Posted by Lieutenant Helena Laursen (Helm/Nagivation Officer) in Memory: A Chance Meeting
The trip from Iceland had been smooth with only a little turbulence when they had first taken off. Nothing horrible and Helena had spent the take off entertaining a small child who was driving his mother crazy. He was scared and had never flown before and Helena had taken pity on the young mother, who obviously had never flown either. That was kind of amazing to Helena given global travel, but some people were home bodies. However, this last gift from her family had been a huge surprise. Helena was obsessed with flying and especially with antique planes. Her commercial flight had landed at Logan Airport in Boston and she’d gone to the ticket counter to pick up her next ticket. It hadn’t been with her other one. She got to the counter to find out that her parents had arranged for her to fly the Cessna 150 the rest of the way to San Francisco. Helena had had her full pilot’s license for a couple of years, and this was a HUGE surprise. She was so excited she did a little dance at the ticket counter. The airline manager grinned at her and then took her back to get checked in with the other pilots, confirm her flight plan, and all those important red tape things.

It was not a good day for young Marceau. His flight out of Marseille Provence Aéroport had been delayed. The flight itself was fine, but by the time he had landed at Logan International Airport in Boston, his flight from there to San Francisco had already taken off… without him. Once he was off the first plane, he’d gone to the ticket counter, asking about his flight. “I’m sorry sir, that flight has already taken off,” said the clerk at the desk, and if he wanted a new ticket in any timely manner he’d have to pay out of pocket and… he was too broke for that.

He moved away from the ticket desk, out of the way of travelers with flights to catch, and began to pace nervously. What was he going to do? He needed to get to the academy, and now he had no ticket. He couldn’t call his family for the funds for a ticket. No way. He had to think of something… but what would he do? He didn’t even have his things, his checked luggage had made the flight he missed.

The air strip for the private planes was on the far side of the airport, and there was a shuttle car waiting to take her, but she had to stop and pick up her trunk from the baggage claim first. While she was waiting she spotted a rather attractive young man, curly reddish brown hair, muttering some language she didn’t know. “Oooooh que dois-je faire maintenant ? Je dois me rendre à San Francisco mais je n’arrive pas à obtenir un nouveau billet… Je ne sais pas quoi faire” (Ooooooh what do I do? I need to get to San Fransisco but I can’t get a new ticket… I don’t know what to do) Helena had NO idea what he was saying but the stress was evident in his voice and she did recognize ‘San Francisco.’ She pulled her trunk off the belt and walked over to him.

“Excuse me,” she peeked up at him, a smile on her face, hoping she didn’t startle him. “Are you okay? You’re trying to get to San Francisco?” The Cessna 150 was a two seater and she had no one else going with her. Maybe she could help.

Laursen

Marceau looked up with a look that switched quickly from surprised to a little suspicious. “Euhm…. Yes, I am. Mais, pourquoi? I mean, why?” He asked, his English heavily French accented. He was, at that point in his life, cautious and a little distrustful of new people he met. And his stress in the situation was NOT helping. Marceau, see, hated flying in airplanes, he was terrified of it. But he had to, to get to the Starfleet academy campus in time, and missing his flight and all this mess made it even more difficult. Why couldn’t anything just go well and be easy?

~ Renault