Posted by Captain Marceau Renault (Commanding Officer) in Memory: A Chance Meeting

Posted by Lieutenant Helena Laursen (Helm/Nagivation Officer) in Memory: A Chance Meeting

Posted by Captain Marceau Renault (Commanding Officer) in Memory: A Chance Meeting
Posted by… suppressed (5) by the Post Ghost! 👻
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

The poor young man seemed at the end of his patience and Helena didn’t miss the suspicious look he gave her. “Well I have a flight leaving in about half an hour for San Francisco if you need to get there. I have room.” She adjusted her shoulder bag and smiled again. “Oh, sorry. I’m Helena…Laursen. I’m the pilot.” She dug in her pocket and pulled out a paper and photo ID. Most people didn’t believe her, being young, that she was a full pilot already. The paper listed all her qualifications and that she’d held them for two years, and before that had been a student pilot for several. Only her age had stopped her from having a full pilot’s license before two years ago.

Marceau looked at her ID and the paperwork and then handed them back. “A flight? A… small plane?” He asked nervously, shifting on his feet. Small planes, he’d heard, might get more turbulence and turbulence made him nervous. He didn’t like it. Besides, he didn’t know her… Why would she offer him a flight? “I would hate to bother you.” His father would tell him situations never, ever resolved themselves so neatly unless there was something amiss. And a solution to his flight issue had just fallen into his lap in neat, cute pilot form.

Her brother would tell her to not invite a stranger to go with her anywhere. Helena felt attitudes like that led to the problems Earth had had during the 20th and 21st century. If she could help then she would. “Really, it’s no problem.” He looked so frustrated and unsure of what to do. She didn’t have a lot of weight in her luggage and just the trunk and one carry on. There would be plenty of room for his things, assuming he wasn’t some fancy pants that needed 5 full size moving boxes.

Laursen

Marceau finally caved. Besides showing up exactly when he needed her to, there was no reason to distrust this person. He sighed. “D’accord.” (Okay). “I’m Marceau Renault. I’m headed to Starfleet academy.” He said, holding his hand out for a hand shake.

~ Renault

He seemed nervous about the small plane. Most people were, even people who flee commercially on a regular basis. Helena was a cautious pilot and with a smaller plane pilots were not required to cruise at as high an altitude as the bigger planes. When he agreed her smile grew wider. “Wonderful, I’m headed for the Academy too!” She reminded herself to curb her enthusiasm a bit. Not everyone was as excited to fly, but her excitement was contagious.

She took his hand in hers. Her grip was warm and sure, but lacked that need to prove anything, “A pleasure to meet you, Marceau Renault. Let’s get your bag and we can head out to the plane.”

Laursen

Marceau smiled, her enthusiasm was infectious despite his nervousness. Then he chuckled nervously and shook his head. “They say my bag is already headed for San Francisco.” He shrugged then, “So all I have is what’s with me now.”

“Your bag made it but not you? Þvílíkir hálfvitar (What idiots.) Come on.” She grabbed him by the hand and led him into the baggage claim office. In the matter of 3 minutes she had the man behind the desk in the phone with SFIA, with Renault’s original flight info and a description of his bag, and orders that it would be waiting for him in their luggage office. The man behind the desk looked stunned and a little enraptured as Helena smiled, thanked him and blew out of the office the same way she’d blown in - like a force of nature. Exiting the office and heading for the tarmac she glanced over at Renault and smiled. “There, it will be waiting for you when we land.”

“Where are you from?” Marceau blurted, interested by her language, which he did not recognize. Then he looked embarrassed and muttered a “Sorry, you don’t have to answer that.” Then she grabbed him by the hand and his face turned red as she led him into the baggage office. In short order she had plans for him to meet up with his things in the SF baggage office. Then she was headed back out of the office and Marceau was left to rush after her. “Oh.... Thank you.”

“You are very welcome. It’s really rediculous they held the plane for baggage but not the passengers. We’ll make sure we get it when we get there.” She paused, “Oh you asked me something. I’m sorry, I wasn’t ignoring. I just wanted to make sure they held your bag and not returned it. I’m from Iceland. Western Europe, right? I’m horrible with languages. I would embarrass myself if I tried to guess where though. Where are you from?”

As they headed to her plane he said, “I’m going to be un médecin… A doctor.” He gave her a tentative smile and then said, “So you must be going into the pilot program?”

~ Renault

They took a seat in a small shuttle bus and it drove them to a small hanger on the back side of the air port. “A doctor?” She started to make a joke about that was useful if they crashed but she was afraid he might change his mind and run. Instead she shivered a bit, “Space diseases! No thank you. The idea of those scare me more than aliens.” She laughed at herself. “Yes a pilot. I’ll brave aliens and strange one-celled microbes for the chance to fly. I love flying. There is nothing like it. So why a doctor?”

“Yes. A doctor,” said Marceau, a little nervously, as if he expected her to say something negative about it or tease him or something. But then she said something he actually laughed at and that seemed to relax him a little. “Diseases of space are so interesting though! But I will also specialize in emergency medicine… So trauma and injuries.”

She nodded thoughtfully, “I bet they are. The idea of life outside our planet… it’s a bit mind boggling, isn’t it? Even on the microscopic level. Everyone talks about how different we are from Vulcans, but I bet we have a lot more in common than we think. I honestly can’t wait to meet everyone who’s out there.”

He shook his head. “I hate flying. It’s terrifying. I have no idea how you can like these things,” he said gesturing around the airport to the planes. He took a minute to process and think about her last question and how best to answer it. “Euhm.... I had a.... How do you call it? A mentor, of a kind. I guess.” He frowned, opened his mouth as if to say something, and then closed it and looked out the window on the little shuttle bus quietly for a minute. Then, “…What about you? …Well, eh, because you like it, huh?”

“I understand how some people don’t like it. I never thought about it much till I was 8 or 9. My parents took me to an air show and I just kept thinking about how amazing the world would look from up there.” She grinned loosing that temporary far away look she had. “I was right. It’s beautiful, and from up there, there are no boundaries, no divisions, two people are just people. The only boundary is the water, and we mastered that centuries ago.” She sat up a little. “I promise we won’t need any trauma or emergency care. This will be the best flight you’ll ever be on.” Helena was by no means the best pilot around. It would be a couple of years before that happened, but she was already one of the best. “Truthfully, I want to see the stars. We can fly pretty high, and the stars, they look amazing. I want to see them, and I want to be at the controls when I travel there. I wanna see a planet with pink oceans and a purple sky.” She laughed again at herself. “If you don’t like flying why Star Fleet?” It wasn’t sarcastic or teasing, she was genuinely curious.

Arriving Helena was passed a clipboard and they were led to the Cessna 150. Their bags were loaded and secured in the small cargo space. She showed him the co-pilot’s seat. “The engine is loud so you’ll need these.” She handed him a head set with a mic and then the seat belt harness. “It will take me about half an hour to do the preflight check. There is a small lounge over there if you prefer.”

Laursen

He looked at the head set like it was some kind of outer space torture device but took it from her. Then she handed him a belt harness thing he didn’t know what to do with. He looked at the lounge, then the little plane, and then stood there as if he wasn’t quite sure what to do.

~ Renault

She took the headset and set it on his seat and pointed toward the lounge. “It’s a long flight and no facilities on board. We’ll have one small stop over before we get to San Francisco. Go ahead. I’ll come get you.”

Helena was meticulous and thorough, driving the mechanic a bit crazy. She figured he deserved it for treating her like a kid and not the experienced pilot she was. It took exactly 25 minutes to finish the check. She slipped into the lounge, ate a small muffin and used the facilities. She grabbed a few water bottles and walked over to Renault. “We’re ready when you are.”

She helped him with the harness, making sure it was secure. “I don’t want to scare you, but so you know, the back of your seat is a parachute and it’s also a floatation device. But I promise you are safe and won’t need it.” She climbed in the other side and strapped in and then put her headset on. He could hear her clearly. “If this isn’t the best flight you’ve ever had I’ll buy you dinner when we land.” She grinned. The offer wasn’t flirty at all, just her trying to reassure her passenger. She was in full serious mode now.

The engines started and after a quick back and forth with the control tower, she eased the plane into the runway and in a few short moments the plane was lifting into the sky and leveling off after a short left bank to head for San Francisco.

Laursen