Pluto was an aesthetically pleasing and barren planet, Kastarak thought, as he stood in Shuttle Bay, looking out through the force field upon the joint dwarf planet system below. Orbiting Pluto and Charon was new to Kastarak. He had never been here, but he knew that for the many humans on board, Pluto had a strange and peculiar aspect in their cultural context. For many years, Pluto was considered a planet by the humans of Earth, and then it was no longer considered one upon redefining the scientific data on what constituted a planet and so on. For Vulcans, it would have been a done deal. New definition. Update records. But for humans, it had, Kastarak understood, become a shock, and something that infected the public consciousness for decades, even centuries later.

Kastarak remembered in Starfleet Academy, some human at one lecture, upon hearing the mentioning of Pluto, muttered loudly, Pluto is a real planet!.

And now, hear they were. Close enough to see the majestic mountain ranges of that white-and-brown-coloured Pluto.

Kastarak was waiting for the entire crew to gather. He had an important announcement for everyone. Only the department heads knew what the announcement would be, and Kastarak had to make it. Near half of the crew would go to Andromeda Station to be shuttled to their respective home planets, and the rest of them would go a little further into the Sol system, to the moon of Saturn known as Titan.

The entire crew had been told an hour ago that now was the time to meet for an important announcement in Shuttle Bay. After this announcement, there would be four hours before the Chernov would set sail again, six hours’ trip at impulse, to orbit around Titan.

– Lt Kastarak (First Officer)