Anticipation

Posted on Sat Jan 15th, 2022 @ 12:12pm by Lieutenant Aiko Kato

Mission: Respite
Location: Quarters

Aiko Hinata Kato could not remember the last time she had been this excited about a trip. She was surprised about the anticipation she felt and how it made her to think of the simple wonder of setting foot on another Federation world. She also suspected that part of the excitement was how spontaneous this trip had come together.

Just a few hours ago she had been wondering what to do for the seven days that the Washington would be docked on Starbase 451. She had expected to visit the starbase or perhaps book more holodeck time either on the Washington or in one of the starbase’s facility. The other alternative would have been to throw herself into her work, maybe finally catch up on the administrative side of her work, which she had most been neglecting. But none of these options had been particularly enticing.

Enter L’Rissa with the offer to visit Cait and suddenly what looked like a boring vacation seemed poised to be one of the best vacations she could ever dream of in a long time.

Perhaps she was making too much of this, she mused.

There was the danger of building up too much anticipation about the trip that the reality of it could fail to match. However, she did not believe this to be true. Even if the visit to Cait turned out to be a dud, there was something equally as exciting about travelling away from the Washington, at least temporarily.

Since coming on board the Sovereign class starship, it had been non-stop action. She had seen more action on the Washington than she had seen for the whole of her career post-Dominion War. She welcomed it of course and did not regret one iota of the action, even as mentally taxing and dangerous the missions had been.

She had learned more about herself in those missions than she had in a long while. Aiko had learned of the strength of her mind even as she was reminded of how fragile it was. She had been reassured about her ability to hold her own in physical combat, much as she had been able to prove her flight skills. She was slowly getting to know her comrades and was beginning to see them more as family.

However, she also recognized, and her counselling sessions had been pointing to the fact that for her own mental health, it was good to have a break every now and then. She needed the space and time to truly let her guard down without worrying about psychological repercussions or mortal threats.

This journey was the perfect answer to that…a godsend, if she believed in a higher power, which of course she did not.

Still, even she could not argue with the unusual alignment of L’Rissa with exactly what she needed.

“Best not to look a horse gift in the mouth too closely Hinata,” Aiko muttered to herself as she began the happy work of packing her duffle back. A happy melody from her childhood, which her mom would sing to her came to memory and she began happily humming it…