"Welcome to your new homeworld Dina."
The little girl looked up at her mama and took in the expression, deciding that it was one she could smile over. That decided, she looked over the field that the shuttle had set down in. It was filled with tall grasses that were a nice shade of not yellow. The girl didn't know what the color was but it was not yellow. That determined she looked up at the ceiling. It was filled with white fluffy things and was a dark blue with spotlights to their left and an interesting rainbow to the right.
"Ceiling rainbow colors mama," she said looking back up at her mother as she pointed to the side.
Eve paused for a moment as she figured out what Dina had said and then started laughing, a light sound for the first time in…she didn't know how long, not that she wanted to think of it. "It's the sun set Dina. On a planet the ceiling is called the sky."
"Spotlights?" the child asked as she pointed into the darker area.
"Those are stars," Eve replied with a smile.
Dina thought about that and then smiled up at her mother. "Home soon?" she asked before a butterfly caught their attention. At least Eve thought it was a butterfly. The history texts didn't really explain the similarities and differences between Earth and Arus that clearly. And it was all she could do to make up for the lack of real study regarding early childhood development.
She would always feel guilty over that.
"No Dina, we are not going home soon. We are going to enjoy the evening here on Arus before we return to the ship." Her comment made, Eve set her daughter down on the ground and took her hand in her own. Walking at the child's pace they walked over to what appeared to be a field of barley, or the Arun equivalent.
Two years. That was how long it had been and how long ago it was. Earth was ash. Or covered in cinders as far as anyone knew. The Galran who had threatened the Galactic Alliance suddenly appeared again on the path of war. Their divergent sibling species of the Galvesh had decided to abandon the ancient alliance with the humans who led the Alliance and joined the Galran in the slaughter of the innocent.
If they were lucky, it was the slaughter of the innocent. Otherwise it was anything but the release of death. She had yet to crack the Book open again but now that Dina was growing up, she would need to do so. She had performed Bat Mitzvah; her daughter would as well.
Or at least that was the eventual plan. Life had a nasty habit of … "Dina, don't run to far!" she called out smiling before loosing herself to her thoughts. Life had a nasty habit of changing the plans on you, she thought to herself as she sat down in the field, her daughter enjoying the presence of first a butterfly and then a slowly increasing number of fireflies.
Pulling the computer from her shoulder pack she turned it on, keeping an eye on her daughter. A glance at it as it auto-loaded the programs per her instructions back on the ship and she was tapping through, watching the girl as she verified everything was running as expected. Sitting it on the ground she tapped her earpiece. "Computer getting data as expected. Anything else Captain Maxwell?"
"No Ms. Hickey," he replied, stressing the English pronunciation of her Irish family name. "Just make sure that you keep the computer synchronizing with our devices while we are down here. Other than that, enjoy the time with your daughter," he added in a tone that conveyed his smile to her.
"Thank you Captain. I will be sure to do so," she replied quietly, a bittersweet smile on her face. Tapping the connection off she glanced up and then did a final once over of the programs before reclining backwards on her hands and watching Dina play in the fields of gold.
"Thank you for your time," Commander Pimsleur said as he turned from the computer that was now plugged into the mainframe. "It is such a good thing that you have an instinctual understanding of data organization, Ms. hIcidhe," he said as he looked at the young mother and her daughter who was sleeping in her arms.
Eve smiled back at him. "I am just glad that I am able to help. The computer did most of the work of the data organization. I just had to make sure," she paused briefly as she shifted the shoulder Dina was sleeping on, "that any glitches, all five of them over the three hours we were planet side, were resolved immediately. And I am pleased to say that all five were not crippling in the least," she added with a smile.
"That is good to know," he replied with as large a smile as he was apt to show in return. "On the flyby, did you see a spot that caught your attention?"
"You mean where I would want my house?" she replied in response.
"Yes, where you would want your house," he clarified, the smile actually getting larger at the impudence she was showing him.
"I am partial, at least immediately, to the fields of Arun barley we landed in. I also would like a water front property if possible. Mom and dad owned such a place," she trailed quietly off, seeing her childhood home as it was in her mind's eye. "Maybe ocean property. I doubt I would be happy with a lake front one," she suddenly piped up, the melancholy an accepted fact of her, and all the other survivor's lives.
"True. There is coastal property that would be easily accessed. It looks like the ancient civilization is still present with the cities clearly visible should you know where to look," he said, trailing off.
"Do you think there are survivor's? Either underground like the history texts say was the case with Zarkon's Doom Empire or somewhere else, such as the ocean?" she added as an afterthought.
"I would like to think so," he said with a sigh. "I would like to think so. The Arun civilization was an old and ancient one. After all, they didn't loose access to what we of Earth would call magic. Unlike Earth with its various paranoia moments through out its history.
"Enough of dreary talk. There is excitement that we have found the molten ruins of the Castle of Lions. It's only a few dozen miles from the ocean so the fleet would like to set up in the surrounding area. Maybe even rebuild the capital city of Lionne," he added with a smile up at her.
"Leonne sir. It was written and pronounced like the zodiac being," she teased him earning a laugh in the process. "If you excuse me, I am going to head to my quarters. It's late and I did tell Gregory I might not talk to him tonight so I will," she paused as a yawn came over her, "head to my quarters, get Dina changed and in her bed," another yawn took over her at that moment.
"And I would hope you would let yourself fall onto either a couch or your own bed. Niceties can be excused for one night," Pimsleur said pointedly, concern on his face. Eve would work to exhaustion sometimes he noticed. Not a good thing when her daughter took up all her energy.
One should not have to become a mother under the conditions she did, and not at the age she did either. At least it was because of the tragedy with their parents and not a tragedy with her personally. Well, at least not as personal as it could have been he thought to himself. Captain Maxwell and he had taken to protecting the young woman as much as they could while being discrete about it.
If only she would inquire about actually joining the Garrison he thought to himself as he continued to watch the woman in front of him.
She nodded as she came to a decision. "Yeah, I think I will use the cot in Dina's room." Her quarters were not spacious aboard ship but they did have separate rooms for each other, a room with both shower and toilet and a kitchenette that could hold a couple of guests. Resources were tight but she did a phenomenal job with data entry. The fleet could not reward her well enough as long as she didn't join it officially.
"Good," he replied as he stood. "I am going to be a gentleman and walk you back to your quarters, whether you need me to or not." Seeing her nod in acceptance he secured the office from accidental tampering of the data processing and walked her through the corridors to her home. Midway they encountered Captain Maxwell and the three of them continued on their way, Maxwell asking how things went for Eve. After Eve said good night to them, stifling another yawn, the two old friends turned and walked away from her quarters.
"Patrick, we need to give her time off," Pimsleur said to his friend.
"As soon as we can get her a home on Arus I will force her to take time with her daughter, even if I can't make the point diplomatically," Patrick Maxwell said to his friend. "Even if I can't make the point diplomatically John," he reaffirmed as they headed back to the science room and the computers compiling the habitability data.
"Latke," came the demand from the kitchenette's table.
"Sorry, its straight hash browns this morning Dina. Have your egg," Eve said lightly as she sat down with her own plate. Dina glared at her and thwacked the table. Eve just raised an eyebrow as she scooped some of her hash browns onto a fork and placed them in her mouth. Dina continued to glare before she picked up her egg and started to eat the poached food.
Poaching it was easier than worrying about having her use her fork. The standard assortment of fruit was out as well as some of the nuts she had managed to afford from the ship's enviroponics facility. Every so often she had to tell the staff to come get the honeybee that managed to find its way into the section with the living quarters.
"We will be reading again today Dina. Which books would you like to read?" she asked as she ate her food, figuring that the hash browns would not be eaten as Dina reached for the orange slices.
"Kitty!" the two year old shouted as she picked up the second slice after all.
"Alright," Eve replied as she laughed. "The Kitty books it will be." The stories were simple but still engaging enough that parents and other family members would love to read them with the children. She should know, first she and then Karen as well had demanded the books when it was reading time. The nice thing about the series was that it had been written for multiple ages so that as children grew up, they still had their storybook friends.
The series had even gone into a teenager/young adult series for the older fans who had long since passed beyond the originals. Some of her favorite, check that, her favorite book was from that section of the storyline.
During the evacuation, the Kitty books were the one thing she had irrationally insisted on having. Neither Karen nor Gregory had insisted otherwise. After all, they were raising Dina as a family.
"Mama?"
"Sorry, bad thought," Eve said as she wiped her eyes, which had teared for more than she had thought. 'Had I started to cry?' she flashed on, as she had to use her napkin to wipe up the streaks she had not known she had on her cheeks. "Just a bad thought," she said, smiling slightly for Dina's benefit. "It will be alright in a moment," she said, truthfully this morning.
Dina looked at her, a new orange slice half eaten in her hands, and then smiled as she decided that her mama would be all right. Eve let out a sight of relief that she had accepted it that easily this morning. Dina would be a people person; no doubt of it existed in Eve's mind.
"Have some almonds," she said as she stood and kissed Dina's head before she cleared the table of her own dishes. She did note that Dina had a spoonful of hash browns as she walked from the table. Apparently her little tear session had made her decide to please her mother.
Stepping over to the computer terminal, she turned the machine on. When it was toy time she would be able to go over the data she was working with everyday. After all, it was what allowed her to have the pleasures and splurges that she did have, in addition to being able to be with Dina at almost all times.
After all, they were their only family now.
Author's Note:
Email based role-play one thousand years after the cartoon (converted anime).
.com/group/voltronresurgence/
As of this moment there are no scenes possible with any of the cannon characters. When we get enough posts together to start assigning Lion Pilot positions then we may have scenes where the new pilot converses with the original.
All original characters.
This was a set of three scenes I wrote for the Prelude post.
Eve is my character in the story group.
Patrick Maxwell is a tribute to Leadership Teacher John Maxwell, Patrick comes from St. Patrick of Ireland.
John Pimsleur is as much a tribute to John Maxwell (used his first name as Pimsleur's) while the last name came off my Japanese Instant Conversation box from Barnes and Noble Audio Publications.