Chapter Text
Ensign Joshua Albert waited outside the shuttlebay doublechecking his PADD. He still can’t believe that his request had been granted. Although, considering what had happened maybe he shouldn’t’ have been surprised.
He took in a deep breath before walking into the shuttlebay to see a group of ensigns disembarking from a shuttle that had arrived straight from the academy. He looked around and saw a Bajoran talking to a lieutenant.
“Your orientation liaison is…” the lieutenant was telling her before Josh decided to interrupt.
“Ensign Albert,” Josh interjected before smiling at the Bajoran, “It’s good to see you again Sito.”
“Josh?” Sito responded unsurely, “You’re my orientation liaison? You’re on the Enterprise?”
“Yes, and yes,” he responded before turning towards the lieutenant, “Sorry about the interruption.”
“Whatever,” the lieutenant told him with a dismissive wave, “Get moving. I have more ensigns to assign.”
The two left the shuttlebay and made their way into a turbolift when Sito turned towards Josh.
“Josh, I’m so sorry,” Sito told him apologetically, “The others and I. We had no idea that Ni-Locarno tried to blame you for Willliams’s death.”
“Computer, pause turbolift,” after the lift stopped moving Josh turned towards Sito, “You have nothing to apologise for. Locarno was the one to bring in Williams. He was the one who insisted on performing the Kolvoord Starburst despite all the concerns and misgivings.”
Josh gave a defeated sigh, “I thought that he’d actually changed his mind about the Starburst. I thought, surely the rest of you wouldn’t lie about something that got someone killed.”
“Josh…” Sito couldn’t bring herself to look at her friend. Are they still friends.
“Locarno blamed me, saying that if I hadn’t quit, no one would have died,” Josh continued, “But… that was before I learned he’d gone ahead with the Starburst. Before I learned that you covered up the cause of Williams’s death.”
“We should never have gone through with it,” Sito quietly admitted.
“You’re right you shouldn’t have,” Josh told her, “Did you know that Captain Picard tracked me down? He wanted to know why I resigned from Nova Squadron so close to graduation. When I told him my reason my answer must have confirmed what he’d already suspected.”
“Well, you did warn us that you wouldn’t cover for us,” Sito reminded him with a sardonic laugh.
“I did,” Josh responded, “I just… I never expected to graduate without you guys. I also never expected to be assigned to the Enterprise.”
“Has anything interesting happened since you arrived here?” Sito inquired.
“Well…” Josh began trying to think of examples, “There was the time some of the crew were out of phase, Data’s head was found in a cave after apparently being there for five hundred years, not sure if I believe that. The captain and three others were turned into kids after a transporter accident. Oh, and a bunch of robotic drones were declared sentient.”
Sito’s eyes widened, “That’s a lot.”
Josh chuckled, “Well there’s a lot more than that. And that’s just what us lower deckers know. There’s probably a lot more that the senior officers haven’t told us.”
“Well at least we won’t be bored,” Sito remarked.
“Yeah,” Josh stood still for a while before realising the turbolift wasn’t moving, “Damn! Computer, resume turbolift.”
“Still forgetting stuff, huh,” Sito teased, “Like a sweater perhaps?”
Josh rolled his eyes, “Shut up Jaxa.”
“No way!” Mariner shouted arm slung around the captain’s shoulder, “You flew the Ceres away from a Dominion attack?”
Albert rolled his eyes, “What was I supposed to do? I was the only person still conscious on the bridge. Luckily, we managed to get back to DS9 in one piece. Well mostly one piece. Zero out of ten, do not recommend.”
“Mariner!” Boimler rush up to her, “You shouldn’t be so cavalier around a captain.”
“Oh, relax Boims,” she assured her friend, “Josh is cool with it. You’re cool with it, right?”
Albert rolled his eyes, “Relax it’s fine. Don’t worry about it.”
“W-what, worried. I wasn’t worried,” Boimler responded sounding flustered.
Albert eyed him in disbelief, “Yeah, sure. Whatever you say.”
“Soooo,” Mariner drawled out, “Where’d you end up after graduating? Did you go straight to the Ceres?”
“Not quite,” Albert answered table, “I was actually assigned to the Enterprise.”
“Really?!” Boimler asked in excitement, “You served under Picard. What was it like?”
“Oh, you know routine spaceship stuff,” Albert answered, “I actually transferred to another ship after a couple years.”
“Really? Why? It was the Enterprise, the flagship. Why would you transfer?” Boimler asked.
Albert and Mariner exchanged glances.
“Hey, Boims, how about you tell the captain here all about the time you were the acting captain for the Cerritos,” Mariner suggested.
“Really? Okay so there I was on the bridge as the Cerritos was towing an Orion destroyer…”