<div class="floatleft">(http://i786.photobucket.com/albums/yy145/alxnjsh/characters/mitchell.jpg?t=1287881849)</div>Captain Airik Mitchell stood with the doors to the shuttle bay at his back. He looked out among the crew of the USS McNair. It caused his lip to curl into a smile. They weren’t a huge crew – under 100…but that didn’t make them any less important. The obligatory Fleet ceremony occurred earlier and now it was just the Commanding Officer and crew. Standing to his sides were the senior officers, with the First Officer immediately to his right and Second Officer immediately to his left.<br/><br/>“In 1978 Ronald E. McNair was selected as one of thirty-five applicants from a pool of ten thousand for the NASA astronaut program. He flew aboard the Challenger in February 1984, as a mission specialist becoming the second African American to fly in space. Following this mission, he was selected for a second mission, which launched on January 28, 1986, McNair was one of the seven-person crew who died on the Challenger space shuttle when it exploded nine miles above the Atlantic Ocean just 73 seconds after take-off.”<br/><br/>Airik Mitchell paused for a moment to let the history sink in.<br/><br/>“Great scientist throughout history have proudly risked their lives to further mankind’s knowledge of the unknown. Whether it’s cataloguing the Klingon tak insect’s genome or charting the stars, scientists throughout our known universe all strive to fill in the blanks. To answer seemingly unanswerable questions. We are those explorer scientists. Today we disembark from the relative safety of our galaxy.”<br/><br/>The Commanding Officer looked around at his crew.<br/><br/>“We have a saying on my home world. It’s very simple, but profound. ‘We are eternal students.’ As many of you know I’m old. To put it more appropriately – I’m beyond old. Yet I am still a novice. I’m here to learn from you and with you.” Airik smiled.<br/><br/>“To paraphrase Dr. McNair, it is time to stretch our wings and fly to the sky.”<br/><br/>In rather stuffy formality he held up a PADD and read.<br/><br/>“Commander Axon, as ordered by Admiral Kathryn Janeway, I hereby take command of the USS McNair. You are relieved.” Airik said to the human standing in the front of the crowd.<br/><br/>=/\= “Computer, transfer command codes to Captain Airik Mitchell, authorization Axon Theta Six Five.” =/\= The woman responded. “I stand relieved, Captain, Godspeed.”<br/><br/>=/\= “Computer accept command codes, authorization Mitchell Dallas Epsilon Nu Four.” =/\=<br/><br/>=/\= “Command codes transferred and accepted.” =/\=<br/><br/>Airik looked out at the crew and smiled. “To your stations, the McNair will disembark at 0930. Dismissed.” Airik set the PADD down on the podium and finally breathed. All the stuffy formality was unlike the Ba’ku. He would have rather had a casual brunch with the crew. Looking at the chronometer on the podium, it was only one hour to 0930. He looked back at Commander MacReady. "I guess this is it. No turning back." He smiled.<br/>