Cl.01.01 – After finding her balance, she closed her eyes and took one last deep breath. With little force, she pushed herself away from the rock and with an agile move, she dived down to hit the cold water in a matter of seconds. The sensation of the cold water around her made her heart leap to her throat. She calmly swam to the surface, allowing the Lonar rays of sun light to shine on her face. Without moving one muscle, she allowed the buoyancy of her body to float. For several minutes she remained lying in the water just like that, allowing the sun to warm up her naked body. The feeling brought her back to her youth. She recalled the days when she was about 8 years old, diving from that same rock, hanging over the forest spring, slowly floating to the surface. Unfortunately the Cardassians made sure that that would not happen anymore, until now. The feeling of bliss she currently was experiencing was quite overwhelming. To be able to experience such a cherished memory, even after 35 years truly was a gift. She dived one more time below the surface, allowing her body to cool from the warm autumn rays and when she slowly swam back to the surface, she heard something that she has not heard in quite some time.
It was her communication badge that was chirping loudly. The silence of the forest accentuated the monotonous and intermittend chirp that otherwise had not been that loud. She looked at the brass Starfleet chevron for a while, knowing that her last few hours of complete freedom were about to end. She sighed once before swimming to the rim of the well. She reached for her commbadge and started to talk. “This is Captain Aelyn, go ahead.”
“Captain, I know that you have this day off, but Admiral West is on subspace. He says he has an urgent matter that needs your attention.” Calyssa recognized the voice of her new first officer. It was something she still had to get used to. Normally it would have been the voice of Commander Darkka but after her recent promotion, she got a command of her own, forcing Calyssa to find herself a new first officer. She had found him after a thorough search and selection procedure. Her first choice was Li-Kobrrei, an officer with quite some experience.
Calyssa sighed before she replied to the message her first officer had. “Tell the Admiral I need another two hours to finish matters down on the surface. I will contact him as soon as I am able to. Aelyn out.” With a single tap on her brass broche, she closed the channel through which she just had been talking. Elegantly, she pushed herself out of the water. After getting to her feet, she walked to the large towel that lied on a rock. Standing in the sun a couple of minutes allowed her body to dry even faster. As soon as she was dry, she put on her dress and started walking back to the cabin which was about 300 meters to the east.