Thank you to everybody who read or reviewed the last set of emails. I always appreciate your comments. Keep the encouragement coming. Thank you.
Day 395: Catching Up and Checking In.
Excerpts from the therapy journal of Peter Kirk-Grayson
March 18, 2261
Dear Journal:
I've been staying over at Josephine's for the last two days because the uncles had no choice but to do an away mission together. In hindsight, I did not react the best and may have yelled things at both, which I regret. In protest I built a Lego starship instead of studying for this morning's math midterm.
Aunt Nyota let me read part of the pre-brief so I would understand why they had to go. I feel even worse about my earlier bad behavior.
I like Uncle Spock and don't want him to be forced into a political marriage with an unknown prince. Especially one that only sings. It's better that Uncle Jim goes down there. However, Dr. Margarita assured me that I could still be upset.
I don't like them not being here. Mainly because some bad things have happened on away missions. I think Uncle Jim has almost died at least twice. The number might be higher for Uncle Spock. Do we count the Vulcan genocide? He barely got off of the planet before the implosion. Plus, he's been kidnapped at least once. Of course, the infamous volcano incident led to the Vengeance incident. These are just the missions I know about. I'm sure there's more that I am unaware of.
Josephine pointed out that most mishaps happened when they were on a mission without the other one. Maybe they should be together for this mission. I haven't heard of any forced marriage, so that's a plus. Also, the ship hasn't been attacked, so I'll take that as my uncle making progress during negotiations.
Uncle Spock just texted me saying they should be wrapping up today. I'm looking forward to a family dinner.
xxxx
From: Spock' s_cuddlebunny
To: mental_health_help_desk_Suarez
Time sent: 03/18/2261 20:32:21
Subject: Sorry for not replying immediately
I am so sorry I didn't write when your letter got here. We were on a diplomatic mission off ship, leaving little time to write emails. Then, when we got back earlier today, I had a very cuddly 12-year-old around me for most of the afternoon. I'm glad this was an off day for all of us.
We're supposed to explore the planet and nebula next door to New Vulcan. Instead, we had to finalize the negotiations of a non-aggression treaty between the Federation and the planet of 1000 singers. You haven't lived until you've had to spend an entire negotiation in song. I wasn't even supposed to be down there. The husband and Ny were going down. Mainly because she's so much better with negotiations and harmonizing with cuddle bunny.
Sometimes, I think Nyota should consider going through the dip track program. It would give her another option for the two bodies problem. We have four more years before that becomes a problem unless she decides to get away from us because of all these weird missions. It could happen.
Anyway, only a married couple could do the negotiations. Otherwise, the negotiator would end up in a marriage of convenience with someone from the royal house. (That's the other reason the last negotiating team failed miserably.) My husband did not want to spend the entire time pretending to be married to his ex-girlfriend to avoid a marriage of political convenience. Partial psychic bond notwithstanding.
Since I did not want to risk my husband being stolen from me for political expedience, we had to do the mission together. Which is something we didn't want to do. However, if we didn't do it, there was a 50-50 shot that the ship would be shot down when Spock said no to the political marriage. I can only give a few details on the mission's outcome because I'm still writing the official report. (which is taking forever because half of the stuff I really don't want Starfleet to know about.) Obviously, the ship was not shot and Spock was not forced to commit bigamy. I consider that a win.
We left Nyota behind just in case we fucked things up politically. We want to leave behind as many guardians as possible. Thankfully, the entire party returned to the ship, and nobody was forced into a marriage of political convenience. I was worried for our deputy chief communications officer for a while. Thankfully,
Asexuality is a concept there and they were respectful.
I appreciate your kind words about my parenting skills. There are days like today when I doubt them. I am trying to be a good dad, but I feel like I don't always do what I want to do. We promised Peter we wouldn't leave him without one of us. Then we had a mission that forced us to break that promise. I feel terrible about putting the mission before Peter. Again, we needed to get out of there without getting shot or forcing someone to marry a prince. Obviously, you know what the theme of my next session with Dr. Margarita will be.
I hope we don't have more weird diplomatic missions until we have to start ferrying diplomats around. Give me a nice boring planet to explore right now. Anytime Spock meets with our boss, he's been trying to talk her out of us servicing the Federation General Assembly. Unfortunately, for Enterprise, we're the only ship with enough space to serve as a hotel and a meeting venue. Why couldn't we do this at Yorktown if half of the events will occur on Enterprise anyway? This is so ridiculous.
I am so happy we'll get to see you at Yorktown. I am sure my father-in-law meddled, but it's for a good cause. The doctors can use a briefing on Vulcan mental health and how to best serve their patients. I am tempted to leave our new therapist with you to take the seminar. We got a third therapist. The last mini coup d'état pushed them over the edge and made them realize this ship needed all the psychological help they could get. I am grateful we got Dr. Olivia. Yes, another first-name doctor, but I love our first-name doctors.
Speaking of first-name doctors, Sulu thinks Ben will probably do your seminar even if it delays their honeymoon. Ben was taking training classes at the VSA during Christmas. I think it was to prepare him to be the new embassy's official pediatrician. Thanks to the emphasis on rebuilding the population, there will be a lot of small children at the embassy. Sulu is OK with it because he would still have nights with his honey. Hikaru can spend the days playing with the kids. It's a good plan for everyone.
I'm not surprised that you had the Elder switch doctors. Bones couldn't say anything specific due to patient confidentiality. He did not like at least some of the team he was working with. Mostly the ones who didn't listen to a fucking thing he said. He was annoyed, because we all have a vested interest in keeping the Elder alive for as long as we can.
I am also not surprised that you are poaching staff members for your team to save them from their evil boss. I remember you doing something like that when I was a kid. It's essential for you to get the best staff possible, mainly locally employed staff. Vulcan staff members will put your clientele at ease.
I realize that's an assumption on my part. I don't know if your new team members are Vulcan or of a different ethnicity/species/culture. Per the last email, the father-in-law mentioned there are more humans in the colony now than on the whole planet of Vulcan of old. That makes sense because of where we are in the settlement process of the new colony. Many non-Vulcans are needed to make things work as the population rebuilds itself.
Also, there are more blended Vulcan families than Spock was aware of. It's just most of them choose to live off the planet. Considering some childhood stories I heard from my husband, I am not surprised they decided to live elsewhere. However, the cataclysm is causing them to come back. Honestly, I'm amazed there wasn't worse bullying at my sister-in-law's first school.
It has been a while since I've heard from the Elder, so I appreciate the update. Josephine got a thank you letter for her Valentine's Day present at some point when we were on the colony, but that's it. Peter was CCed on the email, which is why I know about it. The kids responded with pictures from a certain Starbase waterpark. I don't know for sure because we were very busy with meetings, and I try not to keep track of the kid's personal correspondence. I want them to have some privacy.
I've actually heard from my father-in-law more recently. Who is obviously chatting with you since you know about the Pike twins. They are the cutest babies. Mom keeps sending me more pictures. I'm sending you the latest batch. They're wearing the onesies we sent. They say my uncle is better than your uncle.
I should also send some of these pictures to the old Vulcan. I'm sure he would appreciate them.
PS: No, I didn't have to classify any of the kids projects this time. But I am suing my grandmother for working with Starfleet to turn me into a propaganda spokesbaby without mom's permission. Thankfully, Starfleet already settled. These unauthorized use of likeness suits are exhausting.
Xxxx
From: Spock' s_cuddlebunny
To: Vulcan_Embassy_Ambassador_Selek
Time sent: 03/18/2261 21:12:31
Subject: just checking in
Hey, it has been a while since I've heard from you. Josephine mentioned that she received a thank you email from you a couple of weeks ago. Apparently, you loved her Valentine's Day present. However, we have not received anything since then. You deserved a minor update on what's been happening. Admiral Pike had the twins. Introducing Kenji Niath Pike, Born March 8, 2261, 7:23 AM London time, 3.2 kg and 51 cm. and Jamie Lilaik Pike, born March 8, 2261, 7:29 AM, 3.1 kg and 50 cm. Lots of pictures are attached from everybody. They are the cutest godbabies.
Also, I am sure you know from the kids' reply that we're not moving to New Vulcan anytime soon. There were celebratory streamers in all of their pictures from the amusement park. They were celebrating the entire time.
I am of two minds regarding the entire thing. I don't want to leave the ship behind. I love the crew and everyone here. Going back and doing the first officer's job has been good for me because I really connected with people. I love being a first officer. Possibly more than I did being captain. I might feel differently when Spock and I switch places during the next assignment. We shall see.
However, there are days when this job is just ridiculous, and I start mentally drafting my resignation letter. I've had one recently. We told our admiral that we did not want to do potentially dangerous away missions where we both had to be on the ground. Yet our last assignment was a risky diplomatic mission that required Spock and me on planet. What's worse is they didn't tell us that directly. We figured it out when we were reading the pre-brief that it would be ill-advised for Nyota to accompany Spock. The best-case scenario would've been passing her off as his wife. Neither party was OK with that.
We couldn't prepare Peter for it because we didn't know until the last minute. I'm going to owe that child so many apology Legos. I think I should just break down and get the Lego replicator codes. OK, family group project. I'm gonna see if I can reprogram the replicator on my own.
Part of me wants to ask if you were ever forced to negotiate a treaty with a planet where everybody communicates by singing, and they really like to blow up ships. Also, they like to conclude all treaties with a marriage contract. It was in everybody's best interest to send a married negotiation team to avoid a political marriage. I feel like your Enterprise didn't meet the main criteria.
Now I want to know who was sent. My counterpart wasn't forced to marry a prince for the sake of the Federation, was he? Oh, you would've hated that. Mainly because the prince was very handsy, and neither of us was amused. Do not grab my husband's dick in front of me, just don't.
Dr. Suarez mentioned in her letter that you have a new lead doctor. One that will actually listen to Leonard. Which is always a sign of a good doctor. How's that going?
Anyway, I have to go. We're doing family movie night to make up for abandoning Peter to play musical diplomat for two days. I can't wait until we're just star-mapping again. We were supposed to be studying nebulas. Give me nice empty planets. So much better.
To be continued…