*EPOLOGUE*

THREE MONTHS LATER…

            The USS Discovery floated gracefully outside Starbase 515, her newly finished hull connected to the station with several construction boons and two spidery docking gates. Once the primary hull sections of the vessel were in place and rudimentary life support online, the starship was moved here from the station's massive construction bay. Here, sitting proudly alongside the station like an infant whale with its mother, construction crews would finish building the Discovery. First installing the remaining crucial components, the crews would then add additional bulkheads to create quarters for up to 200 personnel before finally installing such niceties as carpeting and furniture.

            And through one of these spidery docking gates, two figures purposely strode into the vessel. Miral was finally getting her tour of her mommy's job site.

            The pair had entered though the starboard docking gate and B'Elanna led her daughter through the unfinished deck towards main engineering. For her part, Miral merely looked around wide-eyed in awe. Since the bulkheads that separated rooms had yet to be installed on this deck, Miral was staring at one of the biggest open spaces that she had ever seen. Spotting four men at work on the other side of the ship, Miral stopped and pointed. "What are they doing, mommy," she asked with childlike awe.

            B'Elanna's gaze followed the finger to the construction crew. "Those men? They're making somebody's cabin."

            "Can I see?"

            "Miral…"

            "Pleaseeeee?"

            "They're awfully busy, Miral. I don't think that they have time to…"

            "Pretty please with a cherry on top?" She flashed her mother the 'innocent' look.

            B'Elanna looked down at her daughter, whose blue eyes were wide open and whose eyelashes were being batted at an incredible rate of speed. She was both insanely persistent as well as terribly cute while being insanely persistent. B'Elanna knew just where she got it from. "Fine, but only if you promise to be good."

            The pair walked over towards the group, daughter practically dragging mother. "Ensign," B'Elanna flagged down the group foreman, "you have a visitor."

            Ethan Vaughn turned his head towards the pair as Miral recognized the face and exclaimed, "Mr. Ethan!"

            Ethan was taken aback for a minute before he recognized the little girl. "Hey, the munchkin!" She scowled. "Sorry, I forgot- you're four," he replied with a good natured smile. "How's it going, kiddo?"

            B'Elanna decided it was time to diffuse the ensign before he degenerated into inane babble with her daughter. "Mr. Vaughn, Miral here wants to see what you're doing. Do you think you could show her?"

            "Sure, we're running ahead of schedule," Ethan took the little girl's hand and led her into the group. "Here we're putting up a wall. This is going to be somebody's cabin."

            Miral scrunched her nose. "It looks awfully uncomfortable."

            Ethan let out a chuckle. "Well, when we're done it'll be very comfortable. Come over here, what Mr. Mortimer here is doing is really cool. See what he's doing with the wall, well he's…" Ethan's voice trailed off as he walked Miral over towards the man in question, who was bolting the primary wall structure into the deck in preparation of wiring the wall.

            B'Elanna stayed behind a little, watching as the older man showed her daughter how circuitry was laid inside the wall. She gave herself a secret smile. Deep down, she'd always been afraid that her daughter would experience a repeat of her own troubled childhood- never fitting in, always being friendless and always feeling alone. But Miral had never had any problems making friends and had always had Tom's strange easygoing way with people. Fitting in was never a problem for Miral and for that B'Elanna thanked whatever gods were listening. Her eyes rested back on her daughter, who was now visibly restless. Apparently watching Crewman Mortimer seal modular bulkhead panels to the deck had lost any interest it had previously carried. Seeing her daughter so initially interested in the work of the construction crew made her feel proud in some strange way and for some reason made her eager to show her daughter just what she did all day.

            B'Elanna approached her daughter and Ethan, who were starting to walk back. "Miral," she said, taking her daughter's small hand, "I think it's time we said goodbye to Mr. Vaughn. He's got work to do."

            Miral gave a wave with her hand as she was led away. "So, you thought that was interesting?"

            "Uh-huh. It was neat."

            "So, do you want to see what Mommy does?"

            "Can I?"

            "There's nothing that I'd like better to do."

            The pair headed aft, towards the empty shell that would someday be Discovery's main engineering section. For now, B'Elanna was her daughter's best friend and hero. It wasn't something that a parent could do often, as a child always needs a parent rather than a best friend. However, right now B'Elanna was content to take both the role of best friend and hero and thrive on the sheer enjoyment of seeing her young daughter hanging onto every one of her words with eyes wide in wonderment and awe. And right now, Miral was content to let her mother be her hero, reveling in the sheer joy of having her mommy talk with her.

As they walked, B'Elanna started telling Miral about some of the more exciting things that went on at work. And Miral listened as B'Elanna explained to her just what it was like to build a starship. And as she listened, Miral realized that her mother's stories were more exciting, exotic and even more alluring than the kind of stories that other people told. But then again, not everybody was her mommy.