A Pirate's Life For Me

[Craven 0]

Jack Craven walked out of the holosuite and into the bar, garnering strange looks from the patrons as he walked out.

 

One of the patrons looked up to his partner and muttered under his breath, "yeesh, this guy's gets blisteringly drunk one night and starts dressing up like an old earth prostitute the next?"

 

A sharp sword cut into the table, just in front of the man's drink. Before him Craven stood with a grin that showed a few gold teeth.

 

"Thats pirate mate, not prostitute. And you best be watchin you're tongue, we've been known to cut it right from your mouth." he gave a quick wink and a laugh to the crewman who, for a moment, looked like he had just seen a real pirate.

 

Craven picked up his cutlass and turned to walk out onto the promenade. He hadn't used his old pirate program in ages it seemed. While at Starfleet Academy he had spent many a night sailing the open seas, fighting off his naval persuers, and commanding a less than reputable crew in their quests for wealth.

 

Those were the good old days. Nothing but the wind in his sails and the stars to guide him.

 

Simpler times indeed. he thought.

 

The new building project on avalon would keep him from his new home on Excalibur for who knows how long. He had hated being tied in one place for very long. He supposed this was most likely due to the fact that he had spent the majority of his life on board some form of starship. He liked being on Excalibur.

 

True, he had still to meet most of the crew, even the command staff. But being an Ensign, he knew that it would likely be some time until he was able to formally introduce himself.

 

Jack arrived at the airlock where Excalibur was docked and nodded to the security officer who recognized the man in pirate get-up from when he walked off the ship. He had been the first that day to ask him what he was supposed to be masquerading as. It still amazed Craven how many humans new nothing of that age in Earth's history.

 

Arriving at his quarters on the Sovereign class ship, Jack walked in and began changing into his uniform - he had wanted to start downloading the schematics for the new Avalon sensor array. If there was one thing he hated more than being stuck on a planet, it was being unprepared.

 

"Times like these make me think I should have never turned down the Cambria offer." he said to himself aloud.

 

He thought back to Captain Gorring's offer when he graduated the academy. The young man had cought the captain's eye in with his PhD studies in Positronics back on Earth, and had offered Jack the position as Chief Science Officer aboard the newly christened USS Cambria, a science vessel that was to investigate temporal anomalies across the entire Alpha Quadrant.

 

But no, he had wanted adventure, he had wanted excitement. Well it seems he had found both in his first few weeks on Excalibur. Granted it was not as close to a Command level position - as was quite possible with the Cambira post, but Craven figured it would come with time - though considerably more time now.

 

As he finished changing, Jack sat down at his desk and noticed a message, whose title read:

 

Ensign Jackson Apollo Craven

RE: Assignment Orders

 

The message was from Captain Sohrel and Commander Corizon.

 

"By golly" he thougth to himself as he read.

 

Ensign,

By order of the Commanding officer of Camelot Station you are to be reassigned to the command of Commander Ah-Windu Corizon on board the Defiant-Class USS Ardent, at the post of Chief Operations Officer....

 

Craven blinked a few times and read the orders again.

 

"Holy mother of..." Chief Operations Officer. The words rang through him again and again. This was sure a nice change of pace.

 

He jumped up immediately and packed a small duffel bag. He had only been aboard a Defiant-Class ship once, during a training mission, so he knew he had best familiarize himself with it as soon as possible.

 

As he gathered his things he looked over to his workbench at the yet-to-be-named the Craven-Type Android he was currently constructing in his spare time.

 

he smiled, "Now dont you go running away on me while I'm gone, savvy?"