.

“Push off?” Marc echoed. “We’ve been under way for the last hour.” He swiveled and led Will back to the observation lounge, but this time he opened the door and they went inside. Will peered through the large windows and saw the starscape drifting past them.

“Indeed we are under way,” he observed. “Smooth.”

“Nothing’s second-rate on the Pegasus,” Marc told him. “Tomorrow morning it’ll be your turn to fly smooth. Think you can do it, Babyface?”

Will swallowed once. He wouldn’t have been assigned the job if Starfleet hadn’t had faith in his abilities. Unless,he thought, Superintendent Vyrek just wants me far away from her.

“I can do it.”

Marc Boylen nodded. “That’s good. You keep thinking that way.” He drew back one of the chairs and sat down at the long, shiny table. “Have a seat, Ensign.”

Will did as he was told. Marc looked serious again. Will had only known the man for a short time, but he knew these serious moments were rare and should be taken, well, seriously. He waited.

“You’re going to be on this ship for a long time, Ensign Babyface,” Marc said. “Years. You ready for that? That’s the hardest part of the job, for some.”

Will had given a great deal of thought to this aspect of the job. What was he leaving behind on Earth, though? He had no family, except a father who had abandoned not only him but also, apparently, his career and everyone who had depended on him. He had no girlfriend, and the few friends he had left that he felt close to were all scattered on their own postings. Of the class that had graduated with him, there were only two other cadets he knew who had wound up on the Pegasuswith him, and neither were especially good friends.

“I’m ready,” he said finally.

“You won’t miss Earth?”

“Sometimes, I guess. Not a lot.”

“Where’d you live, before the Academy? I’m from Vermont. Stowe. Not much skiing around here, except on the holodeck.”

“Valdez, Alaska,” Will said. “So I guess we’re both used to plenty of snow.”

“You ski?”

“Cross-country,” Will said. “Downhill’s okay but it’s not really my thing.”

“We’ll have to go out sometime,” Marc said. “What else are you going to miss? Got a lover?”

Felicia’s face flashed through Will’s mind but he forced the image away. Ancient history. “No, not now.”

“Family?”

“No.”

Marc scrutinized him. “You have a life at all, outside the Academy?”

“I guess not much of one,” Will admitted. “I’m kind of career-oriented, I guess.”

“You’ll do fine, then, on this ship. Just remember, there will be times when you’ll get homesick, no matter what kind of home you left behind. There’ll be times when you miss having terra firma under your feet. If it gets bad, you can talk to the ship’s counselor, or you can talk to me.”

“What will you do about it?” Will challenged.

“Laugh in your face,” Marc said. “Won’t do much for you, but it’ll make me feel a whole lot better.”

“I appreciate that, Marc,” Will said, chuckling. “It’s nice to know you’re looking out for me.”

“I’m a tactical officer,” Marc reminded him. “I look out for everyone. I’m only looking out for you because you’re such a rookie, and because I don’t want you to run us into anything when you’ve got the helm.”