<USS Avalon> "The Box"

"The Box" 
By: Lt. Melanie Redgrave
 
There was a soft knock on the hotel room door. Melanie looked up from her  
computer screen with a frown. The computer hadn’t been able to find the 
medical  
recorders she’d asked for, which really didn’t surprise her, but she’d 
hoped 
 that after talking to Georgia things would suddenly become easy. She sighed 
as  she headed for the door. There she was looking for happy ever after again. 
 Melanie was a little surprised to see one of the hotel bell boys standing 
there  with a rather large package in his hands. “Yes?” Melanie asked. 
 
The young man smiled. “Melanie Redgrave?” He asked. Melanie nodded and the  
young man thrust the brown paper wrapped package at her. “This came for you 
this  morning. It was transported in from a Miss Lewis.” 
 
Melanie couldn’t help but smile. She took the package from the young man  and 
asked to see the padd that she knew he had on him. She allotted him a nice  
little tip and then slipped back into the room. She placed the package on the  
bed as if it would somehow break, even though it felt heavy and solid. Melanie 
 then crawled up onto the bed behind it and sat there cross legged for quite  
sometime. She wasn’t sure what was inside the box, but she knew what ever it 
was  it was part of who Soliel was.
 
With slightly shaking hands Melanie carefully untied the twine and pulled  
back the brown paper. The box was made of cherry oak, the top of it had an  
inlayed pattern of the sun and sky, and in the center of the front side panel  
there was a gold key hole. Melanie ran her hand over the polished wood and then 
 
sat the box in her lap. It was then that Melanie noticed the envelope. She  
picked it up and opened it carefully. A small gold key and an orange data chip  
fell out as she slid the piece of paper out of the envelope. She fingered both 
 items before placing them on top of the box and opening the folded piece of  
paper. 
 
It was from Georgia. 
 
 Melanie 
I know this won’t make up for  what you’ve lost or for the secrets I’ve 
kept,    but I hope that  it will at least help you find what it is you’ve 
been 
looking  for. The chip will disengage the encryptions blocking all  information 
 
  about you in all of your parents files. The  information was encrypted for  
  Skyler’s protection, but you  both have a right to the truth now. It’ll 
also    explain why you  were on the outpost with your mother. The key will 
open 
   the  ol’ oak box. Inside you’ll find the things I’ve kept for you. 
Pictures,  holovids, your birth records and other odds and ends. I’ve  kept 
these    
things  for so many years hidden away with the  things I still have left from 
  my dear Henry. There yours now  Melanie, all I ask is that you not share    
them with your sister  until her memories come back. I hope this finally    
helps you  find that sense of being whole you’ve been looking for. I’ll be 
at  
Eliza Mae’s if you need me.  
Georgia. 
 

Melanie wiped away the single tear that rolled down her cheek. Then she  
laughed. For all her training and skill she was out smarted by a nurse who’d  
only 
been looking out for the girl she carried close to her heart as if Skyler  
were her own child. Melanie picked up the orange chip and turned it over in her 
 
hand. She wasn’t sure which she wanted to do first. Open the box and see what 
 was inside or go over to the computer and finally get some answers. After  
several more moments of indication Melanie finally reached over and placed the  
chip on her nightstand. She then picked up the small gold key and inserted it 
 into the key hole on the box.  
 
The click the lock made as it unlocked caused Melanie to gasp, which in  turn 
made her feel rather silly. Slowly Melanie lifted the lid of the box and  for 
quite awhile she just stared down into it’s velvet lining. When Melanie  
finally reached out to pick something out, she pulled back to ornate looking  
pieces of paper. One was a Betazoid birth certificate and the other a 
Federation  
death certificate, both made out for Soliel. Melanie looked at both 
certificates  closely. She smiled at the thought of being born on her 
mother’s 
homeworld, but  she frowned at the idea of how quickly the Federation had moved 
on to  
pronouncing her dead. 
 
The next item she removed from the box was the funeral announcement for her  
mother. According to the notice Celeste had been entombed on Betazed. A small  
note inside the announcement, again hand written and signed by Georgia, said  
that Soliel’s name had been added to the family nameplate along side her  
mother’s, but that the plate was inside the tomb and not on the outside to 
spare  
Skyler. For a moment Melanie felt a flash of anger. Not at Georgia or at 
Skyler  but at the person who’d put them though having to morn the loss of a 
child 
who  was very much alive. 
 
Melanie had to take a step back for a moment. She was starting to feel very  
disenfranchised with Starfleet. She walked over to the comm station and 
ordered  tea from room service and then walked over to the window to wait for 
it. 
She  tried really hard to figure out why someone would be so careless. Why 
couldn
’t  they have run scans to identify DNA? Why had they been in such a rush to 
place  the little miracle baby that had managed to survive the Romulans? The 
only thing  Melanie could come up with was the positive publicity her adoption 
had brought  them. 
 
She wouldn’t traded her life with her adoptive parents for anything, but  she 
hurt over how much one simple mistake had cost Skyler and Georgia and  
herself. After her tea had arrived and she’d allowed her mind to settle a 
bit,  
Melanie went back over to the bed and once again sat beside the box. She 
reached  
in and this time pulled out several old fashion printed out 2D photographs. 
The  first one made Melanie suck in a shape hiss of air. A woman with long dark 
hair  and dazzling green eyes sat in a large wicker chair holding a small 
bundle of  pink blankets. 
 
Melanie wasn’t sure how long she’d sat there staring at the picture of her  
birth mother but she was vaguely aware that her glances kept coming back to 
the  woman’s eyes. She did have her mother’s eyes. The second picture still 
had 
the  woman sitting in the wicker chair holding the bundle of pink blankets, 
though  this time the bundle had a tiny face, but this one now had the addition 
of a  smiling, bright eyed, happy little girl who’s eyes matched the older 
woman’s.  Melanie traced the image of her sister and mother and could no 
longer 
hold back  the tears as she smiled down at them. 
 
After setting aside more 2D pictures and a couple of holopic disks, Melanie  
retrieved one of the holovid disks. She walked it over to the large  
entertainment screen and slipped it into the disk slot. She then sat on the bed 
 with 
another cup of tea and ordered the computer to play the chip. When the  images 
on the screen focused Melanie laughed. The little girl with the soft  brown 
curls and bright eyes that had stood next to Celeste in the pictures was  now 
sitting on the floor with a small cubby infant sitting between her legs. The  
little one had her tiny hand clutched around the paw of a teddy bear that she  
kept swinging backwards, catching the older girl in the face. 
 
The soft background noise of a giggling infant and whamming teddy bear was  
suddenly replaced by a voice that made Melanie’s heart stop. 
 
“Sky,” The woman’s voice on the screen called out, “Sky sweetheart get  
Sunni to look at the camera.” 
 
The baby on the screen whacked her sister with the teddy bear again and  
laughed. The little girl laughed too as she tried to avoid the fuzzy weapon.  
“I’
m trying to, Mom, but she won’t stop hitting me with the bear.” 
 
The older woman’s laughter seemed like music to Melanie. 
 
“Sunni look over here baby. Sunni look at Mommy.” The voice said between  
laughs. 
 
The next voice Melanie knew. “Well if y’all’d stop laughing at the girl 
she  
wouldn’t think it was funny, Miss Celeste.”
 
Georgia. 
 
It took several more minutes for Sunni to settle down and look at the  
camera. Then Celeste’s voice came back on. “Ok Skyler go ahead love.” 
 
Little Skyler held tightly to the baby and then started singing. “You are  my 
sunshine my only sunshine you make me happy when skies are gray.” 
 
Melanie was in tears by the time Celeste had moved out from behind the  
camera and joined her daughters on the floor. Melanie was enthralled by the 
fact  
that all three sets of eyes were mirrors of each other. Then she gasped out 
loud  as her mother started singing along with Skyler. She’d always thought 
it 
had  been her adoptive mother’s love of singing and music that had lead to 
Melanie’s,  but as she listened to her other mother sing, now she knew were 
her 
gift came  from. 
 
Melanie sat there all morning and most of the afternoon watching holovids  
and crying and laughing and longing. She wanted that back, the connection she  
once had with her sister, and she wanted it now more then ever. Problem was..  
She had no idea how to do that.

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