"Fathers should be neither seen nor heard. That is the only proper basis for family life."
– Oscar Wilde, "An Ideal Husband" -
Carol Marcus didn't like to be interrupted while she was working, and no one in his right mind would have dared to disturb her, unless something truly urgent had come up. Her co-workers knew her dedication to her science, and they also knew and feared her temper.
The dark haired young woman who had just thrown open the door to the lab apparently didn't know. Carol decided that it was time to educate her.
The woman's face seemed oddly familiar, but Carol didn't remember seeing her in any of the staff meetings she had attended since returning to the Boyson Institute of Interstellar Evolutionary Biology two weeks ago. Carol had been accompanying one of her professors on a field trip, and it seemed to her that she had seen this woman during the trip. But that wasn't possible, right?
In any case, this person either had some very important news – and in that case, Carol wanted to know them pronto – or she had no business here.
"Who are you?"
The woman smiled. She was pretty, Carol noted, pretty in a fragile-looking, exotic way that almost made her lovely. One more reason not to like her. Carol had no patience for spoilt beauty-queens who thought they could win the whole world just by smiling at people.
"Commander Peace Renée Lafayette."
Carol raised her brows. It was an odd name – really, who named their child Peace? – and now she remembered where she had met this woman.
"We… talked. During dinner. On the station."
Peace Lafayette beamed at her. "So you do remember me. Wonderful! Did you and your son get here alright?"
Oh that's right, she also met David. Seemed very interested in him. But then, who doesn't like blond, blue-eyed babies?
"Yes, thank you." Carol could barely contain her impatience now. "What can I help you with?"
Peace was still smiling, but the look in her eyes changed from bubbly friendliness to avid anticipation. Carol did not miss it and she did not like that look at all.
"You could tell me the name of David's father."
"Why, you're thinking of having a child yourself and looking for a sperm donor?" Carol asked sarcastically.
How dare she…?
"He's gorgeous, that's true, and I'd love to have such a cute baby, but I think I'll put that off just a little while. No. I'm asking you, because someone else asked me, and he has been very insistent that I find out that name."
"Why in the world would anyone you know know about David and be interested in his paternity?"
Something weird is going on here and I have to protect David from it. Maybe I should just come up with a convincing lie.
"It's nothing to be afraid of. I sent him the picture, because David looked so familiar. He thought so, too, so now we're wondering about the identity of David's father."
"Who is he?"
"Admiral Christopher Pike."
The name sounds familiar, but I've never met him, so why would he be interested in David?
"I don't know him and can assure you that I've never slept with him, if that's what you're wondering about," Carol said defensively.
Peace chuckled softly. "I already figured that out, considering that Admiral Pike is both gay and married. It's his son we were wondering about. Jim Kirk – well, actually Captain James Tiberius Kirk. Ever heard of him?"
Ah, shit. I knew this would come back to haunt me some time or other.
Carol tried her best to look innocent. "Of course, who hasn't? He is Captain of the Enterprise and he and his crew saved Earth in the Narada Incident. He is said to be a very attractive man and quite the womanizer."
"So you've never met him in person?"
Again, Carol tried to feign wide-eyed innocence. "I've only been in space a couple of times so far and I've never travelled on a ship like the Enterprise. I'd love to, though. But unlike you, Commander, I don't get to meet Starfleet captains every day of my life. I stick to labs and academic grounds. I'm a scientist."
And hopefully a good liar…
"Sure," Peace almost purred, the sound causing a shiver to run down Carol's spine. "And you would certainly remember if you'd ever met him, wouldn't you?"
"Listen, I don't care if you think I'm a slut, because I've got a child and no father to go with it, but no matter what you believe, I'm not sleeping around so much that I can't remember all the men I've been with. I remember them quite clearly. Most of them turned out to be complete assholes. Including David's father."
"Men can be like that sometimes," Peace agreed with her, "and I'm sorry if I upset you. But I'd still like to get that name. It's very important to Admiral Pike and his family."
I wonder why, now.
"Peter Torell. He was a research assistant of one of my professors. And an idiot."
… who conveniently died about a year ago after he blew up an experiment with a highly infectious virus.
"Very well, thank you." Peace nodded; apparently satisfied, and Carol let out the breath she had been holding. "It was nice seeing you again."
I really can't say the same for you. Now get out of my lab!
"Have a nice day, Commander."
Chris was on his way to a lunch date with his old friend, Commodore Rebekka Roseleaf, when Peace called to inform him of her findings.
"So this Peter Torell is the father of little David?"
"So she claims."
"You don't believe her?"
Peace snorted in a very un-ladylike manner. "I'd say Commander Spock is a much more trustworthy source than she is."
"How did you find her, anyway? I thought you had said she'd left the station?"
"She's back on Earth. It wasn't that hard to track her down. You owe me dinner for coming here and having to deal with an obnoxious, unfriendly scientist, though."
Chris grinned. "Very well, then. We'll be expecting you tonight at eight."
"I'll be there," Peace promised.
Rebekka's office was in a considerable state of disarray, when Chris entered it; and the Commodore herself was red faced, her hair all messed up and her dark eyes blazing.
"Is Frank hiding beneath your desk and do you want me to come back later, so you can finish beating him up?" Chris asked cheerfully, referring to Rebekka's stormy relationship with her husband.
"Oh, it's you, Chris. Sorry for the mess. No, Frank is still on that mission to New Vulcan, hopefully doing his job and being a good little boy. I'll find out when he comes back."
"Then why are you so upset?"
"I just spent half an hour screaming at one of my inferiors for being one of the most stupid, incompetent people I've ever met. That guy messed up big time, and it'll be up to me to make amends, if it is not already too late. I wish I had known sooner! I'm going to fire him!"
"Better have him sent to some god-forsaken outpost where he can cause no harm and will die of boredom within a year or two." Chris suggested. "What did he do?"
"Do you remember Gaila?"
"From my last cadet class? Sure. She was one of the very few Orion students who ever made it all the way through the Academy. She was assigned to the Farragut and died when Nero attacked them." Chris frowned. "Such a shame, really. She was a nice girl, an excellent engineering student and her people would've been so proud of her. It's rare for an Orion to have a successful career with Starfleet."
"Which is a nice way of saying that they usually are either completely abandoned to pleasure, or that they have to spend their life on pheromone-suppressing drugs in order to not get assaulted by members of other humanoid species at every possible opportunity. As far as I know, Gaila chose the happy medium and it worked pretty well for her. Now for the interesting part – did you know she had a daughter?"
Chris shook his head in surprise. "No. There was nothing in her files."
"Not in her Academy files, but sure enough in her medical records. And someone should have picked up on it when she died, because that child would have been Starfleet's responsibility after her mother had been killed defending Earth. Unfortunately enough, my hordes of bureaucrats missed it."
"What happened to the child?"
"Gaila left her with her mother when she came to the Academy to study. Said mother died of a stroke – or the Orion equivalent of it – two years ago."
"And the child?" Chris asked, alarmed.
"What do you suppose happens to an orphaned Orion who has no one to protect her and is just about to hit puberty? Don't answer that question, because we both know the answer. Traders snatched her up and sold her. Female Orions are a valuable commodity in some parts of the universe. She turned up two weeks ago, as a survivor of an outbreak of the Modlari Virus in one of the seedier parts of Geltsun Colony. An attentive Lieutenant, who had been a student a year below Gaila had the grace to ask for her parents and contacted us."
Rebekka angrily crumpled a sheet between her fingers. "Dammit. We're responsible for making this girl's life absolutely miserable. She was a slave, Chris, and God knows what else. And we should have taken care of her after her mother's death. She was Starfleet's responsibility. First we got her Mom killed, and then we completely forgot about her."
"It's not your fault, Becky," Chris said quietly, "But I agree with you, you should do something nasty to the guy who overlooked that. Maybe send him to Delta Vega. But first, someone needs to take care of the girl. What's her name?"
"Delia. She's already on her way to Earth. I want her in Medical, I want the best doctors and a specialized therapist to take care of her, and I want to try and find her relatives, if she has any. It's the least I can do."
"What about the father?"
Rebekka shrugged, still looking angry. "With Gaila's record, it could be just about anyone. We're not even sure what species he belonged to, there wasn't any time for extensive testing yet. Probably Vulcan or Romulan, though."
"Vulcan? That's hard to imagine."
"Just as hard as Romulan. Romulans are notoriously xenophobic. But she's got very pretty pointed ears, and she's to have gotten them from somewhere. They are neither an Orion nor a human trait, after all." Rebekka sighed, shaking her head. "Sometimes, I just hate my job."
A note on Carol Marcus and her role in this story: Actually, I've never really liked her, but I think she's a pretty interesting character. And I was so upset when David died in the original version! So I decided to give them a second chance in the alternate timeline. If you're wondering about yet another child popping up out of nowhere, blame my teachers - all those lessons on international adoption and family law were bound to affect me in some way. Illegitimate children add a little spice to every story... and I really wanted to have a little green girl in this one...