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Kalani's Quarters

Posted Jan. 5, 2019, 12:18 p.m. by Lieutenant Commander Jarred Alindor (Chief Engineer) (Steven Sigle)

Posted by Ensign Kalani Kāne (Scientist) in Kalani’s Quarters

<snip>

“Little one!” Jarred said as he smiled ear from ear as he knelt down as he felt her leap into his arms. Holding her tight he didn’t want to let go of this moment. He didn’t want to let go as he held on, tightly as he kissed her cheek before letting him peel her away just slightly so he could look at her closely.

Elizabeth let her Daddy hug her for a long time for two reasons. The first was that she did miss him. The second was that the room was so big, so busy and a bit scary. Men and women were moving about like it was the shuttle terminal in Chicago only everyone here was in the same clothes. It reminded Elizabeth of her school and the uniforms she wore except the women were not in dresses. She nestled her head on his shoulder and looked around. She knew the Saracen was smaller than the city she lived in with her Nana and PaPa but right now it seemed so much bigger.

“How is my little one? Was the trip okay?” he asked her, wanting to know everything. There might as well have been no one else there as he looked at her, this purple eyes he remembered her mother had shining back at him. Few details of her looked much like her mom, being a quarter Denublean didn’t lend to a lot of traits. He knew her eyes though were one of those traits. When she was younger he hated her eyes, remembering only that of Lilly but now, they were the prettiest shade he had ever seen.

“Yes. I got to eat pizza three times,” she said proudly as if this was the greatest accomplishment anyone had ever experienced. “And I made you a present all by myself.” Pushing away from him, Lizzie ran back to her PaPa snatching the bag from his hand as if it were a relay race. Her footsteps pounded down the ramp letting the tingy metal sound reverbarate in the room. Plowing almost into Jarred, Elizabeth unzipped the bag and yanked at the small wrapped object inside. She tugged at it several times before it came out of the bag. Handing it to him she smiled proudly. “Open it! Open it! Open it!” she danced back and forth.

“Sweetie…” he said with a small smile, it wasn’t that he wasn’t touched, quite the opposite. He didn’t want to let any tears fall while he opened it, as to not make her have any wrong impression. “You are too sweet little one.” he said as he began to unwrap his gift.

As Jarred unwrapped the paper he would find an oddly shaped object. It looked like a dinner plate with a rectangle attached to one end at the bottom. It was painted all gray except for a large blue swirl on the rectangle below the dinner plate. Off the rectangle were one longer and thinner rectangle that extended outwards like an arm. “Do you know what it is? Do you like it,” Elizabeth said with a grin.

“Did you make me the Saracen?” he asked as he looked over at the design. It looked ship like, or maybe an old Earth flying saucer. He wasn’t sure she had ever seen those old Earth novels of what alien spaceships looked like, so it had to be the Saracen. “I love it little one, it’s perfect!” he said as he gave her a kiss on her cheek.

As Elizabeth looked at the ship in Jarred’s hands she immediately ripped it back out. “PaPa it broke,” she yelled looking like she was about to break into tears. “Can you help me fix it?”

Jarred watched as she took the present to his dad. He didn’t say anything but he did bow his head just a little.

Ignoring Jarred like he wasn’t even in the room she turned to her grandpa with the object. “I need help PaPa,” Elizabeth said moving away from Jarred and towards the older Alindor on the ramp. “Fix it for me?”

Jonathan took it in his hands, but didn’t say anything as he looked down at her then back at Jarred. He knew his son was trying hard but he couldn’t just ignore his granddaughter either.

Kalani bit her lip watching the scene play out. It only made sense that Elizabeth would turn to her grandfather instead of Jarred. Kalani couldn’t see Jarred’s face but she hoped it wasn’t too upset by this turn of events. Being the daughter of a counselor, Kalani had heard stories about things like this all the time growing up. It was not uncommon for kids to have a bit of a difficult time dealing with parents they had been separated from for extended lengths of time. Maybe the puppet thing might come in handy however Samantha Alindor was already inserting herself to remedy the issue.

“Baby, what about your Daddy? He is the man that fixes this ship. Remember we talked about him being an engineer,” she said deftly inserting herself between her granddaughter and her husband. “He is the chief engineer because he can fix anything. I know he can fix it better than PaPa. Maybe he can help you later tonight,” she suggested. Part of her felt sick doing this. For six years Jonathan had essentially been Elizabeth’s father fixing all sorts of broken things that little girls brought to a Daddy. It felt wrong doing this but Jonathan was not Lizzie’s father. The transition was not going to be perfectly smooth and anything Samantha could do to help aid it being smooth for Lizzie was for the best. The look on her son’s face and the grumbling of her husband behind her and Samantha anxious. Little things like this over the years had resulted in tension between father and son with culminated into full on arguments. Hopefully, she had interceded fast enough to stop it.

“Yes but PaPa fixes things. Daddy sends things,” Lizzie said giving her Nana a confused look.

“Yes but now Daddy will fix things and PaPa will send things. Remember…we talked about that,” Samantha said softly.

“It’s okay love, let him have a chance this time.” he said as he handed her back the gift.

Elizabeth turned around and eyed Jarred critically. “Are you sure you know how to fix things,” Lizzie asked in a suspicious tone.

“He sure does,” Kalani spoke for the first time. “I break things all the time and he is the first person I come to for help.” She wasn’t sure it was her place to enter the conversation but the smile from Samantha told Kalani she did do the right thing.

“Are you going to introduce us?” asked Jonathan, he had waited for the two to talk some but he didn’t know the woman in front of him, but he assumed it was the Kalani he knew his son was seeing.

Looking up at his father Jarred looked over at Kalani then back to his mom and dad. “I’m so sorry Mom, Dad, Elizabeth… this is Kalani my girlfriend. She was very excited to get to meet you little one, she heard you were a fan of all her animals and insisted on meeting her number one fan.”

Alindor, CE

“She’s the crazy zoo keeper,” Elizabeth gave her Dad a funny look and then glanced at Kalani. Kids lack of a filter and the glance she gave back to Jonathan spoke volumes about adult conversations that were not meant for little ears.

Samantha for her part looked a bit paler after her granddaughter spoke but quickly added, “zoologist honey. PaPa meant to say she is the ships zoologist.”

Well I don’t need my dad’s psyche degree to know their opinion of me, Kalani thought but extended her hand not missing a beat. “Hello Mr. Alindor. Mrs. Alindor. I am Kalani the ships climatologist and ecologist but I do dabble in being a zookeeper,” she added winking at Elizabeth as she said the last part. You are marrying the man not the family, she added as a personal pep talk in case this meeting went any further downhill. “I am so happy to meet you both.”

Ensign Kalani Kane, science

“No I meant crazy zoo keeper but the crazy part was just for putting up with Jarred zoo keeper was a compliment.” Jonathan said to her, it didn’t seem to be antagonistic and it was clear where Jarred might have got his sense of humor from.

“Well many could say the same for mom.” Jarred said back but didn’t go further, he looked at Elizabeth then to them and just smiled. “Come on I have some quarters set up for you two and your room little one, is pretty much done. I have completely decorated it for you, It should be perfect.” he said, knowing even Kalani didn’t know of this. She had no clue in his spare time he had been decorating his second bedroom. It wasn’t like the couple ever had an excuse to use that bed to begin with.

Alindor, CE


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