Ensign Amelia Semara - E.T. Phone Home

[Max]

(( USS Khitomer - Deck 14, Room 145 / Amelia's Quarters ))

Amelia had not expected shore leave to leave quite so little time for personal matters.  Maybe it would be different when she didn't have an entire crew to introduce herself to, or maybe it would be different when there wasn't a significant refit, and certainly not every shore leave would have a wedding!  Still, whatever her excuses, there was still a nagging guilt she hadn't called her parents while they were still in easy subspace relay range.

Until now, that was.  She settled into a cozy chair with a glass of iced tea and waited for the transmission to connect.

The screen flicked to full-color life, and the lovely and dignified face of her mother quite literally filled the screen.

Amelia: Mama, you're too close to the screen.

Alessa: I thought these darn things were s'posed to auto-zoom!

There was a tremendous earthquake that rattled the picture.  Or at least that's what it felt like to see the screen.

Amelia: That's only the... :: A sigh :: Mama, now all I can see is your eyebrows and lots a' blonde hair.

She never could figure out how to explain how technology worked to her mama.  There were days she wondered if Alessa was her mama at all (at least until she looked in a mirror).  She was a wise woman, to be sure, but not always a terribly swift one with things she deemed new-fangled and therefore not worth her time despite their existence for at least a hundred years longer than her own.  Despite her mama's encouragement to enter Starfleet, there was still that pesky old-school sentiment she clung to that the family ought to all be in one place.  And that meant she wasn't going out of her way to make Amelia's life among the stars any easier than she absolutely had to, despite the fact she earnestly supported her daughter in all things.

Alessa: Well, fiddle-dee-dee!  You and your papa were always the ones figurin' out these gadgets...

Amelia hid her amusement behind her tea as her mother tilted the padd wildly down to her chest, then finally panned back up to mostly frame her face.

Amelia: There!  Don't touch it any more, mama...

Alessa: :: Beaming :: It's so good to see you, Mimi!  Though you've had me worried.  You could have called weeks ago!

Well that only took ten seconds.  She chuckled even as she sighed again with a shake of her head.

Amelia: I've been busy, mama...  I had to meet with all the crew, and...

Alessa: :: Interrupting :: Ooh...  Any cute Betazoid boys?

Amelia: Mama!  :: A note of exasperation :: For the last time, mama, Starfleet ain't a datin' service.

How many times had they been over this?  Every new semester at the academy, every new ship during the survey, it had been the same question over and over.  Amelia was starting to think the only reason her mama encouraged her to join Starfleet was for the prospects of meeting a marriageable man.

Alessa: You can't expect a mother to give up hopin' her precious little girl will find love... :: Beat, then an all-too-familiar smirk :: And maybe finally start thinkin' 'bout some little Semaras...

Amelia: :: A yelp :: Mama!  :: A beat-red scowl :: Come on mama, there ain't even any other Betazoid officers I've met aboard.

That was hardly the cause for her single status, but maybe it would be enough rationale to quiet her mother on the topic for the foreseeable future.  Did it really have to be this way?  Just because she had been married and pregnant in her early thirties didn't mean Amelia had to be.

Her mama looked and sounded genuinely disappointed.  It was like Amelia had promised her childhood dog a walk, then reneged.

Alessa: That's too bad...  :: Brightening :: Not even a half-Betazoid?  It's good to stay connected to your roots, y'know...

Amelia: Well, the first officer is... :: Trailing off at the glint in her eyes. :: Oh, no, mama.  No, no, no, no...  :: Shaking her head vigorously ::

Maybe they couldn't communicate telepathically at these distances, but she knew her mother far too well to miss the wheels turning behind her smiling eyes.  Like Amelia's, her mama's eyes weren't quite fully the usual Betazoid black.  They glimmered the slightest hint of midnight blue in the right light.

Alessa: Why not?  Does he have boils or scurvy or somethin'?

Amelia wanted to smack her face so badly right now.  But then that would probably result in a lecture about how such an action was not very ladylike that would lengthen this call to a duration that would test the limits of a post-scarcity society.  Still, she was only able to suppress roughly eighty percent of the groan.

Amelia: I'm pretty sure he's taken, mama...

And most definitely not interested in her, for another.  And she most definitely wasn't interested in him for that matter.  She appreciated Hobart's sharp officership, but she absolutely was not about to admit that to her grand-baby crazed mother.  Was this like some kind of pre-Phase phase?  Where Betazoid mothers desperately wanted their daughters to get busy before they themselves got busy?  Ugh.

Alessa: Ah.  That's too bad...  :: A pause of thought :: Is he with another one of the senior staff?  I can't help noticin' you're still wearin' just the one pip, Mimi.  I keep tellin' you, men like a woman in power.  You should ask your cap'n...

Amelia: :: Interrupting. :: Mama!  Please.  For the love of The Four, stop...

The imagined scenario was as painful as it was ludicrous: "Hey Cap'n, can I have a promotion?"  -  "Why?"  - "My mama wants me to start a family..."  Amelia closed her eyes hard and shook her head just to get the picture of Shayne's response to that one out of her head.

Alessa stopped, and sighed.

For Alessa, meeting and marrying Tyvan had been everything.  A fact Amelia was rarely allowed to forget.  It was positively adorable to see her parents so in love after all these years, but sometimes... sometimes...  It was just a bit much, okay?

Alessa: I know.  :: Turning sincere, as if she'd heard the thoughts. ::  I'm sorry Mimi.  It's just I want to see you be happy.

Amelia: And pregnant...

Alessa glared, and then broke into laughter that made Amelia laugh in turn, and the two carried on for a solid half-minute in the way only a mother and daughter can just from the sound of each other's voice and smiling faces.

At last the two settled down, and despite the smiles, Amelia felt the very real fact she was the last of her matrilineal line until she had a girl of her own weighing on her...

Her mama was quick to act.

Alessa: Now, Mimi, we've already talked about this.  You ain't the one responsible for the family.  I am.

Amelia: ...I know.

And yet it was one thing to know something, but a completely other thing to feel the same something.

Alessa: You've gotta live your own life and you know how proud I am of what you've chosen to do.

Amelia: I know, mama.  :: A smile. :: And thanks.

Amelia did know.  She knew in a way few non-empaths could understand.  When she'd first told her mama she was thinking of joining Starfleet, it had come as a relief and a surprise to feel her immediate approval.  There were certainly days it seemed like all her mama cared about was finding a boy and settling down, but deep down Amelia knew it went far so much further than that.  Amelia was the first Semara matriarch-to-be in generations to not live on Casperia, and her mama was beyond proud that she took the risk to try something new.  Something that had the potential to write a new story for the family, and for her Mimi.

A sneaky, excited grin snuck onto Amelia's face.

Amelia: Soooo... I got to speak telepathically with a non-corporeal entity during the mission.

Alessa: What!?  That's amazing!  I'll have to tell your papa when he gets back.

She didn't even bother asking where her papa was.  Knowing him, he was on another hiking excursion.  Just like his daughter, Tyvan was never one to stay sitting still for very long.

Alessa: But you didn't really have to leave home for that... :: A smirk :: Plenty a' folks 'round here might qualify with all the empty space in their heads.  :: A lazy finger gesture to her head. ::

Amelia laughed hard.  There were times she missed her mama's viciously pointed sense of humor and social commentary that crept out in private.

And just like that, the two were off and chatting and gossiping like no time had passed at all.  Amelia told her everything about her new ship, the crew that worked aboard, and the creature she called Junior.  In return, she got updates on all the folks back home who were still clinging on to their way of life, or, like her, had finally moved on from the valley.

And, for a moment, Amelia completely forgot about the lightyears that separated them alongside the fact that the decor behind her mama was not her childhood home, and pleasantly wiled away the time until her shift started.

NT / END

Ensign Amelia Magnolia Semara

Science Officer

USS Khitomer - NCC-62400

A239710MA0