Thank you to everybody who read or left comments for the last set of messages. I really appreciate it. Welcome to a new batch of chapters. I started working on these between Thanksgiving and Christmas. That will give you an idea of the lag time between writing and posting chapters.

Day 385: Petty Jealousy is Annoying

From: Elizabeth_Chen

To: Spock's_cuddlebunny

time arrived: 03/10/2261 00:00:01

Subject: I am no longer dealing with my second long-range academic dishonesty trial.

Hey, long time no writing. You want me to send you all the best gossip from Yorktown, and instead, it's March before I actually write you. It's almost midterm season. [exhausted emoji]

My student advocate suggested I not message you directly until after my hearing. Which would've been fine if I wasn't forced to go through a second hearing because Loki appealed the original verdict. That's also why I mostly spoke to Peter at Gina's wedding. Sorry, I couldn't really talk about what was happening. Not even Mom knew everything, and I was afraid to tell Kevin if the prosecution intercepted our messages.

I had to turn over all our private messages. Primarily anything with the phrase Kobayashi Maru within the text. That was annoying. But it definitely proved that neither you nor your husband helped me. So, I did it despite the invasion of privacy.

Good news: charges were dismissed for good this time. Bad news: it's now public record that I was one of the Tarsus survivors. I might've gotten annoyed at some point during my long-range testimony at 3 AM local time and said something close to the Kobayashi Maru being easy compared to actually surviving the Tarsus genocide. I was forced to acknowledge that I was one of the survivors of the genocide and not making a joke about genocide survivors. We should all be glad I didn't curse when I said that.

This petty jealousy is so annoying. It was just fucking ridiculous that I've been going through this for the last two months just because of a personal vendetta. This is only happening because Loki hates me because I bruised her ego. It's just a test. Why would I need to cheat? There are so many more important things going on in the galaxy.

You did, but we're just going to blame that on your subconscious need to fix things due to deep childhood trauma. You made a valid point with the previous test not testing what it was designed to. Too many cadets went into the simulation expecting to fail, so they did. This was the first year that everybody tried their hardest because people knew there was a way out. Loki is just jealous someone else figured out what to do when she couldn't.

I'm glad to have this behind me, even though Loki is blaming it on everybody feeling guilty because I'm a Tarsus survivor. Somebody seriously needs to grow up.

I'm so tired of 21-year-olds who think they know everything. I know chronologically I'm in the same age range, but I'm a mature 22-year-old who has survived a genocide. We are not the same.

Can I finish the rest of my Academy time off on a Starbase and not return? I'm so tired of my peers. I could've graduated next semester If I hadn't decided to do a starbase internship. Why did I want to graduate at the same time as my fiancé?

I have attached pictures of the kids. I've been doing more babysitting. Unfortunately, it's because their grandma's divorce is going really badly. Jun has been doing lots of deep space calls with her lawyer. Thankfully, being on Starbase, we get to do lots of deep space calls.

I've been talking to Lena a lot. Poor woman. Did you hear that there's a possibility her dad may have killed her sister? Every day, they find more evidence pointing to his involvement. That is a fucking mess.

I've been doing lots of video calls with mom. Rank has its privileges, and unlike my boyfriend, I don't give a fuck about nepotism accusations, at least not these. Besides, it is work-related, in case Loki has her father look into things again. She is very upset about the construction delays resulting in the federal general assembly being at Babel for another year. The conference facilities are ancient, and only a few hotels are available. It's going to be worse this year because at least one other conference is happening at the same time. Although silver lining, mom will get to stay on Enterprise. Your ship might get turned into a hotel for the festivities. You'll need to ask her about that.

Are you aware she's going with you to the conference? She has been asked to speak about Starfleet's realignment with our original core values and mission and getting away from the militarization triggered by your father being murdered by time-traveling Romulans. Made worse by the same Romulans killing your mother-in-law and 95% of your husband's species. Sorry, there was no polite way to say that. I literally dictated like 13 different options and deleted them all. We can always have hard conversations.

Anyway, Mom is having me keep an eye on the construction of the Starfleet and Federation facilities on base. She is convinced that the slowdown in construction is deliberate to allow Babel to have another year of the conference. We have the technology to build buildings almost instantly. This should take less time. Especially when most other structures in the colony are already built.

I promise to give Yorktown updates, so besides questionable construction practices, I am making friends. Unfortunately, most of them are my sisters' coworkers and not my fellow interns. A few of them are Ben's coworkers. I do better with older friends. I blame you and my sister. I have more in common with older people than people my age.

Also, it's hard to make friends with people who dislike you because of who your parents are. Several interns dislike me because they think my mom got me this position not that I was chosen because of my exceptional abilities. (Sometimes, I regret switching my last name to Chen. Imagine how much worse it will be if I become a Kirk.) Others dislike me probably because of the Starfleet Academy rumor mill and whatever ridiculous accusation Loki has lobbed at me in the last 24 hours. A few actually like me, but it's not that important. I'm not here to make friends, at least not with my own age group.

Despite the dislike of my fellow interns, I'm still working well with everybody on my team. Which is better than what my boyfriend is dealing with. It probably helps that most people I work with are not interns. Sometimes, I wish we would've been able to do an internship together. Unfortunately, you must be married to get tandem assignments, even internships. Also, I was not allowed to do a second ship internship.

I miss my boyfriend. I do not want to be separated, long-term, again. I made it to March. Which is a minor miracle. It helps that I have my sister and nieces. I hate that Kevin is by himself. Although he has made a few friends on his team now that they moved him to a non-intern project.

I hate that rapid messages are no longer default because of the Vengeance fiasco. The week-long lag between messages is annoying. Mom doesn't like it either. She wants more baby pictures. I think she will push for a policy reversal even though she's being watched closely now. There is a policy reason to make the change. The current policy didn't prevent what it was supposed to, like the Hamilton fiasco and the attempted Christmas mini coup d'état. I'm sure most crewmembers are miserable.

Anyway, how is Enterprise? I know that you're not moving to New Vulcan. Congratulations on that. Also, sorry, I'm responsible for Loki siccing her dad on mom and the program nearly ending up on the chopping block because of it. Thankfully, Commander Franco is fair.

Gina is thrilled she doesn't have to move to the colony yet. She's also looking forward to her wife being on board starting in June. Although she hates the current separation. At least that's what I got from her deep space instant messaging conversation with my sister.

So, are you happy that you won't end up living next door to your father-in-law just yet? Or are you sad that you'll have to deal with Starfleet bullship for another year at least?

Anyway, attached are more pictures of the babies. Please pass these on to their dad as well. I expect more pictures of the kids in return. Let everybody know I'm thinking about them, especially Josephine. I am so sorry about her grandfather.

Xxxx

From: Spock's_cuddlebunny

To: Elizabeth_Chen

time arrived: 03/10/2261 07:00:01

Subject: Sulu has the pictures

Your pictures have been given to Sulu. He says you should just CC him in the future. I passed your well wishes to the kids. It's been a rough couple of weeks for Josephine. I'm sure it hasn't been that great for Lena, either. Send her our best.

Gina is a stronger person than me because I could not be away from my Spock bear for that long. We would be taking early retirement before being separated from one another long-term. We were willing to do it for a few months if we lost the program to close things out, but thankfully we didn't. We considered just one of us going to Babel and the other one staying in Yorktown, but we realized it would be bad for both of us. Mostly because Scotty would have to be Spock's first officer now. Ny is no longer allowed to be Spock's direct report due to being sort of related.

Your mom has a right to be upset about the conference spending another year at Babel. I agree it was suspicious that the construction wasn't done in time for the conference. Aren't they using replicators for half the finishes so they don't have to keep bringing in resources? Babel being available with such short notice to host the conference again with only a few months' notice is definitely suspicious. Your mom is right to have you keep an eye on construction.

I'm so happy to hear from you again. I understand the silence because at least your mom told me what was happening. I'm glad everything has been sorted, and hopefully, Loki will stop trying. Or, at the minimum, they won't take her seriously. I don't think they want more Tarsus stuff to be public knowledge. That's one fiasco the Federation has wanted to bury.

I hope that didn't bring up many bad memories for you. I know for you, Tarsus is not just one bad day throughout the year but several bad days. The reign of terror lasted for months, so it feels like you're always close to an anniversary. Tarsus isn't just one anniversary for you. I think things will hit worse this year because of Peter. We've been trying to deal with the trauma because every day, we interact with a child who never got to meet his father because of what happened.

I also would love for your mother to reverse the rapid personal message policy. It's terrible for morale and hasn't stopped various illicit activities from happening. The Hamilton incident may not have happened if the current policy wasn't in place. It was actually a contributing factor to the situation. It definitely didn't happen with the Christmas coup that wasn't. Spock said he would be happy to testify if there's a hearing to reverse the policy. He hates it, too.

Neither Spock nor I heard that we are delivering your mom to Babel, but I'm not surprised she's coming along. I bet she's sad that she will be on board when the kids won't be. They're going to be spending the summer in Yorktown with their granddad. We've been coordinating with the ambassador. Spock also does video calls with his dad. It helps, especially when coordinating summer visits or getting the newest Mrs. Gina on board. We also hope to pick her up in Yorktown right before the wedding.

I don't know if you heard the news, but Nhi had the twins two days ago. I forwarded pictures to your sister, but I can't remember if I forwarded any to you. I definitely sent pictures to my brother of mom holding the twins. Those images came from Rebecca.

The birth of the twins has triggered baby fever again. Rebecca is trying to convince Spock to be their sperm donor. She wants to do her part to help rebuild the Vulcan population. However, Spock refuses to co-parent with Carol. He sent Rebecca a link to the Vulcan Genetic Restoration project site. Gina also mentioned the possibility of Spock helping them out sometime down the road. Spock is more receptive to them because he likes them both. We are fortunate to have lots of lesbian friends, so when we do decide to settle down and have twins of our own, we have options.

But not anytime soon. I was ready to become my father-in-law's next-door neighbor, but I'm glad the program was renewed for another year. I'm still building up my father-in-law tolerance and probably need another 10 years before we can live on the same street as the Vulcan. I am also glad the kids won't be separated from their friends. I was not happy about that possibility at all.

See, this is what happens when we haven't talked for a few months. You get a super long letter from me that's 90% rambling and I know I miss some things. You're going to need to email more often. I hope your mom is successful in getting the policy changed. I could send you a work email, but neither of us wants this to become a Starfleet record.

They already have enough of our conversations for the record. Let's not give them more.

PS: Leaving the Academy early won't help. Ship life still involves working with immature idiots. Most of them only last six months, but we keep getting more.

To be continued…

It was necessary to give Ben's former mother-in-law a first name in a later chapter in the story. I don't remember giving her a first name, so I chose a new one, Jun. Apologies if I just created a continuity error. It wouldn't be the first time. It's tough to remember everything from a series you've written for over a decade.

When proofreading, I decided to use the name in this chapter as well. This is one of the advantages of writing these chapters and chunks. I get to go back and fix things before you even read it.