Star Trek: Father and Son.

Chapter 1: Running into something

After having checked over the various readouts in front of him one last time and making sure his son was still happily not doing anything he wasn't supposed to Shake nodded to himself and let his ass impact the leather seat from which the SS Home's systems were controlled.


The tiny control area at the very front of the Cargo-hauler/Passenger carrier wasn't even big enough to allow for more than one seat, not counting the little seat Shake had built in for Eagle behind him to the right, but the seat it held was one of the most comfortable Shake had ever had the pleasure of planting his royal king sized ass into.


Kicking the seat into the lazy position, allowing him to almost lay in it horizontally he eased himself into the seat and placing his hands behind his neck letting out an “aaaah” to emphasize the great feeling it gave him to do so.


His thoughts went back to the last few weeks years and months and the events that made him enjoy so much the simple fact of having no major problem on his mind, even for just a few moments. Three years ago, or even a bit more than that, his life had seemed to reach the point of near perfection and then had seemed to be taken up a level over that.


He'd been a midcareer Lieutenant in Starfleet, an engineer mostly responsible for fixing the problems with computer related things around the USS Netherlands. It had taken him a lot of hard work to get where he was then, and he enjoyed every second of his life.


When off duty he was free to do whatever he pleased and took every opportunity he came across to enjoy himself. Life had been perfect. He'd accepted he would be single for the rest of his life and was finally at peace with that.


Then he'd met a woman who seemed to have an interest in him, and even actively pursued a romantic relationship with him. That was something that had never happened to him, nor had he ever considered it a possibility it ever would. Nonetheless it happened and she quickly broke down the wall he'd built around his feelings, and he fell in love.


Half a year later he'd married, his wife was pregnant and another couple of months later he had resigned his commission to live on Breda II with his wife and newborn son. It had been bliss to him, the level of life above perfect. He had a home, a dog, a wife and a child and soon he'd find some work to finish it all off.


Then it all turned into a level beneath total Hell. His wife told him, out of the blue in his experience, that she didn't love him anymore, and that she'd been having an affair over the past six months and within a week she was gone, off to live with her boyfriend.

That was when his hell began and it had taken him 5 months to convince the authorities it would be in his son's best interest to live with his father instead of his mother and another 9 months to get the divorce finalized.

The misery didn't end with that though. Financially he'd been left ruined. Both because of the debts his wife left him but also because of Shake not having a job to provide an income with which he could repay any debt or interest.


His ex had seemed like she was fleeing from something. She'd gotten involved with a Breen and even had a child with the Breen. Part of him was grateful she was that far away, but for his son he was sad. He only saw his mother once every week, or every two weeks, through a hazy subspace connection, on a comm-screen.


It had been close to the point at which Shake would have given up and allowed himself to slip into depression when finally, at long last, his luck had changed. An academy buddy had come across him on Breda II just by sheer coincidence and had offered him the chance of a lifetime.


His old friend had left the fleet as well and had started a transportation business for himself. Now he had made enough money to be able to stop actively piloting himself and hire a pilot to do the flying for him while he played the CEO role back at the head office of the company. As Shake had been his academy friend he offered Shake to become partners in the company.


Shake would become owner and pilot of the company's new ship while the company and the business remained in Janssen's possession and responsibility. It had taken only 4 months for Shake to make enough money to pay off the amount they'd set for the purchase of the SS Home and another 4 months to pay off all other debts that had weighed so heavily on him for so long.


And today marked another new milestone in his new life. This would be the first job of which he would be able to keep all the fees in his own pocket. He was debt free, owner... Captain of his own ship working for himself and his son and it felt good.

The smile that split his face evidence of the joy he felt at realizing that.


“Daddy! Daddy! McQueen broken, you fix!” came an urgent voice from behind him. As he righted his seat and turned towards the voice a red, 24th century race shuttle was shoved into his face with the same urgency as he'd heard in the voice just before. Clearly the fate of the Galaxy was at stake here!


It was the favorite toy of his son who'd somehow come across some old “cartoon” and became instantly obsessed with “Cars”. In this case it was “Lightning McQueen” one of the film's main characters.


Taking the car from his son and looking it over he said “You're getting very good at this aren't you? Breaking your toys i mean.”. He pointed at the bent thruster assembly, trying to look very concerned and serious.


“Uh huh” Eagle absently answered his attention completely on the broken toy. “Ah here's the problem” Shake told the 3 year old and twisted the thruster assembly onto the axel which held the thrusters on both sides until he was satisfied the repair would hold for a little while. Though he had told the little man what had gone wrong and pointed at it as well in hopes he'd understand it was obviously pointless.

The little one's eyes lit up at seeing the little car back in possession of the proper propulsion, in the right place, and reached for it with his little hands.

Smiling Shake gave the Swoop bike to his son who, barely, remembered to spit out the “thank you daddy” he knew he should because it was "pleight". Then he turned and ran back out of the cockpit, so he could get back to playing whatever he was before the wheel had come off.


Watching his son run back into the living area the joy he felt at being able to make the child a little bit happier amazed him once again. He never could wrap his mind around the feelings fatherhood stirred in him at the oddest of things. Just putting a smile on the little guys face made him giddy with pleasure.


An insistent beeping suddenly cried for his attention from one of the computer consoles in the control area and Shake swiveled his seat until he faced the readout the insistent beeping was calling him to look at. Tapping the console a few times he focused it's output to the system which had triggered the alarm. It were the long range sensors which seemed to have picked up something on an intercept course.


Frowning he focused all the sensory power his ship had, which wasn't all that much really compared to most ships in the Federation, onto the location the long range sensors said something was heading their way. When they focused their resolution the readings he got back made his blood drain from his face.


What was coming at the SS Home was impossible. It read like a tractor beam but it was coming at them at Warp eight, and it seemed to be lightyears long at least. Recovering from the initial shock and deciding it didn't matter if what he was seeing was impossible or not, he needed to make sure he got the SS Home out of the way and be prepared for if they're unable to.


His hands raced across the panel firing up the maneuvering thrusters and sending the ship in a tight 90 degree turn to the right, and out loud he yelled “Computer, alarm status!”.


The computer responded by shutting down all systems other than those in the cockpit, as Shake called the small command and control area of the SS Home and beaming Eagle into the special seat in his own little room and locking him into a restraining harness.


He had practiced this with his son over and over until Eagle understood that when this happened it was useless to protest, cry or struggle and even seemed to understand that it meant that something serious was happening. As the ship completed the sequence for Alarm status it's computer voice reported in. “Alarm status successfully engaged.”


Somehow this made Shake feel as if a huge load was lifted off his shoulder. Whatever was going to happen, there was nothing he could do to make Eagle safer than he was now. He looked over to the sensor readouts to see if his tight turn was taking them out of the path of whatever it was that was coming towards them just in time to see it hadn't and it was about to hit them before the ship shook, shuddered and everything went black as Shake lost consciousness.