Mara stood in her quarters, pacing around a bit. She hadn’t contacted home ever since she went to Starfleet… She hadn’t even watched any home videos that were saved on her isolinear chip, sighing she grabbed the optical chip reader and sat down at her desk.
She slipped the isolinear chip into the OCR and grabbed her coffee and a single apple she had been saving at the side. Sipping her coffee she let the first video play:
A video of her little sister singing in the school’s Christmas play, an angelic sort of sound in a soft voice played throughout the room. Tearing up a bit, Mara hummed to the tune.
“Oh my dear Kiera, how I miss you… I should call you soon”
She said to herself, almost aiming it at her little sister on the screen.
She pushed a button on the OCR and played the next video. Her mum around 18 years old holding a newborn Mara. She took a bite out of her apple and stroked the screen a bit. Her mother looked beautiful and young, long curly red hair and blueish green eyes. Mara looked exactly like her mum did at that time.
“I’m sorry I left you mum… I hope you understand why”
She watched as her father came into the frame, a young looking man with brown hair and grey eyes. A time when her father was nicer and hadn’t been corrupted by the alcohol. She smiled a bit, at least she knew he was capable of treating her mother right.
She skipped to another video, to the time she got the scar above her eye. Mara and Kiera were playing in the garden, taking turns running after eachother. Before Kiera fell down, and Mara tripped over Kiera, flying forward a bit and landing with her face on a fence. She chuckled a bit, remembering about the good old times. Mara then finished her apple and coffee, and wiped the tears from her eyes. She really was missing home.
Mara switched the OCR off and sat there for a bit, contemplating calling home. Shaking her head she stood up and walked out of her quarters. Maybe another day.

~ Cadet Mara Oxton {Engineer}