Chapter Two
I sit at the table staring at a blank pad, trying to figure out what to write. I take another sip of Neelix's bug juice or whatever it's called.
"Having trouble?" Tom asks sitting next to me. I look up at him. "B'elanna does the same thing when she doesn't know what to write." I close my eyes and nod.
"Tom, you know what it's like to have a Starfleet parent right?" He says.
"Ooh." Tom says. He knows I was in The Maquis. "So you're not an orphan?" An obvious fact.
"Have you heard of Captain Picard?" I ask my voice drops to a causal whisper.
"Yeah, of course I have." He answers. I look back to the blank pad. "He's your father?!" He asks. I give a small nod. "What?!" He yelps
"Be quite Tom!" I snap.
"I thought he didn't have any children." He asks.
"He found out when I was sixteen. I joined the Maquis a few weeks later. He found me on a Colony that wanted to become Federation. I was a street fighter, the um, Half Breed." I mutter the last bit. He raises an eyebrow.
"The Half Breed?" He asks. My face turns a bit red. A bit of history I'm not completely proud of.
"My manager thought of it." I mutter. "Besides that not that the point. Picard found out about me somehow and brought me back to his ship. After a DNA test proving that I was his daughter, he offered to let me stay on his ship. Honest to Gods I tried living there but I couldn't do it. So one day I left without a word and went to join the Maquis." I look down at my drink. "I never even said goodbye to him." I toss my pad onto the table. "And now I have no idea what to say."
"That's a tough problem."
"Really I had no idea." I say my voice dripping sarcasm. "I'm sorry Tom this is just grating on me." I pick up the pad and stand up. "Bye." I say turning to leave. I turn back to face Tom. "And I hope I don't have to tell you that you can't tell anyone about this."
"Oh yeah sure." Tom says crossing his arms. I smile gratefully and leave.
I run through the hills my heart beating furiously. I jump over small rocks and twigs. I stick out my hands letting the air through my fingers. If I don't think about I can pretend I'm really on the ground, not in a spaceship in the middle of nowhere.
After I've run my usual ten miles I stop and lay against a tree. I take a sip of water and let my muscles relax. I hear the holodeck doors open.
"No Tom this is not your Captain Proton time." I say without turning to look.
"That's too bad I guess I won't be playing Lady Archana today." The Captain says. I jump up and turn around.
"I'm sorry Captain." I say. She smiles at me.
"It's alright." She says to me. "Is this a running program?"
"Yes it's how I keep fit." I tell her. "Do you need something Captain?" She comes over and sits by me.
"Tom told me about your problem." I nod and try to figure out how I'll extract my revenge. Maybe I'll lock him outside the airlock next time we land somewhere. "I would like to help."
"I don't know if you can." I tell her. "I don't know what to say to a parent and I'm sure that he doesn't know what to say to me. And I'm not going to go begging for forgiveness."
"I don't think that he wants begging. I think all he wants is to know his only daughter, his only family, is safe." I think about this. "Listen Lotta- Karlotta, even if you plan to see him again. It would be nice to let him know you're alive."
"That's just about what Neelix said to me." I say. She stands up.
"Well that's all I wanted to say. I know it's not really my place to say what you should, but I thought I should say something." I watch as she gets up and leaves.
I pace back and forth in my cabin. Stopping to look up at the pad on my desk. I finally sit down.
Dear …?
I struggle on what to call him. I can't call him by his first name. But I don't feel comfortable calling him dad or father. I know what to call him.
Dear Captain…
