Arrival Log || XO & Civ || "A New Life"

Posted on 241806.26 @ 12:08am by Commander Jesse Shantel

"I still don't understand."

Kat put the padd she'd been reading down on her crossed legs and closed her eyes, head falling with a long-suffering sigh. No trip ever seemed so long as it did when you made it with an obnoxiously whiny teenager. Perhaps a bawling infant or toddler having a tantrum...but no, the teenager was worse. There was something about incoherence that made those others just a bit easier to handle; that they were just small children who didn't know better.

But Hadrian Jameson should have bloody well known better. He was sixteen, for stars' sake!

"You're not an idiot, son," Kat said tersely. "I know that for a fact, so I also know that you do very well understand. What's not to understand? Starfleet has given me an assignment, so that's where I'm going. You are my son, so you are going with me."

He grunted, staring sullenly out the window of their passenger transport. "Why are you back in Starfleet? You retired, Mom."

This was also something they had discussed, and more than once. "With all of you children no longer little, I wanted to return to service and be of use to the universe and a greater cause. It's important to spend some of your life thinking of others before yourself, and of the bigger picture. I did that when I raised you kids, and now it's time to move on and do that in a different way. I didn't think that I'd raised you to think of none but yourself."

Hadrian didn't reply to that right away, and she knew she'd gotten him.

"I liked Starbase Aurora," he said, this time almost meekly. "All my friends are there."

"I know," she said, now more gently. "And I am sorry for that, but you're only sixteen. I wasn't going to leave you by yourself there, and anyone else in the family that you could stay with is far from Aurora as well. But we're going to be on a sizable ship. I'm sure you'll be able to make new friends."

"Maybe," he conceded reluctantly.

From there, they fell into an uneasy silent truce that lasted until Starbase One.

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They didn't linger on Starbase One, heading straight to the Enterprise. They embarked and passed security, meeting with the quartermaster first and foremost to receive their quarters assignment. That was their next stop, so Kat could deposit all of her cargo--including the kid.

"Behave yourself," she said. "I'm sure you can find plenty to entertain yourself if you stop sulking long enough to look."

Hadrian rolled his eyes and walked into his bedroom.

Despite having been through this several times with her other children, Hadrian seemed the most...volatile of them all. She rubbed her temples as she left into the corridors and put on her best face, since she had to report in and get started in her new role and her new life.

=/\= End Log =/\=

Commander Jesse 'Kat' Shantel & Hadrian Jameson