Full Disclosure

Vulcan Science Academy, New Shi'Kahr, 2280.101, 1902 hours. She had spent every spare moment of the first three days of her parent's visit with Mama, Sa-mekh and Sa-mekh-al, traveling between Sa-mekh-al's house and the Medical Center. Once she was assured that her sa-mekh-al was in good health and that these measures were in fact precautionary, T'Alora resumed her normal schedule.

Which was why she was caught completely unawares by the scene before her in her dorm room that evening.

"It's nice to meet you after all these years."

"You too," Casey meekly replied.

Sa-mekh stood on the opposite side of the room observing them both. "Fascinating; the odds of this reunion occurring under these circumstances are one in..."

Now T'Alora was well and truly confused by what she was seeing. "Mama? Sa-mekh?"

"T?" Casey pulled away from Mama's shoulder, her face red and splotchy, frantically wiping her eyes. "I can explain."

"T'Alora," Mama replied with a sad little smile on her face, "We wanted to surprise you and take you out to dinner at that pizzeria you're always telling us about but Casey here said you were still in class so we decided to stay and wait."

Next she looked to Sa-mekh. "That is correct."

She turned back to her mother. "You just stated that it was 'nice to meet Casey after all these years'; however, I have only known her for 7.68 months. Prior to our meeting here at the Academy you and Sa-mekh were unaware of her existence."

Casey having regained some of her composure, said, "That's not entirely true."

"It is not?" One eyebrow rose.

"No, it isn't." Wordlessly her roommate rose from the bed and crossed over to her desk, rummaging around in the top drawer until she found a very well-worn holo-frame. Calling up the image she handed it to T'Alora. A tall, bald, broad-chested man grinned away, his arm draped over the shoulders of a willowy woman with long, strawberry-blond tresses and an equally large smile on her face. Before Casey could explain T'Alora knew that these people were her parents; she saw it as her friend had her father's eyes and her mother's smile. "These are my folks, John and Meg. Mom taught second grade at Kimpton Elementary and Dad was the freighter captain of the Arturius; he worked for Bennett Intergalactic Imports/Exports. They died when I was 12."

Although she knew there had to have been a logical reason for Casey to live with her aunt she had not expected it to be because she was an orphan. T'Alora carefully handed the treasured image back. "I grieve with thee."

"Thanks." Casey looked down and traced the pattern on her mother's dress with her finger. "That Spring my Dad had a haul headed to Risa that coincided with the March school vacation. He decided it was a good opportunity to take Mom on a second honeymoon and so asked her to come with him. She wasn't sure about leaving us—Emily was almost 16 at the time and I'd only just turned 12—but Aunt Jill said she'd stay and look after us no problem. Once that was resolved Mom couldn't wait to go."

Here her friend paused and took a deep steadying breath, one tear escaping and rolling down her cheek onto the picture. "There's a lot I don't remember about my parents—stupid things like what their favorite colors were or how they liked their coffee—but one thing I know is that they loved each other. They loved each other a lot."

Despite never having met Mr. and Mrs. Morton personally T'Alora was inclined to agree with that assessment.

"The first two days out were fine. They comm'ed us together the first day and then Mom alone comm'ed on the second, just letting us know things were going great and that they couldn't wait to get to where it was warm. When the third day came and went with no call we were worried but tried not to think about it too much; we thought maybe the communications array was down or something and that they'd comm. us when they could.

"On the fourth day Aunt Jill called the company but all they could tell us was that the Arturius wasn't answering their hails either. They had other freighters in the fleet looking for her but at that point they hadn't turned up anything and said they'd contact us when they had any news.

"Then the fifth day and the sixth day went by with nothing. None of us said anything but we knew it was bad, we just didn't know how bad. I kept picturing all these terrible scenarios but never in a million years did I think they were dead. It was on the eighth day that we got the news. The Arturius had been found way off the beaten track in a corner of the Beta Qaudrant and it looked like it'd taken heavy fire. When they boarded her they discovered that everyone on-board was…gone."

Even talking about it now, six years after the event, made the color drain from Casey's face. T'Alora could sympathize with her, if only marginally. They had lost Mama once—or so they thought—and those nine days without her were the closest she had ever come to living in Terra's mythological Hell; but in the end they had gotten Mama back. Her friend had not been so 'lucky'.

"It…" Casey stuttered and sobbed, then reached for a nearby tissue. "It took a week for us to get the bodies back. Aunt Jill was busy planning the funerals and figuring out what we were going to do and Em and I…well, we were just lost. Looking back I think I was just numb, like I didn't really believe it was happening. Part of me kept hoping my folks would walk through the doors and go 'Oops, it was all a mistake!' but that never happened. It wasn't until after the funeral that things went from bad to worse.

"Em couldn't believe it—same as me—but instead of wallowing she went looking for answers. She learned that Klingon pirates were responsible for the attack on Dad's ship and she got angry—really, really angry. Two days after the funeral Emily left home early in the morning and came back late at night wearing cadet reds. My aunt was furious but there was nothing she could do; Em had enlisted of her own free will. They argued for what felt like forever and that's how I found out how Mom and Dad were murdered."

Casey turned her large, sorrowful green eyes up at her. "You know me, T—I'm a happy person, right? Well that night I wanted to kill myself and I almost did; the only thing that stopped me was a message from your mom."

Shocked by this admission T'Alora could only watch in stunned silence while Casey reached for a PADD and pulled up a record from her personal files. Turning it to her she saw a younger-looking Mama staring anxiously at the screen from their office on-board the Enterprise.

"Hello," Mama began in the recorded message. "We've never met but I'm Lieutenant Commander Uhura, Chief Communications Officer aboard the Enterprise. I'm the one that picked up Meghan Morton's distress signal from the Arturius." T'Alora barely stifled her shock then looked to her mother who nodded in confirmation, her own eyes welling up with unshed tears. "First, I want you to know how sorry I am for your loss. What you and your family are going through right now is unimaginable and while I'm sure you have plenty of people nearby to help you you should know that you're never alone, no matter what. Secondly, I wanted to be the one to tell you about a message that was piggy-backed onto the original S.O.S. and that I know was meant for you."

Here the version of her mother on-screen paused to take a deep breath and her hand trembled as she reached up to brush back her hair. She looked so impossibly sad. "There wasn't a lot of time, but she wanted to make sure that this got passed along. She said, and I quote, 'Tell Cherry and Bean how much we love them'." Mama reached for a glass of water off-camera as tears slid down her cheeks. "I'm sorry, but the transmission was cut off after that. I hope that knowing that her last thoughts were of you brings you more comfort instead of hurt during this difficult time."

The transmission ended after that and T'Alora could feel a lump form in the back of her throat when Casey next spoke.

"As you've probably figured out the Enterprise was the first ship on the scene thanks to your mom catching that transmission; and I knew she didn't make up that message because no one outside the family knew that Em's nickname was Cherry or mine was Bean. If I took all those pills like I'd planned then I'd just be letting my parents down and letting the Klingons win so I put them away. The next morning everything still hurt like hell but I still got out of bed."

T'Alora searched for the right thing to say. She always knew that her family and friends aboard the Enterprise were a special group of people and that their actions impacted thousands of lives, but she never had any idea that Casey's life had been one of them.

"Casey, I was unaware of the depth of your suffering. You have never let on that you have experienced such sorrow."

The young girl shrugged. "I know. That's because I choose to live each day after that awful one happy—it's what Mom and Dad would've wanted and it's what led me here."

She nodded. "I understand the logic behind that sentiment."

"You know," Mama chimed in from her seat on the bed, still looking misty-eyed, "I always think of you and your sister every March 23rd." Casey smiled over at her gratefully as she brushed away the tears. "You said that she joined Starfleet; what ship is she serving on now?"

"She's serving under Captain Sulu aboard the Discovery and works in Security. Aunt Jill worries about her all the time and still isn't happy about her decision and while I think Em originally joined Starfleet for all the wrong reasons I think she's really happy there."

Sa-mekh agreed. "Your aunt should 'rest easy' knowing that your sister is in the hands of one of the most capable captains in Starfleet."

She chuckled. "I'll be sure and tell her you said so, Sir, though I doubt it'll help her much."

It was then that T'Alora asked, "Casey, would you like to continue this reunion by joining us for dinner?"

Before her friend could protest Mama cried, "Oh yes, please come! I want to hear all about how you ended up here at the VSA studying xenolinguistics. T'Alora tells us that you're very talented and maybe I can try and recruit you over to the dark side." She winked at that and they both laughed as Sa-mekh chimed in that he too would like to hear more of her story.

"Well alright," she replied still laughing, "But only because you insist." Casey got up and went to the bathroom to splash some water on her face before accompanying them to the pizza parlor. The four of them spent the next several hours there so deep in discussion that they did not leave the pizzeria until Ben threatened to close up shop with them still inside.