Chapter 1
Science class was so boring. There was no point in it, I didn’t give a flying shit about cells and how they worked. Mural tapped me on my shoulder from her seat next to me. I leaned in closer so she could whisper in my ear.
“Hey Lexi, isn’t he cute?” she asked about our science teacher. I rolled my eyes at her. He was cute. And young to. But he was a totaly geek. Mural giggled and I smiled. Mural had been my best friend for as long as I could remember. Our parents had served together on Voyager. Of course my mother was an admiral now and had no time for me or anything else. The bell rang for class to get out. It was the beginning of Christmas vacation so it was even more hectic. The students all swarmed the door and ran out into the sunny California day. Even though it was december it was still pretty warm out.
“Are you coming to my house?” Mural asked as we walked side by side.
“Can’t, I have to see my dad off remember?” Dad was going away for a while. It wasn’t something I was a stranger to. Normally one or both of my parents would be gone on some sort of starfleet mission.
“Oh yeah,” Mural remembered. “Where is he going?”
“I don’t know. He said it’s ‘classified information.’”
“Oh classified,” Mural laughed as we came to the bus stop and got ready to board the bus that would take her home. “I’ll see you later then Lexi!”
“Yeah, bye!” I said waving. I watched hers fly away. Most students who went to the academy lived in dorms on the campus but Mural’s house was just a bus ride away since both of her parents had to work at the base. Like me, Mural hardly ever got to see her parents. Though her parents always seemed to find time for her. I had to walk a little farther since I lived on the base. The starfleet was base was a the main starfleet building. Since my mother was an admiral, we had rooms in the building. At times that was pretty cool since I could walk to school in under ten minutes. I walked into the lobby of the building, a huge doom shaped room with a transport celling that was eight floors above my head. If you looked up you could see the balcony’s of each floor looking out over the main lobby. Everything was decorated for Christmas so there were green wreaths hanged off of the balconies and sparkling lights on the walls. At the far corner there was a giant Christmas tree that was decorated with the ordainments the kids had made. It was an amazing building but i’d lived here all my life.
As usual the building was full of starfleet officers running around with clipboards trying to get to where they need to go. I spotted my father talking to Roddy behind the front desk.
“Hey honey,” he said when he approached. He already had all his bags him. “I hoped you’d make it, they pushed the takeoff ahead.” Roddy smiled at me and then went back to what he was doing.
“I’ll come with you the transportation bay,” I offered. I really didn’t like it when he went away. It was harder when I was little. My mother I was more use to. If she wasn’t on a mission then she was working and not at home. My dad nodded and I followed him out of the main building as we started walking towards the transportation bay.
“This is a dangerous one isn’t it?” I asked noticing the look on his face and how he seemed to walk closer to me.
“It’s just diplomatic Lex,” he told me. “I’m just negotiating a peace treaty.”
“I thought you said you couldn’t tell me what you were doing?” I asked taking one of his bags from him.
“I can’t tell you where i’m going,” he said grinning. “And I probably shouldn’t have told you that either. Don’t tell your mother on me.” I grinned.
“I won’t. So are these people your negotiating the treaty with at war?” He didn’t reply which meant yes. I could tell he didn’t want to leave. This was defiantly going to be a dangerous one. Though it made me nervous, i’d learned from a very young age that what my parents did was for the greater good and I should be proud of them. Also I trusted my dad to come back to me. We walked into the transportation bay. I handed him back his bag and he put them down to give me a quick kiss on my head.
“Be good to your mother,” he told me. “Don’t bite each other’s throats off.”
“She’s not coming to say goodbye?” I asked.
“We said goodbye earlier.”
“When are you coming back?” I asked.
“I don’t know Lex,” he sighed. Only my Dad ever called me Lex. It was our thing. “I’ll be in communication though. I’ll talk to you when we land to let you and your mother know i’m alright. Okay?”
“Okay,” I said feeling a little better that I knew he was allowed to talk to us.
“Be good,” he told me picking up his bags and stepping into the blue light.
“Bye,” I waved as is figure disappeared with a glowing blue light.
“He’ll be fine kid,” Ben said from behind the beaming station. “You’re Dad, he can take care of himself.” I had many friends that were older then me around the station. It was part of being an admiral’s daughter I guess. Ben was one of my closer ones.
“I know,” I sighed. “I better go, it’s getting dark.”
“Have a good night,” Ben smiled at me. “Do your homework!” I laughed as I walked out. I had a ton of homework, none or which I felt like doing. It was vacation after all.
I walked back into the station building to find my mother deep in conversation with a man I didn’t recognize. She looked up when I walked over.
“The enterprise is flying in,” she told me. “Riker and Diana’s son is coming with them. I was hoping you wouldn’t mind showing him around?” There was never a ‘hello, how was your day’ with her. But I was exited at the news of the enterprise flying in. I liked captain Picard. When I was little he use to bring me presents whenever he flew in from all different planets and galaxies.
“Riker and Diana have son?” I asked.
“Yes, his name’s Tommy. He’s about your age and he’s going to be attending the academy.”
“Yeah, i’ll show him around,” I told her. Mural would be exited. Especially if he was hot. “When are they flying in?”
“Tomorrow morning, you can come to the landing bay with me.”
“Okay,” I agreed. “Are you coming home?”
“Not just quite yet, I have some more work to attend to. You can make something if you get hungry. I might be late.” She walked way with the strange man she’d been talking to. I was kind of happy she wouldn’t be back till later. It meant I got the rooms to myself for a while. I’d video chat with Mural and tell her about the boy I was going to be showing around. Commander Riker was extremely hot, so his son probably would be too. My rooms were up on the eighth floor so I took the elevator up. When I got in I plopped down on the red couch and pulled out my laptop. I saw that Mural was online, as usual not doing her homework, and sent her video chat request. She excepted her face came onto the screen. Since Mural’s mother B’elanna was half klingon Mural didn’t look completely human. She had the face of a Klingon but had blonde hair like her father Tom.
Tom and B’elanna had always been like a second family to me. B’elanna would always joke when I was over that I was their adopted child.
“Hey,” Mural said. “What’s up?”
“So my Mom said the enterprise is flying in tomorrow,” I told her.
“Yeah, Dad told me when I go home,” Mural nodded.
“Did you also tell you that Riker and Diana Troy’s son is flying in with them? And he’s our age? And I get to show him around?” Her green eyes light up like a lightbulb.
“Oh my god! Commander Riker has a son?” she gasped much to my amusement. “He’s got to be hot!”
“That’s what I thought!” I agreed. “Tomorrow should be interesting.”
“So you’re showing him around? Can I help?”
“I don’t see why not,” I said laughing. “But I get dibs if he’s hot since I heard about him first.” Mural made a pouty face.
“Fine,” she sighed. “But that doesn’t mean I can’t flirt with him.”
“Don’t traumatize him though!” I said giggling.
“I don traumatize cute boys!”
“Um, yeah you do. Remember Rider?” I asked.
“That was once, one time!” she said defensively.
“Yeah suuuure,” I laughed. She stuck her tongue out at me.
“Oh, hi Lexi!” Tom’s face appeared on the screen. “I thought my daughter was in her talking to herself again.”
“Dad!” I heard Mural sigh.
“Hi Mr. Paris!” I giggled.
“What was this about hot boys that I heard?”
“Go away Dad!” Mural groaned. “We’re having a girl conversation.”
“Hey, calm down there Mural, i’m just checking on my girls,” he winked at me and walked out.
“God, he’s so annoying,” Mural sighed gaining control of her computer again. “I better go, though. I’ll see you and the hot boy tomorrow,” she winked looking like her Dad.
“Okay.” I put my laptop screen down considering doing my homework. I had a essay I was suppose to right on the Q contumm by the time break was over. The Q had always interested me, that’s why I chose to write my essay on it. Though that didn’t change my distaste of doing homework, exspeacily during Christmas break. I ended up falling asleep on the couch with all the lights on and my laptop on my lap.
I was walking though a mediaeval looking castle at night. The only light was from the torches lit along the wall. I could hear talking from a door at the end of the hall with a light under it.
“Have to go and warn them,” one voice was saying so quietly I could barely hear him.
“No! To dangerous,” said another male voice. But this one was stronger and easier to understand. “Let them rot. They’re nothing to us.”
“Have the warn them,” the first voice said. “Maybe have a child-”
“If you have a child she will be destroyed.”
“No! I’ll find her. I’ll make sure she knows who she is, i’ll bring her back with me, train her if I can. Whatever you want, just don’t kill her.”
“You can try Q. Bring the girl to me and then I will decide her fate. Try to hide her, and she will be found and i’ll kill both of you, and that boy of yours.”
“I’ll bring her to you, but you have to promise not to hurt her.”
“Fine. But fail-”
“I know, I know.” Suddenly the man with the louder voice turned and I could see his face. His eyes were bright red.
“Lexi!” I sat straight up still thinking I was dreaming as I looked into the crystal blue eyes of my mother. She was seated beside me on the couch looking concerned. “Another nightmare?” she asked. I nodded trying to relax. IT was just a dream, just another nightmare like the so many i’d had since I was little. But this one was different, more, more real.
“It’s alright,” she said smoothing my hair. “It was just a dream honey. Go back to bed.” But it wasn’t.