Synopsis: Set during various periods of time post-"Endgame."
Miral Paris, the daughter of B'Elanna Torres and Tom Paris, and her friend Andrew Kim, the son of Harry Kim, are preparing to enter Starfleet Academy. But after eighteen years of friendship, things between them are starting to change – and their parents struggle to deal with what that means for the future.
Chapter 9: Starfleet Academy Flight Range, Near Saturn, 2399
"Remember when we used to have these chats while making repairs ourselves?" Tom asked with delight as he and Harry watched the group of shuttles off their port bow. "It's nice to supervise other people doing the work, isn't it?"
"Why are you making them do this?" Harry wanted to know. "Don't the student engineers perform a maintenance check before every flight?"
"Sure, but how many times have you been on a shuttle that ran into problems mid-flight? If you're in a single-pilot craft, who's going to help you? A well-rounded pilot should know how to fix his own ship."
Harry had known for some time that Tom was a good flight instructor, but he had to once again himself of his friend's efficacy. The man was made to teach people how to be good at flying. He leaned forward slightly to look out the viewport. "Number three has a problem with the starboard thruster."
"How can you tell from here?" Tom asked.
"Trust me."
Tom looked at Harry for a moment before he hailed the number three shuttle. "Peyton, check your starboard thruster," he instructed.
"Aye, sir," came the reply. "My magnetic field is out of alignment by .2 microns."
Harry gave Tom a smug look.
"So, Harry, are you going to tell me why you wanted to come out here with me?"
He sighed. "I'm not trying to interfere, and I'm not trying to start an argument with you. I just want some advice."
"About what?" Tom asked.
"Andrew. He's completely shattered about Miral."
Tom gave a little laugh. "He just misses her, Harry. He'll be fine once he gets to the starbase and gets his field training going. The summer will pass quickly, and before they know it, fall semester will be starting."
Harry peered at Tom. "Miral didn't tell you?"
"Tell me what?"
"They broke up."
Tom turned quickly in his chair to look at his friend. "What?"
Harry nodded. "Andrew was so upset that he got Admiral Janeway to arrange for him to leave for Starbase 74 early. He's already gone."
"Miral never said anything to me," Tom said earnestly. His mind was replaying his last conversation with her in his mind: she told him how much she liked working on the Quebec Outpost and she reported what she and Teddy Walsingham had been doing in their free time. She'd said nothing about Andrew – but, then again, he hadn't asked either. Not for the first time, Tom felt a little disappointed in himself as a father.
"We had enough problems when they started dating," Harry said with an exhausted voice. "I don't want to get into it again about them breaking up."
"Right," Tom agreed quickly. He and Harry had fought for months when Andrew and Miral had first started dating, and now three years later they were both lamenting the break-up. The turnaround was strange. "So what are we going to do to cheer Andrew up?"
Quebec Outpost Two, Medical Facility, Shared Room of Cadets Miral Paris and Teodora Walsingham
After a long day of comparative xenobiology, Miral Paris and Teodora Walsingham had gone to the local watering hole, where they had sampled a variety of beverages the bartender colorfully described as "strong enough to put hair on their chests." No hair had grown, but they had stumbled, arm in arm, back to their room, giggling all the way. It was a good thing they'd worn civvies, lest they get reprimanded for their behavior.
Now, collapsing onto Teddy's bed, they laughed uncontrollably at nothing for a few minutes before Miral finally found her breath. She lay back against the pillows, one arm draped across her forehead, and said, "Oh, hell, Teddy. I haven't gone this long without sex since Andrew and I started dating."
Teddy lay beside Miral, staring up at the ceiling, and asked, "Didn't you two decide you were on a break?"
"So?"
"So you should go have sex with someone else."
Miral sat up – too quickly, she realized only too late. She clutched her spinning stomachs. "You're drunk, Teddy. Making no sense."
"You're drunk, too, Paris. I thought Klingons could hold their liquor."
"I've got two stomachs," Miral told her as she slid off the bed, "and both of them are queasy." She stumbled to the bathroom and hovered over the disposal in anticipation of vomiting.
Miral felt her hair being pulled back from her face, and then a hypospray being pressed to her neck. Teddy rubbed Miral's shoulders. "You may have two queasy stomachs, but you also have a metabolic system that reacts with alizine. Feel better?"
Miral nodded slowly as the nausea subsided. She wiped her clammy forehead with the back of a hand. "How did you get your hands on that?"
"Dr. Phelan gave me a few vials of various medicines to test on my genetic samples," she explained.
"Well, thanks."
"No problem," Teddy mumbled, tossing the hypospray on Miral's bed. She fell face-first onto her own.
Leaning against the doorframe, Miral watched her. It was remarkable how close they'd grown in the last two months. She'd confided more in her roommate than she ever did in Andrew. Teddy was easier to talk to. She was more likely to shrug things off while Andrew was deeply sensitive. If Miral didn't phrase something the right way, she would hurt him. It was just one of the qualities of Andrew Kim that Miral had come to realize really annoyed her.
"You know, Teddy," she pointed out, "you've been pretty faithful to Isabelle. I haven't seen you with anyone else since we got here."
"Yeah, well," Teddy answered, her voice muffled by the pillow into which she was speaking, "Izzy and I aren't on a break. I didn't tell her I needed to 'live a little.'"
"Don't you miss her?"
"Don't you miss Andrew?"
"That's not the point."
"Then what is?"
"You sound like my sister," Miral told her. "The point is that people shouldn't go around marrying the first person they have sex with. It's so…provincial."
"That's why you broke up with him? That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard."
"I did not break up with him," Miral insisted. "I merely suggested that we spend some time apart before starting our last year at the Academy. He's the one who told me not to bother coming back. I'm still in love with him."
Teddy snorted. "You'd better hope he knows that."
Miral sat down delicately next to Teddy, trying not to jostle the mattress. "What do you mean?"
She turned her head to the side so she could see Miral. "How do you know he's not off sleeping with someone else?" When Miral didn't answer, she said more enthusiastically, "The best cure for a hangover is to keep getting drunk. Let's go to that nightclub Stett told us about. We're going to find you a man."
Starbase 74, Shared Quarters of Cadets Andrew Kim and Olnar
It had been two months since Miral had declared she wanted to "live a little" and since he had replied that he didn't want to talk to her until she was done doing so. It had been one month and three weeks since he'd sent an apology, to which she had not replied.
It had been one month and one week since Andrew had arrived at the starbase early, thanks to Admiral Janeway, and he was beginning to settle into his routine. His work under the chief of operations was really stimulating, and the maintenance they performed to various starships that docked at the base was giving him hands-on experience he knew he could use after graduating. Andrew was glad he'd decided to spend the summer off-campus. All in all, it was turning out to be an educationally beneficial experience.
It was the personal experience that hadn't gone quite as smoothly. He'd faithfully sent Miral a message chronicling his adventure every Monday evening until last week. She never replied, never sent her own messages, and – he suspected, though he didn't have any concrete proof – she'd told his parents and friends not to tell him what she was up to. He got the hint. If Miral wanted to live, she could live. He'd brooded enough over what he had done wrong. Now he was just angry and ready to live a little himself.
That living began with his roommate, Olnar, who lived up to every stereotype about Bolians. He was generally gregarious, to the extent that Andrew had learned to tell him point-blank to shut up. Olnar never took the hint when Andrew tried to suggest politely that he didn't want to talk – or listen –so saying it outright was more agreeable to both. Olnar was fun during their off-duty hours, and the two had joined a poker game with a circle of ensigns who remembered life as cadets all too well and had taken Andrew and Olnar under their wings. Olnar was tidy, too, which greatly pleased Andrew, even if that tidiness sometimes extended to Olnar chastising him about their bathroom.
More importantly, Olnar was not Hanson. He didn't have a girlfriend. He didn't have anyone in whom he was trying to pretend he wasn't interested. He didn't remind Andrew of home and of Miral. It was a great arrangement.
"Hey, buddy," Olnar greeted him as he entered their quarters after his duty shift. "I just heard from the bartender that a ship of Trill females just docked. Get dressed in something nice. We're going out tonight."
"Olnar, you can't even engage in sexual activity with a Trill. Why are you so excited?"
"I'm not excited for myself. I'm excited for you. Now get dressed."
Andrew sighed. "I don't really want you parading me around the starbase, trying to find me a new girlfriend. I have duties to attend to. I came here to focus on work."
"That's really admirable," Olnar said, unfazed. "You'll make a great officer. But right now you need to get out of your uniform and come with me."
"Can you calm down a little bit? You're starting to scare me. Why the big hurry, anyway?"
Olnar shrugged. "You sit around here brooding every night. I'd like to have the place to myself once in awhile."
Andrew laughed. "You know," he admitted, "I was just thinking that it might be time to put Miral Paris behind me. All right. Let's go."
"Out of uniform, first," his roommate reminded him.
"Oh, right. I guess if I'm going to go make an ass of myself hitting on some Trill, I probably shouldn't be wearing a Starfleet uniform while I do it."
Quebec Outpost Two, Central Plaza, Saint Lawrence Libations
Miral couldn't believe she'd been talked into going back out after she and Teddy had spent the earlier part of the evening drunk. Yet here she was – in yet another local watering hole, sitting among settlers from all over two quadrants, sipping something green and acidic that burned her esophagus as it went down.
Teddy, who hadn't had the benefit of a dosage of alizine earlier, wasn't even trying to hold her liquor. She slouched on her barstool and held her head up with one hand by propping an elbow on the bar. With the other hand, she lazily twirled her glass back and forth on the glossy bar, staring with wonder at the trails she saw behind it.
The green liquor was certainly having an effect on Miral's system, but she was still sober enough to recognize how far gone her roommate was. The responsible part of her said it was probably time to take Teddy home, but something about watching her was too amusing.
"Hey, Teddy," she said, leaning closer, "if you feel sick, tell me, okay? I brought a hypospray in my bag."
"No problem," Teddy assured her with faux confidence. She tried to pat Miral's face but missed by a few centimeters. The force of doing so nearly made her fall off her barstool, and Miral grabbed her arms and sat her squarely back down. "I'm fine."
"Sure you are," Miral said with a laugh. "Maybe you should switch to something else." She caught the bartender's eye and requested a glass of water. He brought the glass to her with a knowing nod, and she put Teddy's hand around the glass. "Here, drink up."
"Is she going to be all right?" the bartender asked.
Miral looked up at him and noticed that he was very attractive. She hadn't been paying attention when they'd first arrived; she and Teddy were too busy scouting the patrons. But he had a kind of lustrous dark skin and penetrating brown eyes, and his question rang of genuine sympathy – not at all the voice of a jaded barkeep.
"I think she'll be okay," Miral told him. "But if you want me to get her out of here…"
"No, no," he said quickly. "You should stay – at least until she's able to walk home." He smiled at her.
With that smile, Miral discovered that she was aroused.
Starbase 74, Deck Five, Crew Recreational Facilities
Andrew had met few Trills before, and the bar on deck five was currently populated with tenfold more than he'd ever seen in his life. Olnar was right – but more than that, the Trills scattered around the rec hall were almost all stunningly beautiful and giving off every indication that they, like Andrew, were looking for a good time.
He hadn't really intended to be quite so seedy, but somehow once Olnar had convinced him to come to the bar, Andrew's mission had quickly changed from having a night of carefree fun to finding someone to go back to his quarters with him. The part of his mental faculties that were still in control only hoped that none of Starbase 74 crew recognized his wanton desperation – he certainly didn't want to be accused of conduct unbecoming an officer.
"May I offer you a drink?" he asked a brown-haired woman as he approached her. Where exactly he'd gained the confidence to walk up to a woman and offer her a drink had come from, he wasn't sure. But he liked this new, improved self, and he intended to make full use of it.
"I already have a drink," she replied with a smile, holding up what looked like a glass of Saurian brandy.
"Then can I offer you some conversation?"
Her smile widened, and she made a swooping gesture to the empty seat beside her.
"I'm Andrew, by the way," he said, extending his hand to her.
"I'm Riffa," she greeted him.
Cold hands, just like they always say about Trills. "Do you have a second name?" he asked with courage.
"Do you?"
"Yes, Kim."
"Kahn," she said. "Know anything about the Kahn symbiont?"
"I can't say that I do." He waved to the bartender and pointed toward her drink. "Should I?"
"That depends. Should I know anything about the Kim family?"
Okay, she's definitely flirting.
The bartender arrived with two more glasses of Saurian brandy. Andrew took one and slid the other in front of her on the bar. He was having fun – Olnar had been right.
It occurred to Andrew that this was the first time in his life he'd actually flirted with a stranger. Because he and Miral were only eighteen when they started dating, he'd never actually walked into a bar – or any place – and struck up a conversation with someone he didn't know. And although he'd dated in high school, Miral was the only person with whom he'd ever had sex. And at that moment he was quite curious to find out what sex was like with someone else.
