Stardate 63660.3

Late August on Earth

Midshipman-Selectee Gem Koester stepped out of the shuttlecraft that had just transported her from Earth Spacedock down to the tram station located beneath the tower that housed Starfleet Command Headquarters. It was the young woman’s first time away from her family aboard the Dauntless, and a slight case of homesickness had already started to set in when she was suddenly chilled by a gust of wind blowing through the tram station.

Gem turned to look out at San Francisco Bay, the bright red structure of the rebuilt Golden Gate Bridge prominent through the opening, as she wrapped her jacket tightly around herself and remarked, “I hope this cold wind isn’t an omen of what’s to come.”

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy

“The Coldest Winter…” By PJK

About an hour later, Gem Koester was crossing the campus of Starfleet Academy, a pack of personal belongings on her back and a padd with instructions for checking-in in her right hand, as she looked around for the administration building.

“Dad told me it would be easy to find, but one building looks pretty much like every other around here,” she remarked. She glanced around again, trying to read the building names above the main doors, and set off in the direction of what looked like an important building on the far side of the Quad.

“Cadet, attention!” a voice suddenly shouted from behind Gem. Instinctively, the former Fleet Space Cadet snapped to attention, her spine ram-rod straight, her eyes straight ahead, as the padd clattered to the ground next to the pack that had slipped off her shoulder.

“Not bad. Good reaction time,” the voice said with a chuckle before the person who owned the voice stepped around in front of Gem. Immediately the young girl relaxed as she recognized Midshipman 1^st Class Cassie Koester. Cassie was a not-so-young woman, actually many centuries old, who had been rescued from her dying planet by the crew of the starship Dauntless, after which she had decided to apply to the Academy – assuming the last name of the man who had rescued her since she had none of her own. Young Gem had become accustomed to thinking of the elder Koester as her ‘Big Sister.’

“What did you do that for?!?” Gem complained as she leaned down to pick up her belongings.

“Just a little prank, Lil Sis,” Cassie replied. “You had the appearance of being a little lost.”

“I’m trying to find the Admin building so I can check into my class.”

“Follow me,” Cassie said. As the older woman led Gem across the quad toward a building that was not the one Gem had thought might be Admin, she asked, “How was your trip back to Earth?”

“A little weird,” Gem admitted. “I’ve spent most of my life living aboard starships, but this was the first time I’ve ever really gone anywhere without anyone I knew. And it was a pretty long trip, too. Runabout from the Dauntless back to Starbase 719. Supply transport from the starbase to a transit station in orbit of Andoria. From there, Dad had arranged transport aboard the starship Intrepid back to Jupiter Station. Managed to catch an intra-system shuttle from there to Spacedock. Then shuttlecraft down here to San Francisco. Felt like it took forever!”

Cassie held the door of the Admin building open for the new Academy student, then followed Gem inside, where she presented the padd with her orders on it to the Ensign behind the desk.

“Welcome to the Academy, Cadet,” the young officer, seemingly barely older than Gem herself, said as he entered her information into the Academy database. “You’ll be living in ‘B’ dorm while you’re undergoing indoctrination.” He handed Gem a passcard to her new temporary room. “You’ll be issued your uniforms and class materials tomorrow during your in-processing. Now head over to Medical for your final check-up.” The ensign handed the padd back to Gem and pointed back in the general direction of the door. “And again, welcome to the Academy.”

“Um… Where is…?” Gem started to say as she noticed the officer returning his full attention to the work he was doing before she had walked in.

“Come on, I’ll show you,” Cassie said, leading Gem back out to the Quad. Once outside she said, “I need to get over to the simulator lab, or I would take you to Medical myself.” She then pointed to a large white building several hundred meters away and said, “Just go in the door on the left side. The main door is for the emergency clinic.”

“Thanks, Cassie. You’re a life saver. Will I see you again later?”

“Meet me in the main cafeteria for dinner. 1830 hours.”

“Um…,” Gem started to say when Cassie grabbed the padd she was holding and entered some information on it. When she handed it back to the new cadet it displayed a map of the Starfleet Academy campus with her own present location as a blinking dot and the locations of the Medical Clinic, Dorm Building B, and the main cafeteria highlighted on it. “Thanks again, Cassie.”

“Hey, what wouldn’t I do for my little sister?” the older cadet remarked, then as she waved and started heading in the direction of the building that housed several of the training simulators, mentally projected, ‘See you at dinner.’

* * * *

Cadet’s log, stardate 63660.9:

After checking in at the Academy Medical Clinic, where several nurses poked and prodded me in places I didn’t even know I had, I was sent to Orientation for a quick run-down of what to expect in the coming weeks. There I met about three dozen other new cadets, just arrived on campus like myself. Most of the Academy students won’t even be here for another two weeks, which gives Starfleet an opportunity to train us newbies in an accelerated course very similar to the Basic Training Starfleet enlisted members go through. We were also informed that each of us would be assigned to an upperclassman advisor, to ‘…help ease the transition.’ However, I don’t think I like something else we were told.

Several hours after they had parted ways, Gem managed to find Cassie, waiting in front of the main door of the cafeteria for Gem.

“How was orientation?” the older cadet asked.

“Not over yet. I still have several steps to go to finish my check-in. I probably won’t even get to see what my new room looks like until 2100 hours or later.”

As the pair grabbed their food, a salad for Cassie, a pasta dish with a side of vegetables for Gem, and sat down, Cassie noticed the younger girl had put on an overcoat and still appeared chilled.

“Feeling cold?” she asked with a grin.

“I guess I’ve gotten too used to the constant temperature aboard the Dauntless. Tell me, is it always so cold here?”

“No,” Cassie assured, her grin growing wider. “In winter its worse.”

“Nice,” Gem remarked with a grimace.

“So what did they tell you during orientation?” Cassie asked between bites.

“The officer in charge explained how the Basic Indoc works. I think I should get by pretty easily, having done most of the physical stuff with the Fleet Cadets back on the Dauntless, but some of my fellow first-years looked a bit nervous. They also told us about the upperclassman advisors we’ll be assigned, to help us settle in here.”

Cassie’s eyes brightened at the mention of the advisors.

“I remember my upperclassman advisor when I first got here. Real piece of work! Always pulling pranks on me. It didn’t help that I was still getting used to living in the real world again instead of in other people’s dreams.”

“That was another thing the Lieutenant mentioned. Upperclassman pranks. I just hope I get assigned to someone nice who won’t be pulling some sort of joke on me every five minutes.”

As she spoke, Gem reached for the salt shaker sitting at the center of the small table, shaking it to salt her vegetables.

“My worst fear is that I’m going to get treated more harshly than the average new cadet,” Gem continued. “After all, I’ve lived aboard starships almost my entire life. I’ve been a Fleet Space Cadet for six years. I’ve participated in several away missions already. They’re going to have high expectations of me.”

Just as she finished speaking, the top of the shaker fell off, spilling a small mountain of sodium chloride all over Gem’s vegetables and pasta. Mouth agape, she stared at her ruined dinner as Cassie started guffawing.

“What…? What happened?” Gem stammered.

“Welcome to Starfleet Academy,” Cassie remarked, still laughing as Gem stared malevolently in her direction. “Oh, come on, I had to pull at least one prank on you before I let you get off easy.”

“What do you mean, ‘get off easy’?” Then realization dawned on her. “You? You’re my upperclassman advisor?”

“Guilty as charged,” Cassie replied as she picked up Gem’s tray and brought it over to the replicator, replacing it with a brand new meal. “I’ll be the one helping you to fit in here, at least for the first few weeks.”

Gem smiled as she dug her fork into the new food on her plate, being obvious about not adding salt this time, as she remarked, “Maybe the Academy won’t be so bad after all?”

The End

Author’s Note: The meaning of the title might puzzle you a little bit, until you read my explanation.

The title is based on a quote by American humorist, novelist, short story author, & wit, Samuel Langhorne Clemens – better known to most readers as Mark Twain. In 1864, Clemens moved to San Francisco, California and lived there until 1867. It became one of Clemens most famous quotes about his life in California when he said, “The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.”

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