A Bit of Home While You Roam

Posted on 23 Apr 2017 @ 2:13pm by Lieutenant Commander Gemma Alexander

591 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: The Finnean Crisis
Location: Various
Timeline: October 2388

“Did you hide my bra?” Gemma yelled down the hall to her younger sister who yelled back, “No Brian used it to sling water balloons at Henley Dorm…” Margret called and from the stairs of the modest two level home in the outskirts of London, came a male voice, “I do not want to hear about your under things, Mom says to hurry up if we want to meet Dad on time.” Brian, in the style of younger brothers everywhere stomped back down the stairs.

Gemma’s parents kept and maintained a home on Earth under a caretaker even if they couldn’t get there all the time. It was important to them, this connection to home. They had a long and deep history with the British Isles of their birth and the house with had housed generations of Gemma’s family. It was, in part, this deep and abiding support of family that had helped make Gemma who she was.

Triumphantly she found the errant piece of clothing under her bed and proceeded to hurry getting around. Gemma had been lucky when she first arrived back home, her younger brother had been accepted to a civilian university but was free. Her sister, still in high school was about as well. Her mother, Captain of the USS Phoenix, was in dock for a retrofit. Only her father, a diplomat with the Diplomatic Service was away on negotiations. She had feared that she’d miss him entirely as her leave wore on but fortunately, a few weeks after getting back he was arriving.

She then spent another few weeks after her father’s return enjoying the company of her family and old friends. Long conversations with her mother, things she could talk about with no one else filled the late nights on the old porch. Loss like that, combat like that could not fail to effect someone and even a bold pilot was not immune. Fortunately her mother understood and had helped as best she could with advice, or lack thereof, as seemed appropriate.

What was to become her last night home found her on the roof of her home. It was her way, when she wanted to think. She went as high as she could, to ‘touch the sky’ as she was fond of saying. She was just looking up at the stars when her father poked his head out of a window. His kind face with its laugh lines looking worried, “Dear one, no good way to say this but you’ve got sealed orders…” Gemma moved her hands from her knees to take the PADD from him and enter in a particular code. Her eyes skimmed the writing, then looked up at her father. He read the truth in her eyes and said, in deep understanding, “I’ll tell your mother, she’ll want to pack food for the trip.” This was not the first time duty called a member of her family and it would not be the last.

Gemma took one more look at the old, familiar stars of her home, touching the necklace that held a stone from her Grandmother Alexander's garden as a bit of home to keep her grounded where ever she might roam. Then
with a sigh climbed back into the house.

Weeks later found her at DS9 as she wondered, not for the first time, about details of her new assignment. She figured eventually things would be made clear as hefted her duffle and went to find their Chief of the Boat.

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