Somewhere Worth Coming Home To
Posted on 08 Aug 2026 @ 5:38pm by Alura Ryn
Edited on on 08 Aug 2026 @ 5:57pm
2,000 words; about a 10 minute read
Mission:
The Doldrums
Location: Deck Two
“I need to see the Captain.”
Elias Merrick looked up from his terminal.
Alura Ryn stood just inside his office on Deck Two with a PADD held against her chest. That alone was enough to make him suspicious. Normally, when Alura came looking for him, she arrived with three questions, two scheduling conflicts, and at least one suggestion that required him to explain why the Captain’s calendar could not simply be moved around because a crew activity had become “surprisingly popular.”
Today she had one sentence.
Merrick studied her for a moment. “Is something wrong?”
“No.”
The answer came too quickly.
His expression did not change.
Alura sighed. “Nothing is wrong.”
“That was more convincing.”
“I’m having a complicated day.”
“Ah.”
“And I need to talk to Sabrina.”
Merrick’s eyebrows rose slightly at the use of the Captain’s name, but he let it pass. Alura had worked with him often enough that neither of them needed to pretend she was particularly gifted at maintaining formality when she was distracted.
“Now?”
“If she has time.”
Merrick checked the Captain’s schedule.
“She has a gap before her next briefing.”
“How much of a gap?”
“Enough for whatever expression that is.”
Alura frowned. “What expression?”
“The one you’ve had since you walked in.”
“I look completely normal.”
“You really don’t.”
Alura stared at him.
Merrick’s mouth twitched.
“You’re a terrible friend.”
“I’m an excellent yeoman.”
“That remains under review.”
He tapped a few commands into the terminal.
“I’ll let her know you’re coming up.”
Alura nodded.
Then did not move.
Merrick looked back at her.
“What?”
“You’re still standing there.”
“I know.”
“Alura.”
She exhaled.
“I’m going.”
She made it to the doorway before stopping.
“Elias?”
“Yes?”
“Thank you.”
The humor left his expression.
“Of course.”
Alura gave him a small smile and headed for the turbolift.
---
The ride to Deck One was much too short.
Alura stepped onto the bridge and kept moving, offering only a quick smile to anyone who looked her way. Merrick had already sent word ahead. There was no reason to linger.
She crossed to the Captain’s ready room and pressed the chime.
“Come.”
Alura stepped inside.
Captain Sabrina Corbin looked up from her desk.
“Alura.”
“Captain.”
Sabrina’s brows lifted slightly.
Alura stopped.
“What?”
“You called me Captain.”
“I call you Captain.”
“When you remember.”
Alura pressed her lips together.
“That was almost hurtful.”
“Almost?”
“I’m choosing generosity today.”
Sabrina indicated the chair opposite her desk. “Then perhaps you might generously tell me what has brought you here.”
Alura sat.
For once, she did not immediately start talking.
That alone seemed to get Sabrina’s attention.
Alura folded her hands together in her lap, unfolded them, then finally reached for the PADD she had brought with her.
“My parents called.”
Sabrina waited.
“They bought a resort.”
A faint smile touched the Captain’s face. “That sounds like good news.”
“It is. Very good news. Ridiculously good news, actually. They’ve been trying to do this for years.”
Alura looked down at the PADD.
“It’s a smaller property. Coastal. Guest villas, restaurants, a marina, gardens, recreation facilities. It needs work. Quite a lot of work, if I’m being charitable about it.”
“And you are always charitable.”
“Exactly.”
That earned another small smile.
Alura turned the PADD around and slid it across the desk.
Sabrina picked it up.
The image showed the same sunlit property Alura had been staring at far too often since speaking with her parents.
“My father can handle the operations side. My mother wants to build the cultural programs and partnerships. But they don’t really have anyone for activities, recreation, events, guest programming…”
Sabrina looked up.
Alura sighed.
“Yes.”
“They asked you.”
“They asked me.”
“To return to Risa?”
Alura nodded.
Sabrina set the PADD down.
For a moment, neither woman said anything.
“I told them I had responsibilities here.”
“You do.”
“I told them I couldn’t simply walk away from the Arawyn.”
“No.”
Alura hesitated.
“They said they could hire someone else.”
Sabrina leaned back slightly.
“And how did that make you feel?”
Alura gave her a suspicious look.
“That is an extremely unfair Captain question.”
“I have several.”
“I’m beginning to understand why people are nervous when they come in here.”
“I shall take that as professional validation.”
Despite herself, Alura smiled.
It faded quickly.
“I didn’t like it.”
“The idea that they could hire someone?”
“The idea of someone else doing it.”
There.
Once spoken aloud, it sounded much more definitive than it had inside her head.
Alura looked toward the windows.
“For years, people my age left Risa because there wasn’t much for us there. Not if we wanted careers outside the large resorts or the established cultural programs. Tourism changed. Smaller places closed. People found work elsewhere.”
She glanced back toward Sabrina.
“I found mine.”
“You did.”
“I liked the idea that what I was doing mattered. Not just parties and holodeck programs and fitness classes, but actually making life better for people who spend months or years away from home.”
Sabrina nodded. “I would say you have proved that rather thoroughly.”
Alura’s eyes dropped.
“That’s the problem.”
“I’m not sure I follow.”
“My parents don’t want the girl who grew up on Risa and knows how to organize a beach festival.”
She paused.
“They want me because of everything I learned after I left.”
Understanding settled across Sabrina’s expression.
“Ah.”
“My father actually said they didn’t need their daughter. They needed their recreation director.”
“That was rather well played.”
“He has his moments.”
Sabrina glanced down at the image again.
“And what would you do there?”
Alura answered before she could think about it.
“Build the entire guest program.”
The words came quickly now.
“Activities, excursions, wellness, family programming, festivals, holodeck content. I’d probably redesign half the recreation spaces. They need staff training. Partnerships with local artists. Cultural programs that don’t feel like something copied out of a visitor’s guide. My mother has already found three historical sites nearby that could support small group excursions, and there’s a marine preserve less than twenty kilometers from the property that barely gets any visitors because none of the local resorts program around it properly.”
She stopped.
Sabrina was watching her.
Alura blinked.
“Oh.”
“Quite.”
“I sounded excited.”
“Very.”
Alura sank farther into the chair.
“That is inconvenient.”
“I can see how it might be.”
“I like it here.”
“I know.”
“I like the Arawyn.”
“I know that too.”
“I’m good at this.”
“Yes.”
Alura frowned. “You could make this slightly harder.”
“I could, but I cannot imagine what purpose it would serve.”
That silenced her again.
Sabrina folded her hands on the desk.
“Alura, leaving something worthwhile does not mean it was a mistake to be there.”
Alura looked at her.
“You came aboard this ship wanting to prove that morale and recreation were more than decorations around the edges of a mission. That people work better when someone remembers that they are, in fact, people.”
Alura smiled faintly.
“That sounds much more respectable when you say it.”
“I have had practice.”
Sabrina glanced toward the resort image.
“And now someone is asking you to build that philosophy into something from the ground up.”
Alura’s throat tightened unexpectedly.
“I thought I was supposed to keep moving forward.”
“You would be.”
“By going home?”
“Those two things are not mutually exclusive.”
Alura looked again at the PADD.
The villas.
The gardens.
The empty recreation pavilion.
Her father’s impossible six-week opening festival.
Sabrina’s voice softened.
“Do you want to go?”
Alura had rehearsed answers to that question.
Responsible answers.
Complicated answers.
Answers involving contracts, staffing, obligations, transition plans and the precise number of programms she currently supervised aboard the Arawyn.
None of them seemed particularly useful now.
“Yes.”
The word came out very quietly.
Alura took a breath.
“Yes. I think I do.”
Sabrina nodded once.
No surprise.
No disappointment.
Just acceptance.
Alura stared at her.
“You knew.”
“I suspected.”
“That is annoying.”
“I shall try to recover from the criticism.”
Alura laughed, although her eyes had started to sting.
“I don’t want anyone thinking I’m leaving because I’m unhappy here.”
“They won’t.”
“I don’t want you thinking that.”
“I don’t.”
Alura looked down at her hands.
“I wasn’t expecting this.”
“Life rarely consults the duty roster.”
“That should be printed somewhere.”
“I sincerely hope not.”
Another small silence passed.
Then Alura straightened.
“I suppose this is the part where I formally resign my appointment.”
“If you are certain.”
Alura looked once more at the resort.
For the first time since the call, the answer did not feel like something she was still debating.
“I am.”
Sabrina inclined her head.
“Then I accept your resignation.”
Alura swallowed.
That made it real.
“Oh.”
“You may reconsider if you like.”
“No.” Alura shook her head quickly. “No, I just…”
Her laugh was softer this time.
“I thought there might be more paperwork before it became emotionally devastating.”
“There will be paperwork.”
“Thank goodness.”
Sabrina smiled.
“We will need time for a proper handover. And I expect you to leave whoever inherits your programms with something more useful than several hundred color-coded schedules and a collection of stuffed animals.”
“They are morale mascots.”
“Of course they are.”
“They have an established organizational purpose.”
“I have never doubted it.”
Alura looked around the ready room, suddenly aware that this was one of many places aboard the Arawyn she had become accustomed to simply being.
The ship had become home almost without her noticing.
“I’m going to miss this place.”
“I should hope so.”
Alura looked back at Sabrina.
“That was not very comforting.”
“No. But it is true.”
Sabrina’s expression softened.
“You have done good work here, Alura. More than that, you have made a difference to people aboard this ship. You should be proud of that.”
Alura blinked hard.
“Now you’re doing it deliberately.”
“Doing what?”
“Making me cry in the Captain’s ready room.”
“I believe you are still holding together admirably.”
“Barely.”
Sabrina stood.
Alura followed.
For a second, the usual boundaries between Captain and civilian department head lingered between them.
Then Sabrina stepped around the desk.
Alura hugged her.
It was spontaneous, wholehearted, and entirely Alura.
After the briefest hesitation, Sabrina returned it.
“Thank you,” Alura said quietly.
“You are very welcome.”
They separated.
Alura wiped carefully beneath one eye.
“I suppose I should start telling people.”
“Yes.”
She reached the door, then stopped.
“Captain?”
Sabrina looked up.
“When you eventually take leave, you should come.”
“To Risa?”
“To the resort.”
A little of Alura’s familiar brightness returned.
“I’ll make certain you receive the Captain’s package.”
Sabrina’s eyes narrowed.
“There is a Captain’s package?”
“There is now.”
“Alura.”
“Complimentary villa upgrade, priority bookings, private excursions…”
“Alura.”
“…and absolutely no mandatory organized activities.”
Sabrina considered her.
“That last part may have saved the arrangement.”
Alura smiled.
Then the smile softened.
“I’ll make it somewhere worth coming home to.”
Sabrina regarded her for a moment.
“I rather think you will.”
Alura stepped back onto the bridge.
Alura stepped back onto the bridge.
There was no convenient buffer between one difficult conversation and the next.
Probably for the best.
She crossed toward the turbolift and stepped inside.
The doors closed.
For a moment, Alura stood alone in the quiet car, letting the conversation with Sabrina settle around her.
She had said it aloud now.
She was leaving.
By the time the turbolift slowed again, she had composed herself enough that most people would not have noticed anything was wrong.
There was still one person aboard the Arawyn who deserved to hear the news from her before anyone else could tell him.
Ryan.
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