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The Captain sat in his ready room, staring at a delicately wrapped package on his lap. It was his birthday and he reflected on his life; a life that began as a 17 year-old enlistee and progressed to the captaincy. He remembered that first assignment aboard the USS Eclipse.
He, like every year, caressed the small box, and with each stroke, time seemed to slow down as the memories flew backward in time, up to the day he had first boarded the Challenger-class starship... The first moment he had met Anna.
There had been an instant connection between them. He had never believed in love at first sight. After all, everyone knew the first weeks of "love" were simply a surge of dopamine and oxytocin... Yet he had felt their first encounter was more than that.
The Captain's fingers grabbed the edge of the rectangular cover. Gently, he pulled it up, holding his breath as he relived that day one more time.
~
"What are you up to, wonder boy?" Anna asked him through the comm channel of his quarters.
"About to start my shift," he mumbled, sipping on his Vulcan mocha.
"I haven't forgotten, you know," her voice trailed off to a giggle before she closed the link. Of course she would not have. Birthdays were her thing.
"Lt. Molnár, report to Docking Bay 2," the familiar voice of the Captain said through his comm badge shortly after.
"Acknowledged, Captain."
Still dizzy from his short night (thanks to Anna), Ambrus' mind was numb as he stood alone in the turbolift, staring blankly at his feet to shake off the urge to yawn.
~
When he walked into the docking bay a few minutes later, the Lieutenant found himself gaping at Anna and the Captain, who had the strangest of smile on his face.
"Lieutenant, you have been assigned to pilot the White Hart for a short exploratory mission of the Posadai asteroid fields. Lt. Kennedy will conduct the..."
The Captain's voice became distant as Ambrus slowly repeated one word in his head: pilot...! The thing he loved to do the most, but had to give up momentarily upon accepting a position in Engineering. Anna knew he had been yearning for "real" piloting despite the holodeck sessions, and she had somehow convinced the Captain to let him pilot on an official exploratory mission... on his birthday.
"Aye Captain, we'll be on our way." Anna's voice brought him out of his reverie.
"Lieutenants, good luck!" the Captain winked to Ambrus.
~
"You realize this is my first official mission since I boarded the Eclipse," Ambrus said over the shuttle's comm, still astonished the Captain was Anna's accomplice. The man must have knowingly overlooked some Starfleet regulation regarding missions and relationships.
The Lieutenant watched the Science Officer from the cockpit as she slowly made her way about the asteroid with her EV suit, scanning for gas pockets and rock samples.
"If you hurry up, maybe I shall get to fly us around these fields some more before we head back to the Eclipse," Ambrus pleaded, tapping his fingers on the control panel.
"Can't wait for-- Oh!"
"What's wrong?"
"I have a story for you," Anna giggled.
"Oh great, didn't I tell you to hurry up?" the Lieutenant was annoyed every minute they spent grounded on this small asteroid was a minute less he would be flying.
"Once upon a time, there was a couple madly in love," she started, kneeling on the ground as she spoke.
"Here we go," Ambrus muttered with a sigh.
"One day," Anna continued, "one of them wanted to make a surprise." Anna punched something on her wrist controls.
"I already know that part."
"Wait, my story is not finished yet!"
A few seconds later, the shuttle's transporter lit up with its usual tingle. Ambrus walked to the pad to see what Anna had beamed in.
"What...?"
"That's my way of asking 'Will you marry me, Ambrus Molnár'?"
~
The Captain carefully lifted the rock sample from the box, staring at the moving colors of the luminous gas inside the crystal sprouting from it. Every birthday, his thoughts always drifted back to that wonderful day spent in the Posadai field so many years ago.
"How did that story end again?" a familiar chuckle said behind him. "Oh yes! They lived happily ever after... on that tiny asteroid."
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