Posted by Lieutenant Commander Natasha Knight (Chief Medical Officer) in Happy Fathers Day Dante Alighieri Knight Part 1
What was a son to do? Every year the day seemed to come up out of the blue. Every year he was faced with the same conundrum. What do you get a dad that has everything? Looking around the room, Bruce realized how lucky he was. The floating hover bed was the best gift, aside from a ball, Bruce could have asked for at Christmas. It allowed him to float down the halls instead of dragging his Dad behind him. Humans could be so slow at times but the drifting dias kept his Dad at the right pace when they were out and about.

There was also the basket of balls in the corner of every room. Balls that were brightly colored. Balls that were smooth. Balls that were bumpy or made noise. Bruce has a collection of balls that was the envy of every furry canine on the ship but he was the Captain’s son. It was only natural he had the best of the best. The problem was what to give his dad back for all the attention and love Dante showered on his firstborn. His gift had to be better than Oscars, not that he minded the drooling, burping, snoring sibling. Bruce just knew that as intelligence went he was far smarter than Oscar. He would never tell his baby brother that, however. Bruce would just go about doing what he always did to make Oscar happy like hiding the hideous outfits their mother tried to stuff him in or complete the rudimentary tasks of stacking blocks into a tower so that their parents would ooh and ahh about how smart Oscar was. It was all just a day’s work, however, today was the tenth most important day of the year after Christmas, Bruce’s birthday, Mother’s Day, Mom’s birthday, Love your Reptile Day, just to rattle off a few. It was Father’s Day.

Looking up at Dante sleeping on the bed, Bruce let his tongue slither out of his mouth as he tapped a single claw on the floor thinking. What would be special or unexpected? That was the key. Hearing the sounds of clinks and taps in the other room, Bruce slinked out to the living room seeing his mom at a console. She was happily chatting away with some blonde named Megan. The name and voice sounded familiar but that was secondary to Bruce’s quest to discover the perfect father’s day gift. Moving to the couch, he slid a reptilian arm under and swiped about. Maybe there was something of interest here. It only took a few minutes for Bruce to realize one thing: Mom needed to move the couch when she vacuumed. Bits of dust and part of a toy, he had been playing with was the only thing discovered of value except for the half rind of pizza crust which he had stashed there a week ago. Fisting it, Bruce chewed on the rock hard hunk of bread as he continued his search for Dante’s gift. Halfway through his pre-breakfast snack he heard two things that helped him immensely.

One was that there were two father’s days? How could this be and why was his mom not complaining about it? Moving up next to Natasha, Bruce stood up so that his face could take in what was happening on the console screen. The pretty blonde science officer chattered on and on about how happy she was Darius celebrated Father’s Day in the fall because he was from someplace called New Zealand. Of all the things that could happen today this was the best news ever. Bruce would be able to search longer for the perfect present for the next couple of weeks. The second was the Natasha had received the isolinear chip from this Megan for Kalani to track her animals in the vivarium. The chip was to help Kalani study animals and how they interacted in the environment. That chip was going to be the key to Bruce figuring out what to get Dante. He would tag him and learn all about what Dante did outside their quarters. All he had to do was find a way to make Dante carry it around for a week or so and then Bruce would know what to get his Dad. An isolinear chip was what Dante did to Bruce after he took a trip to the local zoo on Beta Antari V. Dante and Kelly said Bruce’s chip was so that he could always be found. If it worked for them it would work for him. His pal Ralph had to know how to use the darn thing. His mom Kalani was the animal expert of the crew.

Scampering down from next to Natasha, Bruce moved to the side table where his mom said the isolinear chip was sitting. Flicking his tongue out in disgust Bruce stared at the chip. It didn’t have any alarms or lights on it. How the humans thought they could track an animal with something this small showed how much smart animals were compared their Homosapien brethren. Animals didn’t need fancy technology to track someone down. You just needed your nose.

Carefully extracting the isolinear chip out of the bag, Bruce held it in his teeth and moved to the table where Natasha had set out Dante’s father’s day tray. The tray was filled with everything Dante would want to eat. Apples, pancakes, eggs, and a mountain of meat with a large mug of coffee. It took everything in Bruce to focus on his task and not sample a few of the items on the plates. Surveying the foods, Bruce eventually dropped it in the mash of scrambled eggs covering the chip with a few well-placed nose nudges. Hearing the console click off indicating Natasha was done talking and ready to wake up his dad, Bruce flew to the couch with a grin. Soon he would know what his dad was doing and what he wanted most in the world. Then he could give Dante the best father’s day gift ever. He would also get to see what exactly Dante did for work every day.

TO BE CONTINUED.....

OOC: Haha, thank you Kate, I loved this so much! :D

-Dave