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It’s kind of cliche but it’s true
That friends are family that you choose
We almost never got it right
But you were right there by my side
Erika Hernandez had always had a strong grasp on what family felt like. She’d grown up in a town where every third house was a cousin or a family friend. They’d had street parties for birthdays, unification day had been a huge celebration. She remembered the parties for each new member of the Earth union. Her family had always been there for her and she’d never had to think twice about whether people had her back.
Then her dreams had taken her away from Tatum, New Mexico. First to Annapolis for her early training with the Stellar Navy, before her training officer had, quite wisely, realised that she probably wasn’t actually cut out for military service, but that with her ear for languages and her assertiveness she would do good in the newly chartered Starfleet. That suited more what she had wanted too, she’d always wanted to be an explorer.
The move to San Francisco had felt harder than her move to Annapolis. She had gone to the Stellar Navy with several friends and two cousins… but she moved to San Francisco alone, and she had known nobody there when she arrived. She’d thrown herself into all the training that she was given, learnt every language that was put in front of her. It had been the opportunity of a lifetime and she’d known immediately that she was going to want to make the most of it all. But finding another family seemed out of the question. These people were colleagues, nothing more.
When she was assigned to the NX Project she had assumed it would be more of the same. Working with these people but never really moving past the superfluous. She had thought that for all of an hour after taking up her post on the first day. But it had quickly become clear that they were already going to be so much more than just colleagues. By the end of the first week they had spent twelve hours a day, every day together… and they’d often ended up speaking after their shifts too. That had continued for years, and now as they were rapidly heading toward the end of the project she couldn’t help but reflect on their time together.
The four pilots all had something about them that Erika found endearing, and infuriating, often in equal measure. They were definitely cocky young men who had always been good at the jobs they were doing. Every centimetre of all four of them was pure test pilot. If they were told that something probably couldn’t happen… Well they were going to prove everyone wrong.
Robert Duvall was the most aloof of the four, but he felt every twist and turn in their thoughts the hardest. He agonised over every rejected idea more than the other four. If Erika needed to know a detail quickly then Rob was who she would shout, because he’d know the number off the top of his head. He did try to keep himself closed off, but he rarely succeeded.
Samuel Gardner was a family man and that was clear as day, Erika liked that and enjoyed sharing stories of coming from big Catholic families. It was something they could easily bond over and she enjoyed that he was able to do that. On top of that he was the best number two they could have asked for. His position in the command room would probably mean he’d never be breaking the records, but he’d still be instrumental.
Andrew Graham “AG” Robinson was her brother from another mother. She had rarely had such a strong connection with someone outside of her family. He knew how to give her the same shit that Simon had throughout their lives, but he was also there for her when she needed to break down, when she just needed advice about something, be it professionally or personally. He was her best friend, and she didn’t know what she’d do when they weren’t working together every day.
Then there was Jonathan Archer. Within minutes of meeting him, Erika had known that he was her other half. They had slotted together in a way that she didn’t think would have ever happened to anyone else. Nobody had even realised when their relationship had changed from platonic to so much more. He was the love of her life and she was certain that if they were torn apart they’d still end up together again. Such was the nature of connections like theirs.
In truth, after almost a decade working with the four of them closely, and the others who had joined their team when they’d become the primary team for designing the first deep space exploratory vessel… She didn’t think she could imagine not having these people in her life. They really were a family that chose each other. Over and over again they chose each other.
Taking turns to turn back the time
We’ve lived like a thousand lives
I’ve seen the worst days of your life
And you’ve seen mine
Knowing they were this close to the end of the project, all of them awaiting their next orders and to find out who was going to be give the captaincy of Enterprise, they were all being quite reflective. There was little else for them to do. Their design had finally been finalised, Admiral Forrest and Captain Jeffries had both signed off on it. They were days away from the start of building the space frame. She already knew her next assignment, unlike the pilots, she was easier to slip into another job.
Clearly she wasn’t the only one thinking about all the things they’d done together over the years. She was just looking up at the last of the prototypes, the one that was probably going to end up in the Starfleet museum. She had carved her name into the aft exhaust port with the others, knowing that one way or another that was going to live on, and she was comfortable with that. “Hey, do you remember that time Erika fell from the top of the NX Gamma?” Rob called out from behind her, and she just turned around and glowered at him for a moment, watching the shit-eating grin grow on his face as he did.
“What about that time Jon’s jumpsuit got stuck and he ended up being trapped upside down.” Sam deflected, always more affected by Erika’s glowers than the others had been. She then turned to look at Jon who ended up just chuckling and walking over to pull her into a hug before going and sitting on the low sofa in their rest area that they were finding themselves spending more and more time at.
“His face was nearly purple when he was finally freed.” AG joining in on the teasing, also coming and sitting on the sofas, the five of them gathering around comfortably and easily falling into the same group they often were, and always had been. AG sat on the arm of the sofa, physically incapable of sitting in a chair normally. Rob and Sam each in one of the armchairs, on either end, while Erika ended up kneeling on the floor in front of Jon on the sofa, his legs either side of her making her feel more supported every time.
“Only time I’ve seen him concentrate more was that time Erika brought her niece to visit.” Rob’s laughter continued and Erika couldn’t help but smile at that memory too. Carla had only been four weeks old when she did that, and Carla had been passed around all the pilots, Rob and Sam were parents themselves already by that point, and AG had grown up with siblings. But Jon had never been around babies, and he’d cradled Carla like she was more precious than gold.
Which is one of the other ways he had melded between her family and this group. There were family memories connected to them, and people she knew they would always have a connection to because of it. “She’s been his ever since, you should see her. We go to visit and she will not let him go.” It was one of the sweetest, most innocent bonds Erika had ever seen, and she loved that Jon was the one to have that with her niece. “She’s almost three now. Talking and everything.”
“We’ve been through a lot together, haven’t we?” Jon finally spoke, looking around the group of them. The rest of those who now worked on the project giving them the space that had always been theirs. This had been their area when there had been three projects working in this hanger, now it was where they all felt most comfortable coming to discuss. Now, it was their haven and she hated that she knew their time was coming to a close.
“So much, we have so many good stories.” AG grinned, his cocky surety something that had seen them all through many rough nights. Erika was in fact fairly certain that he was the only reason that they had gotten through a lot of them. He certainly had always had the confidence to walk in to their high level meetings and act like the decision was already made in their favour. “One day we’re all going to write incredible memoirs.”
We got the youth kicked out of us
And let our future gather dust
I have a habit of turning pain
Into sunshine on memory lane
They all fell silent for a few minutes longer, Erika pulling up one of the design changes being proposed and nudged Jon’s knee so that he would lean forward to look at the padd over her shoulder. Fairly sure that she wouldn’t need to ask anyone else to turn down that particular design choice. “Remember when we were almost shut down… because AG and Jon couldn’t agree on anything?” Sam’s voice broke through the silence and made Erika look up again at another round of them sharing stories.
“That’s depressing, Sam!” Erika said, turning to look at him and roll her eyes. She’d remembered hearing about that situation, and feeling a decent amount of blame as she’d been on leave back at home when it had all kicked off. Coming back to a destroyed prototype and their two highest ranked pilots suspended had been a hell of a return. She instead turned her attention to a much funnier story, at least in her mind. “How about that contact day in Sydney?”
“The one where we all almost got arrested because AG refused to admit that he’d had a drink?” Rob filled in while laughing from the bottom of his chest and Erika loved to hear those laughs. Very quickly everyone but AG was laughing and after another moment even he broke down and started laughing along with them. “Good times.”
“In my defence… they gave me that drink.” AG held his hands up and it took everything in her not to grab his foot and try to unseat him. “They should have known they wanted us to pilot their harbour boats.” He then grinned and shook his head, the laughter continuing as his defences got more intense. “We weren’t even really in control! It was a photo op!”
“You knew you were going to have to do that!” Erika exclaimed and shook her head, those were the moments that she knew they had needed her to be involved with. She was much better at managing their PR problems than even Starfleet’s official teams were sometimes. “I’m surprised I still have hair left, managing the lot of you.” She then reached back to take hold of one of Jon’s hands. Looking around the three pilots in front of her and took in a breath as it settled on her once again how rare a group the five of them were. “I’m going to miss you. All of you.” She tried to keep it quiet, but they were all so close together she was sure they heard it.
“What do you know that we don’t, Erika?” Rob was the one who responded to her comment first, and she felt Jon squeeze her hand. He had, obviously, already known about it. She had spoken about it with him when she’d been offered it, as it was going to affect their relationship, no matter what happened in his career too. He had encouraged her to take it, so it meant as far as she knew she was the first to be reassigned.
“I already have my next assignment.” She explained, still keeping her voice low as she hadn’t told anyone else yet, the only people who knew were Forrest, Jon and Veronica Fletcher, the latter only knowing because she was also being reassigned at the same time. “I leave for the Republic on December first… I’m their new XO. Fletcher is coming too, she’s their new head pilot.” The announcement was, at first, met with complete silence. Jon’s hand still squeezing hers, giving her the support she needed in this moment and allowing the rest of their team to process her statement.
If you’re better dead than boring
It makes for better kinds of stories
Yeah if you’re better dead than boring
We’ll all be buried by the morning
Erika wasn’t sure who it was who made the first comment, her eyes had dropped again to the padd in front of her and she just frowned a little at the question that came first. “You’re really leaving us?” That had been her first comment to Jon when she’d gotten the offer, but he had made a good point then, one that she was going to use to explain this too. They didn’t need her there, now, but Starfleet’s slowly growing fleet did.
“The project is wrapping up. You don’t need a comms specialist anymore, whereas having a linguist as an XO is very useful.” She knew that the UT was good, but it wasn’t perfect. It never had been which was why linguists and comm officers were very much needed on ships still. Having an executive who could step in and speak whatever language they were communicating in was going to be a huge bonus, and she was the first comms officer to hit the command ranks. “It’s okay… I’m happy with it.”
“It’s going to be so weird not seeing you in here.” Rob eventually said, reaching out with his foot to nudge her knee, making her both smile and start to rub the mark off of her uniform where the foot had pushed against her knee, before looking back to him and very adult-ly sticking her tongue out to him.
“Actually… Not to steal Erika’s thunder, I have my next assignment too.” Sam followed up after a few moments, and Erika wasn’t surprised that he had also been quickly reassigned. His skillset would also be extremely beneficial across command. “I also start my new position on the same day. I’m the new principle Captain’s rep on the Starfleet council.”
“So its just me, Rob and Jon waiting on assignments.” AG said after a moment as they all let Sam’s news settle too. Erika could feel Jon getting more and more uncomfortable with these changes, though for now she knew that was just because he wanted to know what was coming next for him, too. Erika didn’t know, but she was already certain he was going to be taking the NX-01 out into deep space. She just had a feeling.
“We’ll always have the time we spent here at least, and nobody can ever say that this project was dull.” Jon ended up saying, his voice only wavering on a word or two, but it was clear that he was struggling, that this change all coming was so much, though it was still more than two months before she and Sam would be leaving. It wasn’t going to be immediate. He’d have time to adjust.
“That’s because we lived by the motto ‘better dead than boring’.” AG grinned, and they all groaned as he said that. It was a saying that he’d said to them several times while they’d been doing things they almost certainly shouldn’t have been doing. Whenever he came out with it they all knew they were in for something that they probably didn’t want going in their personnel files.
“No, AG, you lived by that motto and dragged the rest of us along with you. Leaving Erika to try and clean up after us.” Rob challenged, though he was laughing almost as hard as the rest of them at the recollection of all their good times. Erika wasn’t sure they had laughed this hard in a while, but it was what they’d needed. “She had to do a lot of cleaning up after us.”
“Literally, in many cases. You were in my apartment most of the time.” She rolled her eyes and then spotted the time, slapping Jon’s thighs then using them to push herself up. “Well, boys, it’s quitting time and we all need to go home. Your spouses will be waiting for you, and Ruby will be waiting for you at the bar.” Erika knew that Ruby was soon to be AG’s spouse too, but it was much more fun to make it sound less than that. The five of them all started moving away, getting ready to pack their things away for another night when she realised that they were all just watching her.
“Erika… we’re going to miss you too.” AG said, then walked over and just wrapped his arms around her tightly, and within a minute Erika felt Sam and Rob joining in on the embrace, while she would recognise Jon’s hand on the small of her back anywhere. She clearly wasn’t the only one who was feeling this attachment to their team now they were facing down the end of their time working together. Erika didn’t think that she would trade the last decade for anything, but she had made lifelong friends. They were her second family.
We fell in love
We fell apart
We fucked it up
And called it art
Do you remember