Day 1 to Gault: Lifting Off and Lifting Spirits

Posted on Thu Nov 5th, 2026 @ 4:22am by Lieutenant Kally Kellerman & Lieutenant JG Katie Kellerman & Captain Calypso Skyie & Ensign Azrael Vaux

3,465 words; about a 17 minute read

Mission: We'll Be Back
Location: Runabout
Timeline: Day 1 of Leave (Roughly 48 hours after arrival at DS16)

“Okay,” Kally said, standing in the cockpit of the runabout and reading through her padd. “Clothes, toiletries, medical reports for me to work on, command communiques for you to read, the bottle of Saurian Brandy for my father, the holos of everyone on the ship to show my parents, equipment, a box of–eek!”

She jumped as she felt a hand pinch her rear and turned quickly, both grinning and giving a scolding look at Cally. “I’m trying to make sure we’re packed,” she said, giggling and moving in to give her a kiss.

“The runabout isn’t going to leave without us, you know!” Cally wrapped the smaller blonde up in a bear hug and kissed her again, “One of the benefits of not going on a cruise ship or other transport. Besides, I’m the Captain, I’ll just deny launch authority until we get there.”

Kally purred and pressed against her, kissing her back. “Yes, but I don’t want to get halfway there and realize we’ve forgotten something. ‘Prior planning prevents poor performance’, right? And I can’t help but feel I forgot something. Besides, the last thing I want is a delay in launching. I want us to be planetside ASAP so I can show you everything!”

With another kiss, Cally finally released her girlfriend and patted her rear end gently. “So, what are we missing? I can help, I’m really not that useless at getting everything ready, you know. Or, could I distract Katie instead?”

“Tempting on that last one,” Kally said, finishing her checklist. “Thankfully, all that bothering I did last night paid off, and we’re fully packed and ready to go. Just waiting on our other two passengers.”

As if summoned, the doors to the shuttlebay opened and Katie came in, suitcase in one hand, and a duffel over her shoulder. “Hey,” she said as she stepped inside, waving. “Sorry for cutting it close, I couldn’t decide what to pack.”

“Totally okay,” Kally said, moving over quickly and hugging her sister tightly, not letting go right away. “Just glad you’re here.”

Katie dropped her gear and hugged Kally back. “Nothing I want more than to go see our parents right now,” she said, genuinely. “Well that and something sweet to munch on.”

“Stress baking not doing it for you?” Kally said.

“Can’t stress bake if I’m about to leave on a trip,” Katie sighed. “Been too busy trying to get myself together.

“I wouldn’t look at me if you’re wanting something baked,” Cally raised her hands in surrender as she came over and gave Katie a hug of her own, more like a mama bear protecting her cub, but far friendlier. “But for company, I think I can at least hold my own.”

“Why bother when you have Kally and I to hold it for you?” Katie said, finally smiling a bit as she hugged Cally back and gave her a loving kiss.

“And the least likely to be late one is the last one here?” Azrael’s voice echoed through the back of the runabout as he peeked around the corner, “Okay, it looks like everyone is decent, for now at least.” He hopped up the ramp with his own small duffel bag and suitcase, a wide grin on his face. The camp shirt and shorts he wore hid his physique well, “I would have sworn you two would have been running late.”

“My fault,” Kally said. “When I really wanna get somewhere, I’m painfully early.”

Katie looked over in surprise. “Oh, hi Izzy,” she said, smiling. “What’re you doing here?”

Kally immediately froze and put her hand to her face. “Fuck me, that’s what I forgot.”

Katie looked at her and shook her head. “To tell me we had friends coming?”

Kally blushed. “Kat, I swear, I meant to tell you…”

“You just can’t speak with your mouth full, yeah,” Katie teased, nudging Cally with her hip. She smiled at Izzy and walked over to him, giving him a warm hug. “Want some help stowing that in the back?” she said, smiling.

“Absolutely,” Azrael wrapped her in the friendliest and non-sensual hug he could, even as he saw the Captain blush. “Always good to get a hug from the prettier of the Kellerman sisters.”

She took his duffel for herself and followed him into the rear compartment. The doors closing behind them, cutting off Kally’s shout of “oh, go fuck yours–”


“Well, she’s going to be annoyed with me,” Kally sighed, sitting in the copilot’s chair once the doors shut.

“Oh she sure will; you’re setting her up with someone this close after Jadizon.” Cally shook her head slowly, “I’d be a bit put off by that if it were me.”

Kally shrugged. “Only for a bit. She’ll bounce back fast. She knows I just didn’t want her to feel like a third wheel the whole trip. Once we get home, she’ll be busy running around town and spending time with Papa, and she’ll be as happy as she can be.”

“And Izzy can spend some time with us, then!” Cally’s eyes brightened noticeably and she laughed, “Assuming we don’t wear him out too much on the way there and he finds some way to escape.”

Kally grinned. “He’ll be fine. Don’t underestimate him. Right now, I need him for his cuddling skills more than anything else. She needs a hug, and she needs to chat with a guy who isn’t immediately going to be pressuring her for something. I can’t think of someone better for that than Izzy, except maybe Alex. Even then, Izzy knows me well enough to get what I’m going for.”

Calypso reached out to grab a hold of Kally’s hand. “You know… I have this feeling that it isn’t Izzy that’ll be pushing her for anything.” She smiled, “But he won’t take it too far. And Alex? He’s distracted right now with something… I’m worried for him, too.”

Kally nodded. She was in a relationship, Katie was single and getting assertive, Alex and she were in a good place to the point she was worried about his well-being. Whatever alternate timeline she’d suddenly been thrust into, it was an interesting one.




As they stepped inside the rear compartment, Katie’s smile dropped. “Why did she invite you?” she said, dropping his duffel on the bed and folding her arms.

He exhaled, this wasn’t going to plan, that was for sure. Kally was supposed to have given her sister a heads up, but apparently now he was on his own. He wasn’t going to lie, that would just be bad if it were found out, so the truth would have to suffice, “Because she’s worried about you and because I’m the ‘safe’ one to invite along.” He shrugged slightly, “It also helps that I’ve never been to Gault and I do hear that there’s a butterfly there that is bioflourescent in the night.”

“Ja, der Leichtschwimmer,” Katie said, nodding. “It’s beautiful, graceful, and there’s plenty of them, and that’s a flimsy backup excuse, but I forgive you.” She walked up to him and hugged him gently. “I figured she’d do something like this,” Katie said, quietly. “I know she worries about me, and I appreciate you willing to give up your leave to join us.”

“Honestly, I didn’t have anything important planned during it, mostly just making something up as I went along.” He hugged her back, “And I’m genuinely interested in the leichtschwimmer, if just because Aila never got to see it when she was the host of Vaux. But yes, a flimsy excuse. Besides, I’m your friend, I worry about you too.”

“Thank you; that said,” Katie said, stepping back to give him a serious look. “We’re going to set some ground rules. I am not some whiney, crying, little sad-sack. You are not going to sit here and treat me with kid gloves. I’m determined to enjoy myself on this trip, and you are going to enjoy me too, got it?” She paused as she realized what she said, then shrugged.

“Why would I ever treat you like anyone other than who you are?” Azrael asked Katie genuinely, “I’m not a shrink, I’ve gotten to know you, a fair bit at least, over the last year or so, even if it’s only been through professional and a little bit of personal contact. Not nearly as… Intimately as I know your sister, but hey, a guy can’t have every-” He cut himself off as he finally caught the meaning of her last words, “Well, there’s a chance, at least, that a guy can in this case. After all, the best way to get over a guy…”

“Is to get under another guy, yes,” Katie said, nodding. “I’m well aware of the Kalliope Kellerman Philosophy of Rebounding.”

Azrael laughed as there was a whine from the engines as they pitched up to take off, “Besides, now, I think you three are stuck with me, at least once we get out of transporter range.” He leaned in towards Katie, “And Kally may have been a psychic, or just psychotic, because she asked me to bring that bag along.”

Katie glanced at his luggage and wasn’t sure she knew what he meant, then realized she was about to see a side of Kally she hadn’t experienced yet. “Well…this’ll be interesting,” she said, grinning. She leaned in and kissed Izzy sweetly and gave him a smile. “Hopefully it’ll be an entertaining experience as well.”

He placed his hands on her hips as his eyes danced with an inner light as he savored the kiss for his and her enjoyment, “We’ll see what you think if and when you’re under my tender care. But maybe you’d rather watch first, see what you did when you pulled that prank on your sister last year?”

“She’s told me quite a lot,” Katie admitted. “But I’m sure a demonstration is worth a thousand words. And given we’re all sharing one compartment, it shouldn’t be too difficult to convince her.” She eyed the conspicuously single, large bed.

“Either she knows you better than you know yourself, or she was planning this with malice aforethought, or…” He glanced around the entire room, “There just isn’t enough space for enough beds for everyone. Don’t worry, I’m not going to play the ‘gentleman’ and offer to sleep in the pilot’s cabin, I know better than that. But, of course, neither am I going to force anything to happen.”

“Oh, the first two, absolutely,” Katie said, nodding. “And I know you would never force anything. And the good news is, you won’t need to.” She smirked and turned her back on him, half walking, half bouncing out of the rear cabin and back to the cockpit.

Azrael watched her go, especially her rear end, with a smile on his face before he followed her up to the cockpit and leaned against the door as he watched Calypso at the controls of the shuttle, Kally lounging with her feet up on the console, “Well, I think you two will be happy that Katie and I have had our discussion and have come to terms.”

“Shut up, Kal,” Katie said, immediately, walking up towards the copilot’s seat.

Cally glanced up and back briefly, before returning her attention to the front, “And just what is it that you two have figured out?”

“Oh, that we’re in for an interesting ride, isn’t that right?” Izzy asked.

Katie put a hand over Kally’s mouth and nodded. “I’d say so,” she said. She smirked as Kally shot her an annoyed look and stood up, giving up the copilot’s chair. She gave Kally a long kiss and a loving hug, smiling at her and sitting down, watching the engines.

They all watched as the runabout lifted off, seeing the forcefield at the shuttlebay’s exit crackle as they approached. As they moved into open space and angled towards their destination, Katie checked the engines, nodded in approval and sat back to watch the stars leap into warp.

Calypso keyed in the autopilot and verified that it was functioning before she spun around in the chair, grinning widely up at all of them, “We’re on time and on course, we have us an Izzy, twins and the hottest Captain in Starfleet and ten days in a runabout together. There’s nothing that can go wrong here.”

Both twins immediately rolled their eyes. “Toi, toi, toi,” they said together.

Azrael gave her a slight smile, “How sure of that are you?” He leaned over and placed his hands on the armrests so he was leering over Cally, “You did bring me along, after all, and there are plenty of things to use in a runabout to tie people to.”

“I can compile a list!” Kally said from the rear seat, raising her hand like a schoolgirl.

“Glad to know we’re not wasting time,” Katie said, laughing.

“Oh we are definitely not,” Kally said, eyeing Izzy hungrily.

“Nuh uh,” Katie said, reaching over and pulling Izzy towards her. “He’s here as my guest, right?”

Kally gave a small huff. “Fine. I get to have more fun first then,” she said, sitting on Cally’s lap and kissing her.

Cally’s arms wrapped around Kally instinctively and immediately, kissing her back, “You know… I’ve never actually fucked anyone in the cockpit of a shuttle, believe it or not. The back, certainly, but never up here.

“Why do I find it so genuinely surprising to hear I’ve done something you haven’t,” Kally said, grinning. “Well, clearly we need to fill that hole…in your resume.” She snickered and shucked her t-shirt.

Izzy had an arm around Katie, then smiled down at her, “Should we give them some privacy while we seek some of our own?”

Katie tousled his hair and kissed him. “If you want. Lord knows it wouldn’t stop them.” She stood up and leaned back against the console. “Unless you want to just sit down and we see which of us can make our partners cheer faster?”

“Nope, no competition,” Kally said from Cally’s lap. “Inherently unfair. I know them too well, and you don’t. I’d cheat.”

“Which means she knows I can probably beat her with you and she’s afraid to lose,” Katie said in a stage whisper. She winked and grabbed Izzy by his belt and pulled him forward. “Your call.”

“Let’s let them have their fun, Katie,” Azrael asked as he bent down and swept Katie off her feet with a hand underneath the crook of her knees, smiling into her face and giving her a quick kiss, “We’ll make our own back where it’s more comfortable.”

Katie let out a brief squeal of surprise, but didn’t argue, waving at Cally and Kally as he carried her off.

---

As the door closed behind them, Katie kissed him and smiled. “All right, put me down, unless you’re about to toss me onto the bed like a caveman.”

He chuckled at the comment, “I’ve never been the rough type, unless someone has wanted me to be.” He let her down slowly, making sure she had her feet under her before releasing her entirely, “And since you’ve been off-limits since shortly after coming on board, I’m not sure what you like. Besides, I’d want to be sure that you were sure it’s what you want.”

“I appreciate that,” she said. “And you know Kally pretty well, so you’ve got some ideas for me. But first, I think you should have a seat so that I can properly thank you for your being here.” She gave him a grin and licked her lips before standing on tiptoe to give him a kiss.

He held her by the small of her back for several seconds to kiss her properly before releasing her with a smile and sitting down as she had requested. He had a good idea of what she had planned and who was he to argue with her plans? “I’d have settled for just a thank you.”

“I like to overdeliver,” she said, running her fingers through his hair and kissing him before kneeling in front of him. She rested her elbows on his knees and gave him a thoughtful look. “So…Kally hasn’t said, so I’m going to ask you what probably everyone asks about Trills….”

He gave her a sly smile, “Well, there are two ways we could do this… I could tell you and ruin the surprise, or you can run an experiment and see for yourself.” He cupped her cheek in his hand, “And I hate ruining surprises.”

She stuck her tongue out playfully and sat back on her heels. “All right then, drop ‘em,” she said, batting her eyes up at him.

For a moment, he debated playing hard to get, but there was something in those eyes that made him want to obey. They were the same eyes as Kally’s and he could resist HER just fine, as he’d proven time and time again in other venues. He hooked his thumbs into his waistline and slowly dragged his shorts down as he lifted his butt for a moment, keeping his eyes on hers the entire time as he took them past his hips and finally let them drop to the floor.

She sat there, sitting back on her heels again, staring at him with a confused look. “Why…do I have the biggest feeling of deja vu?” she said.

Azrael chuckled as he shook his head slightly, “Because this isn’t the first time we’ve been in this position?”

Katie frowned, thinking back. “It…is…isn’t it?” she said. “You and I weren’t together before I was with Jadizon, were we?”

“My first year at the Academy, I was dragged along to some… ‘party’, they called it, where they were trying to get as many guys as possible to participate. I was this skinny kid, but I was male, so they talked me into at least seeing what was up.” He closed his eyes as he thought back to that memory still clear in his head, “We were told that these two hot twins were trying to handle as many people as they could, each trying to outdo the other.

Katie was blushing crimson. She knew exactly what party he was referring to. “You…looked a lot different then,” she said. “Not just skinnier but your eyes were different and you looked, well, sweet.” She smiled up at him. “I’m sorry I didn’t recognize you. It was a busy night. I hope you enjoyed yourself, at least. I’m betting I did.”

Azrael blushed as he remembered the rest of the night and opened his eyes, “After about thirty seconds?” he said quietly, meeting her eyes, “I bailed out in embarrassment.” He sighed heavily, “And yes, it was definitely you, Kally has a different style and I can still remember that one. You were the third experience I’d ever had and absolutely the best one, but I couldn’t go through with actually having sex with you. Oh, I would have lost my virginity, sure, but I couldn’t bear the thought of lasting another thirty seconds, then getting basically tossed to the side while everyone laughed at me.”

She pouted and moved up and kissed him tenderly. She looked him in the eyes, “and I’d have been honored to have been first. Why didn’t you come find me later?”

“Obviously you graduated the next year, but then I took a year off because the Symbiosis Commission called me because I’d been selected for the Vaux symbiont. I started working out and by the time I got back to the Academy, I’d put on a lot more muscle, went from being the class nerd to one of the ones getting hit on by the girls.”

“Well, we’ve got ten days to catch up,” she said, smiling, a glint in her eye worthy of her sister.

 

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