<USS Avalon> "Olive Branch"

Olive  Branch
 
 
 
        Personal Log, Delaney Scott... Man,  it's some time since I've 
recorded one of these. Yet, it also seems like  just yesterday. I'm a little 
surprised with how easily everything's coming back  to me, despite my 
assurances to 
Admiral Ul'tali. 
        Speaking of which,  the moment I realized that Einin was actually my 
ship, I knew he had to  be in on the game. Mom's telling me that he was a 
friend of Dad's... I called  down to Leavenworth after taking off, asked him 
about 
it. Turns out Mom was  wrong about Dad's having nothing to do with my going 
there. The admiral said Dad  pulled some strings back then, too. Said Dad was 
worried if anyone knew the  truth about me they might try to kill me, and even 
though he hated to think of  what spending seven years at Leavenworth might do 
to me because of how severely  restricted life is there, Dad thought it was 
the safest place for me to be. 
        Don't know how I'm supposed to feel about  that. Mom and Admiral 
Ul'tali both told me that Dad's actions were in my best  interests. He got me 
sent 
to a prison where the only time I didn't have  walls around me was if I was 
out in the yard. And he somehow, some way, bought  me an entire space shuttle 
that's about as good as any ship of the Fleet because  he knew I wouldn't want 
to live in his house if I didn't return to Starfleet,  either by choice or 
discharge. He did these things, they said, because he loves  me. 
        Here's what I see:  When we got back to Earth after leaving DS9, OPC 
and Starfleet Command ruled  that because of his part in covering up my 
origins, he had to face discipline  one way or another. But because he had 
otherwise 
been an exemplary officer of  the Fleet, they gave him the option of early 
retirement over facing a  court-martial---and he took the early retirement. Did 
I get that  choice? Quit or this goes to trial? No. I mean, he took the easy 
way  out, and I ended up spending more than six years in prison. If only  Dad 
had understood, if only he had supported me, Leavenworth would have been New  
Zealand to me. I would not have cared one micron about the trial or the prison  
sentence if only he had not been so against my need to know. And to top it 
all  off, he called me insane. 
        Yeah, I know that's  semantics, and he really said the quest itself 
was insane, but I don't care  about the psychobabble. To me, it's the same 
thing.
        So how can he say that he  loves me, if he only loves half of me? Why 
go to all the trouble  of sending me to a place he was sure would protect me 
and buying me this  kick-ass ship if he hates the other half of who I am? It 
doesn't make  sense.
        I can't think of that anymore. Not right now. 
        I really wish I still  had friends to talk to. The ones I had on the 
Ireland haven't spoken to  me since my trial, and I admit that it makes me 
really sad. They know the arrest  charges, but they don't know the reason 
behind 
them. And I couldn't share the  information because I'd been ordered to keep 
my mouth shut. So they started  pulling away even before the cell forcefield 
went up for the first time. Now  there's no one for me to talk to except Mom 
and 
counselors.
        Friends would be real nice right now. At  least one would. I'd love 
for someone besides me to be excited about my Little  Bird. Yeah, I've given my 
ship a nickname that's not really a nickname at all,  just the Celtic meaning 
of it's given name. And yeah, this ship was one of my  dad's ways of trying 
to smooth things over between us, and I know I'm gonna have  to square with 
that some day, but right now I gotta admit I'm jazzed.  I mean, I have my very 
own Delta-class shuttle! This thing has a hull  of tetraburnium alloy, 
parametallic hull plating, unimatrix shielding, a  compliment of twenty 
photonic 
missiles and twelve micro quantum torpedoes,  and Type-8 phasers that are 
usually 
only mounted on full-sized starships. I  would have thought that when Einin 
changed hands Starfleet would have  stripped her of all weapons but the 
phasers, 
taking them down to Type-6's or  Type-4's.
        Actually makes me  glad for whatever influence and/or friends Dad 
must still have in Starfleet.  Because if I hadn't decided to stay, or they'd 
chucked me out, all these  weapons and protective elements sure would make me 
feel a whole lot safer  out in space by myself.
        Should I call Dad? Or at least send him a  message? I really am 
torn---don't know what I should do. I've despised  him for almost seven years, 
yet 
he's done something so wonderful for me, buying  Little Bird. 
        I wish it was as easy  to stop hating as it was to start. 
 
*****
        Frank Scott sighed heavily, walking away from  the window, out of 
which he could see shuttlecraft flying too and fro. He often  wondered why he 
had 
stayed in San Francisco, but each time he did he  reminded himself that 
Marsha still had a career, despite the fallout she'd  experienced over Laney. 
In 
fact, Marsha was still at BioCon---where she'd gone  to work after Laney's 
trial---toiling away on her latest project. He was eating  dinner alone tonight.
        After a sandwich and a glass of merlot, Frank  headed toward the 
bathroom, intending to take a shower. As he walked  down the hall he passed the 
home office he and Marsha shared, although  she used it more than he did. Their 
communications terminal was in there, and he  stopped short when he saw the 
faint flashing of the message waiting light.  Curious, he stepped into the room 
and turned on the lights, then sat down at the  terminal and switched it on.
        Curiosity became shock when he saw that the  message was from 
Laney---and addressed to him. She had not said one word to  him since they'd 
left the 
Changeling homeworld, not even when  she found out about his purchase of the 
Einin  from Starfleet. 
        Actually nervous now, wary of what Laney  might have to say, Frank 
opened the message. When her face popped up on the  screen, he noted that she 
looked virtually the same as she had nearly seven  years ago---exactly like her 
mother, young and beautiful. But there was an edge  to her eyes, a hardness to 
the set of her jaw. Whether that was because of  spending so much time on the 
inside or because she was forcing herself to send  this message he couldn't 
say. Probably a bit of both. 
        "Hello, Daddy. I'm sure you're surprised to  be getting this 
message---quite frankly, I'm surprised I'm sending it. But you  and Mother 
didn't 
raise me to be an ungrateful brat, and I couldn't not  acknowledge the fact 
that 
you are the one who arranged the purchase of Little  Bird. Sorry, I guess I 
should have said Einin, but already I keep  finding myself referring to the 
ship 
by the meaning of her name,  rather than the name itself. 
        "Anyway, even though for the life of me I  cannot fathom how you 
convinced Starfleet to part with her and bought this  shuttle, I am glad you 
did. 
Mom was right about one thing---I wouldn't have  stayed with you guys had I 
not been able to go back to Starfleet, or chosen not  to. I honestly don't know 
what I would have done, but the Einin would  definitely have given me the 
freedom to bounce around a bit until I had that  figured out. I also don't get 
why 
Starfleet didn't strip all the weapons out of  her, but were I going it solo, 
those would surely come in handy.  Heck, they still might, because I don't 
doubt that my new CO will want to make  use of her.
        "Mom wants me to start talking to you. Well,  don't get your hopes up 
that this message will be the first of many. You know  damn well it has 
nothing to do with my going to prison---even the prison I went  to would have 
been 
more tolerable had you only had the testicular fortitude to  admit that you 
were afraid of what I'd become if I were able to join the Link,  and that's why 
you didn't want me to go to the Changeling homeworld.  Well, you knew when you 
gave me your name that I wasn't entirely Human, and it  isn't as if I can 
change being what I am. I won't say I'm proud to be  half-Changeling, because 
they did attempt a tyrannical overthrow of the entire  Alpha Quadrant. But I'm 
not going to say I'm ashamed of it, either. Nor am I  mentally unstable, or 
have 
you forgotten calling my quest for the truth  "insane"? I am what I am, Dad, 
and you're just going to have to accept that. 
        "Either you love all of me, or you don't love  me at all."
 
        When the screen went black, he sat staring at  it for what seemed 
like hours, the desire for a shower forgotten. Hurt tore at  his heart that 
quickly became physical pain. His chest ached. She was still so  angry. Still 
so 
unforgiving. The rift between father and daughter had widened,  despite his fee
ble attempts to breach the distance. Even had he been able to  speak to her, 
she would probably not have believed anything he said, the thing  he wanted 
most 
to say being that he was not afraid of her, but  afraid for her. Truth was, 
he loved Laney very deeply, so much so that  had he and Marsha had children 
after her, he did not think he could have loved  them as much as he did her. 
She 
was not a child of his blood, but she was  forever the child of his heart.  
        Then suddenly, the pain subsided. Perhaps it  would not be the first 
of many, but it was the first in over six years. 
        And that was a  start.

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