We have a Kitten

Posted on 26 Jan 2024 @ 7:21pm by Ensign Mimi & Ensign Asha & Petty Officer 3rd Class John Hollenday
Edited on on 28 Jan 2024 @ 4:05pm

1,880 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Episode 19 - Tomorrow's Galileo
Location: USS Galileo-B - Various
Timeline: MD 01, 2000 hrs

[ON]

Taking a break from helping with the repairs Ensign Mimi walked alongside her fiancé down the corridors of the USS Galileo-B towards the ships mess hall.

"This ship is quite impressive, it is interesting how the technology has progressed in twenty five years." She said as they walked.

"Yeah and they expect us monkeys to try to fix things we don't really have a clue about. Might be the first ship I'll really blow up, but not my problem."

"I heard a saying; the more things change the more they stay the same?" Mimi said with a little uncertainty. "Federation technology still has the same basic pattern."

"Ah you're just trying to take my fun away, sweetheart." John reached over and gave her a quick peck on the cheek. "Guess my humor doesn't translate well."

"Some times it does not, I...." Mimi suddenly stopped dead and began scenting the air, both her ears and nose twitching as a very interesting scent pulled every single percent of her attention away from John.

"Oh now what? They cooking fish someplace?"

Mimi shot John an unusual look, a mix of 'really' to his remark about fish and a mix of surprised curiosity. "There is another Nekomi here." She replied. "Or something that smells so very close to a Nekomi."

"Thought no one knew where your homeworld was? Maybe they figured it out." He shrugged. "All right let's do some tracking and see if we can get an update. Screw all that can't have future knowledge crap."

"It has been twenty five years in this timeline, someone may have found it, even during the dominion war a few ships were still doing exploration." Mimi said, her voice getting more excitable as she spoke. "Maybe during this one someone found my home." She began scenting the air more intently and then took off down the corridor.

"Hey! Not too fast. I'm still tired from all that fixin' we've been doing."

The scent trail led them to a turbolift and down a deck, Mimi getting visibly excited but also nervous as she closed in. "It is a female, maybe early twenties." She added after they left the lift; her nose having narrowed down aspects of the scent.

"Oh? Do the Nekomi allow multiple marriages?" John quipped.

The scent getting strong and stronger every minute she tracked it to junior officer quarters, eventually she stopped outside a door. "She is in here."

"Best figure out how we are going to say anything. "Hello, caught your scent, tracked you down like prey." Is probably not going to go over very well."

“I think a traditional Nekomi greeting would be the best.” Mimi looked up to John. “Will you let me do the talking?” She knew he'd picked up a few words over the years but definitely not enough.

"You know way better than I do, sweetie."

Tapping the chime Mimi took a step back and waited for a response. “It is open.” Came a voice from the other side of the door.

Mimi took a deep breath and stepped inside.

The quarters she walked into was typical starfleet fare but it was the occupant that she was interested in. The woman stood before them in engineering gold bearing an Ensign's single pip was clearly a Nekomi. Brown furred, fully clawed but there were a few subtle differences; She was taller than an average female and her ears and tail were a little shorter than normal.

John hung back in the doorway so he didn't feel like he was intruding as much. The Nekomi was different than Mimi, but since he didn't have anyone to compare to, he couldn't tell if that was normal or not.

”Li an Mimi ya Naria sa Timor, li selemat anda rekin ireki varsai sa beroa hrody.” Mimi said greeting the woman with a hopefully still traditional Nekomi friendship greeting of open arms and a warm heart.

Ensign Asha had heard the voices talking just outside the door of her quarters and was already back in the main room before the door had opened. She took in the appearance of the Nekomi and Human that entered her quarters, there was something vaguely familiar about them. Asha smiled when Mimi introduced herself with a traditional greeting. “Li an Asha ya…. Mimi sa….” She began to reply, realization creeping into her voice and expression as she did. “Ama?”

John knew that word, "Mother."

Asha all but leapt forwards and embraced Mimi in an extremely tight hug practically pulling the shorter Nekomi off her feet “I am so happy to see you Ama, I had hoped so much to see you again.”

“You are my daughter?” Mimi asked, the surprise was evident on her face.

“And yours John.” Asha replied, turning to look at John.

"Well ain't you something, sugar. Come on give your daddy a hug." He held his arms open.

After giving Mimi another squeeze Asha left her and went to John hugging the human; who was only a couple of inches taller than her just as tightly. "I see I got your genes for height and hair colour." She remarked.

"I guess. We weren't sure, and it took Allyndra a heck of a lot of work to make everything work out." He smiled. "But here you are and ain't you a looker." He teased her.

"We did it John." Mimi stepped over and hugged them both. "When were you born?" She asked Asha.

"About two years from now in your time, we were together for a few years before........" She paused unsure what she should tell them. "Did Admiral Saalm tell you what happened to the Galileo-A?"

"Yeah, honey. She told us. Well, don't know about your mom there, but I'm planning on having a lot more time together. You just gave me the biggest incentive ever to be the finest nut-busting engineering mate I've ever been."

"And you did." Asha said with a small smile. "In a few years time you get several promotions all the way up to a chief."

"Sush. We're not supposed to know future events. So...ensign is it? Tell me about it."

"I was only two years old when both decided you should leave me..... somewhere safe." Asha said, there was a slight twinkle in her eyes that there was something special about that safe place. "After I passed the age of maturity I managed to get to earth and searched for your family John, they told me you had both died. Signed my papers to join Starfleet the next day."

"My no-count sister?" John's tone was light and not serious. "She put you on this path where you are now in danger." It struck him then that what had been said was that Earth had been pretty well hit. "You ever hear anything from her either?"

Asha shook her head, her slightly stunted ears twitching. "I haven't, I'm not sure if she was still on earth when it was attacked."

John grimaced. "Yeah. Anyway, you know Mimi here probably has a burning question for you."

Mimi looked over at John; the question he was no doubt referring to had entered her mind the second she picked up the scent of another Nekomi. She took Asha's hands in her own. "It has been 25 years, has anyone from Starfleet found our homeworld? Or anyone at all that we know?"

Gently running her fingers over the hands that she'd not felt in longer than she could remember Asha looked down at her mother and slowly an extremely wide smile appeared on her face. "Yes we did."

Her eyes lighting up and a smile of her own quickly forming Mimi hugged Asha tightly again and let out an excited squeal. "Is is as beautiful as I hoped it was?"

"More beautiful than you could ever imagine." Asha replied. "On a good day you can see all 3 major islands and all 15 cities from the top of Garai iwala, wonderous blue oceans, fishing ships travelling far and wide searching for their prey."

"Shoot, sounds nice. Say..." John rubbed his chin a moment. "I know temporal blah blah, but could you slip us the coordinates?"

"You know when you go back to your own time you're not going to remember any of this, at least that's what we think," Asha said but turned to pick up a large screen Padd that lay on her table. "But I will show you." After a few seconds of tapping at the Padd she turned it so they could see it. "The Galileo was having a break from the fighting and did some exploring down in the galactic south east, you encountered a Bespiri ship, it took a little persuading but they escorted the ship to the homeworld."

"Don't give a possum's shit. I'm putting those in a PaDD if you mother don't first and keeping it with us, sweetie."

Mimi's ears twitched. "You mean the Galileo-A found the homeworld? I have been there?" She asked getting even more excited when another question she longed to hear the answer for came to her. "Did anyone else from Kemi survive and make it home?"

Handing the Padd over to John, Asha turned to Mimi again with another wide smile. "Several." She replied and began to real off a few names. "Indra, Mat'ka and Nish'ka, Yira, Garan....

Recognising almost all the names though their appearances were distant memories Mimi eagerly listened for the three most important names she was waiting and hoping Asha would mention.

".....Naria and Tali." Asha finished her very limited list.

"It appears that you recognize some of those," John said.

"Naria and Tali are still alive?" Mimi said with clear surprise on her face. "My mother and sister." She quickly added for John's benefit.

"I haven't seen them for a long time now," Asha said. "The last I heard about them was my Amona was close to her end after a good long life."

John listened and put an arm around Mimi as Asha made her announcement.

"She must be at least 60 in Nekomi years by now." Asha explained. "That's nearly the equivalent of 100 in human years, she has led a good life though since making it back home, raised me up to be a good Nekomi, complied with your wishes to not marry me off for political or business advantage."

"Naria raised you?..... not us?" Mimi asked.

Asha nodded. "Yes, after you found the homeworld you both made the decision it was safer to leave me with her and Tali rather than keep me on the ship in the middle of a war."

"That sounds reasonable," John said. He then shrugged. "Say, why don't we have this reunion properly? Get something from the galley and have a sit-down."

"Sure." Ashsa said with a slight smile. "I was about to head to the mess hall myself before you two showed up."

"Let me guess, you like fish," John quipped as he ushered the two out the door.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

Ensign Mimi
Deputy Operations Manager
USS Galileo-A

Ensign Asha
Engineering Officer
USS Galileo-B
[PNPC Mimi]

PO3 John Hollenday
Engineering Officer
USS Galileo-B
[PNPC Warraquim]

RSS Feed