Slice of Starship Life

Chapter 1: A Captain's Surprise

The smile of excitement that was plastered all over Ratchet's face didn't seem to fade as he stood inside the access dome that led towards the bridge, while standing beside him was none other than the captain of the Starship Phoenix and his special girl, Sasha Phyronix. He turned his head to her as she was just beside him with a blindfold wrapped around her eyes; he had insisted that she wear it while he led her towards the bridge to show her a special surprise he and the other members of the Q Force had put together for her.

"All right, Sasha, we should almost be there." Ratchet's assurance was soon proven correct as the access dome stopped upon arriving on the other side of the hallway it surrounded and the door at the front slowly opened upwards to allow the two to step off. Ratchet reached over to take Sasha's hand in hers and lead her out of the dome to start making their way towards the bridge's front door.

"Ratchet, this feels unnecessary. Why are we going to the bridge to begin with? And why do you have my eyes covered?" Ratchet turned his head to the Cazar in surprise upon hearing her speak; in spite of the fact that she couldn't see a thing due to the blindfold she was asked to wear, thus making it hard for him to read her expression, it was obvious to him that she was looking a bit annoyed by the odd request he had given her before they came here. The Lombax showed a smile of amusement at Sasha's display of annoyance and he let out a chuckle before giving his reply.

"Now, don't worry. You'll find out when we get inside." Sasha gave a nod in understanding, figuring it best to follow Ratchet's lead since he seemed certain of what he was doing, so the two walked towards the front entrance as the two halves of the door slid open outwards. Once they were inside, Ratchet reached over to untie the blindfold before removing it from Sasha's eyes. "Alright, you can look now."

Feeling certain that she no longer had her eyesight obstructed, Sasha opened her eyes up and she was met with a chorus of voices from the rest of the Q Force team, Ratchet included.

"Happy Birthday, Sasha!"

Sasha felt her eyes go wide in amazement at the sights around her; sure enough, the interior of the bridge was completely decorated with brightly coloured streamers wrapped around the railings, banners hung up on the walls with messages such as 'Happy Birthday' and 'Best Captain' etched onto them along with various photographs of her taped on the walls underneath the banners. On top of that, there was two tables set up in front of the computer monitors, one of them having an array of plastic cups and drinks and the others having a collection of snacks placed around it, while the Q Force stood in front of the captain's seat, having all gathered on Ratchet's request to celebrate. As Sasha was still taking in what she was seeing, she found herself struggling to find the right words to express her thoughts. "Huh? Wh.. bu… How?"

Seeing that she was being left at a loss of words, Angela was the first to answer the questions she no doubt had. "It's your birthday today, Sasha! We figured we'd all pitch in to throw you a surprise party."

"Once Ratchet told us that it was your special day and asked us to help with organising this surprise, we did not hesitate with doing so." Clank explained, having been waiting inside with the other members of the team since Ratchet wanted to bring her on his own.

"Yeah, and an awesome party like this means we get to take time off getting work done. So it's a double win for us!" Skidd added, with Angela shooting her glance towards him and shaking her head with a smile of amusement at his delight at getting to do something like this. As Sasha was still looking around at the decorations that had been set up, she found herself being left in awe before she was finally successful in managing to speak, showing a touched smile.

"Wow… I've never been thrown a surprise party like this before. This is wonderful, everyone." She then turned her glance to Ratchet as he made his way over to her, having noticed just how awestruck she was at the surprise being thrown for her. "Did you plan this?"

Ratchet felt his smile grow as he nodded in agreement. "Of course! As soon as I learnt that your birthday was on its way shortly, I asked the others to help with planning and organising this party for you. After all, I wasn't going to miss the chance to celebrate the day you came into our lives. Plus, I was looking forward to celebrating my best girl, who's not just the captain of this ship, but also the captain of my heart."

Sasha felt her smile grow in joy upon listening to Ratchet's words and she leaned over to kiss Ratchet on the lips, remaining that way for a few moments before separating her lips from his, leaving him staring in amazement for a few seconds before a shy smile crossed his face. "Thank you, Ratchet. This means so much to me." Ratchet's smile immediately grew in delight, as he was clearly looking thrilled that Sasha appreciated him going through the trouble to do this for her.