Thank you to everybody who read or reviewed the last conversation. You are all wonderful.

Day 353: Please Ignore All Idiots

From: Saavik of New Vulcan

To: kitten_loverJJMU

Time arrived: 2/05/2261 00:00:01

Subject: Thank you for coming to visit.

Thank you for coming to visit. It was nice to have another cousin, or really any cousins at all. I really didn't have a lot of family before. My parents weren't on speaking terms with their family before the implosion of Vulcan. Anyone who remained afterward believed it was safer for me to avoid contact with them. That is why I became a ward of the Vulcan government.

I understand their position. I would have suffered significantly on Romulus. Worse than what I did in the New Vulcan child welfare system. The ambassador is my sixth foster parent and the only one who has treated me with respect or compassion. This is also the only placement that has lasted more than a few weeks. The other children in those houses disliked me, so I was asked to leave. I spent most of my time in group homes.

Did Peter tell you that I must do at least two weekly letters to various people? Earlier this week, I wrote to Commander Sulu related to a class project. We are going to create a garden for the school with various plants originally indigenous to Vulcan. Most of which are types of succulents or cacti. Because I'm fascinated with the rose garden at home, I wanted to select flowers that bloom. The commander gave me a list of a few plants but told me to contact my foster brother for additional suggestions since he's more familiar with traditional Vulcan flora. I will do a web search instead. I do not want to bother the captain.

Or I could just have my partner do it. Her parents are research scientists temporarily assigned to the New Vulcan colony through a partnership with the VSA. They are private sector, not Starfleet. I think they may have worked for the same company that Peter's mom did, but I didn't want to ask in my last letter. I know it is hard for Peter to talk about his mom.

Anyway, Kalista is nice. She is one of the other non-human or Vulcan students in class. She decided we had to stick together. She is also adopted, so we have that in common. Technically, I'm still just a foster child. The ambassador could always send me back. Everyone else did.

Anyway, what have you been doing? I received a few pictures of fencing class from Peter but not much else. I also heard about your paper but was not allowed to read it. I am still sad about that.

Xxxx

From: Kevin KR

To: Spock' s_cuddlebunny

Time sent: 02/05/2261 00:00:01

Subject: I did, and they are still annoying the hell out of me.

Hey, sorry I didn't email earlier. Intern life is busy. Also, it's difficult to find a moment to dictate this letter in peace with multiple roommates. I deeply regret not taking the admiral's offer to have a room alone.

Unfortunately, I am well aware of the Pike rumors. Both sets of Pike rumors. They mainly involve sexual favors for grades and being their sugar baby. I didn't want to tell you this, but you should know that there's a rumor about you being the father of Nhi's babies. It got worse when people found out mom moved to London to help her with the Twins. Silver lining, the rumor mill doesn't know about your fertility issues. I'm trying to decide if it's better for them to be spreading ridiculous lies or painful truths. Unfortunately, I realize most of my colleagues can't tell the difference.

We are definitely not eloping. Mom will kill me if she's not at the wedding. The admiral would help her hide the body. Winona was already mad about missing your first wedding. Good thing the ambassador convinced her that the actual wedding was the ceremony on New Vulcan. I think that might have helped her be less hostile to your husband. I definitely felt like they were on better terms at Christmas.

Yorktown is not happening, either. We are not taking that day away from the Sulus because they are Family. And I don't think we can plan a wedding right now anyway. Although Sulu's sister did try.

Due to her meddling, we agree with the philosophy of a small wedding and a big party later. We just have to figure out how to get you for the wedding when we have it. I'm not getting married without you. Sorry for being a brat about your marriage. I had things I needed to work out and took them out on your husband. I was wrong. I'll do better.

I acknowledge I probably should have contacted my girlfriend directly. Especially because getting yelled at by my future mother-in-law in front of my roommates was the alternative. The idiot roommates like me even less if such a thing were possible. They still think I'm sleeping with her, but now I apparently have a humiliation kink. Seriously what is wrong with them?

They still don't believe I'm actually competent even though I'm doing so much better than them. They think I haven't been yelled at by our boss because of nepotism, not that I actually know what I'm doing. Idiots, all of them.

It's not all horrible. I've discovered the former Enterprise contingent on Discovery. I like the people there, who are more competent than the interns who hate me. So at least there's that. I will try to focus on the good and not the bad things, like having very few friends and really missing my girlfriend and my niece.

I don't want to be on a mission without Liz again. I'm miserable without her and the letters are not enough. Although I still expect more letters from you, along with pictures of my nephew.

PS: I heard about the infamous school paper. Do I have a clearance high enough to read it?

X

From: kitten_loverJJMU

To: Saavik of New Vulcan

Time arrived: 2/05/2261 20:32:01

subject: Ship Life Is Boring without You.

That would be because not much else is going on for us kids. The adults have been busy. We've run into Fraggles, Ensign-eating plants, and invisible rocks. Uncle Jim was the one who found that out the hard way and ended up breaking his left leg when he tripped over one of them a few days ago. Thankfully it was a clean break. Dad already took care of most of it. Although Uncle Jim is on light duty for a few days. This will mostly be him working on the plans for our new kid's recreation room.

Unfortunately, Peter has gone back into clingy koala bear mode. He was doing so well, but seeing his uncle in sickbay freaked him out a little. He doesn't like it there. Probably because that's where his mom died. He doesn't even want to go with me when I'd visit my dad. I get it, though.

Uncle Spock wants you to bother him. You could've asked him during his call with grandpa today. Uncle Spock needed the distraction because he is worried about his husband. I mean, it was just a broken leg, and it wasn't Uncle Jim's fault that even the sensors missed the invisible rocks. Frequency issues. At least, that's the explanation I got.

Although I wonder if something else is going on. This information should have been in the preliminary reports, but it wasn't. That's happened several times during this mission.

You know Uncle Spock is not like most of your other foster siblings. He really cares about you. Your picture is up in his quarters here. He's actually sad he hasn't heard from you.

Uncle Spock gave me a list of what plants you should plant. He checked to see if the Vulcan Botanical Gardens had samples, and they do for most of them. He suggests you talk to grandpa and see if you can plant a garden at home. He is going to help the Enterprise kids do their own garden in botany. Which is honestly the most exciting school project we have had since leaving New Vulcan.

We all miss you. You fit perfectly in our little group, and we're sad you couldn't come and do school with us. Unfortunately, something super bad would have to happen before you end up here, and I think you like grandpa and want to stay with him.

BTW you're only still a foster child because grandpa can't adopt you for another year per the current laws on the books. It might have something to do with those relations that decided it's better that you not contact them. Technically you do have a family; they're just assholes. Liz had that happen to her, Kevin too. Thankfully they ended up where they needed to be. You will too.

I heard that school is going better for you, and I feel like that's the case. You have classmates you're hanging out with, at least, which is definitely an improvement on the Vulcan school system. Although since they were really abusive, it wouldn't be that hard to be an improvement.

Group projects can sometimes be fun and occasionally awful. We're doing a new one, and I'm working with Reyes and Chris one. Which happens to be the classmates I interact with the least, which might be why we're working together. We're still trying to decide what our subject is going to be. It has to be related to Federation history or government. That's such a large area to choose from. They're coming over for breakfast tomorrow to discuss. We will see how that goes.

Other than schoolwork, I've been doing a lot of art. I have been doing a series of paintings of grandpa's Rose Garden. I just love the flowers. Roses in the desert just seems like an interesting subject, anyway. Apparently, Spock's mom spent decades creating a rose for the desert. Thankfully she gave several cuts to various off planet Botanical gardens. One of which was gifted to grandfather.

Mom said I can send you some of my paintings too. We were already planning to send one to grandma at the starbase. However, in your case, I think I can send it back with the team. We drop them off in a week. However, I don't know if we're actually going to New Vulcan for the drop-off. There might be a shuttle coming here again. I don't know the logistics.

Maybe we'll get lucky, and we're actually going to New Vulcan, and we can sneak down to see you. I doubt that will happen, but I wish it would.

XXXX

From: Spock' s_cuddlebunny

To: Kevin KR

Time sent: 02/05/2261 22:34:01

Subject: Acknowledge that the only person you can live with at this point is Liz

I absolutely respect your desire never to be without your girlfriend. I don't like being without Spock, either, even if it's just for a few days at a time. Also, at this point in my relationship, I'm willing to acknowledge that he's the only person I can live with that isn't Peter or you. I think you're getting that way with Liz.

Although Spock and I can't go on non-diplomatic away missions together anymore because of Peter. So that does mean some time apart. At least not the ones that can potentially be dangerous. Considering I ended up in med bay when leading a team to a barren moon, I realize it's impossible to know which missions are actually dangerous.

I am fine. I just broke my leg because I tripped over the invisible moon rocks. Don't ask. It's just one of those weird things that happens when you're in Starfleet. We discovered a compound that is invisible to the naked eye and our sensor equipment.

Thanks to modern medicine and my BFF being a miracle worker, I am mostly recovered and will be back on bridge duty in a few days. This is good because I can only spend so much time designing the kids' new rec room. Although, no away missions for a few more weeks.

Yes, we discovered invisible rocks. The science team is having too much fun figuring out how that's possible. They already have a bunch of ideas related to cloaking technology. Even Honeybear is salivating at the scientific possibilities. I'm grateful because that has him distracted. He would be in the room all the time otherwise. At least this time, he's checking on the Science Team. Let's just put it this way: I'm glad his dad called, so he had somebody to vent to. My Vulcan bear is high-strung right now.

Peter is a little shaky because of what happened as well. I think seeing me in med bay worried him. He really doesn't like that place. That is understandable because that's where his mom died. However, he's not sleeping in our bed, so I consider that an improvement. Although Dr. Margarita's plan for him to step down to one session a week is on hold for a little while.

I'm glad that you want me at the wedding. You know I'm going to try my hardest to be there. Worse comes to worst; we can always break out Scotty's special tech. Although that's been more of a break glass in case of an emergency sort of thing.

Maybe you can do a small wedding after graduation. What about a destination wedding on Risa? It's not eloping if you bring the family with you. I bet we can easily coordinate a Risa shore leave if we know far enough in advance. Your wedding planner wouldn't have to bring supplies to set up the wedding. There are probably plenty of wedding packages too. I know at least one hotel there specializes in weddings.

Mom sent an apology email to Spock. Yes, I was shocked, but it seemed that she meant it. I also got an email from my father-in-law, which was weird but good. I have not received a reply yet, and I'm not expecting one. My father-in-law is a Vulcan of few words and many grudges.

I'm glad that there are former Enterprise people on your ship that'are looking out for you. Peter told me that much from his letter. Again, don't listen to the roommates. They're obviously idiots if they believe any of the ridiculous rumors.

I am trying to decide how I feel about the Nih rumor. On the one hand, I am glad that it's not widely known that the Vengeance incident destroyed my sperm count. I've been dealing with many complex emotions regarding being sterile over the last year and a half. I'm starting to make peace with that now that I have Peter. Being a father and being able to have kids are two different things and are not mutually exclusive. I am raising a child. Peter is a pretty good one, and it doesn't matter if I'm not his biological dad.

On the other hand, everybody thinking I'm having sex with one of my good mom figures is a little weird. It would be like people starting sex rumors about us. Don't tell me if those rumors exist because I do not want to know.

OK, honey bun just heard me dictating that and did the weird eyebrow thing. So those rumors probably do exist. For everything the rumor mill gets right, they get many more things horribly wrong. Sometimes I would rather have a painful truth out there than a ridiculous lie. This might be one of those times.

The hubby offered to talk to your captain, which would probably be awkward since they are former foster siblings. Actually, I kind of think they should talk anyway. Spock may have been a bit of a brat because he was convinced that daddy dearest liked Michelle better. My hubby is very complicated.

I'm just glad he's more mature now and won't be making that mistake with the new little sister.

Just remember this will all be over in June. Then you'll be done with this internship and back with your fiancé. Maybe it will turn around, and the idiots will get a clue. Or perhaps they'll all blow up in engineering, and you'll get new roommates. One can hope.

Anyway, pictures are attached. Most of Josephine's art. The kids are sad that casts are no longer a thing because they all wanted to sign my leg. I think Josephine wants to do an entire landscape if allowed. I don't even know how they knew about casts. Maybe someone went over the medical history chapter in their daddy's textbooks.

Anyway. Miss you, and stay safe out there. Avoid all invisible rocks. And the visible ones too.

PS: Yes, you have a high enough security clearance to read the paper. Your clearance is as high as mine, which is weird for a Cadet. But it's probably related to Tarsus. Chances are you've already received an encrypted copy from the husband on your work account. You know the protocols.

Only my child would write a paper that we have to classify like this. Mostly to keep in the good graces of the New Vulcan government. This is not flattering at all for them.

To be continued…