Meet the Parents?

Posted on 26 Sep 2017 @ 7:12am by Ensign Miraj Derani & Commander Luke Wyatt

4,682 words; about a 23 minute read

Mission: Episode 15 - Emanation
Location: SS Forlorn Hope
Timeline: MD15 1900

[ON]

Two minutes after the embargo on contacting other crew members was lifted, a message arrived in Luke's inbox:

My Dad wants to meet you. He's invited you to dinner with me and Mal. Can you do tonight? At 1900? We can beam you up from wherever. Let me know. Missed you loads. M.

Luke was in his apartment showering and singing as he washed the shampoo from his hair. "I got my toes in the water, ass in the sand, not a worry in the world a cold beer in my hand, life is good today" when he heard a beep as a message dropped itself into his inbox mid verse. He quickly finished washing, dried himself and padded bare foot and naked to his LCARS system. He quickly read Miraj's message and smiled, he hadn't seen Miraj for what seemed a decade due to the trials and the crew had been disbanded. In fact he was half the world away in Australia.

1900 works fine. I'll be in my apartment. 16 Ocean Street, Sydney South, New South Wales, 2000. What should I wear and should I bring a gift? Missed you loads to! L.

The reply was almost instantaneous.

Bring a bottle? Dad's planning Bambi and Thumper pie. Red is good. No dress code. Except clothes. Clothes good. :) Can't wait to see you. Will ping you at seven. xoxoxoxox

Bottle, clothes. See you soon! Luke turned away from his desk and stared out over the Sydney sky rise, ships zipped about and below him people hurried about their daily routine. Taking another moment he quickly readied himself. He dressed in a smart beige coat, grey suit and white shirt with a black tie, he wore black shoes and during the leave period had grown out his beard. He also adorned an expensive silver watch. Luke looked at the time and saw he had three hours before his departure and decided to go get a real bottle of wine from a winery.

Luke was only out for a short while but returned with a Chateau Margaux 2009 Balthazar an expensive 21st century Red wine which his friend mardy who owned a local winery was auctioning. Not many people had taste for wine of that period but Luke loved it. It was about 1850 and Luke paced around nervously.

At 18: 57 his com badge chirped. "Are you ready?" Miraj's voice, light and excited came over the channel.

Luke stopped pacing and tapped his comm badge with his right hand and picked up the bottle of wine with his left hand. "Beam me up" He replied, a smile could be heard in the way he spoke.

A transporter beam caught him up, and when the shimmering light faded he was standing on the edge of an enormous transporter pad, it was a good twenty meters by fifteen. It sat at the end of the biggest hanger bay he'd ever seen. The far end of it wasn't even visible, but shrouded in darkness.

To one side were three people waiting for him, two men, and Miraj. She was wearing a white halterneck sundress with a short bodice embroidered with beads. The skirt part was layers of chiffon coming down to mid thigh. She was barefoot, and bouncing up and down on her heels with poorly contained excitement.

Miraj had spent the moments of his beaming biting her lip. The surgery had been a success, but she worried about every face. And then she saw the man, with his firm jaw and bright green eyes, and she knew him instantly. Recognising him almost sent her into orbit with relief and joy.

"Luke!" was all the warning he got before she was hugging him like she hadn't seen him in years, rather than days.

Luke didn't have time to take in his surroundings or even the two men stood off to one side as a Miraj sized missile plowed into him. "Miraj" He said softly wrapping his arms around her as he caught her, making sure to keep a good hold on this bottle.

She gave him a light kiss on the cheek, too shy for anything more in front of her family. Then she stepped back and looked at him. She'd never seen him dressed up. In uniform yes, in sweaty workout clothes yes, but never in a suit. He looked..."Wow. You look amazing."

Luke hid his blush well with a grin "Thanks, I thought it was a good chance to wear a suit, I like suits by the way" He said before returning the compliment "You look gorgeous too of course" He turned to face the men and greeted them "And this is your Father and Mal, It's a pleasure to finally meet you." He held out his free hand.

The elder of the two, a man with dark blonde hair in his early fifties took Luke's hand a shook with a warm confident grip. "Call me Will. And likewise. We've heard a lot about you."

The younger of the two, a dark haired and incredibly handsome man probably only a year or two younger than Luke, shook as well. "Yeah, its nice to hear Mij talk about something other than flying. I'm Mal."

"Thankyou for inviting me to your ship and I hope good things," He said shaking both of their hands, "Oh I brought a drink," he said handing the bottle to Will. "It's a Chateau Margaux 2009 Balthazar, really nice. At least my friend who owns the winery says anyway." He laughed.

"Welcome aboard the Forlorn Hope. "William took the bottle and looked at it, "Wow, this is very generous of you. It should go well with dinner. This way." He indicated a door at the back of the hangar. It opened out into a very functional corridor, and industrial looking area, with a turbo lift straight opposite the hangar. "Penthouse," he told the lift. "I hope you're hungry? I might have overdone the pie a little bit."

Luke followed behind them keeping close to Miraj, just being next to her was like getting his fix. He ran a hand up her back as they entered the lift. "So, what is it you do William. Miraj has told me a few things but I'd like to hear it from you."

"Salvage and retrieval. Anything too big, or too difficult to need more than a tractor tow, we go to it. We're basically a single berth space dock, can receive a complete Sovereign Class. Sometimes we support rescue ops, but it's not our forte. Were kept busy. We're still scraping stuff up from the Dominion War." The turbo lift arrived and opened onto a large apartment. The smell of something rich and meaty cooking wafted towards them.

"A good line of work, I could tell you where a Nova class ship wreckage is but it might not be worth the trouble recovering it." The smell of food teased Luke's senses "Wow, that smells great" He complimented as the looked around the apartment.

"I might have to go just to stop Mij from bending my ear about her Sextant." William replied indicating the way across his homely apartment to the dining room. The table was set with two places on each side. "Mal, open that up and let it breath." He nodded at the wine bottle. "Do you like Venison, Luke?"

He nodded "We all lost a bit of ourselves when we had to abandon ship but it gives us a chance to turn a new leaf. I just hope there's a new ship being built so we don't get spread out across the fleet. Luke looked across the to the table, the setup was nice and quaint. "I do like Venison."

"Good." William moved off to the kitchen, and Mal went over to the sideboard, produced four glasses and a corkscrew, He set the glasses out and set to twisting the screw into the cork. He gave Luke a look up and down. "Mij said you were a marine."

"I was a marine for some time" He answered "What's with the nickname? I quite like it. Mij" Luke said trying out the nickname. Luke took a glass and poured himself and Miraj a drink after Mal.

Miraj rolled her eyes and Mal grinned. "We called her that when she was a baby. It stuck."

Miraj stuck her tongue out at him. "Its a baby name."

"That's all right then," Mal grinned at her. "You're my baby sister. Always will be."

William returned, carrying a tray with a stack of plates and several serving dishes. He laid them out, revealing a dish of roast potatoes, and honey glazed carrots and parsnips, and lastly a large pie. "My party piece, venison and rabbit pie. Or as my little girl calls it, Bambi and Thumper pie."

They all took seats and William began to serve, giving Luke a large slice of the gamey pie. Meat spilled out of it, covered in a rich red wine gravy. "Luke was going to tell us about his time in the Marines." Mal said, spooning carrots and parsnips onto his plate.

Luke looked at the pie as the aroma washed over him, it looked delicious! "I was?" He joked taking a spoonful of vegetables and placing them on the plate. "I was a Gunnery Sergeant in the 501st I saw a lot of action during the dominion war. Have you ever heard of the siege on AR-558?" he asked.

Mal shrugged but William nodded. "Nasty affair. You were there?"

Luke nodded slowly, "We saw some of the worst fightings, I was only 18 at the time and I think I saw more than anyone should. Thats before anyone had heard about it when Sisko and his crew 'Saved the day'." The last part he had air quoted, anyone could see Luke wasn't to happy about the story and the way it had made the Marines look like they needed help. "Anyway, I survived so I guess it wasn't so bad. So tell me more about the salvage trade? I bet theres some discoveries in that alone and some tall tales" Luke scooped up some venison and put it into his mouth.

William gave Luke a wry smile. "Yes, Sisko gets a lot of credit for being in the right place at the right time. But it's an impressive event to have survived. Salvage isn't half as exciting, and much less glamorous. Just as dangerous though. Has Miraj told you about the time she found the body?"

Miraj looked up, a little wide eyed and choked on her mouthful of pie. She shook her head, bunches bouncing. "Daddy, no!"

Luke stopped eating and chuckled "No, she has certainly not. What's the story?" He said looking over to Miraj, her hair was beautiful this evening and he had to stop himself from dribbling over her and averted his eyes back to her father.

"Well, Miraj and Mal grew up on this ship, and helped with the family business. But one of the sad truths about Salvage is that you find bodies. Downstairs we have a morgue capable of holding quite a few. But I've always made sure my kids stayed away from that side of things until they were old enough to deal with it-"

"Mij has another ten years to go," Mal added. "Ow!" Miraj had kicked him under the table, and he grinned back.

"Anyway," William continued, "When she was about ten, we had gone to retrieve a Ferengi freighter than was drifting in federation space, it looked like it had gone down with all hands during the dominion war, and heading for a clear shipping lane. My crew had gone across, and we'd already taken out anything you wouldn't want a ten year old to see, and we were working on getting the engines back online, so Mij could get it in the hanger.

"So," he continued. "She goes off to say hello and get to know the ship. And I don't know if you've noticed, but she gets in all kinds of places when she does that. And she got into one of the crew quarters. I'm busy trying to get the impulse manifold into usable condition with my engineers so I'm not wondering where she is, when she comes racing into the engineering section screaming blue murder."

As he continued to talk Miraj was looking more and more embarrassed. It didn't stop him though and continued with the story. "Well, when we get her calmed down, she tells us that she's found a body in the ship and she fell on it and squashed it flat."

"So we all go trooping off to the crew rooms to find the body. I'm not terribly happy because we thought we'd got them all, and I'm getting ready to rip my M.E. a new one. We get to the room, and sure enough, there's a squashed ferengi on the floor. Only it's not a body." As he had continued, William was obviously trying not to smile. he wasn't entirely successful. "It was a blow up sex doll."

Luke ha to stop mid drinking or else risk spilling the liquid out onto the desk, letting out a laugh he looked over to Miraj "Seriously? A sex doll? I really hope you didn't try giving it mouth to mouth... Damn that would have been a traumatic youth" He joked.

Miraj was red. Her dad could be so embarrasing. "I didn't know what it was. And no I didn't give it mouth to mouth. I thought it was a dead body. Eww. I had nightmares for a week."

Mal snorted. "I know, you slept in my room for all of it." He turned to Luke. "She made me sleep on the floor."

His sister gave him a shocked look. "Liar! You volunteered."

"Well I wasn't going to let you sleep in with me. You fidget. And snore."

"Do not!" Miraj shot back.

Her brother turned to Luke. "Did you know that?" There was an edge to the question, it sounded innocent enough, but there was an undertone.

"Mal!", Miraj protested. "Malcolm!" her father warned at the same time.

Luke didn't batter an eyelid, "No actually. I didn't." Luke couldn't think of a time where he and Miraj had slept in the same bed, sure they've slept together but they were fighting for their lives and snoring was not something he would have remembered. "I bet she's super cute asleep though"

There was an uncomfortable moment of silence. Mal held Luke's eye a fraction of a second too long before turning back to his food.

William moved to fill the uncomfortable silence by lifting his glass. "I'd like to propose a toast. "To the man who got my little girl home safe." He gave Luke a genuinely grateful look. "Cheers."

Miraj held her her own glass up, relieved her father was smoothing over things after Mal's hostility. She was disappointed to see Mal pushing him. She'd hoped her big brother would adore Luke as much as she did, and glared at him till he reached for his own glass. "To Luke."

Mal raised his glass after a moment and gave Luke a brief nod to acknowledge his father's toast "Cheers."

Luke raised his glass and nodded back "Though Miraj did most of the saving, I'd be dead if it wasn't for her." He returned before sipping at his drink. "Does anyone in your family serve in the fleet? I think you could make a good Marine" he said looking at Mal.

Mal narrowed his eyes at Luke, "I have authority issues." he said simply.

Luke chuckled "You would certainly fit in, I despite being an officer in Starfleet have many issues with authority. So don't let that stop you" He said eating some more of his dinner.

"I was in Starfleet when I was younger. A junior helmsman, serving on the T'Pau" William said. "Its how I met Miraj's mother."

"T'pau, that's a Starfleet vessel?" He questioned, he wasn't too savvy on ship names especially back in the day when he was a Marin, however, it sounded more Vulcan than a federation.

"Yes. a Galaxy class, not as august as the Enterprise but she had a good captain. I was just a Lieutenant at the time, and I'd been given chauffeur duty after we'd hosted a negotiation between those living in what became the DMZ, the State Department and the Cardassians. I was ferrying one of the UFP ambassadors back to DS9 to get home when we were taken by this ugly ass Heavy Frigate and held for ransom."

Luke raised his eyebrows at this, "An interesting way to meet indeed. Much like how I met your daughter" he chuckled. "What happened with the ransom?" He asked genuinely interested.

William pushed some pie onto his fork. "Well the Federation made a lot of fuss about bowing to criminals and not policy et cetera, but after three weeks the J'naii decided to cough up for the both us, get Kerala back. But by then the damage was done. I'd fallen in love. But," he looked over at Malcolm, "I missed my boy too much to stay."

"Love can be a funny old thing, I guess it must run in your family that you find it in pretty unique situations." He looked over to Miraj "I know we did"

"So she told us." William Harrison finished his meal. "Mal, Miraj, why don't you clear the table and put the desert together?" He took a sip of the wine. "Mij is still banned from the blow torch." He added.

Miraj sighed, reaching for Luke's plate. "Honestly. You set the galley on fire one time and you're never allowed to forget it."

"Oh, I think I'll have to request extra fire suppression systems on our new ship" Luke paused "If we get the same assignment next" He added sadly, the chances were pretty slim but Luke was prepared to pull string to stay with Miraj.

William laughed at Luke's joke, then grew serious. "Starfleet likes to keep crews together after a trauma, the shrinks all say it helps." Will said, handing his plate to his daughter. "Though from what Miraj has told me, you may all be getting a new CO. "

He nodded, "It's certainly looking that way and even though Lirha dropped the ball when we needed her the most she's still the best CO I've ever worked under" Luke replied in thought.


William didn't reply immediately to that, watching to see the galley door slide shut on his children. "I'm sure she did the best she could. But it's not your CO that I'm worried about."

"What do you mean?" He asked curious to where his line of questions was going to take them.

"Since Miraj came home, she's felt... different. But she won't tell me much about what happened. I was hoping you might be able to tell me more."

He looked to where Miraj had disappeared and shook his head with a sigh. "As a father I want to tell you but as an Officer and the person who loves your daughter very much I think the only person who should tell you is Miraj" Luke explained.


Miraj's father nodded, thoughtful. "Your honesty is appreciated." He paused again. "And, as a father, I worry for my baby girl." Another long pause. "We can't help who we fall in love with. And I was under no illusions about Miraj's mother when we were together. I love Lianej, still do, after all this time. But I've worked hard to see Mij is nothing like her, and frankly I'm terrified this incident will twist her up until something more Lianej comes out. So if you feel you can't tell me what happened then I am just going to ask you to watch her, see she gets help, if it looks bad."

"I've been watching her since the first day I've met her," He said with a smile as the smell of something sweet assaulted his nostrils.

"That's not what I meant," William replied. He made to say more, but the galley door opened again, and Mal came out, followed by Miraj came out carrying a small tray with four small dishes on it.

"What are we talking about?" she asked.

"Nothing, sweetie. That smells great."

Miraj set the tray down and put one of the ramekins down in front of Luke, "Amaretto and peach creme brulee." The little dessert was expertly singed, the sugar on top transformed into a glossy caramel shard. She set out the rest and sat back down eying Luke and her father suspiciously.

Luke reached for Miraj's lap and placed his hand there comforting her suspicious glance before turning to the desert. "This smells and looks amazing, compliments to the chef"

"Its all Mal," Miraj admitted, lacing her fingers into Luke's. "I burn toast."

"Until they make a toaster you can fly," Mal added. Miraj beamed at him, and he grinned back. Then Mal turned back to Luke. "So what are your plans, until they reassign you?" He stabbed his fork through the crisp caramel with a sharp crack.

Luke shrugged "Honestly I think i'm going to take some time away from starfleet, after everything that has happened I think we both need a short get away, dont you think?" He said looking at Miraj.

She gave him a radiant smile. "Absolutely. Maybe sailing in the Spanish Main?" she asked hopefully.

Mal choked with laughter on his mouthful of wine. "You can't sail anything less than eight hundred years old. He snorted. "You'd spend more time in the water, than on it. "You need to stick to flying."

Miraj gave him a withering look, "Ha ha," she said, the very definition of wit. Mal grinned back at her.

"Sailing and swimming" Luke said thoughtfully, sounds like a fantastic idea. "Spain though? Maybe somewhere more exotic? I'm sure we could find an isolated water planet somewhere"

"Not Spain. The Spanish Main. Where all the Pirates. Well most of the Pirates were. The Carribean, Florida, Mexico. Warm blue waters. I've never been. Four years planet side and I never got to see." She thought about Luke's proposal, and all of the times they'd been interrupted before she'd got what she'd dreamed of. "But isolated sounds good. Really good."

Finishing his desert before replying Luke couldn't help but smile. "Well we've got time to discuss our plans but I think we should save them for a different time I don't want your father and brother thinking i'm trying to get you drowned." He joked.

"I guess." Miraj wanted to talk about it now, she didn't want to wait any longer, but the faintly embarrassed look on her father's face, and the dark glower on Mal's was enough for her to know she had to wait. Again. Bother, blast and bellyache.

"Don't worry sweetheart. It will take weeks to find you a new berth. You two have plenty of time to plan your holidays." Will said, getting up and bringing over the coffee pot, and pouring out. "Though between you and me, Luke," He put a cup in front of the other man, "I recommend the Epsilon Cygni system. Its off the beaten track, but not too far from earth if you need to get back quick. And most people go a bit further to Risa, rather than stop, so it's nice and quiet."

"Thanks, I'll have to look into them. I've done my fair share of traveling however nice relaxing spots isn't exactly my forte." He joked.

William grinned back. "So I've heard. Though I trust there won't be too much spelunking in ice planets or jumping of waterfalls this time?"

"Probably not too much, none of us know where we're going next and we have a few incidents that need to be sorted before most of us can return to normal duty. I've also got to spend some time at the academy, special request apparently but it's probably more of a valuation on myself than anything" Luke replied.

"Maybe, but it's always better to have instructors who's actually done something. Some of the long serving Academy instructors when I was there couldn't tell their arse from their elbow. Frankly, Boothby was a better teacher than any of them." William looked thoughtfully at Luke. "Did you ever meet him? The man refused to retire, but he died in eighty-two."

He nodded briefly, "I was already in starfleet and only spent short breaks at the academy." Luke said thinking about what he had said. "Perhaps it might be a different pace of life."

"At least for a short while." Will stirred his coffee. "Doesn't matter how long I spend up here, or out in the black, trying to find a ship no-one's seen in a century, I can't stay away." His eyes slipped over to the large windows, where the stars and the many many ships milling around Spacedock and New Berlin as well as earth orbit could be seen."

"I'd have to agree" Luke replied simply following his gaze before averting his to Miraj. "As lovely as this evening has been im feeling a little tired. You wouldn't mind if I stole your daughter away?" He asked politely.

"Just for a moment," William agreed, "I'm afraid I have to hang on to her for tonight. We've got family to visit tomorrow."

He nodded "That's ok, I'd hate for me to take her away from family after all when all is gone that's all what is left right?" He smiled and walked over to Miraj taking her hand in his.

She squeezed his fingers and led him out of the dining room into a small lounge. It had a large viewport that revealed the size of the Forlorn Hope . The salvage vessel stretched out before them, nearly two kilometers long, a dark grey leviathan lurking under the Earth. But Miraj had seen the imposing vista before. She only had eyes for Luke. "I think he likes you. My dad I mean. Mal doesn't but I think he takes being a big brother way too seriously."

He chuckled "Well I hope you made a good impression. Your dad seems happy but your brother seems like he'll need some extra work." Luke said the brush of her hand against his as they walked sending electricity up his arm.

"You'll grow on him", Miraj reassured him, leaning into him, and resting her head on his chest. It was a lovely firm chest, and it looked so good in the formal suit. She smiled to herself. "I wish you could stay tonight, but Dad wants us to be off early tomorrow."

"I could always kidnap you?" He offered, pulling her in closer as if she would disappear if he let her go. "But then again I doubt that would go down well, are you in to all that stuff?" Luke teased.

Miraj's heart started to beat a little fast at that suggestion. "I..." she began and trailed off, not sure how to respond to that. "I don't know what I'm into." she admitted. She was aware of...that stuff, certainly. There was all manner of interesting scenes in her Bloodbeard books, and she had thoroughly enjoyed reading about it, but she hadn't really contemplated any of it was actually something real people did. "Except you. I am definitely into you." She hesitated a moment then her curiosity got the better of her. "Are you? Into...that stuff?"

Luke shrugged "I've done a few things when I was younger but perhaps it's not something you tell your new girlfriend" he joked leaning forward kissing her. "I should let you get back, keep in touch?" He asked.

She held onto him, not wanting him to go. "Of course. We've got a holiday to plan. Somewhere very very private.

[OFF]

Lieutenant Commander Luke Wyatt
Chief of Security

Ensign Miraj Derani

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