Pathways - Jeri Taylor [118]
One of their favorite pastimes was off-world skiing. Charlie, though still not at a competitive level, was more than up to deep powder runs, and it became a game with them to seek out the freshest and most pristine snows on the most obscure planets. The Academy would have frowned on such extracurricular activity, of course, but the officers didn’t think to scrutinize too carefully the behavior of four of its most stellar students.
Each was laying plans for the future, which seemed limitless. On a crisp and sparkling day in early spring, one in which San Francisco relented and allowed the sun to shine, the four sprawled in Tom and Charlie’s quarters, munching apples and anticipating graduation.
“Guess I’m a glutton for school,” mused Bruno. “I figure I’m looking at three more years for a graduate degree in astrophysics. But I’ll get more piloting experience at the same time, and then be qualified for deep-space exploration.”
“I’m hoping for a posting to a ship right away,” said Odile. “Any ship, big or small, just as long as I get into space and have the opportunity to fly.”
Tom’s heart constricted a bit. They’d definitely be going separate ways in a few months and he wasn’t sure how he’d stand it. But they had realized their careers might keep them apart for a while, and agreed that each must do what would best advance those careers. In a few years they’d reevaluate the situation and see if they wanted to change it. Tom believed that Odile was actually more comfortable with those arrangements than he was, which made him vaguely uneasy.
“Tommy and I are going head-to-head for the same post. May the best man win,” said Charlie with a grin.
“What’s that?” asked Bruno with curiosity, chewing the last fleck of fruit from an apple eaten nearly to the core.
“The Enterprise,” replied Charlie, casting a glance at Tom, who smiled in return.
“The Enterprise? You think the flagship will take on an ensign right out of the Academy?”
“They’ve been known to take one. They’ve never taken two,” explained Tom.
“Since Tom is more qualified than I am, I’m counting on his family name to work against him,” said Charlie affably. “Starfleet wouldn’t want to be accused of favoritism.”
Tom cuffed Charlie good-naturedly, but secretly thought his friend was absolutely right. The illustrious name of Paris mustn’t be thought to be an influence in garnering a plum assignment aboard Starfleet’s flagship. He would have to be such an outstanding candidate that his name wouldn’t get in his way.
Of course, Charlie was as qualified as he was. Tom was the more experienced pilot, but Charlie had the edge in engineering. Tom often found himself overcome with self-doubt, able only to see Charlie’s excellent qualifications and his own abundant failings. He worked consciously at purging those doubts.
This discussion was making him uncomfortable, and he looked to change the subject. “I heard of a great new planet for skiing,” he told the group.
“What is it?” queried Bruno, eyeing another apple from the nearly depleted bowl.
“It’s in the Epsilon Eridani system, twelve light-years away. It’d take us three or four days to get there, so we’d need a couple of weeks to do it right.”
“Isn’t that system under some dispute now?” asked Odile.
“That’s been resolved,” replied Tom. “I heard about it from one of my father’s attachés.” This wasn’t precisely true. The Epsilon Eridani system was at the moment unofficially “off limits” to Starfleet. Apparently this was because of some obscure and poorly understood situation that had occurred in the last century, and Tom frankly felt this wasn’t reason enough to pass up good skiing. But he didn’t want to make the others wary, so he coated his reasoning just slightly.
“It’s the eighth planet of the system, with weather conditions perfect for