Goodwill Reception Part 5: The Children

Posted on Fri Apr 5th, 2024 @ 1:48am by Captain Remy Johansen & Civilian Alexandra Winters & Lieutenant Commander Nash Winters & Lieutenant JG Ta'Feel Anith Usskik & Civilian Brunel Winters
Edited on on Thu May 2nd, 2024 @ 1:49am

2,515 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Artifact or Artifiction
Location: Deck 10, All Purpose Room
Timeline: Day 6, 1430-1930 hours

Remy kept herself moving around the room, making sure that she stopped to talk to the Atarans, but also the crew as well. They'd all only been together a week or so now, and she'd been the one held up for them to turn to once she'd been appointed acting captain for launch. She was never one for show and tell as a science officer, but when she took the turn for the command track she learned that it was a game that was expected. The walk through she was doing right now she had learned, was the kind of thing that made the difference between having a crew versus having a family.

Dr. Ta'Feel and hir spouses had been having a conversation with LtJG Shelly Guevera and Ens. Andrea Mitchell when the doors were open to the entire ship's complement. Sei stood up and commented, "Dr. Ta'Feel would like to excuse hirself and start to meander around the area." This was followed by a quick telepathic tele/speak between all four of the .Chix'alk, then another comment. "Nallee, Shakal and Zetchurl may remain if they desire."

Sei then picked up hir mug, walked away form the table, and slowly walked around the area.

Commander Winters finally returned to Ten Forward with his daughter Alex in tow. She had taken extra care in finding an appropriate outfit for the occasion, a long sleeve purple mock-necked shirt, with a light gray jacket and black pants. If she had pips and a communicator she could have almost blended in with the diplomatic corp. She was looking to meeting the new children from the alien ship.

“Let’s go find Remy, Alex. She can introduce us to the Ataran kids. Now keep in mind, some of these children are orphans. They’ve lost their parents and everything and everyone they’ve ever known. I’m not exactly sure what the plans are for them, but I think some of them may stay aboard and others may stay with their people. Our job is to make them feel comfortable so they get acclimated to life in the Federation. If that’s what they choose.”

"Okay," Alex said seriously as she scanned the room in awe. An actual First Contact event. It was easy to spot the adult Atarans. They all wore light colors, head to toe in whites, light grays, and beige which was a stark contrast to the mostly black Starfleet uniforms in the room.

Remy saw Nash and Alexandra enter the reception and worked her way over to them. "I'm glad you both could make it," Remy said, tucking her hair behind her ear. She scanned the room. "If it's alright, there's someone in particular I was hoping would get to meet Alex." Remy stopped scanning the room for a moment and looked at Alex. "Brunel is around your age. His parents didn't survive. He communicates in sign language, and we have a translator established so that we can understand one another. He's been having a hard time. Do you feel like being my assistant morale officer for the evening?"

Alexandra smiled widely at Remy's request. "I'd love to." She turned and looked to her dad for approval.

Nash glanced at Remy and back at Alex. He gushed a bit seeing the joy on his daughter‘s face and lovingly gave her a nod. “Go ahead. Enjoy yourself, Miss Morale Officer.”

Alex bounced on her feet in excitement as she waited for Remy to take the lead.

"Okay, I spotted him. I'll walk you over there, and if you're comfortable you can just go introduce yourself, okay?" Remy suggested.

"Sounds good," Alex said toning down her energy not wanting to overwhelm anyone as she followed Remy to where the young teenager was standing.

Remembering what Remy had said about Brunel using sign language to speak, Alex made sure she was squared up face to face with him before addressing him. "Hi, my name is Alex. What's yours?" she asked.

Brunel had just finished a drink of something called chocolate milk, when a cute girl stepped up to him and introduced herself. Swallowing the chocolate milk that was in his mouth, he quickly wiped his lips clean with a napkin, then replied. "Oh! Hi! My name is Brunel. Nice to meet you, Alex!"

"Are you having fun at the party?" Alex asked. She turned briefly to take in who all had shown up before turning back to Brunel. "I just got here," she added. "To the party I mean. I live on the ship."

Brunel nodded, a little bit of shyness coming through. He then signed, "You live here? That must be amazing! You must get to see so many new things!"

Alex shrugged. "I mean sometimes. But the adults are usually telling me I'm just a kid, so unless we go somewhere that they let the kids get off the ship, I'm usually just here. But there is cool stuff to do on board. And I get to meet a lot of interesting people."

"What about you, what do you like to do for fun?" Alex asked.

"I like to read, draw and paint. I also am pretty good a kite flying, I won a few competitions when I was younger." Brunel replied, his I also like to go hang gliding."

"We have holodecks on board. You can use them go hangliding or fly kites on the ship. Did you guys have anything like that?" Alex asked.

Brunel thought for a moment, then replied. "Some of the larger cities had virtual reality clubs that you could go to to experience life on other worlds. However, I never had the chance to try them out. I was never old enough to go to them."

"Maybe my dad will let me show you how one works before you have to go," Alex offered. "They let even little kids use them here."

"I figured there wouldn't be much for kids to do at this thing, just a bunch of grown ups talking, so I brought a couple of these." Alex took a hackey sack out of one of her pockets and handed it to Brunel. "It's called a hackey sack."

Taking the toy from Alex, Brunel smiled, giggling silently. He then put it on the table next to them while he signed. "We had toys like this too, though, we called it a Delpto. Here, I'll show you." He then picked up the hackey sack and started to bounce it off his knees, toes, even the sides of his feet. One one hit, he served it over to Alex.

Alex was laughing as she volleyed the ball back to Brunel by kicking it with the inside of her foot. She stood ready to respond when it came back to her. "Sometimes we play it with a bunch of people in a circle," she said as they passed the ball back and forth. Alex didn't pay attention to the occasional adult giving them a glare for playing with a ball out in the open area of the reception where people were eating and visiting. Before long a couple of other kids joined in.

Brunel was having so much fun, he was laughing, even though, sadly, no sound came from his throat. For a moment, he wasn't thinking about how much pain he was in, being the only member of his entire family to still be alive. He was simply a young boy, playing a gun game with kids his age.

As the game grew larger, Dr. Beckett sided his way into the group. "I think you lot might get a few less worried stares if you take your game to over behind the buffet tables where there aren't so many people."

Alex's eyes got wide and she smiled at the doctor. "Oops. Sorry," she said giving him the same sheepish grim she gave her parents when she got in trouble.

"No need to apologize there lassie. You can keep on playin.' You know I'm not so bad at hackey sack myself. Prefer football, but you know in a pinch," Malcom said giving the kids a wink. "Go on now."

"Over here," Alex said, taking lead and moving the rest of the kids to a quieter part of the room.

Brunel followed Alex over to the other side of the room before they started playing again, he asked her, "If it's alright, maybe later I could draw you?"

Alex shrugged like it was no big deal. "Sure. How long does that take?"

Brunel shrugged back. "Depends on how detailed I go. A quick drawing could take as little as ten minutes. A better one could take longer."

"Okay," Alex said agreeably. "But we have to make time for you to see what our holodecks can do too."

Brunel nodded. "We could try your holodecks first, if it pleases you?"

"If you want to I can ask my dad if we can go after this thing is over," Alex said referring to the party.

Brunel considered it for a beat, then smiled and nodded his agreement.

"Hmm... have you ever gone water skiing?" Alex asked.

A slightly confused look crossed Brunel's face. "I do not understand this word. What is skiing?"

"Um, so there are different types. A ski is something that goes on your feet. It's long and narrow," she held out her hands and tried to show him the dimensions. "In water skiing a boat pulls you and you stand up like you glide on the water. And we use the inner tube too. It's a big ring and it floats, and you can tie that to back of the boat. When my dad drives he turns the boat a lot and you hit big waves and get tossed around. Its sooo much fun!" Alex gushed.

Smiling, feeding off of Alex's bubbly energy, Brunel replied, "I would like to try water skiing and tubing!"

"Cool! Let's go ask my dad if he'll take us." Alex gestured for Brunel to follow her toward where Nash was standing nearby talking to Remy and started half-skipping half-walking to them.

When they got there, Alex gently touched her dad's forearm and waited until he told her it was her turn to talk, like he had taught her to before interrupting adults when she got to come to events like this.

Nash seemed deeply engaged in a conversation with Remy and felt a hand on his arm.

“Hey, there she is!,” he said excitedly. “I see you have a new friend.” Nash turned to face the Ataran youngster. “Brunel, is it? I’m Alex’s dad. Commander Winters. You can call me Nash. I could see you across the room. You two certainly have a lot to talk about.”

Brunel nodded politely, then signed his reply. "Yes, Sir, my name is Brunel Cal-Torin. It is a pleasure to meet you, Sir." He glanced at Alex, and grinned softly, before continuing. "She is very nice, and comfortable to speak to, Sir."

"Brunel has never been on a holodeck, AND he's never been water skiing or inner tubing. Do you think you could take us after the party and drive the boat? And maybe mom too if she's done working." Alex gave her dad a toothy grin and looked up at him with her best sad puppy eyes. "He doesn't have any parents to ask, Dr. Beckett is keeping an eye on the kids that don't until we get to starbase, so we'd just need to let him know."

“Ummm…. I think we can make that happen. But I also want to say,” Nash began and turned to face Brunel more directly so he would understand. “Safety protocols on and you both have to wear life jackets. Got it? I’d be happy to hit the water with the two of you. I’ll reach out to your mom, see if she wants to join us. Go on, go be with your friend. Come and find me afterwards, ok? Oh, hey, Alex-nice moves with the hackey sack. Your hand-eye coordination is betting better.”

"Thanks dad, see ya later," Alex said giving him a side hug before running off with Brunel.

Remy looked over at Nash, "She's a sweet girl. The counselor said he's been having a rough time. One of the youngest to wake up without parents, but I guess his were killed in an attack before they had a chance to board.

“She’s got a big heart. Sara and I have always taught her to be kind and respect other species and cultures. Pretty proud of her. She’s come a long way. At the same time, Brunel has someone to turn to. We’re doing the right thing, Remy. I’m more than happy to play a little part. By the way, I have to talk about it with Sara, but….if Brunel doesn’t have a place to stay, and no one steps up, he can stay with us.”

"I'll make a note of that for the counselors, and make mention of it to Lieutenant Spello," Remy responded. "He's stepped into really connected with the people. I haven't heard anything about Brunel that would make me think he wouldn't be wanted with his people at the new settlement, but Jheva has already expressed a desire to not stay with them, so you never know."

“I was only suggesting that should it end up that he has no place to go, I won’t turn him away. He seems to be a good kid and I’m encouraged by the way he and Alex and getting along. I’m taking them water skiing later on the holodeck.” Nash took a breath and paused for a beat.

“I don’t even want to ponder the thought of how Alex would take Brunel leaving. The friendship they seemingly already developed. She would be devastated.”

"Kids are resilient," Remy reminded him. "I'm sure she'd be happy for him to stay, but she'll understand if he can't. She's grown a lot in that way. Come with me, there's a couple of engineers you missed meeting the other day."

“Hope you’re right. I still keep worrying about her. Sara, too. She’s our only child, you know? But, like you said, she’s strong and resilient. Alright then, so who do you want me to meet? I’ll follow you, Commander.”

"This way, Nash. Her name is Mavin. If Starfleet decides to let us give them the technology to upgrade their engines, she'll be the one to do it." Remy led Nash to the back of the room where she was part of a group that was talking.

On the other side of the room children's laughter brought smiles to several parents as the hacky sack game grew. Malcolm and Charlotte had joined them, which made the children laugh even harder.

[END]

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