Can't Say No To Family

Posted on Mon Jul 19th, 2010 @ 1:05pm by Captain Vorn Krace

Mission: Shadows Fall
Location: Earth - England
Timeline: MM2 MD06 (Throughout)

Vorn took a few seconds to look around as the blue haze of transport dissipated around him. The green lawns of Starfleet Headquarters were always a pleasant sight to behold, and the planet's weather control systems made sure it was always sunny at this time of year. Walking the short distance to the pair of operations officers at one of the exits of the courtyard he was in, he checked his arrival in, and made his way to the nearest cab rank. Starfleet could always keep track of which officers were coming and going by the computer records alone, but coordinating between so many ship, facility and starbase computers, not to mention the numerous shuttlecraft in the system, made the job sound like a nightmare. To compensate for this, the primary form the records took were hand-entered entries at the various checkpoints across the planet, where people were requested to beam down to.

As he settled himself into the cab, and ordered the driver to take him to England, he settled in for the short flight across country boundaries. The journey that would have taken hours when the fastest form of travel was by jet engine now took a mere forty-five minutes on impulse engines, the sonic boom barely audible through the hull as the small craft accelerated over the Atlantic.

Vorn drank in the sights of first the Irish land, followed by the Welsh hills, before finally they were crossing the greens of North West England. The last visit he had made to the small town on the outskirts of the City of Chester was when he was in his late twenties, and his father had just died of cancer. The views now were only barely different from those years ago, and they stirred up some distressing memories.

He walked through the door. His mother was there. Tears began to form in the corners of her eyes. He walked towards her. Held her close. The droplets of water turning the fabric on his shoulder dark.

Vorn shook his head to rid himself of the memory. He knew it would be hard returning here, but he had put it off for too long already. Merely a Lieutenant the last time, his mother deserved the opportunity to see his achievements in person.

The sleek cab touched down outside the family residence - a large, red-brick house that had been in the Krace family for generations, and would one day pass down to Vorn - and Vorn patted the pilot thanks on his shoulder, before climbing out, and listening to the whine of the engines as it lifted off to return to another cab rank.

As Vorn made his way up the path of the green garden, he heard the yelping bark of a dog - no, more than one dog. He frowned at that. He had bought his mother one after he had returned to Starfleet to continue his career, but he knew that he had only bought the one, and she had never mentioned buying any more. Of course, over the years, the amount they had kept in contact had lessened, a fact which made Vorn fill with guilt. Pushing on, he reached for the handle for the front door, and pushed it open. Immediately he felt the thump on his shins of a number of small animals as they proceeded to fight for attention.

"Vorn!" came the cheerful voice of his mother, creating an instant smile on his face.

"Mother!" Vorn said, working his way through the dogs at his feet to give his mother a warm hug. "What's with the extra bodies?" he asked, looking down at the small beagles around their feet.

"They're Jessy's," Mrs. Krace smiled. "Three years old next week." It was at this time that the aforementioned canine mother ambled into the hallway, and Vorn's mother looked down affectionately at her. "Unfortunately the birth allowed age to get at her a bit more. She lacks the energy she used to have."

"Well, the puppies certainly make up for it," Vorn responded, crouching down to rub behind the ears of one of them. "What are their names?" he asked.

"I don't know, in all honesty," Kelly smiled. "I've spent the last three years trying to come up with names for them, but they never seem to fit."

"Three years without a name?" Vorn asked, looking up at his mother.

"I don't think they seem to mind," she responded. "They always come to me together anyway, so I might as well just call them all 'Puppies'." She smiled as the trio all yapped up at her. "Come, let's make you some tea."


Vorn stayed at his mother's house for the majority of the day, and it was dark by the time he finally stood, knowing he had to get back to the Iapetus.

"Vorn," his mother said, walking up to him as he pressed the call button on the wall to send for a cab. She was holding one of the puppies in her arms, and the look on her face made Vorn fully aware she was about to make a request of him he knew that he couldn't refuse if he valued his relationship with her. "Before you go, I want you to take one of the puppies."

"Mother," Vorn said, instantly on the defensive. "I don't think that it would be appropriate to have a dog on the ship. It is a military vessel, remember?"

"Yes," she replied. "But so was President Archer's ship, and he had his dog, didn't he? And everyone knows that Data on the Enterprise had a cat." She paused, a look of pleading in her eyes. "Please. He hasn't settled in as well as the other two, and you're going so far away... I don't want you to be lonely."

Vorn was silent, almost starting sentences and then abandoning them as he tried to find something to say. Eventually, he knew he could only do one thing; give in. "Alright, alright. I'll take him." He reached out to take the small dog from the arms of his mother as she beamed at him in appreciation.

"Have a safe journey, honey," she said, as he stepped out onto the garden path, making his way towards the lights of the cab.