<USS Avalon> No Matter What

"No Matter What"
Skyler and Tavi
 
    
Returning from her talk with Dr. Braelin Skyler sat at the table  wondering 
how she was going to broach this subject with Tavi. She didn't want the child 
to become nervous or scared. Getting up she  replicator a glass of juice and 
sat back down. How was she going to tell Tavi  about her new found abilities? 


Tavi, unaware of  Skyler's dilemma and completely unconcerned, finished 
getting herself ready for  school and came bopping out of her room looking for 
some 
breakfast.  She  halted in mid-beeline to the replicator when she saw Skyler 
sitting there at the  table.  "What's wrong?" she asked in stricken tones.  
Skyler didn't  usually just sit there in the morning -- normally, if she wasn't 
already in her  office or on the Bridge or checking up on some other 
department, she would be  getting breakfast for both of them and hurrying Tavi 
along.  
So this was  different.

"Morning to you to," replied  Skyler. "Why don't you get yourself something 
to eat and come sit down. We need  to have a talk." She waited for Tavi to get 
her breakfast and join her at the  table. 


All Tavi could think was that she must have done something  wrong.  She keyed 
in her default breakfast: juice, cereal with the milk on  the side, and toast 
with grape jam.  Her hands shook a little as she  carried her tray the few 
steps to the table and sat down.
Skyler could see that Tavi was shaking. "Calm down. You have no  reason to 
shake. You have done nothing wrong. Remember when Dr. Braelin took a  sample of 
your blood? Well, I have the test results back and we need to talk  about 
them. First.....you are not sick so you have nothing to fear. You also  know I 
wouldn't lie to you. Right?" 


The girl nodded slowly.  She had some idea what the test was  for.  Dr. 
Braelin had explained that children whose parents were unknown  should be 
tested 
for things like genetic differences and telepathy and  such.  Tavi's parents 
were about as unknown as they could be -- her mother,  still a young girl 
herself, had abandoned Tavi to the gang when she was barely  out of 
toddlerhood.  And 
she had never had a father, though obviously  someone had contributed the 
other half of her genes.  "So it's something  about my parents, maybe?" she 
guessed.

Taking a  slow sip of her juice Skyler spoke softly. "Yes, in a way it is 
about your  parents. Dr. Braelin's test showed that you carry the genes 
for....telepathy.  Which is why you could hear what I was saying the other day. 
It 
started to  appear after you spent so much time with your friend Meg. You know 
she 
has  special abilities right?"  


Tavi nodded.  "Yeah.  Meg told me some.  She doesn't  like to talk out loud," 
she offered.  "Because she didn't used to be able  to hear, and she got used 
to talking with her mind, or with her hands when she  was very little and went 
to a special school."

Skyler sat  listening intently. She wasn't sure how much she should tell 
Tavi, yet she had  promised there would be no secrets between them. 
"Well,....it 
seems you may and  the key word here is may have some of those abilities as 
well. Right now you  have simple telepathy." Sighing she looked at Tavi. "I 
always told you there  would be no secrets and I am not going to start now. Meg 
has 
Q-like abilities  which is why she can talk with her mind over long distances 
and such. You have  some of those same gene tendencies. It seems that your 
abilities  were jump started by the all the time you have spent with Meg. Does 
any of this  make sense so far?" 

It was a little confusing,  the way Skyler put it, but Tavi had kind of 
gotten the idea from Meg  already.  She nodded again.

"I know it may sound  confusing because it is confusing to me. I have never 
known anyone with Q-like  abilities. Other than the original Q who was known to 
harass Captain Picard. How  do you feel about the possibilities of having 
these abilities?" Skyler took  another drink to soothe her throat.  


Tavi wasn't exactly sure what Q meant, but she had seen a little of  what Meg 
could do.  And had a couple long talks with her friend about how  hard it was 
to be careful and not do anything that could hurt anyone else.   She thought 
about it for long moments, finally taking a drink of her own  untouched juice. 
 "It's a lot of responsibility," she said at  last.

"That it is. And as I said right now all you have  is simple telepathy. We 
don't know if the other abilities will develop or not.  What is most important 
is that you don't use these abilities to "listen" in to  others conversations 
or to cause them to do anything against their will." She  looked at Tavi for a 
moment and realized that perhaps she didn't know who Q was.  "You don't know 
who Q is do you?"  


Suddenly hungry, Tavi shook her head before taking a bite of her  toast.  
"Nope," she answered around her mouthful.

Smiling at Tavi as she gulped her food Skyler attempted to explain  about Q. 
"Q is a being who thought since he had all these powers he could do  whatever 
he wanted, whenever he wanted and to whom ever he wanted. He basically  abused 
his powers. I have an idea. Why don't you ask your teacher to help you  learn 
more about Q while you are in school today? Maybe that will help clear  
things up for you." Taking another sip of her drink Skyler continued. "Oh and 
by  
the way we are having guests for dinner tonight."  
She too realized she was hungry and walked over to the replicator  and 
ordered some toast. Walking back to the table she sat down at watched  Tavi. 

"That's pretty rude, to do things to people when they don't want you  to," 
Tavi commented as she poured milk over her cereal.  "Isn't that like  the boys 
in the gang wanting the little girls to do sex stuff when they don't  want to?  
Rude and mean," she concluded, and took a big spoonful of  cereal.

Shuttering at the thought of  Tavi possibly being forced to do things she 
didn't want to Skyler put her food  down. "That's exactly right. They were 
wrong 
to do that and so was Q. However  just because you may have these powers 
doesn't mean you are a bad person or that  you will turn out to be a bad 
person. 
You are a good person now and that isn't  going to change." She took a pull of 
her drink wishing it was something a little  stronger. 

"I don't think I could be mean to other people,"  Tavi said seriously, the 
next spoonful halfway to her mouth.  "I want to  help people, not hurt them.  
But Meg said it's just as important not to  help people too much because mostly 
people want to help themselves as  much as they can.  That's what Dr. Braelin 
told her."

"Meg is correct. In fact Meg and Dr. Braelin are  coming for dinner tonight. 
So if you have any questions you can ask them. You  could possibly in time 
have more powers than I do. However that is not going to  change how I feel 
about 
you. We are still going to be a family no matter what.  Agreed?" 

Reassured, Tavi grinned.  "No matter what,"  she echoed.  And, glancing at 
the time, gobbled down the rest of her  breakfast so as not to be late for 
school.





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