Posted Sept. 14, 2022, 10:07 a.m. by Captain Eela Dasca (Lt. Governor) (Lindsay B)
Eela turned in a slow circle around the open plan living space holding the display device, making sure to keep her arms steady.
“Oh, you have a great view!”
“I know! I’m quite pleased actually. I love the huge windows.”
“At least there are some perks to being Lieutenant Governor. I’d be miffed on your behalf if they didn’t have something nice for someone of your position.”
Eela flipped the screen to gaze once again at her daughter, Carridee, who was truly the blend of her parents’ features. “Trust me, of all the things I could and do expect, accommodations set aside was the least of them,” she said as she lowered herself carefully to the sofa and propped her heels on the edge so she could rest the screen against her thighs.
“You okay?” Caridee said, her mouth shifting into a worried frown.
“I’m fine,” Eela said, amusement sweeping over her face. “Stop worrying.”
“Kind of hard to when your mother is ninety some-odd lightyears away. Is it better or worse than when I saw you last?”
“Better actually. Turns out I had servo issues with my brace that were making it less effective and there’s been compression in one of my discs. But with some adjustments, the brace is working much better and after I get acclimatized to the planet we can adjust it again as needed. The compression will go away so long as I am doing PT and everything like a good girl.”
Caridee smirked. “Well, I can’t say you were ever one to shirk the necessary, especially if it meant you got to keep going with whatever you were doing. Just be sure to take it easy, okay? It’s not like I can pop over there on a whim.”
Eela chuckled. “Hey, I have room for guests you know.”
Her daughter’s face drew closer as Caridee rested her arms on the desk or table where she was sitting. “About that… Kian and I were talking and how about we and Alais come for Batarael?”
Once again she was surprised. “Wait, you’d come all this way? Really?”
Caridee grinned. “For my favourite holiday with my mother whom I will likely go long periods without seeing in person? Of course!”
But there was more to it and Eela trusted her instincts. “You don’t want me to be alone. A sad, divorced woman on a colony with no friends or family there to celebrate with her.”
Caridee opened her mouth to object but it was clear in her eyes. “It’s not like that. But yes, I thought of all years maybe this year might be one where we try harder to be together. I think I can get Jourin to come too.”
“What about your father? Don’t you think he’d like to spend holidays with you too?”
“Nuh uh, nice try. You’re not deflecting this away from you. We’ve already agreed that when we’re able to get together he gets the Terran holidays, you get the Haliian ones and the rest of the celebrations are up to us.”
Trust her daughter to see through her. But the mention of her other child sat more heavily with her. “Do you think he’d really come to Oed?”
“Jourin?” Caridee sighed. “Yeah, actually, I do. Look, he’s taking your divorce hard and he wants to be angry at you for it. But he’s really not, Mom. he’s not angry at you, he’s just not coping well with all the changes. It’s been a hard few years for all of us.”
“He says I ran away when I joined the Diplomatic Corps, that that is why your dad and I… fell apart.”
“Do you think he’s right?”
Perhaps it was a strange conversation to have with one’s daughter, but the reality was that her daughter was as perceptive as she and had similar kinds of training. Caridee, after all, was a psychiatrist. It made for a refreshingly open and honest relationship, even if you didn’t factor in the empathic abilities in person. But Caridee’s question was not an easy one to answer. “Maybe a little. I needed space to figure out what I wanted to do after Starfleet. And it was obvious that being around me for more than a few weeks at a time was painful to your father. I didn’t want to hurt him more than I was.”
“He loves you.”
Eela smiled. “Yes, I know. And I will always love him too. But I’ve changed Almai, no one can deny that, especially me. I’ve gotten used to and okay with the changes. Not everyone else has.”
Silence filled the subspace channel as the two woman gazed at each other. “You should tell him that.”
“He’d have to be willing to have more than a two minute conversation first.” Eela sighed. “If he comes, great, but I can’t force him to be ready before he is-” They were interrupted by a wail in the background and Caridee leapt up. A moment later she returned, rocking an infant in her arms. “How’s my granddaughter today?”
“Restless. She hasn’t slept more than half an hour at a time for the last two days. It’s maddening!”
Eela couldn’t help but chuckle. “I remember that stage. It’s hard Almai, but it will pass. Just hang in there and make sure you ask for help when you need it. I can’t be there myself, but I sure as hell know how to rally the troops. And then Alais gets to have even more aunties and uncles in her life.”
Nestling Alais’ head in the crook of her neck, Caridee settled back into her seat with a grin. “Yes you can. If I let you, I’d have a stream of people here. Kian and I have got this, but I will keep the offer in mind.”
“Good.”
“How are things there? Settling in?”
Eela inhaled deeply and blew out a breath before she explained her complicated position and the reception she was not only receiving but expecting as she had more meet-and-greets. Yes, it was all so complicated and maybe it was an impossible task, but for the first time in a very long awhile Eela could feel that fire within her. She wasn’t sure there was an exact moment it surfaced again but she did know she hadn’t felt it since the day the Steadfast was destroyed. She studied her daughter for a moment before speaking again. “Can I ask you something?”
“Of course, anything.”
“Why are you so okay with the divorce? Or is it just a front?”
Caridee rocked her daughter side-to side slowly as she beamed at her mother. “Okay is the wrong word. More like I understand it and yes it’s hard to know you’re not together, but Jourin and I aren’t children anymore. You and dad gave each other forty years and they weren’t always great, but you both tried. We saw that as kids. I mean, not everyone can handle being married to a Starfleet captain and sometimes being able to live together and sometimes not. I mean, the Borg, the Dominion War… mom those years were hard. We just never knew if you’d be coming back to us. But the years Jour and I and Dad got to be on the ship with you? I wouldn’t trade those for anything. They were their own kind of magic.
“Yes, the psychiatrist part of me saw everything unfolding after you woke up from the coma and I understood better than everyone else in our lives what was happening to you. But…” She paused and kissed the top of her baby’s head before her dark steel blue eyes took in Eela. “Being the empathic child of a telepathic parent, Mom, we never had to say everything. I knew that something important had been taken away and as much as we wanted to help you find whatever would fit in that place again, it’s never been our journey. I love Dad, but he resisted that necessary journey and that made finding your place again harder than maybe it needed to be. But I see you now and there is light in your eyes Mom. And that is worth it all. How can I begrudge you a new path on your own if you are actually excited by it?”
Eela couldn’t help chuckle and smile even as her tears welled. Try as she might, she constantly stumbled for words to express her strange reality. To have someone, her own child especially, get it so clearly? That was priceless. “I love you Almai and I can’t wait for you to be here. Maybe by Batarael there will be a few people who aren’t inclined to see me as the devil incarnate,” she said with a smirk.
“Is it really that bad?”
She shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe not. Hard to say what is real and what is bluster. Give me a few weeks and I’ll have a better grasp on the situation.”
“Well, good luck, not that you really need it. If a counsellor turned starship captain turned diplomat can’t navigate her way there as a politician, that place was already in trouble before you got arrived.”
Eela shook her head. “Well, I’ve always loved a challenge, but I usually don’t care what people think of me. For the first time in my life I actually have to care. I think that’s the true challenge.”
“Just be you. We all love you. They will too, or if not love, at least respect you.”
“I hope you’re right, Love, I really do.”
“I gotta go, but take care of yourself or I’ll be giving that new assistant of yours an earful. Oh! And for goodness sake get to some decorating! That apartment is lovely, but my good gods it’s dreary.”
She laughed openly. “It is a little stark just now. But I’m working on it. I’ll talk to you later, Dee. Give my love to Kian.”
“Will do. Love you.”
“Love you too.”
The call ended and Eela laid back against the couch, her head turned towards the floor to ceiling windows that offered her a sweeping view of the colony. She wasn’t expecting Caridee and her husband would want to travel so far so soon after the baby arrived. But the more the idea of them all being here for what was ostensibly the biggest Haliian holiday settled in her mind, the more she found herself looking forward to it. And if fortune were on her side, perhaps she could show them about the colony with pride and ease rather than feeling like she was stepping on eggshells.
One could hope.
~Eela Dasca, Lt. Gov
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