Star Trek: The voyages of the USS Apollo

Chapter Forty Six: A New Journey

Thirty years later.

Lucas Rivers was a proud and determined officer in Starfleet indeed. From the age of five he had dreamed of joining Starfleet like his father, Admiral Ethan Rivers. The first three years of his life were spent on the U.S.S Apollo and although they were so long ago, the Human-Vulcan hybrid could still remember small pieces of them very clearly. The one he most remembered was when the U.S.S Apollo returned home to the Alpha Quadrant after five years in the Gamma Quadrant. It was the first time he met his grandparents and the first time he saw the planet he would be spending much of his life on: Earth. A beautiful and diverse planet that he had come to call home. It was the planet where Zefram Cochrane had made first contact with the Vulcans and where the United Federation of Planets was formed. It was the planet where peace and prosperity had reigned for over three hundred years thanks to Humanity giving up their ways of war and suffering and the planet that the Federation called it's capital. Lucas had spent half of his life on Earth and the other half on Vulcan, his mother's home world. Lucas, like his parents, had enrolled in Starfleet Academy upon reaching the required age and had excelled in class. He had trained to become a tactical officer and had undertaken the command training program. He made lieutenant within a year of graduating with honours. Three years later he was promoted to lieutenant commander and was promoted to Commander after two years. Then one day, during a risky mission a short time ago he had been field promoted to captain. Now he was in charge of his own ship. The second ship to be given the iconic name "Apollo".

Standing at the observation deck in the Bajoran shipyards, the same deck his father had seen the original Apollo from before being brought aboard thirty years prior, Lucas looked over at the U.S.S Apollo-A. It had taken just over a year to build and now it was complete. Just beyond it was the original Apollo, an old Nova-class ship that had been made into a museum that enjoyed more than ten million visitors every year and the museum curator, Ada, enjoyed every bit of her position there. As for the Apollo-A, it was much larger than the original. The main reason was because it was an Intrepid-class ship. A ship more than twice the size of a Nova-class and with a maximum warp factor of nine, it was an impressive ship indeed and closely resembled the famous U.S.S Voyager. Thanks to a refit the ship could now bolster up to one hundred and eighty crewmen and was able to put up an impressive fight in battle. As a symbolic gesture, Starfleet Command had decided that Lucas's first ship would be the direct successor to the original U.S.S Apollo and Lucas would be reporting directly to his father, Ethan.

As Lucas gazed on at the Apollo in impressment and awe, he felt a light tap on his right shoulder. He turned around and saw the face of his father, Admiral Ethan Rivers. Ethan had advanced well in age and rank since his return from the Gamma Quadrant, getting promoted to Vice Admiral five years after returning and getting promoted to Admiral ten years after that, he had earned his promotions well. Now his own son had earned his own promotion and his own journey through the cosmos. Proud at Lucas for his achievements, Ethan said "Me and your mother should've expected that you would make it captain. It was logical to believe so." Lucas was a spitting image of his father at the age his father was when he was given his own command. He had Ethan's face and hair colour and his mother's ears and eyes. Growing up Lucas had admired Ambassador Spock and his efforts to reunify the Romulans and Vulcans and was saddened as a child to learn that Spock had died before he could witness the reunification. But he knew that it would be up to him to honour Spock's legacy and to help bring peace to the galaxy through diplomacy and coexistence.

Having embraced both Human emotion and Vulcan logic, Lucas said "It was of great emotional importance to me that I one day make captain and it was logical for me to be promoted following the mission at Virinat fighting one of the Tal Shiar holdouts. They are a most illogical organisation. Always bombing innocent civilians and raiding transport ships. It's no wonder that most of the people they claim to fight for despise them." Ethan agreed with his son and said "Of course it was a great that you managed to save the colony from any further Tal Shiar attacks and that Captain Schafer was saved. You really proved yourself out there." Lucas was proud of himself for saving the lives of his commanding officer, but he was even more proud of himself for saving the colonists, which he showed as he said "While I am pleased that they were saved, I am more grateful that we managed to save the colony. Because the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few." Ethan was not surprised that Lucas decided to quote Spock on this day and said "Well since you believe in the teachings of Spock, I'm certain you'll make a great captain. Now, how about we see the ship." Lucas smiled in agreement and said "Of course Admiral. Shall we take the transporter pad in the next room?" Ethan smirked and said "I have a better idea. Something that Admiral Quinn did when I got my first command." Lucas wondered what his father meant and asked "What did he do?" Ethan then answered "This." and pressed on his com badge and said "Admiral Rivers to transporter room one on the U.S.S Apollo. Beam me and Captain Rivers aboard." From the other end, a man with an Irish accent replied "Aye Admiral." and in an instant, the father and son Starfleet officers were engulfed in blue sparkles of energy and transported onto the U.S.S Apollo, just like it was with Ethan getting his own command thirty five years ago.

"Space. The final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Apollo. It's mission, to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilisations. To boldly go where no one has gone before."

-Admiral Ethan Rivers.