It was hard to believe. Matthias rose from seat behind his desk and slowly began walking to the other end of his office, beginning to pace. Nearly six years ago he had come to the Outpost. It wasn’t that he had wanted to come here. In fact, he had dreaded the thought of a stationary assignment. The pursuit of career, or rather the pursuit of success, brought him to Outpost 42 and really both of the ships he had been assigned to in his earlier years in Starfleet. The view of Gamma Tiltium IV caught his eye and he stopped walking. He stared, looking down at the familiar view of the planet. It had been years since he had…no, actually, he had never slowed down and just did nothing other than appreciate the view. His eye was always on where he was going, not where he was. How quickly that changes when one is about to leave for good.

His role as commanding officer of Outpost 42 had turned out to be a five-year mission. As good as it was, he never did want to fall into the trap of having it become one of those indefinitely continuing missions, a sad fate of far too many a captain who got stuck in one place for far too long. It was time for a new challenge with a new ship and a new crew. One that brought him back to exploration and away from the giant rust bucket in the sky anchored in place forever on the edge of nowhere.

How in the galaxy was he ever going to tell his mother? The crew would understand he was sure. But his mother was a different story and she wasn’t exactly a human being all that easy to reason with and convince of something. She would have to learn to understand. Or maybe she wouldn’t understand at all. He’d have to deal with that one somehow, some way. But now it was time to get back to the fleet commander, to say yes and go from there. It was time for an ending, yes, but really it was the perfect day for a new beginning.

Captain Mathias McGarrett, CO