Flying Into The Sunset (Not Literally)
Leaving the Murgatroid behind me, I filed the basic paperwork (which I'd prepared in my quarters on the way to Vulcan) with the local Starfleet office. I beamed aboard the USS Morituri Te Salutam, which had agreed to take me on my last flight as a Starfleet officer... Quite possibly my last starship flight period; once I'd reached my destination, I planned to spend the rest of my life there. A safe, calm world in the middle of nowhere where I can indulge my passion for greenery (green liquor, green drugs, green women) without fear of attack or shipwide system failures.
On the Morituri, I met another officer who was on his way to retirement. He had been the CO of a medical facility, Starbase 4077, and he had felt just the same way I had: that he would most likely die in a freak mishap just before he finished his tour of duty. "But now that we've gotten safely away from our posts," Henry Blake said to me, "it's all smooth sailing on the way home."
On the Morituri, I met another officer who was on his way to retirement. He had been the CO of a medical facility, Starbase 4077, and he had felt just the same way I had: that he would most likely die in a freak mishap just before he finished his tour of duty. "But now that we've gotten safely away from our posts," Henry Blake said to me, "it's all smooth sailing on the way home."